Establishing a studio after multiple wins

In 2006, I (Mateusz) worked with Michal Palej, a friend of mine, for the Schindler Global Award. The ‘Loop on Seine’ project was then awarded a mention in that prestigious student competition, so we decided to establish our practice. After few other wins (for e.g.: Europan, Shinkenchiku) we started getting collaboration proposals from other architecture offices and small private commissions. When the enthusiasm tide slowed down we eventually closed the practice. However, in 2010 after meeting Agata, we reopened BUDCUD. We met in Warsaw, fell in love and decided to work together as well. After studying and working abroad it was the only possible way to pursue common ambitions and a desired design methodology.

Simple solutions arising from pressure

After winning a closed competition, we were already working for a few months on an exhibition design for the 8th ‘Warsaw Under Construction’ festival. We had all the drawings, specifications and descriptions ready when one month before the opening the event venue closed for liquidation! We had one week to find a new space, another to design a new arrangement and two weeks to build and install the artworks. The new place was totally different from the initial one (a post-industrial studio vs. socrealistic grandeur of PkiN) so we had to come up with a brand new idea. Under pressure we imagined a simple gesture – a grand common roof out of cardboard (to build it faster) – which was a huge success!

Balancing intense weekdays with intense weekends

We are life and work partners, so sometimes BUDCUD engages us 24/7 – we discuss office things at home or develop sketches and ideas ‘after hours’; even this questionnaire is filled at 11 pm in our home... Within our routine only the change is constant: we often stay late in the office or work during weekends and national holidays; nowadays we also travel more for projects we do abroad. It is exciting yet challenging, especially when taking under consideration a moderate size of our office workforce. Trying to maintain a mental hygiene and work-life balance we compensate intense workweeks with dynamic weekends – we road cycle, go by the water with our SUP board or ski in nearby resorts. 

A studio space that follows its function 

We have a small studio as we are and aspire to stay small and ‘controllable’. Both of us are the office core and we can host up to 5 people in our space. BUDCUD office consists of two rooms: the bigger one is dedicated to work, while the second one fits a glass table perfect for meetings and reading books taken from an architecture and design library we keep there. When thinking about hierarchies and dynamics of this space, it follows function (sic!): firstly discussion or reflection on work and then intense production.

Architects who hardly “build”

For sure we didn’t expect to be so strongly engaged in the art world, designing exhibition designs, spatial installations or objects and projects exhibited in galleries. It is the most valuable experience of testing our design assumptions through temporary architecture, because both us and our clients are eager to experiment. Another surprise is the diversity and extreme scale-changing of our commissions: we work on street furniture, interiors and public squares, but also on urban strategies and almost philosophical scenarios of the future.

Even though we’ve already realized some temporary projects, our dream is to build something ‘more serious’ or permanent – it came as a positive shock that after so many years in practice you can call yourself an architect and hardly build. 

Being patient and remaining honest

Integrity is our main objective for the future! We want to work and build without compromises, following our intuition, dreams and gaining the trust of investors and users of our architecture. We don’t really mind waiting for our moment in time and space, but we would really like to be trusted with fully executing spatial environments we envision in our heads.