44|PROTAGONISTA Architect, writer, designer...What would be the correct order? How does Oscar Tusquets define himself? There is a famous phrase attributed to me, but in reality belongs to Van Pasca, a Neapolitan design theorist, that goes: “Architect by education, designer by adaptation and painter by vocation”. It has been so successful that I only added: “...and writer for the desire to have friends”, because people tell me that reading one of my books is like going to dinner with me, which is true because everybody that has read my work, has known me personally. In any case, it is very difficult to assess the order in which I would place each of these disciplines, though evidently by education I am an architect. When I paint or when I write I do it from that professional profile and it shows... irrespective of the fact that Architects are terrible writers (laughter). During the International Contest of Photography Under Artificial Light of the ETSAB you explained how you learned to work with light by the hand of photographers, people doing lighting for the theater and film makers. What did you learn of lighting from each of these disciplines and how do you apply it in your architectural work? It is not easy to pinpoint exactly what I learned from each one but I took something with me from every one of them. For example, I worked with Pierre Arnaud, a lighting designer who was in charge of illuminating, among other things, the Son et Lumière of the Acropolis in Athens. He has to be the one that taught me more. I was very surprised because his training was not in engineering or architecture, or technician of any specialty; he came from the theater. He was a pianist from Music Hall but he ended illuminating the Acropolis in Athens. He taught me some basic rules on lighting that I will never forget, such as: “You have to illuminate respecting the night”. How do you achieve that? Regardless of the way you illuminate, you have to see the stars shine. Arnaud explained to me the reason behind this rule. When he was a little boy, he went up the Arch of Triumph of L’Etoile, with his father, and was able to contemplate Paris as the Ville Lumière (City of Lights), full of light. Now, if you go up to the same spot, you will see a dark city because instead of those thousands of spots of low intensity light- as it was some years ago- there are fewer spots and those horrible high intensity lighting posts that force the pupils to close and obstruct our sight. Applying this rule of Arnauld we illuminated the cellars of Chandon, which were in the middle of the country, with 50W. He told me: “Don’t worry, Oscar, a 25W lightbulb can be seen from 4 km”. It all depends on the surrounding light. If you are blinded by glare you can’t see anything. With him, we always used 25% of the light recommended by the lighting firm, who wanted to sell luminaries. Same thing happened with the requirements that the electric companies gave us. In short, to illuminate respecting the night, you must stop the pupils from closing. Looking at light directly will close the pupils and therefore you will not see the stars. In other words, light has to be controlled to avoid glare. Did you learn anything else from those professionals? With Arnauld I learned to always illuminate from the same side, that is to say, in the same direction and to never try to imitate natural light with artificial light. In a space, artificial light should be a different alternative to natural light. In addition, it should never shine from the same place. You have undertaken multiple architectural projects of every possible kind (housing, public and cultural facilities, scenography, offices, factories, hotels and restaurants). What attracts your attention in a space when you are commissioned a project? In a way, I am absolutely closed to specialization. Architects, American architects particularly, ask me “What do you do, hospitals, hotels, family housing?” I never know what to answer so I tell them: “I specialize in difficult projects”. For example, “The Palau de la Música” in Catalonia, the subway station in Naples, staging a Salvador Dalí exhibition and all the other projects that I have carried out over the years have one thing in common: they are delicate projects that have to be done carefully, that are not repetitive, do not have many standards, in short, very particular projects. Above all, I make sure that the architecture merges space and light. That is why I ventured to deliver a staunch defense for the “Sagrada Familia” in an article that appeared in EL País and some international publications. In it I explain that in architecture, what is important -the space and the light- are great in the “Sagrada Familia”. Even though, Gaudí’s followers might have made mistakes in many internal details, the most important things are fantastic. So, my intention in architecture is to create these two aspects: a memorable light and space. What is the optimal way of lighting an architectural work? With talent (laughter). The best lighting in an architectural work is the one that offers a high degree of comfort, respects and showcases the architectural space. A very interesting debate has been going on for some years about how to illuminate the interior of the “Sagrada Familia”. Evidently, Gaudí was not able to give references because lighting, especially at the technical level, has evolved tremendously. It is wonderfully illuminated under natural light; the challenge was to illuminate it with artificial light in the best way possible. Arnauld would say: “Always illuminate the walls, not the floor”. In your paintings, what is light? Very important. I am more of an illuminist than a colorist. Maybe that is why I draw so well. Light is the main character in my paintings, be