ARK Architects offer a unique concept that cannot be found elsewhere. Far from being an ordinary architectural office, it is a luxury firm that creates experiences. For this, it has a team of professionals specialised in providing a quality service in each and every aspect of the construction, design, landscaping or interior design of every house.
Ark’s work strategy includes construction and development, project management, interior design and landscaping. It is distinctive because it offers a customised architectural idea, even the study of the land or the way of approaching the interior design are identified with the lifestyle of each client, which makes it their ‘raison d’être’.
ARK designs are modern, contemporary, elegant and distinctive, and integrate the latest technologies to give their customers a 100% vision prior to starting construction. They are based on a perfect symmetry between reason and emotion guaranteeing a unique experience between senses and intuition. For this reason, many affirm that there is no other architecture firm like ARK.
The members of ARK Architects studio like to define themselves as “creators of experiences”, and offer their clients personalised global services from the initial concept up to the full implementation of the project.
We chatted with one of its founding partners, the architect Manuel R. Moriche.
What do you understand by architecture?
Every architectural project responds to a series of matters: we have a specific site to intervene in, a client with specific needs and desires, a budget to meet with an intense programme to complete, and our job is to be able to respond to all these issues. The great Álvaro Siza once answered this question with a humanistic perspective that I share: “Above all, it is the creation of a theatrical stage for the human being”.
Who make up ARK Architects and how is the studio organized?
We are three partners: two technical architects, Diego Suárez Jurado and Santiago Ruiz Moriche, and myself, and behind us there is a great team which includes professionals from architecture to design, interior design, engineering and landscaping, and even neuroscience.
For us, architecture is the building of an idea which is why our studio covers all the phases of the project. We are builders of ideas, materialised precisely and efficiently.
Among the particularities that distinguish your work there is the sensitivity with which you handle natural elements such as light, the environment and materials, what is your creative philosophy in this sense?
We always start from an essential question: what are we going to give back to nature so as to prevent an invasive impact on her? Therefore, the first thing to do is to carry out an in-depth analysis of the site which is going to be developed, which already contains the nucleus of the project. We attend to the geography, topography, climatology, biology, the building culture of the area… and we scrupulously respect the site, the natural light, the setting in which it is located and the native natural materials, which we will use. Respect is the key for us. Also sustainability… Of course! I have travelled extensively in Europe for years, and in almost all of of its countries there is a deep-rooted ecological awareness. In the studio we started to take sustainabilty into account a long time ago, and nowadays it is one of our flagships.
Now you also develop furniture …
We had been doing it for 10 years but according to my conceptional view of architecture, I wanted to develop my own and unique collections. The essence of architecture takes us to the handling of light and to interact with the materials that nature bestows us, allowing emotions to flow through a building or house and all it’s spaces. We have always wondered how to achieve those emotions to run through a house given a set of material elements so as to transmit them through absolutely all its spaces. So after several years producing our custom-made furniture, we took the firm decision to generate a whole exclusive collection where the leap from the industrialised interior design to the emotional interior design with our hallmark could become a reality and this is the source of the birth of ARK Collection 2021.
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What is the philosophy of ARK Collection?
From the design point of view, natural light and nature itself become an integral part of the home at ARK. We want this nature to accompany us, not only when designing spaces, but also when we present collections of furniture pieces, such as the recently launched ARK Collection 2021, which bears the motto: “unique experiences with pieces that multiply emotions”. A project that we have worked on for a year and that can now be enjoyed. With this development of pieces, designed with all the care and exclusivity that our customers need, we have managed to go beyond the concept of uniqueness and originality precisely through the materials chosen: clear protagonists in this collection of furniture pieces and true works of art and design.
Why this attention to materials?
The materials, for us, are not only the matter that builds a piece or object; in this case, they are part of the very soul of the furniture that we present in the ARK Collection 2021. What’s more, we set out to achieve something magical: to be able to offer a piece that changes every minute with the amount and the way light is projected onto it. These pieces, which are original and unique in themselves, not only offer a groundbreaking design, but they will not lose elegance or personality over the years. They also stand out for being comfortable, versatile and functional and they have something in common: they are made of materials that are timeless.