Dorte Christensen: "We were surprised by some legislative restrictions in Russia"

Dorte Christensen is the Director of Architecture at the Dutch Atelier PRO Architects company. The main specialization of the bureau is social and cultural facilities. Dort's approach to design has been awarded a number of international awards in the fields of healthcare and education. In Dort's design philosophy, the user's well-being comes first.

In Russia, the architect is engaged in the implementation of two projects – a boarding school in Letovo (Moscow) and a lyceum in Solnechny (Yekaterinburg). In an interview with 100+, Dorte explained why she is so attracted to the design of social facilities, how approaches to their construction differ in different countries of the world, and how she was surprised by Russian legislation.

– Most of your projects are social buildings. How did the bureau come to deal with this particular area?

– We can say that it's in the DNA of everyone who works in our team. We are very good at such projects – schools, hospitals. And we adhere to a humanistic view of architecture, so such projects just suit us.

– What is your personal interest in working on social objects? Why are they closer to you than, for example, futuristic skyscrapers?

– I am more attracted to such projects because there is no dialogue between us and the end user of the building on the issue of skyscrapers. The ideas of our projects are very much tied to the place in which we are building, and to the dialogue with the society that lives in this location. That's where we get our inspiration, and that's where all the creativity comes from. It is important for us to communicate with teachers and other staff of the institutions that we are building.

Of course, I understand that it would be possible to earn a lot more money on commercial projects, but we are not drawn to this. We don't get any returns from such projects. It's not about money.

– What are the main criteria you follow when designing a particular social facility?

– When a client comes to us, he has a problem, a goal that he needs to achieve. But we are also thinking about the future of the building and the future of those who will use it. It is not enough for us to answer the questions that the client directly asks. We need to dig deeper and get to the bottom of it.

– So you keep track of how your buildings and buildings live?

– Of course, we monitor the life of buildings after they are built, because we form a personal relationship with the client. We are constantly returning to the erected building. If the client needs to make any changes in the building, he calls us. For example, it happened that it was necessary to add more space – this situation often occurs in schools: they are growing and more classes are needed. Or, for example, the vision of how education should be conducted at school may change. Then they also call us, and we make changes to the interior.

– Has it ever happened that already during the construction process you realized that some of your ideas were not needed at all?

– It's bad to change something when the construction process is already underway. You can't do that. But I can say that when we design buildings, we try to look to the future. And it's really nice to see how a few years after creating a project, your ideas become really useful and necessary.

For example, we once designed two schools in the same village, both of them were small. But then the idea came to my mind that in a few years these schools would want to merge. That's why we installed doors in some parts of the buildings so that they could come together in a few years. As a result, this happened – the two schools became one, and now it is functioning normally.

– You design schools and hospitals in different countries. Is the approach of local customers very different from what they should be?

– Yes, of course, there are different approaches. For example, if you compare the Netherlands and Russia, there is even a difference in culture. But at the same time, when we are approached, they want to get our own vision from us and therefore do not require something traditional. On the contrary, customers want to see something new and more modern, both in Moscow and in other places. But if they have their own ideas and requirements, we will always listen and take them into account. For example, in Russia, I often encounter a situation where the end customer sets rather strict limits. The end customer is, of course, the one who pays all the bills. And at the end of the process, he can just say "Yes" or "No" without really explaining why he agrees or disagrees with an idea. Compared to the Netherlands, there is a more social and open process – everything is discussed. But in Russia, we have encountered such restrictions.

– In such situations, when the client insists on something, is it important for the architect to defend his opinion?

– You should never just go along with the client. Our task is to use our ideas and at the same time find the optimal solution for the client's problem, while maintaining the integrity of the project.

– Tell us about your work experience in Russia – you designed schools in Moscow and Yekaterinburg. What difficulties have you had? What, on the contrary, pleasantly surprised? How do these two projects differ?

– The project we did in Moscow, the school in Letovo, is very interesting. When we joined him, there was no idea what everything should be like, right down to the appearance and location of the classes. We have been working on this program with the client from the very beginning.

In Russia, we were surprised by some legislative restrictions. For example, you can't have light coming into an educational institution from the north. It was very strange, because when you implement such a project, heating and heating the building is a big problem. And the northern light is very valuable in this regard, because it does not heat the building so much. But gradually we were able to immerse ourselves in the topic, and when we took up the project in Yekaterinburg, the process was much easier.

In terms of vision, these two schools are similar. Therefore, the only difficulty was to make sure that all the rules that the legislation establishes were turned to their advantage. For the rest, we embodied the ideas that we had already applied in the Netherlands.

"Like what?"

– If you look at the essence of the learning process, then a lot of time is spent in classrooms, where communication takes place according to the "Teacher talks to his students" model. But in addition to this, there are also processes that require students to communicate with each other or work independently. In both schools, in Moscow and Yekaterinburg, we have paid attention not only to classroom spaces, but also to those spaces where a student can work on his own or several students can gather.

– Which of the projects in which you participated caused you the greatest emotional response and why?

– Letovo. Because, as I have already mentioned, we were not only involved in designing there, but were also involved in developing the vision of this school. That is, we thought it over from scratch.

– Which of your projects do you consider the most successful?

– I would say that this is a nursing home that we built on the site of an old factory in a village in Holland. It is an institution for people with dementia and other disorders. It provides not only living spaces for people, but also a cinema, a cafe, and educational services. This is such a comprehensive institution.

By the way, Dorte Christensen will be one of the speakers of TechnoBuild's 100+ in 2021. The full program of the event will be published on our official website and on social networks.