WHY I WANT TO WORK IN MONSTRUM
AN UNSOLICITED APPLICATION BY
PABLO ZÚÑIGA OLGADO
ARCHITECT - ILLUSTRATOR - DESIGNER
physics, math and technical drawing making the public space protagonist.
BECAUSE I LOVE PLAYING
I love working on public space because I think is an opportunity to have an impact in our society. To make something useful and enjoyable that improves the community and stimulates the people, specially the youngest so they can grow up and become amazing people that will keep making the world a better and more interesting place.
That is why for the final project in my masters degree I chose to create: "La Escuela". Here I decided to act on an old tobacco storage building in Cádiz (Spain), an emblematic building located in one of the most depressed areas in the city, and turn it into a focus of atraction with the power of bringing opportunities and revitalize the surrounding neighbourhoods with the creation of a cultural center and an architecture school.
People already knew these buildings, they are part of their collective imaginary and I wanted to make these buildings belong to them.
I made this happen by turning most of the building into public space and reducing the "new buildings" to their minimum expression erasing, as much as possible, the limits between inside and outside space. Also trough the purpose of the spaces, sharing the facilities between the architecture school and the cultural center. Giving spaces to the neighbours associations. Inviting the people to just come and enjoy and play in the space.
I am also very interested in creating intuitive spaces that the users can explore and appropiate and decide how to use. I was very influenced in this by the architect Sou Fujimoto and his theory of the "nest architecture", created with a clear purpose, and the "cave architecture" that is found and inhabited by the users and it is them who give a purpose to the space.
BECAUSE It's what i do best
I chose to show you this project because I think it summarizes pretty well my way of creating architecture. I enjoy creating fun and intuitive spaces as conected with the public space as possible.
I have an special interest in the users experience, I like exploring shapes and concepts and I also have a social focus in my architecture.
That is one of the reasons why I am interested in Monstrum. Because of the way you explore and play when you create those amazing playgrounds but, mostly, because of the way kids play and explore when they discover one of them.
BECAUSE It's what i do best
BECAUSE It comes natural
After I finished my studies I kept learning and playing. I started working as an artist, first as an illustrator and later making murals. Once I painted this T-rex in a cultural house in Copenhagen. Its name is Tristan-Otto and it was, at that moment, living for a while in the Natural History Museum. I thought that it would be nice to bring it out for a walk so people on the street could also see it. But after playing in "The Globe" i have been wondering how cool would be playing on it. It would look amazing in the Museums gardens!
BECAUSE It is fun
I had a lot of fun imagining ways of climbing on the dinosaur, ways of crawling through his belly and how could you slide down and reach a different way to go up again and explore new routes in and out of this majestic wooden prehistoric animal.
I had so much fun that I started revisiting old works and illustrations and now I could only see playgrounds. I surprised myself thinking on for how long I have been drawing and painting "Monstrum Playgrounds" without even knowing.
I have always inhabited my drawings with little characters, as you do when you make architecture sketches to give scale and, most importantly, to give life to the spaces you are drawing.
I love making surreal scenes playing with the alteration of the scale of common objects or animals, generating the possibility of turning a motorbike into a building or, as you did, giving a child the opportunity of riding a giant eagle.
That is another reason why I feel so Identified with the work you do in Monstrum and I think I would fit well in the team.
It is funny how sometimes you don't know what you want until you have it in front of your eyes. For a while I have been searching for a way of putting to work together my technical skills and my fun and creative ideas and one random day, visiting Aarhus I just knew: "This is what I want to do".
bikez
BECAUSE It makes sense
So I kept revisiting drawings, and I kept dreaming of turning them into amazing playgrounds. The memory of a "Gulliver park" where I played once as a child was coming back to my head from time to time and I started sketching my own giants.
This smiling astronaut that I made some years ago would be perfect for playing inside it, or around it. Even under it!
The perfect place to fill with puzzles, games and riddles. A structure meant to make the kids run, climb and have crazy fun, but also to inspire them to dream and wonder and ask questions and maybe to make some of them share my dream of being an astronaut.
Slider
Fence
Nets
I would be more than happy investing my time and effort in something I believe is usefull and fun. Something that I am good at. Creating places I would love to play in both as a kid and as an adult. it's tea
I also have a thing for animals doing human stuff. Specially when it creates some contrast with the atributes that we usually associate to certain animals. A good example is this golden gorilla enjoying his tea time. He is strong, yes, but also delicate and he appreciates some
hygge time, being cozy at home enjoying some nice tea. For this big guy, I tried to imagine how the Jungle would extend behind him and surround him. How it would create paths to explore and climb. It would feel like a dream working creating this scenes, helping to build them, to explore new ways of playing and to be able to learn from the best playground designers in the world.
BECAUSE it's a dream job
BECAUSE It is inspiring
Monstrum has brought the playground game to the next level. When I see the projects that you are carrying out all around the world I see people dreaming big. I see playgrounds that I didnt knew were possible. You give playing the importance it deserves and you are giving kids the playgrounds they deserve.
When it comes to me, I am also deaming big. Dreaming big with helping to design and build great wooden dinosaurs, robots, a red panda or some oneiric buildings. Maybe even a futuristic coffe shop for parents to take a latte, or a mate, while they watch their kids explore a wooden solar system.
and fun
BECAUSE i think i'll be happy in monstrum
I mean, you even have an office dog!
If you read until this point I think you can have a little Idea of who I am and what I do but here there is some more: My dad is a carpenter, my mom is a teacher and I have one brother. I lived in Brasil for a while, later in Portugal and now in København. I don't know how to dance or sing but I love doing both. I love travelling and learning. I speak Spanish, Portuguese, English and I am learning Danish little by little. It's not easy but I enjoy a challenge. :D
If you liked this, please, give me a call or send me a whatsapp. +45 506 589 00 You can also e-mail me to pablozunolg@gmail.com or find me in instagram @gagazpacho_art .
Thank you for reading and I hope to see you soon! :)