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we met chuck hoberman in new york on may 20th, 2007.
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what is the best moment of the day?
after my first cup of coffee, which I have when I arrive
to work, I spend a few minutes whilst the caffeine
kicks in just thinking about possibilities.

what kind of music do you listen to?
I'm not an audio orientated person so I never
really seek out music. its more an ambient situation,
I overhear it.

what books do you have on your bedside table?
its a great mix. I'm currently reading a book called
'collapse' by jerrod diamond and another book called
'warped passages' by a physicist named lisa randall
which is about the role of dimensions in cosmology.

where do you normally get your news from?
newspapers mainly, I use the internet and TV
as secondary sources.

do you read design/architecture magazines?
I often thumb through them at a magazine rack.

I presume that you notice how women dress,
do you have any preferences?
I tend to perceive the person before the clothes,
but I'd say simple clothes simple lines, nice materials.

what kind of clothes do you personally avoid wearing?
I'm the kind of person who wears a sort of uniform.
sometimes a suit, but sometimes just slacks and a shirt,
so that leaves a lot of clothes which I don't wear.

do you have any pets?
two cats.

when you were a child did you always want to become
a designer?
as a child I aspired to become an artist, a painter.
where do you normally work on your projects?
I can work on a project more or less anywhere, there is
part of my design process which is the inventive part
and so it doesn't need any tools at all, I pursue it as a
sort of mental exercise. when I'm working on a specific
job with a client though I generally work at the office.

do you discuss your work with other designers
outside of the studio?
I discuss my work all the time with other designers.
since my practice is multidisciplinary and is engineering
based the interesting projects come up entirely through
collaboration with other designers. in that sense I think
that our firm has a very interesting piece of the puzzle
and always finds expression through collaboration.

could you describe your style as a good friend
of yours might?
it’s a style that has no-style. It’s a style that has action,
has performance, has activity, transformation. it’s about
relationships not about things. for me the visual is
something that emerges out of context and requirements.
style is not something to be pursued on its own but
as a result of other factors.

describe an evolution in your work?
the one trajectory that my work has taken over the
years is from the abstract to the specific. when I started
designing transformable objects I thought about it very
much in terms of mathematics and pure capability.
where things meet is in applying that capability to
very specific problems.

which of your projects has given you the most
satisfaction?
like any parent I love all my children dearly, but the
recent part of our practice working with architectural
firms such as foster + partners and KPF to
develop our designs as parts of buildings. to create
a new capacity for buildings to have the possibility
to be able to transform themselves, these projects
have the widest horizons and are the most exciting
to me.

who would you like to design something for?
I think that I have the ideal clients, but I think that
the projects could go a lot further than they have.
having a history as a manufacturer of toys I think
very much in terms of the end users of my creations.
in that sense when a client comes they are defining
the context and the process, but ultimately when a
toy or a tent or a building is created I think bout the
people who are using it in the end, not so much
the client.

are there any designers or architects from
the past that have influenced you or that you
particularly appreciate the work of?
there are many designers who have influenced
me. if I were to try and choose a lineage that I would
want to be part of, it would be the line of great structural
artists over the years - whether it’s roebling with the
brooklyn bridge or buckminster fuller, those are the
great designers and engineers, and I aspire to be part of
that line.

and those still working today?
there are too many to mention. the ones that I
find the most interesting are those that are on
the cusp of architecture, engineering and
technology and get the balance absolutely right.

do you have any advice for the young?
be curious, don’t accept it when people tell you
that you can't do something. I think that the world
today is in crying need of design and designers
who can think about solving the seemingly
overwhelming problems that we have. if you
look at the incredible upheaval we have going
on concerning climate change and other crisis'
around the world that can in part be addressed
by design. in that sense I think that it's a very
inspirational time.

is there anything that you are afraid of
regarding the future?
I do my best to see the world as dispassionately
a as I can and accept that the situation that I'm in
is equal parts light and darkness. I've always been
a great fan of the saying that 'to predict the future
is to invent it'.