May 2014

Anouk Matecki

  • « The act of building cannot be narcissistic »

 

anouk matecki vie ma ville1
anouk matecki vie ma ville2

Last October this architect won the ArchiCOTE competition's Multi-Occupancy Housing Prize for her Vence development. We meet a sensitive person who sees the act of building as a human-centred philosophy.



Tell us how you relate to the landscape.
In our region, where the mountains plunge down to the sea, the landscape is powerful. I was born in Nice and have always been fascinated by the line of horizon, where sky and land meet. We're in direct contact with the landscape and it brings up questions: integrate into it or not, confront or dialogue, turn our back or concentrate on it? We have to think very hard about it since what's in the balance is the making of a new landscape.



So architecture isn't just about the act of building?
For me architecture is about questioning things. It's a philosophy of life, of thinking, a conscience all around us. Designing a building isn't just about looking into yourself, the act of building can't be narcissistic. If I build only for myself I'm just mak­ing an object, and the important part isn't the object.



As designer Charlotte Perriand said: "The subject isn't the object, it's Man."
Yes, I see architecture the same way, with humans at its centre. A project is only a means of transition between different actors, a link with others. My architectural approach reflects my personal way of being and my sensitivity. It's a whole. If you don't like other people you don't work in construction, or you do concrete not architecture!



So it's essentially a personal process?
My creative approach comes from relating to the site and surroundings, as well as the questions that poses. It's the meaning of the multi-occupancy housing in Vence that won the ArchiCOTE award. I extended the homes into empty space so created a relationship with the environment. By playing with volumes you produce a feeling inside the home: "Gosh, there's nothing underneath me... "You provoke a sensation that takes you out of the home, away from yourself, in a context that isn't always pleasant because it's collective.



Do you regularly use suspension in your work?
It's a sort of consistent thread that lets me play with contrasts, which I express more through notions such as heaviness and lightness than through geometrical shapes. Which leads to the question: "How does it stay up?"



Contrasts associated with a simple formal expression?
Yes, never overdone. For example, for a contemporary villa in Mougins I'm using only two sections: a mineral plinth anchoring the structure to the ground, and a neutral section softened by wood and stainless steel. But behind this apparent simplicity there's a concept and a logic deriving from the site. For example, the polished stainless steel inserts reflect the landscape and make the flat façade vibrate, like an encephalogram.



There's something very Japanese about your work!
Yes, my work is inspired by Japanese architects and the work of certain contemporary artists such as Olafur Eliasson, Kengo Kuma and Toyo Ito, in which poetry and symbolism are all-important and the architecture is humble and emphasises the fundamental elements: air, light, sky. I don't want to do filler architecture, I want to fill with space and emptiness. Going back to the Mougins villa, I had a major constraint in that the neighbouring houses are very close. Consequently the upper part, the sleeping area, has no outward-facing windows but a buffer zone instead: the bedroom opens onto a roofless patio. That way I create an inner life while conserving the main elements of air and light. The patio allows me to focus on the sky, which becomes the landscape.