Latest / Teach Me Something Hosted By DJ Prostyle & Penny Dellas / Designing the Future: From Architecture to Interior Design with Dr. Alfonso Torino

Transcript

Designing the Future: From Architecture to Interior Design with Dr. Alfonso Torino · Teach Me Something Hosted By DJ Prostyle & Penny Dellas

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hey, what's up.
• 0:00
  Speaker 2: This is DJ pro Style and this is Penny tell
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: Us and this is teach Me Something.
• 0:05
  Speaker 3: Brought to you by Berkeley College.
• 0:07
  Speaker 4: Okay, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome back to
• 0:10
  Speaker 4: Teach Me Something, presented by Berkeley College.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: I am DJ pro Style.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: And I am Pennydellas, and today we are taking you
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: on a ride because we are exploring the world of design. Yes,
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: the spaces that shape how we live, how we work,
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: and how we connect.
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: Are you excited?
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: I'm excited about this.
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: I'm excited.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: And also, you have such a nice tan from vacation
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: and you're always saying that I'm the only with the trovels.
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: Look at you.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: All.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: We do travel a lot.
• 0:40
  Speaker 4: Me going on one trip is nothing compared to your
• 0:43
  Speaker 4: like seven or eight within two.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: Well, well you know, prom All I'm gonna say is, anyways,
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: we need to book the podcast international.
• 0:50
  Speaker 4: That's all I'm saying is as we get into summertime
• 0:52
  Speaker 4: and this weather gets nicer, I expect tans.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: Oh okay, this is uh all right, guys, you heard
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: the demand is tans For those of you that are listening.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: Pro back from Puerto Rico with a beautiful tan. He's
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: wearing a nice sky blue outfit, you know, really nice.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: But you know we're deviating because we have a guest.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: And you know, which is from somewhere where I want
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: to travel to.
• 1:13
  Speaker 5: By the way, I'm going to be there all summer.
• 1:15
  Speaker 6: Yes, so I'm going to be a batical you're going
• 1:17
  Speaker 6: out there'll be there also.
• 1:19
  Speaker 4: Nice, So we have to go on around there is
• 1:21
  Speaker 4: literally Yeah, I would say, let's talk about where he's
• 1:24
  Speaker 4: talking about and where he's talk about what.
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: He's talking about.
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: So we have the chair for the interior design program
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: for Berkeley College in the building.
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: Welcome Alfonso.
• 1:35
  Speaker 6: What appreunciate? That was perfect, Kenny, That sounds a perfect Italian.
• 1:39
  Speaker 4: Yeah, she's a professional. She practices and stuff. Thanks for
• 1:42
  Speaker 4: having me, really good, Thanks for being fun.
• 1:44
  Speaker 5: It's good.
• 1:44
  Speaker 6: It's fun, and it's good to be talking about our program.
• 1:47
  Speaker 6: But it's also good to be talking about anything. Right,
• 1:49
  Speaker 6: it's springtime. It's eighty degrees.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: It's eighty degrees in the city today, it's insane. Wearing
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: nice walk here. I know next next week will be fifty,
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: so let's enjoy it. Let's enjoy it.
• 1:57
  Speaker 4: By time this air is we'll be wearing Jack again
• 2:00
  Speaker 4: listening to this exactly.
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: But but it's funny.
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: So your background is architecture, and he already came in
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: and started saying, well, we should change this arm so
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: that it's cool when you have professionals come in and
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: they're like.
• 2:12
  Speaker 5: No, yours is best from above.
• 2:14
  Speaker 4: Yeah, they just actually, well they moved it was on
• 2:18
  Speaker 4: that side, so and then he moved it to that side.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: I don't know why, but it's fine.
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: Well, yeah, well we'll survive it.
• 2:25
  Speaker 4: There's so many different studios here that have different styles.
• 2:27
  Speaker 4: Oh there's somebody come from yeah, yeah, there's some that
• 2:30
  Speaker 4: come out of the desk.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: Well, do a tour after yeah.
• 2:32
  Speaker 6: When I've seen some famous people come up as well.
• 2:35
  Speaker 6: Yeah yeah good, yeah, awesome, y thanks for inviting me, Ben.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: Thank you for being here.
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: This is so cool.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: But you know what, before we get into Berkeley College,
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: your background wasn't architecture, So how do you go from
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: architect to interior design to interior design and higher education.
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: I'm so curious.
• 2:53
  Speaker 6: Well, it's it's quite simple. Interior design. There is no
• 2:56
  Speaker 6: such thing as interior design, exterior design, or global design.
• 3:01
  Speaker 6: This design and architecture encompasses all of that Interior design
• 3:07
  Speaker 6: developed as a ramification out of architecture, just because there's
• 3:11
  Speaker 6: so many variables to cover in design that it's impossible
• 3:14
  Speaker 6: to cover them all in one office. One architect cannot
• 3:17
  Speaker 6: cover them all, and so the branches started developing and
• 3:21
  Speaker 6: we started to specialize on.
• 3:25
  Speaker 5: The various parts of architecture, so interior architecture, exterior architecture,
• 3:31
  Speaker 5: take away, interior and exterior. It's architecture, which is making spaces.
• 3:37
  Speaker 5: That's what it's all about.
• 3:38
  Speaker 6: So how did I become interior Well, it started just
• 3:43
  Speaker 6: because I was commissioned back nineteen ninety three for this
• 3:51
  Speaker 6: really beautiful job outside of Rome, Italy, and I was
• 3:55
  Speaker 6: here at the time working as an architect, and I
• 3:58
  Speaker 6: had to I couldn't give up on it, so I
• 4:01
  Speaker 6: took the job. And it was basically thirty thousand square
• 4:04
  Speaker 6: meters fifteenth century villa that needed to be renovated. So
• 4:09
  Speaker 6: I told my wife at the time, she was a scientist,
• 4:11
  Speaker 6: that ros she says, you want to go to Italy
• 4:13
  Speaker 6: for a little bit.
• 4:14
  Speaker 5: How long, I don't know, maybe a year or so.
• 4:16
  Speaker 6: Eleven years later, Wow, we've been there ninety three and
• 4:20
  Speaker 6: we came back in two thousand and four eleven years,
• 4:23
  Speaker 6: three kids later, and a lot of experience, And most
• 4:27
  Speaker 6: of this was interior design stuff, interior architecture, but it
• 4:31
  Speaker 6: was also architecture and dealing with outside and dealing with
• 4:34
  Speaker 6: historical preservation and just dealing with history in general.
• 4:38
  Speaker 5: And I love history.
• 4:39
  Speaker 6: My higher education is in history of architecture because I
• 4:43
  Speaker 6: really felt that growing up in Rome gave me the
• 4:46
  Speaker 6: foundation to understand the importance of history. Everything has been
• 4:51
  Speaker 6: done out there and it's just for us to go
• 4:53
  Speaker 6: look at it and learn from it. You learn history,
• 4:57
  Speaker 6: you learn how to analyze, to lize existing conditions, and
• 5:01
  Speaker 6: therefore how to put your concepts, your design concepts, into effect.
• 5:08
  Speaker 6: So history is a really big part of our world
• 5:10
  Speaker 6: history and culture, and I believe that firmly, and I
• 5:13
  Speaker 6: brought that into our program at Berkeley College immediately twenty
• 5:17
  Speaker 6: years ago when I started two courses that tried to
• 5:21
  Speaker 6: give our students the importance of understanding history and culture
• 5:25
  Speaker 6: if you want to become a design I wrote an
• 5:28
  Speaker 6: article on that as well.
• 5:30
  Speaker 4: And it's amazing because you know, when you travel, and
• 5:33
  Speaker 4: I've been blessed enough to go to like I haven't
• 5:34
  Speaker 4: been in Italy, so and Rome is all my bucket
• 5:37
  Speaker 4: list of places I really want to go to and
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: to see the calcium and everything that's out there. And
• 5:43
  Speaker 4: just so many things in Europe are so beautiful and
• 5:46
  Speaker 4: they're so historic and all the structures, and we have
• 5:49
  Speaker 4: a lot here in New York. I know we talk
• 5:51
  Speaker 4: about because people always people think that we don't have
• 5:54
  Speaker 4: that here. There's so much of it here in New
• 5:56
  Speaker 4: York that we need to visit and I want to
• 5:58
  Speaker 4: bring my kids to. But something about when you're out
• 6:00
  Speaker 4: of town, maybe because you're just your mindset, you're like
• 6:02
  Speaker 4: a tourist, so you want to go see those things
• 6:04
  Speaker 4: versus in your home, you don't go.
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: See itly Grease, there's so much history everywhere you look,
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: everywhere you turn.
• 6:10
  Speaker 4: It's in the architecture and how they build things and
• 6:13
  Speaker 4: back then and how you preserve it.
• 6:14
  Speaker 5: And it all came over.
• 6:16
  Speaker 6: Yeah, it all came over right in the eighteen hundreds
• 6:20
  Speaker 6: and they recreated the revival styles. So you walk around
• 6:24
  Speaker 6: New York City and you see it, Yeah, you see
• 6:26
  Speaker 6: it really is every blascycle, you see the Neo Gothic, right,
• 6:30
  Speaker 6: Saint Patrick's Cathedral.
• 6:32
  Speaker 4: Your eyes probably see things so much different, right, and
• 6:35
  Speaker 4: it's like we're just walking around and seeing buildings, but
• 6:37
  Speaker 4: he's actually he understands, like the style of this is that,
• 6:40
  Speaker 4: and that this and this was built like this.
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: We need to do a tour, like a walking tour
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: in the city.
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: That would be with him.
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that would be cooled.
• 6:47
  Speaker 6: That was the idea of opening up in theory design
• 6:50
  Speaker 6: in New York City.
• 6:51
  Speaker 5: The resources are immense.
• 6:52
  Speaker 6: You're teaching a history class of history too, which is
• 6:55
  Speaker 6: contemporary times. You just go down and you walk around
• 6:59
  Speaker 6: and they see it first. And when I was teaching
• 7:02
  Speaker 6: in Rome, because I thought there as well, when I
• 7:04
  Speaker 6: was teaching the classical world, you just walk around. You
• 7:08
  Speaker 6: save a lot of talking, a lot of lecturing. Very
• 7:11
  Speaker 6: you know, everything's right there for you to observe, to
• 7:14
  Speaker 6: take it in, digest it yours, just you know, make.
• 7:19
  Speaker 5: It yours completely.
• 7:21
  Speaker 6: I took a lot of time my students to Greece
• 7:23
  Speaker 6: as well, because it starts, you know, the classical world
• 7:26
  Speaker 6: started with Greeks, and then the Romans made it better.
• 7:29
  Speaker 6: We brought it to the next level, but it did
• 7:32
  Speaker 6: start there. And if you want to learn about it,
• 7:34
  Speaker 6: you gotta start in Greece, you know. That's that's a
• 7:37
  Speaker 6: beautiful trip that students.
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: My favorite place to go to Greece is the Temple
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: of Poseidon and you're on a cliff and the sky
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: just opens, like you feel like the gods are there.
• 7:50
  Speaker 4: Yeah, but thinking about it because.
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: It's it's private.
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: You know, you go in, you book your tour, whatever
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: the case may be. But there's on the ground because
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: they're restoring constantly, and you look and.
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: You think, how did they do this?
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: So symmetrical because each line is aliineated like to precision,
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: and you're like.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: Back without equipment, But how did they do this?
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: Somebody was it's insane and you're touching a column that
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: you're like, this has been here for they didn't have
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: the right. So it's definitely interesting when you're looking at
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: these phenomenons and thinking how did they do this? Like
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: the Pyramids, right, that's that's always the thing of So.
• 8:31
  Speaker 5: You're reinforcing my counsel, Was it gods?
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: Was it aliens? We don't know, but they did it.
• 8:35
  Speaker 5: It's there, you know, yeah there, and it's for us
• 8:38
  Speaker 5: to learn from.
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's beautiful.
• 8:40
  Speaker 4: So even the Pyramids, they talk about those cylinders that
• 8:44
  Speaker 4: went deep into the ground or something like that.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: And beneath them interesting stuff.
• 8:48
  Speaker 6: So yeah, Greece is definitely a place to visit. Italy
• 8:51
  Speaker 6: is definitely a place to visit as well. It was
• 8:53
  Speaker 6: interesting about Italy is the diversity aspect of Italy is
• 8:57
  Speaker 6: composed of twenty regions, the most regions of any European countries,
• 9:02
  Speaker 6: and each of those regions are a different country, different languages,
• 9:08
  Speaker 6: different food, different culture.
• 9:11
  Speaker 5: It's crazy how diverse itly is.
• 9:14
  Speaker 6: And this is all coming out of the Roman Empire,
• 9:16
  Speaker 6: right the Middle Ages, where all these little city states
• 9:20
  Speaker 6: had to sort of make themselves, create themselves, defend themselves
• 9:25
  Speaker 6: from each other. And so they created all these little
• 9:27
  Speaker 6: city states competing with each other to who would build
• 9:31
  Speaker 6: the bigger cathedral, who would build the bigger monuments, and
• 9:37
  Speaker 6: so it was competition, and the craftsmanship obviously was what
• 9:41
  Speaker 6: it was just because technology wasn't there, so you had
• 9:45
  Speaker 6: to really do it all with your hands. And we
• 9:48
  Speaker 6: should never forget that, I think learning from that and
• 9:50
  Speaker 6: going and bringing it into the present, right, I always
• 9:54
  Speaker 6: say that, And that's what's basically happening all the time
• 9:57
  Speaker 6: in the world of design, you know, combin where we're
• 10:01
  Speaker 6: coming from into where we are past and the present.
• 10:06
  Speaker 4: Which has to be pretty interesting now with the technology
• 10:09
  Speaker 4: and with you know, being able to type things in
• 10:11
  Speaker 4: like being able like this.
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: We just talk about three.
• 10:14
  Speaker 4: D printer and it's funny. My son, my son loves.
• 10:17
  Speaker 4: We talk about my son possibly getting into architecture as
• 10:20
  Speaker 4: he gets older because he loves.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: We've this, We've already got him to two of these printers.
• 10:25
  Speaker 4: He's creating. He makes toys. When somebody's birthday, he gives them.
• 10:28
  Speaker 4: He makes the toys for them, He makes them at home.
• 10:30
  Speaker 4: He's putting them together and he's and they're coming out
• 10:32
  Speaker 4: like this and he's giving them. And uh, now the technology,
• 10:36
  Speaker 4: like even for buildings, things now must be like I say,
• 10:39
  Speaker 4: easier obviously, but compared to back then. So now I'm
• 10:43
  Speaker 4: sure you could structurally make things right to fit into
• 10:46
  Speaker 4: certain areas and stuff like that, versus doing it by hand.
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: Shout out to Julia Hudginson, our graphic design chair. She
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: was on season one, Season two, but she made us
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: a light box for those of you that are listening
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: and can't see, so we'll put it online now.
• 11:00
  Speaker 5: But Berkeley College Graphic Design, the party, how did it go?
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: And I don't know if I'm jumping.
• 11:05
  Speaker 4: But how did you go from living in Rome and
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: from working that to Berkeley College?
• 11:09
  Speaker 5: Well, I was here first went.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: Were you with Berkeley prior to No, No, no, No.
• 11:14
  Speaker 6: Berkeley College came when I came back from Italy in
• 11:16
  Speaker 6: two thousand and four. I was already teaching there for
• 11:19
  Speaker 6: eleven years. I came back and I understood that combining
• 11:23
  Speaker 6: the profession and teaching was going to be part of
• 11:26
  Speaker 6: my life. I needed to have both, keeping the academics
• 11:30
  Speaker 6: and the whole cultural aspect and the profession, so I
• 11:34
  Speaker 6: always kept them both fermenting. Yeah, and when I came back,
• 11:37
  Speaker 6: I just applied to some colleges and Berkeley College hired me,
• 11:44
  Speaker 6: hired me full time right away after my interview, and
• 11:46
  Speaker 6: they just gave me a full time job and that's it.
• 11:49
  Speaker 6: And then I married the cause and tried to build
• 11:51
  Speaker 6: the interior design department as strong as possible. It spent
• 11:55
  Speaker 6: twenty years.
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: That's great.
• 11:58
  Speaker 5: September two thousand.
• 11:59
  Speaker 6: And after Berkeley so co and we just started in
• 12:03
  Speaker 6: the city, I mean a year and a half ago.
• 12:06
  Speaker 6: And again just because of the resources that you have
• 12:09
  Speaker 6: in the city, you know, showrooms, GMS, buildings.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: Just everything that step away fer menting environment.
• 12:17
  Speaker 6: Which hopefully, you know, it'll help our students become better designers.
• 12:21
  Speaker 6: I love that.
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: And our New York City campus is on Fifth Avenue,
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: forty third three East forty third Street and Fifth Avenue
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: by the New York Public Library, which is a scene
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: on its own and architecture. What modalities can we take
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: the courses? Is it on site, online a blend of both.
• 12:40
  Speaker 5: Well, you could do both.
• 12:43
  Speaker 6: We have on site in New York City and in
• 12:47
  Speaker 6: New Jersey at Woodland Park and online and we have
• 12:49
  Speaker 6: students on an online program from everywhere in the world,
• 12:53
  Speaker 6: everywhere in the United States, but we even have students
• 12:56
  Speaker 6: from around the world that take our program.
• 12:58
  Speaker 5: The online program is doing really well.
• 13:02
  Speaker 6: It's two different experiences, right The on site is different.
• 13:06
  Speaker 6: It's more hands on. It's a studio based and you
• 13:10
  Speaker 6: get that studio experience, that office experience because of the
• 13:16
  Speaker 6: faculty that we have that bring their profession to the classroom.
• 13:20
  Speaker 5: That's that's a big aspect of our our program.
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: That's a differentiator. We have industry experts that are teaching you.
• 13:26
  Speaker 6: You bring you bring the you bring the expertise to
• 13:29
  Speaker 6: the studio and this and the moment the students here,
• 13:32
  Speaker 6: you say this is a real life project that we're
• 13:35
  Speaker 6: actually working on. Their ears just go wide open and
• 13:38
  Speaker 6: they pay attention immediately. So the face to face, as
• 13:42
  Speaker 6: we were saying before, it's always a nicer.
• 13:45
  Speaker 5: Way to communicate.
• 13:47
  Speaker 6: Now, the online has grown tremendously as well, and I've
• 13:50
  Speaker 6: been dedicating a lot of time to our online program
• 13:53
  Speaker 6: just to make it as close as possible to the
• 13:56
  Speaker 6: on site experience, and I think we got there. We
• 13:59
  Speaker 6: brought it to a decent level where uh and I
• 14:03
  Speaker 6: think the major aspect of the success of our online
• 14:06
  Speaker 6: program is making the check ins with your professor mandatory,
• 14:13
  Speaker 6: so that you can't just be behind the computer screen
• 14:17
  Speaker 6: and hand in your work and do it on your own.
• 14:20
  Speaker 6: There's a weekly mandatory check in that it forces you
• 14:25
  Speaker 6: to connect.
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: And chat that resource.
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: Use it.
• 14:30
  Speaker 6: It's good, you got the resource, use it, get it going,
• 14:33
  Speaker 6: and it's really helping our students.
• 14:35
  Speaker 5: Do a lot better on the online program as well.
• 14:38
  Speaker 6: The inside in New York City is exciting because, like
• 14:40
  Speaker 6: we were saying before, you're teaching a history two class,
• 14:42
  Speaker 6: so you're teaching a studio design of a commercial two studio,
• 14:47
  Speaker 6: and you can just walk around and earn you go
• 14:49
  Speaker 6: to a museum.
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: I want a history walk. Let's let's do it. Yeah,
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: take a really, let's take the pot for a walk.
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: That would be so cool. You laugh when I send
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: that email.
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: So tomorrow, of course you would pick five pmpenny.
• 15:05
  Speaker 4: They kind of answered the next question, which was how
• 15:07
  Speaker 4: does the program prepare students with both the creative and
• 15:09
  Speaker 4: technical skill sets needed to succeed in today's competitive design landscape?
• 15:14
  Speaker 4: You know, and I think by giving them that, you know.
• 15:18
  Speaker 6: It's really the program is designed to as a combination
• 15:22
  Speaker 6: of technical and creative, which is basically what architecture is.
• 15:27
  Speaker 6: Architects are artists, they're Kandinskys, but they also have to
• 15:33
  Speaker 6: be engineers. So you can't just make a painting and
• 15:39
  Speaker 6: get inspired for whatever you're trying to express and it
• 15:44
  Speaker 6: stays at a painting, so it's never going to fail.
• 15:48
  Speaker 6: The architecture component of it, the technical component of it,
• 15:52
  Speaker 6: is translating that creative act and the painting into a
• 15:57
  Speaker 6: space into a place, which then gives you the responsibility
• 16:04
  Speaker 6: for safety well being, right, creating a space where people
• 16:09
  Speaker 6: live and they feel safe and they feel psychologically comfortable
• 16:14
  Speaker 6: without this bar in front of your eyes.
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: We have to figure out we need a float, so
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: that's what.
• 16:25
  Speaker 6: So then you need the mathematical physical aspects which we
• 16:29
  Speaker 6: call technical technical aspects to be able to get that
• 16:34
  Speaker 6: creative inspiration and translate it into a works.
• 16:39
  Speaker 5: A space, a place. That's why they need both.
• 16:44
  Speaker 6: And so we combine with creative aspects, which is sketching,
• 16:48
  Speaker 6: color history.
• 16:50
  Speaker 5: Right.
• 16:51
  Speaker 6: We continuously implement every studio, not just from Studio one,
• 16:56
  Speaker 6: but all the way to Studio eight, a sketchbook. We
• 17:00
  Speaker 6: always push them to sketch freehand before they dive into
• 17:05
  Speaker 6: the computer software, just because the freehand sketching develops that
• 17:12
  Speaker 6: creative part of your brain in a different way, and
• 17:15
  Speaker 6: then you kind of translate it and then obviously you
• 17:18
  Speaker 6: use technology to make it happen. But people that think
• 17:22
  Speaker 6: that technology is taken over for humans, especially in architecture,
• 17:27
  Speaker 6: I'm sorry. They're not taking over. It's helping us, the
• 17:33
  Speaker 6: creative mind, to be able to represent our ideas in.
• 17:38
  Speaker 5: A better way. That's all.
• 17:41
  Speaker 6: I'll give you an example. I'll give you an example.
• 17:44
  Speaker 6: I used to teach a course that was called Advanced
• 17:47
  Speaker 6: Perspective and rendering. It was all by hand beautiful drafted
• 17:54
  Speaker 6: perspectives and renderings done by our students. The moment the
• 17:58
  Speaker 6: software became so perfect to be able to represent your ideas,
• 18:04
  Speaker 6: your concept like a photograph, that course did not make
• 18:12
  Speaker 6: sense anymore. So we're still keeping the freehand sketching and
• 18:17
  Speaker 6: the sketch books in every design process. But then the
• 18:23
  Speaker 6: moment the design is evolving from schematic design to design
• 18:27
  Speaker 6: development to a construction document, the technology comes in and
• 18:32
  Speaker 6: allows you to represent your ideas easier and better. So, yes,
• 18:37
  Speaker 6: technology is great. And so what I was saying before
• 18:40
  Speaker 6: combining the past with the present, you need to know
• 18:45
  Speaker 6: where you're coming from to understand.
• 18:47
  Speaker 5: Where you will be gone. And so we.
• 18:51
  Speaker 6: Cannot deny technology, right we can just say it doesn't exist.
• 18:55
  Speaker 5: That will be stupid.
• 18:56
  Speaker 6: It's like saying contemporary designs are representing who we are
• 19:02
  Speaker 6: and how we live today. Yeah, but I like the
• 19:04
  Speaker 6: classical Roman, classical Greece, I get it. But that was
• 19:08
  Speaker 6: them two thousand years ago. Can we learn something from
• 19:11
  Speaker 6: them and put it into who we are today. And
• 19:15
  Speaker 6: there's the combination of history and contemporary which is also
• 19:20
  Speaker 6: a trend that is going on today and always you know,
• 19:24
  Speaker 6: bringing history into contemporary way of life. But also never, never,
• 19:31
  Speaker 6: forgetting nature. Nature is coming back strong biophilic design, which
• 19:38
  Speaker 6: is basically the use of nature, plants, greens, just nature
• 19:42
  Speaker 6: in general to create that psychological soothing environment with which
• 19:49
  Speaker 6: nature always gives us. Right when you go away to
• 19:52
  Speaker 6: Greece on an island, where are you in the middle
• 19:55
  Speaker 6: of one hundred percent nature? And how does that make
• 19:58
  Speaker 6: you feel?
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: Water?
• 20:01
  Speaker 6: So, bringing the biophilic this bringing the biophilic design into
• 20:06
  Speaker 6: our into our works is really contemporary today.
• 20:11
  Speaker 5: It's happening.
• 20:12
  Speaker 6: The colors of nature, the natural tones, just that feel,
• 20:17
  Speaker 6: the sounds you said it, water, wind, right, noise, natural noise.
• 20:23
  Speaker 5: People today use those natural noise apps to fall asleep
• 20:27
  Speaker 5: right again.
• 20:29
  Speaker 6: So the lesson is what let's learn from. Let's never
• 20:33
  Speaker 6: forget that nature is there for us to learn from
• 20:38
  Speaker 6: and to bring it into today's life, not forget it.
• 20:41
  Speaker 5: It's not just this. Yeah, there's a lot more.
• 20:45
  Speaker 6: This is part of our lives and we are definitely
• 20:47
  Speaker 6: and we understand that just like computers are and just
• 20:50
  Speaker 6: like three deep printers are, and all the technology that
• 20:53
  Speaker 6: we use them help us make things better. But to
• 20:59
  Speaker 6: get there, what our program does is it builds the
• 21:03
  Speaker 6: foundation and all of these aspects of the past of
• 21:09
  Speaker 6: history that will help you understand the combination of creative
• 21:15
  Speaker 6: and technical.
• 21:16
  Speaker 5: And then.
• 21:19
  Speaker 6: Knowing how to use the contemporary the softwares and the
• 21:24
  Speaker 6: technology to express your ideas. When people think that you
• 21:30
  Speaker 6: turn the computer on, you push a button and you're
• 21:32
  Speaker 6: getting the project, I'm sorry, that's not the case. Or
• 21:36
  Speaker 6: if students think that they can come and turn the
• 21:38
  Speaker 6: computer on and and the computer is going to do
• 21:41
  Speaker 6: the work for them, I'm sorry, that's not the case.
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: So that's some great sounds. I don't know about you.
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: All, but I learned so much in this episode whole.
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: Everything you just said was such a great moment for
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: social media. That are you going to go.
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: Home and be like kids?
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: So the bio aesthetic of well you have good architecture,
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: your home.
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: Is well, my house.
• 22:03
  Speaker 4: Actually it's funny because my house is was from an
• 22:06
  Speaker 4: Italian I don't know who the designer was. We bought
• 22:08
  Speaker 4: it from the person who the person who built our
• 22:10
  Speaker 4: home where we live is the only house that looks
• 22:12
  Speaker 4: like our house. The rest of the whole neighborhood was
• 22:15
  Speaker 4: built by a builder who built the thing, and then
• 22:17
  Speaker 4: whoever built our house bought the land and brought in
• 22:20
  Speaker 4: a designer from Italy and they so our house is built.
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: It looks like looks like a castle almost like it's
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: like three peaks.
• 22:28
  Speaker 6: It has all those medieval it looks like a castle
• 22:32
  Speaker 6: to have like a contort.
• 22:33
  Speaker 4: So to get to my drive, like I have to
• 22:35
  Speaker 4: drive through my house to get to the back where
• 22:37
  Speaker 4: the garages are, so like it.
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: Was built like that, like I need to see photos y.
• 22:42
  Speaker 4: But and it's surrounded by nature, so like I live
• 22:44
  Speaker 4: in the woods, right, so like come outside.
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: It does bring a certain peace.
• 22:49
  Speaker 4: We're gonna we're definitely doing the podcast at some point
• 22:51
  Speaker 4: in the backyard, but.
• 22:52
  Speaker 5: Make sure you call me.
• 22:54
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, you you would probably point things out. So
• 22:59
  Speaker 4: there's a lot of structural stuff in our house and
• 23:01
  Speaker 4: a lot of design and in woodwork that you probably
• 23:05
  Speaker 4: would go in there and start pointing things out that
• 23:07
  Speaker 4: we didn't even know about it, you know, because nobody
• 23:09
  Speaker 4: pointed these things out when we bought the house.
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: My wife just liked the bedroom.
• 23:11
  Speaker 6: So you look that, like the space great, sounds like
• 23:14
  Speaker 6: they're great. You're the unique house on the block, which.
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, totally different, Yeah, totally different.
• 23:19
  Speaker 4: And but there's a lot of you could tell it
• 23:21
  Speaker 4: was built by somebody who really put a lot into
• 23:24
  Speaker 4: the architecture and design and and the little things in
• 23:27
  Speaker 4: the wood and have designs in the in the craftsmanship
• 23:30
  Speaker 4: and everything like that. It all matters. Yeah, it's old
• 23:32
  Speaker 4: school and I like it. It's not contemporary at all.
• 23:35
  Speaker 4: It's not a lot of woodwork, a lot of well yeah,
• 23:39
  Speaker 4: when I'm out there shoveling snow, I'm like, damn it.
• 23:41
  Speaker 4: I should have been a department, you know.
• 23:43
  Speaker 5: But no.
• 23:44
  Speaker 4: But yeah, I mean nature and and I like the
• 23:48
  Speaker 4: older things better, like the historical.
• 23:50
  Speaker 5: And that's what I was trying to say.
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: And what's interesting versus versus the contemporary.
• 23:55
  Speaker 6: I know, but I know, but bringing bringing just think
• 23:58
  Speaker 6: about right, because you got that classical world in you.
• 24:02
  Speaker 6: You know, you got the Parthenon in you. Athens is
• 24:06
  Speaker 6: you know, that's it there it is.
• 24:08
  Speaker 5: Look at that.
• 24:09
  Speaker 6: And you got you know, the sanctuary of a power.
• 24:14
  Speaker 6: And the whole classical philosophy is amazing.
• 24:17
  Speaker 5: You know how they combine you know, learning.
• 24:21
  Speaker 6: From nature and all of the activities that they have
• 24:25
  Speaker 6: in nature. You know, they combine a god, a god
• 24:28
  Speaker 6: to one of those activities, so you know, a god
• 24:32
  Speaker 6: that's protecting us in everything that we do. How beautiful
• 24:36
  Speaker 6: is that you have someone from above that's not human? Right,
• 24:42
  Speaker 6: But it's interesting how classical classical thinking combines human and God.
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: Speaking of design, have traveled to other continents during this episode,
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: and we've gotten a history lesson of different architecture across Europe.
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: This is phenomenal Cape. Soon you guys go there, trust me,
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: trust me. You know what I'm gonna post on the
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: Instagram pod dot teach me something. We'll post some photos
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: a blast trip that we did over there.
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: It's really nice.
• 25:13
  Speaker 4: When you say we did, you mean you yourself and
• 25:15
  Speaker 4: your family. Yeah, because I've been over here.
• 25:18
  Speaker 3: Yes, it's okay. For we're gonna we're gonna take it.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: We're gonna get to Athens and take it from there.
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: It's gonna be fine.
• 25:23
  Speaker 4: Well, you know, we've been waiting for our kids to
• 25:25
  Speaker 4: get a little older to take them on the trip.
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: We weren't trying to go out.
• 25:28
  Speaker 5: There with it's smart. It's smart, way too.
• 25:30
  Speaker 4: Much because I spent the whole summer in Greece, so
• 25:33
  Speaker 4: I know what it is. And I and and you know,
• 25:36
  Speaker 4: my my mom's from my Greek side of my family
• 25:38
  Speaker 4: is from it's from not from this little town called
• 25:41
  Speaker 4: which is like in the mountains and like, so from
• 25:43
  Speaker 4: last time I was there, it was like a six
• 25:45
  Speaker 4: hour trip on buses. Now this is like an hour
• 25:47
  Speaker 4: and a half because they cut like a path through
• 25:49
  Speaker 4: the mountain and everything to get there.
• 25:50
  Speaker 6: So you celebrated the Orthodox Easter this past Sunday, which
• 25:54
  Speaker 6: was in a week after the Catholic.
• 25:57
  Speaker 3: Yep, all extra week of not it's in different calendars.
• 26:03
  Speaker 5: Rack of lamb. Yeah, yeah, wonderful.
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: So but yeah, you don't want to go out there
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: when the kids small, because you want to go.
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: I want you want to, They want to this the thing.
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: You want them to be able to understand what you're
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: looking at. There's so much I want to be able
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: to be so sufficient to you know, carry I.
• 26:21
  Speaker 4: Don't want to carry the kids on hikes up and downstairs.
• 26:25
  Speaker 6: And yes, yeah, you know I did bring my kids
• 26:28
  Speaker 6: when they were little, but we were living there, so
• 26:30
  Speaker 6: it wasn't really track. There was taking a Sunday afternoon
• 26:34
  Speaker 6: stroll to the Colosseum. It wasn't like flying to the Colosseum.
• 26:38
  Speaker 6: And all of the difficulties of taking kids when you
• 26:41
  Speaker 6: live there is different, so they assimilate and it stayed
• 26:44
  Speaker 6: within my kids. They always love to go back. They
• 26:46
  Speaker 6: go to back Italy tis years. They just have it
• 26:49
  Speaker 6: in them. And it's that culture that really stays with you.
• 26:52
  Speaker 5: And you know.
• 26:52
  Speaker 4: That we got to get out there.
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: I know we've been just doing the Caribbean Islands for
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: too much.
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: I know.
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: We love you guys.
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: In truth, teach me something fashion Alfonso, if you could
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: describe what you would want your legacy to be in
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: one word, what would.
• 27:12
  Speaker 5: That be my legacy? Have a teacher in general.
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: You can choose an avenue you want the teacher that.
• 27:23
  Speaker 5: Yeah, that's huge.
• 27:24
  Speaker 3: I Mean we asked the tough questions here, but.
• 27:27
  Speaker 6: It's not a tough question. It's the question is great.
• 27:30
  Speaker 6: It's just the Yeah, it's profound because if you think
• 27:33
  Speaker 6: of all the different avenues, then it's like in one word,
• 27:37
  Speaker 6: since we're talking about education, I think my legacy, what
• 27:42
  Speaker 6: makes me, what kept me going as an educator is
• 27:46
  Speaker 6: the fact that I know that I influenced hundreds and
• 27:50
  Speaker 6: hundreds of students mm that probably I don't even remember.
• 27:56
  Speaker 5: And what made me.
• 27:59
  Speaker 6: Continue as and educators that I know that at one
• 28:02
  Speaker 6: point in their developmental life I influenced their vision of
• 28:12
  Speaker 6: the world by showing the world to them from an
• 28:17
  Speaker 6: architectural standpoint of view. And so when you see these
• 28:21
  Speaker 6: students that come in raw, their raw, knowing nothing about
• 28:27
  Speaker 6: the built world, and then leaving and looking at the
• 28:31
  Speaker 6: world with different eyes. What you were saying before, like
• 28:34
  Speaker 6: looking at things with different eyes is what I want
• 28:38
  Speaker 6: to be remembered as from all of those students that
• 28:41
  Speaker 6: I think at one point in their lives, as they
• 28:44
  Speaker 6: grow and become adults and they get their own family,
• 28:46
  Speaker 6: they go back and say, professor to you know, I
• 28:49
  Speaker 6: remember that one particular time that he made me see
• 28:54
  Speaker 6: that one aspect of architecture that I didn't even know
• 28:57
  Speaker 6: it existed. So that that's probably what makes me happy
• 29:01
  Speaker 6: to that.
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: That's beautiful influence. And I'm sure you have and I'm
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: sure they do, so.
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: The word would be influence.
• 29:09
  Speaker 5: I was there. Yeah, yeah, So that's probably the reason why.
• 29:15
  Speaker 6: And I think when you become a teacher, you you
• 29:19
  Speaker 6: have to feel that that way. It's like you're like
• 29:22
  Speaker 6: a missionary, and so you're you're helping people become professionals,
• 29:27
  Speaker 6: especially in this profession where you're learning something physical. You're
• 29:31
  Speaker 6: not leaving Berkeley College in Tier design department with a
• 29:35
  Speaker 6: lot of theory. No. No, you're leaving Berkeley College in
• 29:39
  Speaker 6: tior design department with a lot of hands on practice
• 29:44
  Speaker 6: and real experience, so that you can go out there
• 29:48
  Speaker 6: into the world and choose whatever ramification you want into
• 29:52
  Speaker 6: the architectural construction industry and and go do your thing.
• 29:58
  Speaker 6: You can work in an architectural off interior design office.
• 30:01
  Speaker 6: You can work in products architectural product sales, which they
• 30:05
  Speaker 6: make so much money you know, you don't even know it.
• 30:08
  Speaker 6: Or in the manufacturing industry right furniture design and manufacturing,
• 30:13
  Speaker 6: lighting design and manufacturing, you name it. Worst scenario. If
• 30:20
  Speaker 6: you know you're really stuck and you can get a job,
• 30:23
  Speaker 6: you go into the home depots or lows and you
• 30:26
  Speaker 6: get a job in the aspects of design because they
• 30:30
  Speaker 6: have kitchen design, they have bad design, that have construction materials,
• 30:34
  Speaker 6: products sales, because the moment you understand architecture and the
• 30:37
  Speaker 6: materials and products that come with it, you're not just
• 30:41
  Speaker 6: a salesperson that is trying. They're hard, trying too hard.
• 30:47
  Speaker 6: I don't like salespeople too much. They try too hard
• 30:49
  Speaker 6: to sell you something. What I'm talking about is my
• 30:52
  Speaker 6: students will be able to talk about the materials and
• 30:55
  Speaker 6: the products in a different way, in a professional way,
• 30:59
  Speaker 6: which will catch the buyer's attention. So so that's really
• 31:03
  Speaker 6: what we try to do.
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: So he's sending them out prepared, right they are.
• 31:09
  Speaker 3: They are work.
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: Ready when they leave him, they're ready, they.
• 31:13
  Speaker 3: Are work ready.
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: If you want to learn more about the interior Design
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: program at Berkeley College, visit w w W dot Berkeley
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: College dot E d U, or you can go to
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: the social media pages at Berkeley College b.
• 31:24
  Speaker 3: E r K, E L E Y. Thank y'all for
• 31:28
  Speaker 3: visiting us.
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much.
• 31:30
  Speaker 4: This has been great for inviting me, and I look
• 31:32
  Speaker 4: for I look forward to this, this tour that we're
• 31:34
  Speaker 4: going to go on the.
• 31:35
  Speaker 5: Next time, next time over a gless of wine.
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I want the whole experience, correct experience. Yeah yeah,
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: all right, you know what, let's just meet in Rome somewhere.
• 31:47
  Speaker 4: Let's go to put it on your card, penny, Okay, great,
• 31:51
  Speaker 4: I heart.
• 31:52
  Speaker 3: Check it in.
• 31:54
  Speaker 5: Well.
• 31:54
  Speaker 4: Thank you guys for watching and listening to teach me
• 31:56
  Speaker 4: something presented by Berkeley College. See you next time.
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: All right, bye guys, bye.
• 32:01
  Speaker 3: Bye, hey, thanks for listening.
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: Tune in next week for all new episode of teach
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: me Something brought to you by Berkeley College