SGI Office Blitz: Tihomir Kazakov

What's the biggest challenge in SGI? T: I do not know if there is a challenge in Stephen George International itself. I don’t think it's a challenge to go to work with pleasure, and leaving at the end of the working day willing to get back the next day… then it is not a challenge… this is, besides work, a way of fun. The Challenge is every next project that we do.

Why SGI? T: For us the art of architecture has never been self-directed. We always do our best to understand the needs of the client, his business case. Because, although the client may not have the particular architectural education, he has an driving vision, something he had seen, something he have been inspired by. There is no development driven by purely market commercialization only! There is always another inspirational layer that have initially pushed the investor towards that direction for investing.  Exactly that initial push, is what we are trying to figure it out at first as further on is much easier to consider the brief for the design development to get to the product that he wants, slightly directed by our professional paradigm - from what we have learned and continue learning through the years of practice. Which I thing is the most answer of the question. In addition we have young and proactive team balanced between the female and male emotional perception as the Yin and Yang is from a great importance. Because even as designers, a fellow man colleague or  a colleague woman are very different as an emotional attitude.

Function or design? T: I think that even the pure functionality is a matter of some unique design. Self-design without function - definitely not. And the pure function without a drop of paint - it's too Spartan. But the function is leading because in 99% of what you use, its purpose is its function. It is dictated to be developed for a specific purpose. I.e. , if it does not have the function, the design will not occur. Design is concomitant, but it is always good to go hand in hand and know that the function purpose is predominant.

Which qualities determine the potential of a good architect in SGI? T: I do not know. I did not think about structuring any precise rules and criteria to check your questionnaire box. I will give an example. Back in the days in the army days we had a soldier relocated from another unit with perfect accreditation CV - all boxes were checked - so, so ... his job was a radio mechanic. And then our commander said: "Come, turn the sheet and see what’s written at the back."  It was the following epigraph : "Shouldn’t be allowed to work with any radio equipment."  So, the criteria with the questionnaire box, in my opinion is never 100% relevant. The face to face conversation – to look into someone’s eyes, is there anything deeper than what he shows , how he looks at you, how he responds to a certain conversation, a certain situation, always creates a prerequisite to create a much more complex view than to read only one CV.

Is there an ultimate architectural quality?  T: Apart from the purely professional skills that a colleague has subsequently acquired in their education and then following professional career, for us it’s very important, his ability to communicate with the rest of the team. We consider ourselves to be a family, and every member of the family must converse (of course this doesn’t work on 100 percent every time) with other people and look for a dialogue. Because if we do not gather behind a particular idea, it will be very difficult to develop it. When two people pull in different, too often it tears the string on two so everyone stays with his half and that’s it. If you have 40 different directions it is even more complicated. We strive to create a product and offer our customers a single product that is complete, not 40 separate units.