Anna Martovitskaya. Interview with Sergey Estrin: I find it interesting to work in the city during its artistic development | archi.ru, 26.03.2013
Current year has become a turning point for Sergey Estrin Architectural Studio. Five large tenders wins running forced the company to expand both personnel and office space.
Archi.ru: Having celebrated the tenth Studio anniversary last year, did you make plans for moving your company to a new level?
Sergey Estrin: To be honest, I am not in favour of such wording. It sounds as if I made this sudden compulsory decision: this is it, we are moving to another level. In real life that was happening to certain extend by itself, as a natural after-effect of our work, our approach to it. We produce projects of unfailing quality and unrepeatable character. Also, we are well capable of completing work within tight schedule and draw client’s funds most prudently. All of the above make our clients not only come back to us again but also to recommend us to their partners. During certain period of time we were managing to distribute the project load evenly, doing sketches for one and working documentation for another projects. However, when in December last year we have won five tenders at the same time, it was clear that our well co-ordinated team will not handle this scope of work as it is.
Archi.ru: How big is your team now?
Sergey Estrin: We have hired seven new architects and one project manager. Therefore there are altogether 30 people now. It is our policy not to invite Chief Architects but to let our employees gain enough experience to grow into one.
Archi.ru: How did you manage to expand without moving?
Sergey Estrin: This was pure luck. I like this area of Malaya Dmitrovka; we’ve been working here since opening and I didn’t want to move. This premises next door has become available some time ago, but we were sceptical because of it difficult shape and lack of daylight. Yet, as soon as we decided to accept the challenge, we have found excellent solutions for both layout and materials. Now we moved to this beautiful, spacious, stylish office that we love, thus increasing the space more than twice.
Archi.ru: What kind of skills do you expect your new coming architects to have?
Sergey Estrin: A person with an architectural diploma is capable of acquiring almost any professional expertise. Therefore the main quality I expect from my employees is trustworthiness. I respect very much architects that admit some lack of knowledge, yet resent whiners that do not understand the reason to go to work in the morning. It’s a well known fact that everybody appreciates responsibility and conscious approach to work.
Archi.ru: Which particular tenders made you expand your office?
Sergey Estrin: Common areas fit out for Evrasia in Moscow City, Leroy Marlin HQ, First Cargo Company, Visual Care for Johnson&Johnson and NLMK. Also there is an agricultural and tourism complex in Moscow region.
Archi.ru: After many years of mainly interior works you now have several volume projects.
Sergey Estrin: When I started the Studio I did not plan to work with interiors mainly. In fact, from the very beginning my team and I tended to develop both sector simultaneously – interior and volume design. Yet, it so happened, initially the interior part prevailed; possibly due to the fact that we resisted offers beyond Moscow due to the lack of time and human resources. Now with returning customers both geography and technology of our projects expand themselves.
Complete text in Russian by Anna Martovitskaya, exclusively for АРХИ.ру