When Antonio mothers He was small, he was “obsessed” with the wooden blocks. “I was fascinated to build my own universes. I could spend hours exploring the rules of gravity, composition, the mixture of colors … to, at the end of the afternoon, demolish the constructed and start over the next day,” this Spanish architect based in New York tells us that has become a reference of architecture in Manhattan.
Although there was no architect in his family, he opted to study that career with the classics of that world in his head. “Who has never fallen in love with the Rome of the coliseums, the Greece of the acropolis, the doors of Babylon, Egypt and its temples?” Matres asks us. Then he fell in love with the works of Mies van der Rohe, Niemeyer And, above all, Le Corbusier. “I am still an admirer of his Villa Savoye. He is pure poetry. Walking between his walls is overwhelming. All the necessary tools to be a good professional are there. Just thinking about her puts me chicken skin,” he emphasizes.
After 15 years of experience, in 2013 it started from zero in New York. “I never thought about establishing myself there. Life decided it for me. I fell in love. In less than a year I closed my practice in Madrid and, with a hand in front and another, ‘I crossed the puddle. The most complicated thing was to make me a hole in a world like the American, with a perspective and a professional ethic as different. I felt like a student, but with 15 years of experience. No one mattered to it. But he began receiving projects, such as the remodeling of an apartment in the 1230th of Park Avenue that he remembers with special affection. “I developed many of the ideas I had on paper and I had never seen in interior design. My dream was always to make universes as they enjoy others.” There his day to day begins “with a cut, without noise and notebook in hand. Then, the rest of the day is pure chaos,” he smiles. Although he has succeeded, strange Spain. “I miss everything. People, culture, deep connections of friendship … and food. When I get to Madrid, the first thing I do is breakfast a club or eat a ham plate.”
Raiz Journal, book of professionals in the sector devised by Matres himself.
Beyond architecture: Ideas Laboratory
In addition to his study in Tribeca, Matres has launched Root Unique Objects, a project of furniture pieces “based on cultural roots, the return to the artisanal, with respect to the material and the process. An expanding universe. A laboratory of ideas that only grows”. A is also joined by Raiz Journal, a series of books with a limited roll that include articles of professionals from various sectors, and in the near future he also plans to launch a line of clothing and accessories within the same creative universe.
