Articles by Lada Leidmane, Dafni Tsinzeli, Ananda Rigonatti

 

Beyond the Portfolio: Meeting the People Behind Architecture

by Dafni Tsinzeli and Lada Leidmane, Wood Architecture 2026

In the fourth season of the Yacademy Podcast - Voices Beyond Architecture, we had the pleasure of representing the Wood Architecture course. We saw the podcast as an opportunity to extend the conversation beyond projects and portfolios and to speak with architects whose work inspires us. Getting to know the person behind the architecture was, after all, one of the reasons why the podcast was initiated by Leah and Serena in the first place. 

Naturally, as young architects, we often look up to the people representing internationally recognised studios and wonder what steps one must take to reach that point. Yet, what we are really curious about is not a sequence of professional achievements. It is the emotions, doubts, ambitions and insecurities of the real person behind them. We wanted to understand not only what our guests had created, but also what had shaped them. 

Beginning with a Personal Question 

This intention guided the way we developed our interviews. Rather than beginning directly with professional practice, we invited our guests to return to something personal: a place that had remained in their memory, an early experience of architecture or an environment that had influenced how they perceive the world. 

These questions created space for conversations that were less predictable and more human. They revealed that an architectural path rarely begins with a single decision. More often, it grows gradually from memories, relationships and questions that continue to accompany us. Experiences that may initially appear distant from professional practice often remain quietly present behind it, defining the subjects an architect chooses to explore and the values they continue to protect. 

Architecture as an Evolving Practice 

A recurring question throughout the interviews was how an original intention can remain meaningful while adapting to the realities of practice. Architecture is continuously transformed through collaborations, construction, material limitations and changing circumstances. Preserving a concept does not necessarily mean protecting its original form. It may instead require recognising its essential quality and allowing everything else to evolve. Adaptation can become part of the creative process and, at times, lead to something richer than what was first imagined. 

This openness also affects how we relate to knowledge. Looking towards the future does not always mean abandoning the past. Vernacular forms of living and building contain techniques that have gradually been forgotten, particularly in our relationship with natural systems such as water. Returning to this knowledge is not an act of nostalgia, but a way of reconsidering what contemporary practice regards as possible or necessary. 

At the same time, our conversations expanded architecture beyond the design of buildings. Many of today’s urgencies are not necessarily spatial, yet they can still be approached through space. Social inequalities, environmental pressures, supply chains and the creation of communities cannot be addressed by architecture alone. They require collaboration between different forms of expertise and a willingness to begin with questions rather than predetermined answers. 

This broader understanding challenges the image of the architect as a solitary author. It suggests a movement away from the “starchitect” model and towards a larger shared table, around which different experiences, disciplines and voices can meet. It also raises another essential question: how can an architectural practice grow without becoming a machine disconnected from the act of making? Craftsmanship, prototyping and material experimentation offer ways of maintaining that connection. 

Finding Our Own Direction 

Across these conversations, we began to recognise a common thread. Each of our guests followed a distinct path, but none of these paths appeared disconnected from their beginnings. Their work had grown from the environments that shaped them, the questions they inherited and the concerns they chose not to abandon. Their professional identities were not constructed by following a fixed route, but by remaining attentive to those early roots while allowing them to evolve. 

Perhaps this is also what our generation is increasingly looking for in architecture: a stronger sense of connection. Connection with the environment, with materials and craftsmanship, with different disciplines and, above all, with other people. We are still interested in projects, but we also want to understand the values, relationships and decisions behind them. We want to know not only what architecture looks like, but how it is imagined, negotiated and lived. 

The conversations did not offer us a single path to follow. Instead, they revealed many possible directions and reminded us that forming an architectural practice is also a process of forming a position towards the world. Inspiration may not come from reproducing someone else’s journey, but from recognising what gave that journey its direction and becoming more attentive to the questions that might shape our own.

 

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Stories we pass on

By Ananda Rigonatti, concept Design for Architecture 2026 

We often get to know architects through what they leave behind: buildings, drawings, cities. But there is another side of architecture that is harder to see: the doubts, memories, references, encounters, and personal experiences that quietly shape the way someone creates. 

Voices Beyond Architecture is an invitation to get closer to that side. 

Interviewing architects I deeply admire was, of course, intimidating at first. But once you are sitting across from someone, looking them in the eyes and having a genuine conversation, that distance begins to disappear. Conversation has a beautiful way of shortening that distance. Once you start listening, asking, laughing, and exchanging stories, you begin to connect. 

And perhaps this is where some of the most interesting conversations about architecture begin. 

As an interviewer for Voices Beyond Architecture, I had the opportunity to sit down with four brilliant minds: Giulio Rigoni from BIG, Andrea D’Antrassi from MAD, Alessio Orrico from Carlo Ratti Associati, and Martin Gran from Snøhetta. 

Each conversation left us with something different. Martin reminded us of the value of thinking and creating with analog in an increasingly digital world. Andrea showed us how much can emerge from truly observing our surroundings. Giulio spoke about architecture through the lens of human experience: how we create not only spaces, but moments capable of awakening feelings in the people who inhabit them. And Alessio reminded us to stay curious and to explore things beyond architecture in order to bring something meaningful back into it. 

Four different conversations, four different perspectives, but perhaps the same underlying lesson: architecture is shaped by everything we experience beyond architecture itself.

Because architecture has never been only about buildings. It carries pieces of society, nature, culture, relationships, and personal histories. Understanding an architect, then, also means looking beyond what they build and becoming curious about what they observe, what they question, where they find references, what they fear, and what continues to move them. 

That is what I find so meaningful about the podcast. The questions are not simply about projects or answers that could be found in a book. They create space for stories that are rarely told. Sometimes personal, sometimes unexpected, sometimes symbolic, they allow us to understand the people behind architecture in a more human way. 

For young architects especially, these conversations can become a different kind of reference. We need buildings to look at, but we also need stories to listen to. We need to know about the paths, uncertainties, discoveries, and changes of direction that came before us. 

For me, being part of these conversations also arrived at a moment when I was becoming increasingly curious about communication within architecture. But more than discovering the experience of interviewing architects, I discovered the value of simply creating space for them to speak. 

Perhaps architecture can also be understood this way: not only through the things we build, but through the stories we choose to pass on.

Episodes

All episodes are available on Spotify.

S04 EP01. Finding Balance in the Dualities of Architecture | A conversation with Cloe Yun Wang and Stewart Haotian Wu (Practice on Earth) by Nikola and Camila

S04 EP02. Being Present | A conversation with Martin Gran (Snøhetta) by Camila and Ananda

S04 EP03. Holding the Idea, Opening the Possibilities | A conversation with Marie de France (Sou Fujimoto Architects) by Dafni and Lada

S04 EP04. Beyond Architecture: The Humans Behind Design | A conversation with Arne Emerson (Morphosis) by Anies and Janani

S04 EP05. The Pragmatics of Creativity | A conversation with Taro Okabe (Shigeru Ban Architects) by Dafni and Lada

S04 EP06. How learning from the past can guide us through the future | A conversation with Alessio Orrico (Carlo Ratti Associati) by Ananda and Nikola

S04 EP07. The Depth of Curiosity | A conversation with Gabriel Calatrava by Laura and Camila

S04 EP08. The World as a Reference | A conversation with Andrea D'Antrassi (MAD) by Ananda and Nikola

S04 EP09. Remembering How to Build with Water | A conversation with Marshall Blecher (MAST) by Dafni and Emilia 

S04 EP10. Staying Curious | A conversation with Chris Precht (Studio Precht) by Dafni and Lada

S04 EP11. The Journey of Becoming: Learning to See Through Design | A conversation with Nicholas Bewick (AMDL Circle) by Laura and Anies

S04 EP12. Beyond Buildings: Architecture as a Network of Relationships | A conversation with Sara Barbini and Francesca Lantieri (2050+) by Dafni and Cristian

S04 EP13. The contemporary role of museums in building communities | A conversation with Serena Bertolucci (M9 Museum) by Cristian and Nikola

S04 EP14. Beyond the Building | A conversation with Liam Young by Janani and Camila

S04 EP15. Architecture as an experience | A conversation with Giulio Rigoni (BIG) by Ananda and Cristian