10 Q&A with Archilovers: Fran Silvestre Arquitectos

Fran Silvestre Arquitectos is an Architecture and Design studio based in Valencia, Spain. Founded by Fran Silvestre, architect and professor in the Department of Projects of the Polytechnic University of Valencia, and formed by a multidisciplinary group of professionals, it develops residential, cultural, corporative or public projects worldwide, with clients in Europe, USA or Russia.

Fran Silvestre Arquitectos has received the first prize for the work "Atrium house" - Berlin and the "House on mountainside overlooked by castle" has been selected by the Fundación Caja Arquitectos to form part of the catalog that contains the best works of Spanish architecture 2008-2009.

Here, we ask Fran Silvestre to give us an inside look at his life.

1. When you were a child, what did you dream you'd become? When did you realize you’d become an architect?

In my family there is a great tradition of engineers with more than 5 generations. My great grandfather designed the world's first vehicle. He was an inventor although he never went to university and still designed a steam engine that moved without rails. I grew up next to a library with a large selection of engineering books. Although I was also interested in design and thought that architecture combined the two.

House on the cliff - Calpe (Alicante), 2012

2. What are your passions besides architecture?
Cinema.

3. What’s the projects among yours that better represents you?
Everyone has something special, we like to think that each project is the first, the only and the last.

Hofmann House - Valencia, 2018

4. Name a person from today or the recent past you would invite for dinner and why.

Álvaro Siza and Andreu Alfaro, to be able to bring them together and share their work with the similarities between them there, would be a dream.

5. If you were given a chance to be reborn again, what would you want to be?
Surely any creative profession.

6. What does your house look like?
The smallest palace in the world.

7. What’s the trip or city you will never forget and what is your dream destination?

The island of Vis, in Croatia, its landscapes will always be in my retina.

Dream destination, Pamukkale, in Turkey.

8. Is there a particular place in you city you live that inspires you or where you love spending your time?

The sea, I'm lucky to live together in the Mediterranean.

9. List your favorite material, shape and color.
-Marble
-Oval
-White

Balint House - Bétera, 2014

10. List your favorite book, movie, song.
-Ensayo sobre la ceguera
-Night on Earth
-Alone in Tokio.