Good morning ladies and gentlemen and welcome back to another S&G Meetup. Today I'm extremely excited because we're gonna talk about architecture Which is one of my favorite topics when it comes to real estate and for that? We're not gonna just have anybody in particular. We're gonna have the architect of the year named by the interior design magazine Dan Brun was also in the top 10 of the rice firms by Arctic Textual Digest and with his company Dan Brun Architecture He has done some of the most extraordinary projects, not only Los Angeles, but also internationally.
There is Good morning, afternoon or whatever time it is where anybody is at. Yeah, well we are international brands I'm sure that everybody's turning it in today. We're gonna see us from different places Now, I'm super excited to have you here Dan because I was just not aware that you won architect of the year by interior design magazine I mean, what a pretty good idea. Yeah, and it's a thank you for that I mean, I just put together this whole portfolio this year and pulling in all these accolades and sometimes you actually forget about it after putting it together Tell us a little bit how you differentiate yourself and how you became one of the best architects in the area You know what it's actually really interesting all right, and I think it comes down From my background being in Tel Aviv It's a United Nations World Heritage Site for International Architecture And I think I just haven't grown up around it all day long that it just became a natural occurrence to me You know and then when we moved to the States it was actually really interesting because all of a sudden I was in a You know Spanish style home with tiny tiny little windows and I was a young kid and I think even from that point I realized that you know, how come we don't have natural light in a house and then you know I thought about you know, my grandparents house my house my parents house and we all had you know sliding glass doors Toronto floors open plan all the modernist ideals was a common place and in Los Angeles.
There was just not the case so I just took my you know my natural existence and Translated to my practice talking about obviously your recent projects. I've seen a different variety of beautiful homes more in the residential area Of course, so tell me a little bit how you've developed and how do you've seen especially the last couple years basic? COVID the transition of how the whole industry has evolved You know when so yeah, my office does anything from residential hospitality retail commercial all different kinds of things But when we embark on a residential project the first thing I tell my clients is if they're going to draw from inspiration and show us something Show us some of the best resorts that they've been to you know, let's aspire to something like that. So For me, it's it's really important that the house is a sanctuary and your home is a place of rest and a home is where you Want to feel you know welcome the net piece so for us That's always been the case and I think you know post COVID.
It's only been escalated right people now Had to stay at home for so long and I think their vision of what houses is also changed due to that now Let me ask you that when it comes to your projects, right? Like you've been keeping a track record or everything that you're doing which is what led you to become one of the architects of the year Now, how do you actually promote yourself? You know it's invitations like this. Oh, you know, I usually don't say no I take the time to do this I take the time to share with people because in the end its stories It's narrative.
You just don't know what leads, you know to a new project You don't know what leads to a new collaboration to a new client to a new friendship I think it's the mentality of always being open and available when I can I'll share a story I guess about how my office I honestly got started and it was through a Product rep believe it or not that used to come into the office where I used to work at and it was just out of genuine kindness to her And then years down the line she had a connection, you know to the to the CEO of a company and she said hey I'll turn to Dan and that's how we got our first client really I wanted to ask you in terms of obviously the Industry evolving and changing and especially now with what's going on worldwide. How do you prepare yourself for a potential recession or changes? You know that's a point of question because honestly, okay So when I just mentioned that client right and that was a commercial project and I was so excited I said oh my god, you know DBAs opening the doors and it was around 2006 and we're doing this amazing commercial project and then 2008 rolled along recession boom and if If we weren't so Fast at changing and you know adapting and we started to do Residences and that was again a chance of currents and it was in the high-end sector that that we led at that point So then I think from like 2008 so 2012 or something around there. It was strictly residential in the high-end sector in a luxury sector We did a bunch of beach homes and honestly at that point let's say that there does come a recession It's a great moment in time to actually find better quality craft people.
They're less busy people will dedicate a lot more of their time to you And so let's see let's see what happens But I know that during the last time we were able to work on some incredible residential projects Oh my question to you if you had to start over again Why would you have done differently? I don't think I have an answer because you just don't know because you know honestly I'll throw everything pivot Every decision you make something else happens because I don't think I have one key moment where I you know Well, I would have changed that and my whole career trajectory would have been different Maybe an outlook on it, you know, I think when you're a student and a Architecture and you see so many How do you call it competitions, right? So people people and then they imagine if I just win this competition all of a sudden I'm gonna be a rock star So there's that oh there's that notion of thinking that one project that one client is all of a sudden gonna leapfrog me into the next Traverse fear that's not the case that's the typical case what you should be Dedicating yourself to is each project's preciousness each client's will to be working with you and as you're doing that Slow slow expansion slow growth, right? So it's like these steps and these little hurdles so you know, I always say it's like Well, the trajectory isn't a diagonal 45 degree line It's hopefully overall that way but you'll have up and then it down and it up and then it down and hopefully the downs are smaller And up so that's all you can wish for so I would say you know, maybe changing an outlook even though, you know I never really practiced in competitions.
I'm always been the one about what I call like paper architecture isn't the thing for me It's about builds architecture, which I think is really important And Yeah, I mean, I think one of the best lessons I learned over the years was the client that really taught me a sense of responsibility and taking ownership of something So instead of saying I guess I said what the best practice would be sorry would be to say my responsibility I'll take care of it. I will correct it Let's just say that and move on and you're on to the next thing instead of just trying to say well What happened was that the contractor saw this and then the disc person saw this nobody wants a story All the money here is they reach out to you. They say Architecture why did this happen? How are we gonna fix it?
What are you gonna do and just take ownership of it? That's super important. You've done with the story. I wanted to touch base on this award in particular that we always refer so much the word luxury I mean, it has so many different meanings, but why is it really for you time?
I? Think that's the ultimate luxury And so you know luxury to me is also simplicity So a lot of people when they think about maybe luxury and that's because we are talking about design and architecture and maybe residential design You know they'll think about materials and so think about luxury materials Oh, I need must have this incredible marble from Spain from Italy and Greece, you know I must have blah blah blah I say no to that those things are nice and they add a layer of some warmth something But the real luxury would be time spent in a beautiful space and a beautiful space has to be serene And that means that it works without the materials so for us It's about the light quality so if you could design a space that has great light quality throughout the day and see how it evolves I always say the best friend is the Sun, you know, it rises on the east set on the west and we know that we can play with that So that to me in terms of spatial design is super super important So to create this the blind and when you take away the materials it should still function that way materials maybe add to it But that's about it if you could envision yourself in 10 years, where do you see yourself? Oh, man, uh, okay, so one of the most exciting things is in in in professionally in the office right now is we're starting on civic work So we have a couple of projects on the civic sector, uh, and that to me is a huge gain I love that because uh you're able to affect more people all in bigger groups So residential design is wonderful because you're dealing with a family, let's say in a smaller scale What is amazing though is that we work one to another and we learn from a different thing So as I said, we do we do hospitality we learn from there and play with the residential back and forth So I hope you know, all for over 10 years we talked we we consider the beach in Miami or Tel Aviv or something like that and relax and think back of it this day And uh, I hope that we'll be able to touch more people in a positive manner. Um, I, uh, I'm very much into sustainability And I hope our world will be a much nicer place sustainability wise and taking care of materials and thinking about construction in that sense And I hope that I'll be able to be a leader, uh, to to back it up and we'll be able to discuss the projects that we're able to build Sustainably and to think back on what's luxury and sustainability mean together.
How do you get ideas? What's your fountain of inspiration? It's it's okay So that's actually the biggest thing that covid hurts and I was travel and to me it's usually through travel And I'll give you a great a great example of years ago. I was out in Brazil and I saw this sculpture and it was you know, maybe about that height And it was just this turning thing that kind of looked like a DNA strand Uh, well years down the line.
I was tasked to design Uh, something for a different client and it was about these slabs and different colors And my mind went back to that little sculpture and I was able to use that and reinterpret that into a living and tactile and mechanics Culture that is being used in order to show different colors and materials So for me, I think it's repurposing And when you see, you know, let's say a small object become large or large object become small Uh, a fork can be you know, when you're eating at a table who knows what that is, you know But I look at all these things. Uh, one of my biggest strengths professionally is the fact that my brain does not shut off my You're not shut off. Uh, it's Emotionally draining, uh, and personally difficult, but that's why you know people ask me about my glasses and why don't I get laser surgery? For example, I say this is the last thing that I could control that I could turn off the sense and I could relax In the blindness of it all, uh, and so that is why I still have glasses and that is why I won't get laser surgery So yes, it's it's I love taking a mundane and flipping it around into something profound something that's wrong Uh, so it's that music also is a big deal for me going to, uh, you know rock concert music concerts You've seen all the laser shows all these different shows all these different things that they do at the stage is inspiring So I love taking different things.
I have a bunch of friends in you know in fine arts. So I see them sculpt I see them paint I see them create sculptures out of class different tectonics. I have friends in industrial design So it's seeing all the very different scales And thanks again for everybody tuning in today. We hope you enjoyed it I remember in Bracy's beautiful success in life.
My name is Alvaro and I'll see you next time