José María de Cárdenas: “Metropol’s mistakes could have been avoided”

ABC de Sevilla interviewed José María de Cárdenas, managing partner of EDDEA, shortly after the studio had won, against more than fifty international teams, the design of a new Moscow neighbourhood of 25,000 homes in a first phase of 160 hectares.

A large studio, something unusual

De Cárdenas explains the leap the firm took in 2004, when it decided to grow, go international and merge with another team of architects: “this was, and still is, rather unusual, because architecture studios are still very small structures and do not take advantage of the tools that mergers offer”. He also describes the studio’s three lines of work (architecture and urban planning, project direction and management, and Citythinking, “a laboratory of ideas and experimentation” bringing together psychologists, designers and specialists in organic farming) and how it weathered the crisis by anticipating it, moving into the public sector and abroad.

Management, management, management

On the city, he calls for the Urban Planning Department (Gerencia de Urbanismo) to have a project management team: “had it had one, many of the projects now under way would have been a success”. And he holds to his position on Tablada: “I don’t think the debate is housing yes or no”, but rather understanding Tablada’s role in the river estuary.

Interview by María José Pereira, published on 12 March 2011.