Luis Vidal + Arquitectos was founded in Madrid in 2004 by the Barcelona-born architect Luis Vidal, who studied architecture in London and has been a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) since 1995. From the start, the studio has always striven to transcend the boundaries of architecture. Instead, it’s a multidisciplinary platform devising creative solutions for urban planning, construction and industrial design.
It’s received various prizes for some of its most iconic projects, such as the Zaragoza New International Airport Terminal, the interior design of the restaurant at the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid and of the Can Misses hospital in Ibiza and new hospital at Vigo, northwestern Spain. But its first major, international project was the design of the new T2A terminal at Heathrow airport, London, set to be completed in 2013.
On the industrial design front, its products include the V-es door handle for the company Hoppe, the VAa bench manufactured by Viccarbe and the Mesi-K table and Zig-Zag room divider made for airport operator Aena and sold by Alis. Its latest collaboration – the Mood set of taps for Noken – was instigated by the Porcelanosa Group. This raises ecological awareness by incorporating an indicator that instantaneously shows how much water is being consumed.
We asked Luis Vidal, the studio’s founder, about its history, working methods, past projects and future plans.
Interiors From Spain: Taking into account Luis Vidal + Arquitectos’s career so far, it would seem logical to start by asking you about the question of scale. Which scale do you prefer to work on as a studio?
Luis Vidal: Our studio sets out to be a creative space, a creative arena that produces responsible, high quality designs in response to the urban and social challenges we face today, regardless of what size they are.
We like to have the freedom to move easily between, alter and experiment with different scales: we could be working on a town-planning project or a building, while also designing something much smaller, say, a tap. We believe this flexibility makes us an unusual studio that takes on town-planning, construction and industrial design – all from an ethical, multidisciplinary perspective.
IFS: How would you define the DNA of your practice and of all your projects?
Luis Vidal: We have our own philosophy that strives to improve the lives of all of us. Our commitment to socially and environmentally responsible design and sound economics drives our projects and helps them grow and develop. These founding principles, combined with consistently keeping the needs of our projects’ end users’ needs in mind, form a solid base from which we can find the functional, flexible, pared-down forms that are the hallmarks of our work.
IFS: What’s your working method?
Luis Vidal: I’ve been trained at a British art school which taught me to design in a sustainable way, and that’s always the starting point for us when we conceive all our projects – again, regardless of what scale these are – be it a town-planning scheme, a building or object. Ultimately, we want our end users to be satisfied with how they experience our products.
The goals of our clients are also important to us. So are the way our products interact with the social context they’re used in, our research, the mix of many disciplines we work in as well as a collaborative approach based on solid teamwork – the best set of tools we could possibly have to face the daily challenges being designers presents.
IFS: You’re renowned internationally for your designs for aiports and hospitals. Why do you often specialise in these areas?
Luis Vidal: It’s true that, in very little time, we’ve been working in a consistent way. Thanks to such projects as Zaragoza airport terminal and the Infanta Lenor hospital in Madrid, among others, we’ve gained an international reputation for specialising in airport and hospital design, making us a leading architect in these fields. That said, far from pigeonholing us or making us less versatile, specialising in this way has given us the freedom to experiment with designing on every scale.
IFS: Your studio coined the expression ‘hospital of the 21st century’ in order to describe your buildings in the healthcare arena. What does it mean?
Luis Vidal: Such terms as hospital of the 21st century, the concept of ‘restorative architecture’ and notion of the ‘airport hospital’ are essential components of our brand. Our experience and thoughts about the need to design hospitals in response to 21st-century living has led us to coin these terms.
The term ‘airport hospital’ refers to our experience of working in the transport sector – which involves such issues as flexible architecture that adapts easily to different needs, fluctuating human traffic, promotion of intuitive wayfinding systems and environmentally responsible design. Restorative architecture, meanwhile, alludes to using design as a tool to contribute to the wellbeing of patients, families and the buildings’ staff. It aims to minimise stress and take into account the conditions of staying in a hospital and assisting the patient’s recovery (through, say, making the most of natural light, the inclusion of plants and judicious use of colour…)
Two of our designs, currently under construction, respond to this model – the Can Misses hospital in Ibiza and hospital in Vigo (which won a prize for best healthcare project of the future, awarded by the International Academy for Design and Health).
IFS: Tell us about your commitment to eco architecture and sustainability.
Luis Vidal: We were one of the pioneering companies in Spain to develop a way of working devoted to designing sustainably. Our commitment to being environmentally friendly can be seen in such diverse projects as Heathrow’s T2a terminal, which aims to be the most sustainable airport in Europe, thanks to its design that cuts CO2 emissions by 40 per cent, and in our Mood taps that promote responsible levels of water usage.
IFS: What projects are you currently working on? What are your plans in terms of expanding abroad?
Luis Vidal: As we reach the final stages of the work on Heathrow’s T2a terminal, which is set to open in 2014, we’re embarking on some very different projects, such as the town-planning and organisation of the area called La Marina at San Sebastián de los Reyes in Madrid, Spanish multinational Abengoa’s HQ in the Paseo de la Castellana in Madrid and the hospitals of Can Misses in Ibiza and in Vigo. We’re also putting all our efforts into the project, the future Botín Art Centre in Santander, northern Spain, in collaboration with the Renzo Piano Building Workshop.
On the industrial design front, we’re currently developing our Figurine and Vertebrae lamps for Artemide and Twist sofa for Moroso – the latter an ergonomic, highly functional design that fuses a chair and table in a single piece.
On an international level, we’re in the middle of expanding into Canada, the US and South America. We have a presence in seven North American states where we’ve signed up to a strategic alliance to create airports, hospitals and railway stations.
