PRAGMATIKA.MEDIA: Previously, your workshop was called "Architectural Initiatives", in 2017 it was renamed "Evolutionary Architecture". You said that this name best reflects your approach to work. Tell me about him.
Natalia Oleksiyenko: Time changes, so do we. Today, the new name more fully reflects the essence of our work. Evolution is development, movement towards something new, unique, and the best possible. And these principles are the basis of all our activities. The understanding came that we are not just creating a house project or interior design, but designing a completely new quality of life. Evolutionary architecture actually projects the future.
Architect Natalia Oleksienko at her workplace. Photo: Yury Ferendovych / PRAGMATIKA.MEDIA
PM: How does it happen?
N.O.: In joint work with the customer, we find all the needs of his highest potential, and not only those that he realizes at the present time, but also those that will find their embodiment in his individual future. This allows us to create all possible scenarios, think through all the details of functional solutions, organize the impressed system and embody all this in a unique form. As a result, the plan of the house becomes the plan of life.
PM: Does it happen that you do not find a common language with clients and can refuse the project if you realize that the future you see for them and the future they draw for themselves do not coincide?
N.O.: We are researchers, innovators. Doubts that overcome all of us (and customers are no exception) are not a problem for us, but a challenge. We are looking for tools to more accurately and brightly express the ideas we generate. And the idea itself is not a goal, it is a path. Such a process is valuable because it awakens a conscious choice on both sides. If we are faced with an excellent interpretation of a happy future, we simply enter from the other side. That is why we use such tools as, for example, augmented reality, which allows us to look at the problem from a different angle — to see the near future and the distant future. Viewing from a different angle is a new, fifth direction in the work of our workshop.
We create not just a house project or an interior design, but we design a completely new quality of life
PM: Tell us more about how you came to the technology of augmented reality and how exactly you use it?
N.O.: In addition to our main activity, designing, we are in constant search for new tools and solutions that allow us to convey the uniqueness of the future we are creating with even greater inspiration and joy. For me, augmented reality is a means of presenting our work to a new generation. This is the same as how hand-drawn sketches were replaced by computer visualization of photo quality and became an integral part of the argumentation of the idea. Now we bring to life a static photo or drawing, which in terms of volume and dynamics completes the formation of the most complete perception.
PM: What attracted you to this particular technology?
N.O.: Unlike virtual reality, which completely excludes a person from the present moment, from the surrounding world, and immerses him in another reality, augmented reality works imperceptibly, gently. Softness and tactfulness are important qualities for an architect. This technology really works in the palm of our hands! We take an image or a drawing, point the phone at it - and as a result, a big world remains around, you continue to perceive it, but at the same time you begin to interact with the world that is in your hands.
Photo: Sunside Chalet, guest house. Design: Natalia Oleksienko
PM: I understand correctly that you no longer only use this technology as a presentation at exhibitions, but also personally make such "living" plans for clients?
N.O.: We are just trying to implement this technology for customers. Augmented reality can be used when the idea has already been born, when there is already something to draw, something to shoot. It's just a new way of transmitting inspiration. To create such a living plan, you need to do all the same work that we did before, but now also program it so that the plan "comes to life". These are additional actions, but I am sure that such steps are worth it. If we declare that we are designing the future, then augmented reality is a part of the future in the present moment.
PM: How do your clients react to such innovations?
N.O.: A person experiences admiration, delight, because we, as it were, take him out of everyday life. From the world - no, he remains here. But we "abduct" him for a moment, and then he is able to see something from a different angle. The alternative allows you to accept new opportunities with greater courage and confidence.
Augmented reality is a piece of the future in the present moment
PM: But the meaning is not only to arouse admiration, but also to convince a person?
N.O.: Inspiration itself convinces better than any argument. Therefore, to inspire is the main task of our projects.
PM: In addition to augmented reality, what other new technologies interest you? What do you plan to use?
N.O.: We have developed our own technology of human interaction with reality. I dreamed of an opportunity to immerse people in a simple and natural way into a state most favorable for mastering new information. This is how the Urban Tech Ukraine project was born. This is a synthesis of urban planning and modern technologies. We have studied the problem. Even in locations with panoramic views, various attractions, in the circle of friends, the young generation is completely and inextricably immersed in their smartphones. They are detached from the real outside world and from living communication. Staying true to our evolutionary approaches, we developed the Urban Tech Ukraine platform, which is both an adaptive and educational tool for soft online socialization. A person remains with his gadget, to which he is already accustomed, but at the same time he is involved in interaction with the rest of the world, he will communicate - and this is a completely different way of life.
Use the link to download the application and launch augmented reality - https://www.photorar.com.
L'Light lamp. Design: Natalia Oleksienko.
Use the application to see augmented reality
PM: It is believed that the construction industry and architecture are not leaders in the implementation of innovations. The processes of building a person have not changed for ten years. Recently, I heard the opinion that this area needs its own Elon Musk, who would fundamentally change the approach to how houses are built in principle. And yet you talk about architectural evolution. Don't you think that architecture needs a revolution?
N.O.: We chose an evolutionary direction for ourselves, because I believe that architecture should develop according to the principles of sequential transformation. To evolve, having a basis, is productive, it leads to development. We have no goal in itself to create something completely new. This is not the goal. The goal is to develop. And you need to push yourself away from what promotes development.
There is also an opinion that in the near future a person will not even leave the house, he will pay for his work with electronic money so that he can feed him on time. I consider a person a more conscious being. If you act gently, new technologies will bring positive changes. Innovative processes are constantly taking place in construction, engineering, and architecture. And I, as an architect, of course, take them into account, which allows me to create unique project solutions.
Architect Natalia Oleksienko at her workplace. Photo: Yury Ferendovych / PRAGMATIKA.MEDIA
PM: This year in Milan, the AI chair from the Kartell bureau was presented, which was designed by designer Philippe Starck together with artificial intelligence. Aren't you afraid that technology is starting to displace people even from the creative sphere?
N.O.: In my opinion, artificial intelligence can participate in everything, and very successfully, if it is mass, replicated. In what is attributed to the individual, the unique, the person will always win. In what way? There is a well-known expression: "read between the lines." In one of the interviews, Teodor Kurentzis (a famous conductor. — Editor's note) to the question, what is music, answered that it is what is between the notes. And I completely agree with him, indeed — the discoverer is located between the lines and between the notes. The same is the case with a computer: artificial intelligence can calculate existing data, and a person picks up data. This barrier region will always remain inaccessible to artificial intelligence.
Artificial intelligence can participate in everything, if it is mass, replicated
Urban Tech Ukraine project.
You will use the application to download the application and start augmented reality
PM: You profess a "modern style" in your work. What is this?
N.O.: A truly modern object necessarily carries the features of the future. Modern architecture clearly promotes and works on the idea of development, it is a continuous movement, it is not static. In interaction with such objects, a person with enthusiasm begins to look into the future, and it does not scare him, but motivates him. These feelings do not arise if the future is not laid in the project.
Architect Natalia Oleksienko at her workplace. Photo: Yury Ferendovych / PRAGMATIKA.MEDIA
PM: A large team is involved in the creation of an architectural object. How important is the personality of the architect in this?
N.O.: I think that behind every outstanding architectural work is the personality of the architect with all the features of his creative character and unique handwriting. Designing and implementing a project into life is always a collective effort. The architect is the author of the project and the unifying force, thanks to which all participants in the process are involved, inspired and focused on the result. Conveying the idea to the customer, putting together architectural and engineering solutions, "turning on" the builders and completing the object in full accordance with the idea is a great art. Without the corresponding personal qualities of the architect, either a mediocre result is obtained, or it is completely absent.
A truly modern object necessarily carries the features of the future
Sunside Chalet. Landscape design: Natalia Oleksienko
You will use the application to download the application and start augmented reality
PM: The theme of our next issue is "Architecture in faces and the face of architecture." In connection with this question: in your opinion, which of your colleagues defines the face of modern Ukrainian architecture?
N.O.: I would not like to single out anyone in particular, because Ukrainian architecture is still too young to be able to talk about absolute favorites. Unfortunately, we are in such conditions that both the state and investors, developers, bodies representing local communities lack interest in creating unique architecture. As a result, a field has not yet been formed where talents with their recognizable and at the same time modern style could grow. But I do not lose hope that everything can change for the better very quickly.
