What is the Collective Paper Aesthetics about? Collective Paper Aesthetics is participatory exploration within the architectural model. By taking the design tools outside of the studio I discovered the strength of the architectural model is the fields of non-formal education, training, marketing and entertainment. Who started it? In 2008 I have been asked by London Architecture Festival to present my graduation work from the Berlage Institute in a format of Installation art. Together with fablab team in Den Haag, we came up with a model of interlocking paper cubes, which with visitors can co-create their own 3 dimensional visionary models of high rises. Lucky enough, two curators from London Southbank Center were visiting the Installation and found the work, product, a good match with learning and participation. When was the concept developed and how it was turned into real? The concept was build up while doing. In 2009 I was still looking for a job as an architect and never imagined I will be still busy with it today. Many ideas came from people I have met with and from commissioners and collaborators who had a big vision and budget to make it happen. Where there new technologies used to implement it? In 2008 I was taking the laser cut machine to the exhibition spaces. The technology itself was not new but having the machine and producing on-site was less common seven years ago than now days. Now days the production is made within factories and for some items new technology in the field of packaging/ die cut making is allowing better performance of the tools. Which motives lead you to choose the cardboard as the material to be used? The use of the cardboard started with the project for the architecture biennale, by 2012, in Shenzhen. It is a love and hate relationship because cardboard is a beautiful material but has issues with outdoor conditions and fire resistance – so I am in contact search for new materials which can perform as cardboard in terms of fold/ unfold yet can as well stand outdoor and become larger and stronger structures.

30

What reasons or mission were set? The main reason for starting the Collective Paper Aesthetics project was looking for a job. Late 2008 it was impossible to find a job in architecture, while at the same time I have been asked by Dutch design week and ARCAM Amsterdam to repeat the London activity. By doing it again and again – meeting with more people – generating more ideas – talking about it – the project 'grew up' and develop. For every project the mission is different. I have read lots of business books and had few business advisors. Many of them speak about the 5 years planning and write down your mission, but the reality was or is different (for me). It was good for general knowledge. The project has been travelling through different countries. The proposal is always based on the same idea and intentions? In the book ‘Megastructure: Urban Futures of the Recent Past’ Reyner Banham arguing that the concept of megastructure can adjust to multiplicity of ideologies. The basic collective paper aesthetics principle is similar but the intentions are different. For Tirana project it was the first time we were using the tools to empower vulnerable children and I was very happy to see it was working out in such a beautiful way (meaning; kids from Roma who do not attend school can use it and explain it). Is there any purpose of collecting information through these shows? This idea was discussed with several foundations in the past but was not granted. At the moment the outcome of the information collected is the actual version of the activity. Every activity we implement knowledge from previous once. What has been the reaction so far? It has been warm and powerful. It is hard to find a word which can describe how fascinated the engineering team and I are every time when we take a new model outside to a different place. I am usually worried about what can go wrong... The press release of the interactive installation in Moscow had a sentence that caught our attention: “everyone can play a designer”. What’s the sense or context given to this proposition?