008. Preparations

In the end of February I will have the opportunity to conduct an interview with Ben van Berkel. Before this happens the blog has to expand. The weight of the prominent guest will be so huge that the quality and the number of posts has to rise just to try to give a small counterbalance.

To shed a light on Van Berkel

Also all good interviews have to start with you being curious about your guest. If not necessity, curiosity is the driving force of all the progress. I am so much eager knowing about very many things about my boss. The first thing would be "why is he always away?" I have seen him in the Studio only a couple of times so far. Does he start his week by waking up in Shanghai, then strolls somewhere around in Dubai and gets an evening drink on Fridays in NY? From the various insiders I heard about how Rem Koolhaas works. People in his studio often know him only from the sketches he faxes or mails from airports and hotel rooms. Isn't this bullshit? Let's stick to the facts, Myth Busters!

There are many elements that constitute a good interview. One of them is to reveal the truths that have not been written so far. Therefore one just has to dig into possibly all interesting content that is already available to see if there are some questions missing. During the research not only knowledge is being collected but also a certain vision of a person emerges. It is in the competence of a journalist to actually create such a person according to own beliefs, to predict the answers, to give the right questions:

Current:

Design and Management - What is the new role of Ben van Berkel in the UNStudio?

Decentralization and Trust - How does the network type of organization affect the quality of design?

Innovation and Identity - How do you now understand this term when the studio is well-developed into a corporation? Tired of Innovation?

Common

Who were your teachers? Did you pick them up, did they pick up you?

How do you think you were influenced by the cultural cityscapes of the Netherlands?

The stages of the development of the studio.

The influence of a strong theory on the everyday practice. A disjunction or continuity between the two?

Specific

Raffles, St. Petersburg, Hundred and twenty projects ongoing. Sixty minutes to learn it all.