Interview with Barbara Fassoni
bfa_BARBARA FASSONI ARCHITECTS is an architecture and design studio based in London founded in 2015. Our work encompasses architecture, interior design and product design.
Design Legend Interview
23 May 2019
After finishing my studies at the Politecnico di Milano and Escuela Tecnica Superior de Arquitectura in Seville, I had the opportunity to work for more than five years in Lotus International, an established Architectural Magazine. There I understood that I wanted to be an architect instead of talking about architecture. After two years employed in a company, I founded my own company in Milan, designing branches and offices Banks, and some residential projects for friends and relatives. After the financial crisis and my maternity, I was offered to join one of the most prominent Italian media company taking care together with a team of architects, of the design and management of their whole estate. In 2015 my family and I moved to London, deciding to turn the page and open a new chapter of our life. A new exciting challenge for my profession. As soon as I arrived, I founded BFA Architects.
At high school, I studied classical letters, and I wanted to be a lawyer. But then I met the History of Art, and I fell in love. The day I discovered modern art at the Peggy Guggenheim Museum in Venice, so I took my decision. Architecture, design and art have become a real passion in my life.
It was entirely my choice.
Our firm works on a different scale of projects, from facades and buildings projects to office spaces and residential interiors. Large scale projects and residential buildings are our favourites. I wish to design a hotel in the future.
I think they have to love what they do and be up to date.
It’s the extra mile, is the love and passion for what you are doing, no matter what.
The outstanding design adds value to our life. It offers users new perspectives. It educates people, moves brains, and can open people’s aesthetic to new horizons, accomplishing a sense of well-being in the meantime.
Good design means better quality of life. Everyone should invest in good design to improve quality of life and equality of opportunity.
A Skyscraper.
A project for a public place, such as a concert hall or a library.
Be focused, be mindful on details, and enjoy it.
Zaha Hadid, Kazuyo Sejima, Rem Koolhaas, Herzog and de Meuron, Adolf Loos.
The Zaha Hadid’s Vitra Fire Station was an excellent opportunity to start to explore architectural boundaries as Hadid Architects works showed. The Heydar Aliyev Centre in Baku is a new symbol of modernity.
At the moment, Private Interior - a penthouse flat - is my most significant design. Every single detail has been designed to guarantee a unique and harmonious product. But hopefully, the most exceptional design is yet to come.
Always learning and having curiosity and keeping up to date. Never stop questioning myself.
I could have done many jobs since I'm a very passionate person with many interests. But I admit this is the job that makes me excited the most.
Design, for me, is a way of life. Design is also a way to reach more people, touch them, and create a dialogue with them, improving values among people and the environment.
My clients, they trusted me.
The other designers I mentioned before, and their passion was a vital source of inspiration for me.
Each project has its obstacles. You have to go over it every time and show to others and yourself that you can make it. It's the process of growing, and those challenges and mistakes make your skills improve until you feel confident in managing all the aspects of your profession.
Trying to convey the goodness of the project to the customer. Professionally, confident, and with great care.
It’s a Congress Centre for a media company
Alvar Aalto said: The ultimate goal of the architect ….is to create a paradise. Every house every product of architecture should be a fruit of our endeavour to build an earthly paradise for people.
To make people’s lives better. At least my clients'.
Good design improves quality of life and well-being. Everything around us good designed makes our everyday life much better.
A media company congress centre and a small flat in the Alps. Two different approaches because of different target and goals but equally very exciting.
Private Interior was a very challenging project with a lot of aspects to consider and to take care. Every inch of it has been appropriately designed. And it is one of the projects that is satisfying me the most because the client was very attentive and very demanding, and seeing them insanely happy of the result, makes me feel very proud and gratified. This satisfaction has no price, but has a prize! Jokes aside, the A award confirms the excellent work done on this project and I couldn’t be more satisfied and more proud for myself and my team.
I believe that design in the future must pay a great attention on materials and also in terms of economic changes.
Technology has a big role in our daily life and in design field. Interdisciplinary approaches to science and technology have led to the development of new construction technologies.
It always depends on the complexity of the projects. There isn’t an average time to be considered.
The first step starts by listening to my clients and their expectations.
Do your best!
In my opinion, art is the engine of every creative sector. Then follows fashion and after design.
It’s very relevant, but I wish it were more.
Everything is useful to explain and to support a project: pictures, movies, renders, models, presentations, Autocad’s drawings.
Colours, materials and ambient are the design.
If the journey is more important than the destination.
I fill over excited, and I want to know everything is possible to know.
I strongly believe in co-design. For me, it’s a dream that has not yet come true.
Some of my friends, my husband, and my clients.
Adolf Loos, Spoken into the Void.
I was lucky enough to have many clients who trusted me, and I tried to learn from all the mistakes.
Zaha Hadid or Le Corbusier.
Fame is never the point. According to me, it is much more related to a sense of reward for your commitment and dedication to your work. An award is also a way to be inspired by the work of others and feel very honoured to be in excellent company.
Everything changes so quickly that it is difficult. I like this change that makes us experience something new every time. I have been loving the colour Orange and then the Black, I love the big cities and the sea, I struggle to say no to good bread and focaccia, I still like Jil Sander.
Once, I was asked to design a house for a manager, who appeared to be a person focused much more on the functionality of things than their style. When the project was completed, he had changed his mind as much that he wanted to refurbish the whole property.
I try to be positive day by day. It’s a sort of mission for me, taking the best from all the things around me.
No. It wasn’t. I wanted to be a ski champion.
We always grow with a catastrophic idea of the future, but I believe that the human being will still be intelligent enough to guarantee a better future, also learning from his mistakes.
Our design leapt forward thanks to hard work and continuous updating.
Designer Interview
22 June 2023
At high school, I studied classical letters, a family tradition. I wanted to be a lawyer. But then I met the History of Art and I fell in love. The day I discovered modern art at Peggy Guggenheim Museum in Venice the decision was made. Architecture, design and art have become a real passion in my life. After I finished my studies at the Politecnico of Milano and Escuela Tecnica Superior de Arquitectura in Seville, I had the opportunity to work for more than five years in Lotus International, one of the leading Architectural Magazine.
BFA-barbarafassoniarchitects was founded in London where I moved in 2015. Barbara Fassoni Studio was my previous practice when I used to live in Milan. The firm works on a different scale of projects, from facades and buildings projects to office spaces and residential interiors. Our projects are developed from a series of ideas that enrich each individual project, no matter how large or small they are.
Design is a thought, concerned and committed answer to a client’s need. For us, it is not just a gesture, just the act of creating “beautiful things”. It has more to do to a beautifully executed solution to a problem.
I am very committed to every job I decide to take on board. I like big scale projects – my graduation project was a Concert Hall – but I admit that we are as picky on big projects as on smaller designs. Challenging situations always inspire me.
It's an extension I did some years ago for a holiday house n the South of Italy. The main house was a small igloo, and I was asked to design a new home with three bedrooms. The extension was a white connected cube with a fantastic terrace roof. It was the first time I experimented a sustainable polystyrene house.
My first project was a shelf for a prosthesis laboratory, just a week after I graduated. I came up with methacrylic boxes on the reception wall where the prostheses were exposed. My clients were overexcited, and I couldn't believe it.
More than one material, I am fascinated by single materials’ peculiarity. I love the softness and versatile of wood, such as the transparency or reflection of the glass, the thinness and solidity of metal, such as the texture of concrete or the elegance of stone.
When I define the strategy of a project, at that moment, I feel very creative because I can contribute to essential changes in how people will live the space I’m designing.
As I said, being strategic is essential for me in my projects because the impact on people will be huge when my design produces “a living creature”.
Like all creative process, doing architectures offers you a vast array of emotions, that goes from fear to consciousness to tiredness to extreme happiness of seeing my clients completely satisfied.
When I completed a job, I feel a sense of detachment. But when I happened to come back after a while, I was pleasantly struck by the beauty of some works that I didn't remember so well done.
The ability to enhance and understand my client’s needs. In my experience be a guide through the complete design process, and allow them to push their boundaries. it produces successful design.
The feeling that a place is capable of evoke is significant to me. Sometimes it may be more relevant than excellent execution. It is a sort of aura that you recall, that let you appreciate its own identity.
As architects and designers, we have a significant role in improving the well-being of people. It’s a profession which deals with the human community and the ecosystem. Sustainability design is the way to severely reduce our environmental impact and our role now as professionals are to accelerate this process as fast as possible.
In my opinion, architecture and design in the future have to focus specifically on materials and rethink of their use. The technology of 3D printers means already printing entire houses, emergency housing modules, furnishings and all work integrated with home automation.
This point should make us reflect on how to re-approach the use of materials and mostly their reuse and disposal.
This point should make us reflect on how to re-approach the use of materials and mostly their reuse and disposal.
I have never done an exhibition until now.
I am a curious person. Curious to know as much as possible about the world I live in and how it changes. I have always fed my curiosity through art exhibitions, international design magazines, reading newspapers, travels, going to museums, and through Instagram and Twitter too. They allow you to instantly be aware of new things happening around you and on the other side of the world.
Surely living in London is a significant boost for my creativity too, the vibe in the city is always positive and energetic, and this is continuously food for thought.
Surely living in London is a significant boost for my creativity too, the vibe in the city is always positive and energetic, and this is continuously food for thought.
It is a constant search for reduction and moderation. In every single project, we focus our design on the importance of avoiding the irrelevant to emphasise what matters.
The most important feature of our style is a constant search for simple elements but at the same time guaranteeing its uniqueness to space.
The most important feature of our style is a constant search for simple elements but at the same time guaranteeing its uniqueness to space.
I live in London. The UK is not my country, and I am sure that the cultural heritage of my country affects my design. Moving to another country, it is always a bit of an earthquake, but it has given me personal and professional growth, allowing me to manage different culture, language, and sense of history. My design is reflecting these two aspects, my solid cultural background and my new life in London.
The companies we work with are mostly in Italy right now. We manage with architects on sites and many trips to monitor our work. But surely video calls allow us to skip some live meetings.
Difficult to say. In my opinion, the best way for a long and fruitful relationship with a designer is to establish a good dialogue with a deep level of communication. The more information the designer has, the more he can deliver a proper job, and the company can get surely the Best from him. Surely it is constructive that client and designer are on the same page and they speak the same “language”.
Each project starts with listening and the need to be able to interpret the client's requests. Immediately afterwards, the creative process and the research begin. The idea that will guide the work comes from a continuous comparison with all the people involved, the customer as the builder, as well as the people who are part of the team.
1. A multifunctional staircase designed by me several years ago to reach a loft bed; 2. An Ingo Maurer’s Zettel pendant ceiling above the dining table; 3. A sculptural lamp made by Small Rabbit Design, a friend designer; 4. A Panton Chair; 5. An Alessi citrus-squeezer.
Even if my routine changes up to the places where I am travelling, I keep some habits. I start very early in the morning going to the gym, and then off to my studio. I start soon and finish soon as a general rule; I decided on this habit when I had a kid. My studio routine includes a lot of emails and phone calls, supervising the work of my collaborators and suppliers. I spend the rest of the day with computer drawings.
1. Be patient; it lets you control what you are doing.
2. Be focused; know what you want. You may not know how exactly to get there, but if you know what you want, you will figure out how to achieve it.
3. Do your best, always. It’s worth it.
2. Be focused; know what you want. You may not know how exactly to get there, but if you know what you want, you will figure out how to achieve it.
3. Do your best, always. It’s worth it.
Like all freelance professions, it is a rollercoaster, always challenging not a single job equal to another. It may be a long, competitive, and also expensive process, a very demanding profession, but is never dull. That’s for sure. Passion makes everything worthwhile.
Mutual trust and respect. When you work in the design industry, you are working in a team. The whole team brings unique skillsets to the table, so it’s crucial to create a solid foundation of trust and respect, an important rule that drives all team towards remarkable results.
Creativity and excellent communication skills are a perfect starting point. New ideas and a good understanding of what a Client needs are crucial for a successful result.
I use pretty much everything I think I need for my design: from hand sketches on my handbook to AutoCAD and Revit on my computer, to cardboards mockups to 3d renders. Sources of inspirations are many, from art books to magazines to IG posts or merely looking at a street scene while I'm cycling to my office. Inspiration is everywhere.
Time is always an issue. We are still short on time, don't we?
I take the early moments of the day to plan daily activities and use to morning to talk to clients and suppliers. The afternoon is more focusing on ongoing projects, drawing and discussing with my collaborators.
I take the early moments of the day to plan daily activities and use to morning to talk to clients and suppliers. The afternoon is more focusing on ongoing projects, drawing and discussing with my collaborators.
Hard question! Tricky to say it precisely. There is not a rule, sometimes the first idea is the one, and you need to let it grow, and other times you need to work harder on research and meetings to get there.
How did you decide to be a designer?
Every job is important to me. In every situation, I tried to get the best out of context and the people whom I was working with. And each experience enriched me and made me grow. But probably starting to work for an architectural magazine has been the most exciting and incredibly useful experience I have done since it allowed me to pursue my career. I deeply understood that I wanted to make architecture instead of talking about architecture.
We have both private and commercial clients — Fujifilm, Mediaset, banks companies, to name some among others.
My motto is, the more is challenging, the more I like it!
At the moment we are working on a new congress centre for a media company in Milan, to a couple of holiday houses, one in the UK and one close on the Alps, and a small renovation in London.
Naturally, it depends on the scale of the projects. For example, the design of a congress centre involves many architects, engineers consultancies, acoustic engineers, it engineers, which makes its design more complex and as a result of many skills. While on a smaller project, like the holiday house on the Alps, the numbers of people involved is less, and the project relies just on how I conceived it.
After the pandemic, rethinking new office spaces has become a priority for some of our clients. Smart working has certainly changed the way of living life in workplaces. At the moment this is the main activity of our studio, in addition to the design of some residences for private clients.
They can fill a form on my website. But it happens as well through Linkedin, and sometimes Instagram.
I just wanted to thank you for this opportunity, for this long and exhaustive interview, in which I could explain my point of view and how I see it. Most of the time, our language as architects is the drawing, and I’m delighted that occasionally this time, I had expressed myself through words. Many thanks once again.