52|PROTAGONISTA Y our projects are known for being varied At the moment, we are working on 12 different projects, and even though most of them are at a large scale, there is everything. We have one of 110.000 m2 and another one of 70 m2, but in each one the process remains the same. Human capital, dedication and commitment are constants and they enriches the project. Leaving the result to chance, implies constantly bumping into a blank sheet. On the other hand, planning the project from the start results in a more matured and more researched product. I like searching for the what and why of things, that it to say, why we decide a project shoul be one way or another. Each project and each client is different but the goal is the same: strive for an excellent work and try to maximize the return of the investment. Where do you begin when you are commissioned a project? Very good question! (laughter) I always start by the end. We offer the client an agreed fee that is not conditioned to the final cost of the work. I feel very comfortable with this and it creates a transparent relationship with the client from the very beginning. What does beginning from the end means in practice? It translates in asking the client directly, “How much are you willing to spend on this project?” or put another way, “What is your ceiling?” We always work on giving the client the best performance on his investment. In our 15 years of professional trajectory as an office of architecture and interior design, we have never had a project dismissed due to implementation costs, quite the opposite. We place all the ingredients needed for the project in a cocktail shaker and pull out a final result at an optimum price. We don’t want to create the uncertainty that comes from not knowing the final price of some action. This is the reason we like to start from the end. How important is lighting in your projects? I believe good lighting is everything. At the beginning, humans understood lighting as a tool to avoid bumping into things in their spaces and hurting themselves, but today it is perceived as something broader. It is a language that wraps you and moves you; it gives transcendence to any space that needs to be illuminated. Is a member of your team specialized in lighting? Yes, several of them are. It is unthinkable to have an international office or an office that handles comprehensive projects without a multidisciplinary staff, and the lighting designer has to part of it. They are part of the studio’s staff. Manuel Torres Design has offices in Spain, Mexico, and Bogota. ¿What differences have you found in the way these countries understand lighting? As clients, do they give more importance to lighting in one country more than another? and employing a multidisciplinary team. What is the advantage of bringing together different fields in your work and how does it reflect in the end result? It is always beneficial to tackle a work from a multidisciplinary standpoint, especially because to carry it out you need many disciplines. In Manuel Torres Design we are known for three types of products: architecture, interior design and product industrial design. This translates in about 40 people that constitute the human capital of the company. Among them we have architects; engineers; product designers; coolhunters and trendhunters, for analysis and investigation of tendencies; Marketing specialists and graphic designers. Ultimately, we are a global multidisciplinary team. The specific public for each one of those areas is very different. It is different to approach an architecture job than an interior design one, even if there is a certain common ground. The widest difference arises when designing a product for a manufacturer because all the fundamental aspects of the production process come into play and it is very different from an architectural or interior design project. Working with such a varied team must give you the opportunity to integrate the three disciplines in one project.