Name?
Paul Petrunia

Age?
25

Location?
Los Angeles

Mac or PC?
Mac

Site(s)?
http://www.archinect.com (play)
http://lowcountryguidance.com (pay)

Tell us a bit about the concept of Archinect?
I love architecture. The practice of it, however, leaves much to be desired (in my opinion)... but I predict that this will change. ARCHINECT is my humble contribution to this change. It is an attempt to create a web site that provides valuable information for the architecture community while at the same time inviting artists and designers that represent other fields of design to contribute cover pages and feature projects. To summarize, "The goal of ARCHINECT is to take advantage of the internet to make ARCHItecture more conNECTed and open minded by bringing together designers from around the world to introduce ideas from all disciplines."

How did you gain your appreciation for architecture?
When I was very young I wanted to be a millionaire. After I realized that wasn't an actual profession I found architecture. Katalin Petrunia, my mother, is a (very talented ;) interior designer. When I was young I would tag along with her and admire the spaces in which she worked her magic - that was very inspirational. I was also inspired as a child by a certain episode of the Jetsons... that must be what brought me to LA...

Have architects and architecture firms embraced the net as a medium to show their work?
They're starting to. One of the earliest examples of this is the Lundstromarch.com site by Juxt Interactive. Dutch firm MVRVD has one of my favourite architecture firm sites. Their site is not amazing graphically but they have studied the medium they are working with and understand it's limitations and possibilities to present information in a very unique and playful way. Their site is also flexible, allowing easy editing and infinite future experimentation.

Considering architecture is such a specialized field, I'm surprised that more architects don't respect web design the same way. It's unfortunate that many firms still think that the solution to their web presence is to hire an architecture student intern and give him or her a book on HTML or Flash.

The web has a sort of 'flat' feel to it, do you think it does architecture justice when trying to show the complexities and perspective of most constructions?
I think the question is more about whether the computer screen does architecture justice. Web technology is moving at a very fast speed so I'm sure whatever you can see local on your hard drive, on dvd's or even TV will be available for online viewing. The current limitation to 72dpi is definitely a problem for showing detailed photos or drawings. Many architects choose to use Adobe PDF format or Flash technology to present drawings in scalable vector graphics. For presenting 3D many choose to use QuicktimeVR or various other technologies which allow for interactive 3D navigation.

You have a monthly cover that is usually created by a web designer, why did you choose to get designers to make your cover and not architects?
Simply because most architects cannot create a web page or understand the medium enough to work well with it. Wallpaper* magazine featured ARCHINECT a while ago and chose the Feb. 2000 cover as their favourite - that was by architect Chip Minnick. He provided all the ideas and graphics and I helped by translating it into a simple web page. Another reason that I use web designers is that I want the site to help introduce architects to the latest in web design/technology and vice versa. I am currently looking for a graffiti artist to do a cover - I think that could be really interesting.

Architecture styles have been used in the design world quite a lot lately, that whole cut up and messed with buildings look, do you think architects are influenced in any way by what designers do?
Architects ARE designers. If you're asking if they are influenced by graphic designers - yes, I think some of them are but there is a limit to how much inspiration architecture can take from graphic design. When I first began studying architecture I was graphically inspired when drawing my plan and sectional drawings. I soon realized the spaces I was creating suffered by trying to create cool looking drawings. When designing the built environment many issues need to be carefully considered... floor plans and sections need to be analyzed, physical and virtual models need to be created and studied, technical details need to be worked out, the context needs to be addressed, users, etc... so it can be easily seen how graphic design doesn't play a big part. Presentation style, however, is highly inspired by graphic designers. Bruce Mau's relationship with Rem Koolhaas (OMA) clearly illustrates this.

Why do you think the architecture styles have become so popular?
I guess because they look fucking cool. Architects such as Zaha Hadid, Lebbeus Woods, and Neil Denari (to name a few) have obviously inspired many web designers. Few graphic/web designers, in my opinion, can work with these styles successfully - a couple that immediately come to mind are Anders Schroeder (dform1.net) and Mike Young (designgraphik.com).

What do you know about Australian design, designers or architects?
To be honest, not a lot. I do enjoy the work of Marc Newson. I recently had the opportunity to ride his Biomega mountain bike around the streets of Beverly Hills with a police escort - that was a trip. As for architecture, I love the work of Glenn Murcutt.

Any final comments?
Please don't forget the 2nd "C" in ARCHINECT... it's not archinet :) Thanks for reading.

Thanks Paul!