Liviu Zarnovean, Architect and Manager at Dart Architects: " Today's customers demand EVERYTHING, NOW, and it has to be PERFECT!"

Clarity in Creativity – this sums up in a nutshell the more than 20 years of experience of Dart Architects, a company that believes that architecture and urbanism thrive on responsibility, creative science and common sense. We wanted to find out more about what architecture means today and how a company with experience in the field tackles the challenges of the market. So we organized an interview with Liviu Zarnoveanu, architect and manager at Dart Architects.

It's now over 20 years since you started Dart Architects, how did the idea come about and how does the market look now compared to 20 years ago?

Indeed, this year marks 22 years since I decided that my life and destiny must always be in my own hands. The regime change I experienced in 1989, at the age of 19, made me realize that I had a historic chance. In a word, the chance was called self-determination. This was, as the American says, the "drive" that pushed me to set up the company that was called Dart Project in the beginning. In addition, the opportunity to work in my own workshop with my father, a construction engineer and one of the most experienced strength designers of the 'Proiect Brasov' institute, was irresistible! I worked with him for several years, until age and health problems prevented him from working. Those were the best years.

I don't know how others see it, but from my office, today's architectural market looks very different than it did 20 years ago. The demand was much, much higher, the demands for quality much lower, administrative bottlenecks rare, and labor cheap and readily available. Although we were inexperienced at the beginning, we were getting a lot of respect from clients and more confidence in our talent and skills. The architectural profession still had star status in society. Today, to a large extent, this status has been lost, it seems to me that many people see us as service providers that they cannot do without because of legal regulations. However, the market has come closer to maturity, the demands for quality have grown and are growing, and the competitive environment is forcing us to move, to evolve in directions that were unthinkable years ago.

In the company profile you said that in your opinion architecture and urbanism grow through responsibility and common sense towards us. How do you see the current market through this mission?

Hmmm, it's a sensitive topic for me and I'll do my best to answer without raising my blood pressure! I don't want to be negative, so I'll just say that I would expect our society to be at a different level of civilization today. Something higher. Many years have already passed since we all have the opportunity to contribute in all kinds of ways, but there are still far too many areas where a lack of responsibility reigns. In the sphere of the built environment, of the space in which we all live, I see all kinds of more or less deliberate slippages, and that is why I firmly believe that our task is all the more important. I firmly believe that respect for our fellow human beings and for all that our good Earth gives us begins with respect for ourselves. I believe in the power of example. I believe that younger generations need to see this. To bring about change.

You also talk about the fact that every project comes with intensive research. Do today's clients have the patience to go through all these steps?

I smiled when I read this very clever question and I hope your readers will have the patience to read to the end, so I will answer quickly and in as few words as possible, because we don't have time: today's clients want to get EVERYTHING and they want it NOW and they want it to be PERFECT! We don't have any more patience, because we live in times of instant gratification. And yet, more broadly, we believe we have a deeper understanding of how exactly we can fulfill this need in an area where complexity is at home. We believe that no one expects a surgeon to perform an operation without first having a diagnosis on the basis of which to carefully prepare for the operation. It could be just as risky to start designing a building without first establishing ALL the unique requirements, objectives and parameters of that project. When a project is started without the right answers to these basic questions, significant changes almost always occur along the way, inevitably leading to schedule and cost overruns. The success of the project in such situations can be jeopardized and the client's patience tested. The good news is that most of our beneficiaries understand this.

Going back to urban planning, how do you see architecture in 2019? What would you choose and change nationally if you had the power to do so?

I see it mostly stuck, struggling in the clutches of a monstrous administrative machinery and a sub-standard legislation. There are exceptions, of course, but the phenomenon is obvious to me. In 2019, more than ever before, three shortcomings have comfortably taken root in architecture: a lack of accountability and a lack of accountability and a lack of self-consciousness. But I'm not losing hope, because there are architects and architecture firms who know how and are showing us what they can do about this phenomenon, so why shouldn't we all? If I had the power, I would try to change a lot of things at the national level, but not on my own, but through a concerted effort of enlightened minds. And if I could change one thing, say, I would change the way architecture is taught in schools and colleges. I would change the education system in general. The effects would come over time, but they would be consistent.

A large part of the completed projects are commercial. How difficult is it to integrate creative ideas into a constantly evolving space?

Yes, we have had many opportunities over the years to work with developers and operators in this sector and have perfected our skills in developing and managing large-scale commercial building projects. A common feature of these projects is that the design theme is constantly changing, during the development of the documentation, or even during construction, due to the marketing "games" that developers play with their future clients on the front of efficiency and profit maximization. I say it's not easy to be reliable and stay creative under such conditions, but it's a muscle that gets trained!

What would you consider a top 3 representative projects completed by Dart Architects?

For us all the projects we have completed are very important, we are very attached to them and we find it difficult to make a hierarchy when we are asked this question, especially since each project corresponds to a different stage of development in our lives. However, it is not very difficult for us to decide every time that the shopping mall "Ploiești Shopping City", designed for NEPI Romania & Carrefour, some of the most prolific developers in the field in Romania, was the biggest and most complex project we have ever developed. But this was after I had gained experience designing several hundred thousand square meters of shopping malls in cities such as Brasov, Sibiu, Bacau and Tg. Mureș. Other notable achievements include the Nine Office Building and the Belfort Hotel, both in Brasov. The latter was a turn-key project, for which we provided both the building design and the entire interior design.

From your experience in the field, what would you advise a beneficiary to pay attention to when hiring an architect?

Although it is not the most important of all the things that a client should pay attention to when hiring an architect, I will start by mentioning a seemingly administrative matter: the architect must be a licensed practitioner. In other words, he must be listed in the TNA - the National Register of Architects, managed by the Romanian Order of Architects (www.oar.arch). Beware of imposture!

It is a phenomenon that still affects the profession of architect quite seriously, and the penultimate for the beneficiaries is that of very poor quality services. In academic parlance...

Then, beyond "I'm the best for the services you need", there must be both a convincing discourse and concrete evidence to back up such a statement. A professional architect asks a lot of intelligent questions of clients to elicit not only what they know they want, but especially what they don't know they want. I also recommend caution about possible confusion between wants and needs. Notice if they feel a connection in the process and what kind of connection it is. You will probably work with an architect for a while and for this reason it would be desirable to resonate in a positive way.

The client should also be provided with information to understand, at a detailed level, what the architect's services consist of, exactly what they are and how they are carried out. And in how much time? Where does it start and end? Does the architect assume the role of project manager and subcontract the other specialties, or is it limited to the architectural part? What design phases and stages does he/she provide? What other specialists are needed to be involved in the whole process?

And last but not least, clarifying the issues related to the authorization procedures and the budget to be allocated to the project are a "must have". If the budget is important, then the beneficiary should choose an architect who can convince that he/she knows how to prioritize between the economic-functional and the form-aesthetic aspects of the project.

When you're not at your office in the architect's chair, what other hobbies occupy your time?

In the family business, my family comes first. After them I love swimming, flying, music, motorcycling and traveling. I am proud that I have been able to fulfill one of my most fervent childhood wishes, which is to fly. More than 5 years ago I got my license as an ultralight pilot and since then, whenever I get the chance, I take to the skies and go, literally head in the clouds. It's a feeling that's hard to put into words and an experience that empowers me to the max. I highly recommend!

Do you have a mentor or a particular person who inspired your choices?

In what I do, both professionally and personally, when I take off my architect's hat, I pay deep gratitude to the great Leonardo da Vinci, an inexhaustible source of inspiration in creativity, art, science and technology. And more in our times, I bow with respect to our great architects, Grigore Cerchez, Petre Antonescu, Ion Mincu, Horia Creangă, Iancu Rădăcina (whom I also knew) and the world's leading architects Frank Gehry, Norman Foster, Renzo Piano, Zaha Hadid, Santiago Calatrava, etc. When I change my hat for that of an entrepreneur, I look with appreciation, curiosity and an open mind to the pioneers of business education in Romania, Lorand Soares Sasz, Răzvan Căznescu, Cristian Oneku and others that I won't mention here, but for whom I have all my admiration, as well as world famous names such as Warren Buffet, Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, Elon Musk, and the list can go on longer than you have space for. And I can't fail to mention, in such a context, my good friend, college and guild colleague and one of the most prolific architects in Romania, arh. Claudiu Botea, owner of the Arhimar architecture office in Cluj-Napoca. He was and still is a role model for me.

For the conclusion I reserved a final curiosity: with whom would you like to have a business lunch and from whom would you like to "steal the job"?

I would like to have a business lunch with Alex Morar from NEPI Rockcastle, a man I know and respect. It would give me the opportunity to revisit a relationship severed years ago due to my lack of vision at the time. And because I consider myself an entrepreneur and an architect (I prefer to call myself an "archipreneur"), I would "steal" the craft from those I mentioned earlier who have taken entrepreneurship to the level of art, or combined the two and made history, forever changing the destiny of mankind.

A professional architect asks a lot of intelligent questions of clients to uncover not only what they know they want, but especially what they don't know they don't know they want.

This article was published in 100 most powerful architecture companies 2019 - https://issuu.com/ibcfocus/docs/top100p-2019