Juli Capella Interview
It's about impossible to describe Juli Capella Samper. If we were to stick to his resume, we’d be left with an overly simplified version of a scattered mind with an overflowing imagination, overwhelming originality, and sharp irony. We chatted about design and play in a conversation in which the two concepts mix, merge, and mutate. This is a man who has no qualms about confessing that he’s never done a day’s work, that he’s still playing.
Architect, designer, teacher, disseminator, inventor, creator, artist… Which definition do you stick with? Or is there another word to define you more precisely?
Juli Capella: A specialist in generalities, an expert in ramblings, well versed in scattered thoughts... I admit to my lack of discipline. My father oncetold me, "Son, do only one thing in life, but do it really well and be the best." I've gone the other way, doing all sorts of things, but all by halves. A biography of me would be titled 'Jack of all Trades, Master of None'. But I've got no regrets. For an inquisitive, playful sort, it's not bad.
Do you err more on the side of seny [Catalan expression for cool-headedness] or rauxa [hotheadedness]?
Juli Capella: On the side of the heart. I mean hotheadedness, but in a big-hearted, non-confrontational way. I think we’ve already got more than enough
cool-headedness in a society that’s so prudish and faint-hearted. Passion trumps dullness. Let’s leave cool-headedness to machines and conservative Catalans.
cool-headedness in a society that’s so prudish and faint-hearted. Passion trumps dullness. Let’s leave cool-headedness to machines and conservative Catalans.
Do you work or play?
Juli Capella: As a child, when Sunday evening came round and it was time to put away my toys, it made me so sad that I swore my whole life would
be a weekend. And I’m almost there, I'm on it. If I ever have to do a proper day's work, it'll kill me.
be a weekend. And I’m almost there, I'm on it. If I ever have to do a proper day's work, it'll kill me.
How do you incorporate play into your creative process?
Juli Capella: Plato said you can discover more about a person in an hour’s play than in a year of conversation. We always add at least a pinch of irony and wit to our projects in the studio, whenever we’re allowed to. The client is key in this sense. If it’s someone who doesn’t like eating, laughing, drinking and f… there’s nothing doing. With José Andrés it’s easier.
And into your life?
Juli Capella: Into my personal life by taking the opportunity to interact with my daughters. And once they got older, by having another child, my son Leo, who’s five years old. He’s making me play again, and without having to feel guilty about it. I can throw myself on the floor and crash into his train without raising suspicions.
Do you miss the boy you were or is he still lurking somewhere in today’s Juli?
Juli Capella: I was so happy as a child that everything has gotten worse. But I haven’t lost all hope of going back, starting from now. I’ve hardly got any hair nowadays, just like when I was a baby. We’re making progress.
You’re one of the greatest advocates of everyday design, of commonplace objects that, without you realizing it, put design at the service of people. Where does the value of design lie for you?
Juli Capella: In its spiritual side. I know I should say ‘In its functionality and beauty, blah, blah, blah...’ But that’s the least it should offer, it’s a given. We should always demand more from everything. More than what it is expected for the purpose it’s made for. A clothespin isn’t for hanging the clothes out, but rather for creating a pistol, a masochistic ring and earring, to seal a bag of chips, to hook your receipts on... And it reminds us of when we were kids, when we’d go up to the roof with our mom to hang the clothes out and gawk at the girl from next door. Emotional value always trumps practical value.
You’ve often said that design makes life better. Do you think that’s what play does too? If so, how?
Juli Capella: Well now, design – the bad sort – can also make our lives worse; in fact, that’s what tends to happen. But play makes life better, no doubt about it. Play is the closest thing to drugs or meditation. It gives you moments where time disappears. I remember when I used to go into a trance playing toy soldiers or EXIN Castillo, I’d forget to go to the bathroom, often pooping my pants without even realizing. I couldn’t break that playful spell even to go to the bathroom. The highest state of happiness is having fun without thinking about it, and that’s what play gives you. Let’s not confuse play with sport, where all that counts is winning and where there tends to be plenty of suffering.
Turning to sustainability, what role does design play?
Juli Capella: Anyone who doesn’t implement it is a criminal who should be arrested and fined. It’s curious how we use the verb ‘to play’ in the phrase, or ‘jouer’ [in French] in the case of musical instruments. The verb’s meanings cover everything from the most pernicious vice to the most innocent pleasure. It’s ambivalent. But, to get back to sustainability, that’s not something to be played with.
Are there any lines that you’d never cross in design?
Juli Capella: A commission to design a weapon. But they’re still being designed. We’re a deplorable industry at the service of a sick society.
You’ve worked on about every aspect of design. Do you have any left to explore?
Juli Capella: Yes, the design of our second skin, clothes, which goes by the misnomer of ‘fashion design’, because the only interesting thing about what’s in fashion is avoiding it.
What challenge or game do you want to take on in your work now?
Juli Capella: Dodging bureaucracy, tricking project managers, breaking the rules, reducing the budget, surprising the client, delivering a project early…
Is there anything you’d still like to design but haven’t taken the plunge?
Juli Capella: Plenty of stuff. I’d love to design an easy-to-open device that really works. Or a flexible house that’s actually flexible. Or a crash-proof car.
What’s your favorite game?
Juli Capella: Pinball, followed by football, ping pong, and marbles when I was a kid. Games that involve little balls and not much movement; I’m super clumsy and avoid games with real balls.
Who’d you want to be on your team for a game of football?
Juli Capella: Leo Messi, obviously.
And who’d you like to play against?
Juli Capella: That lovely pair Ronaldo and Vinícius.
"When I was young, I had the amazing opportunity to work at TENTE, a Spanish company that produced its own version – a particularly good one, by the way – of Lego. My job was to spend the afternoons in a warehouse where there were millions of pieces, sorted in boxes, and start playing. I’d make my creations, put them all on a huge table and leave when I was done. I’d return the following week and the table would be bare again, awaiting new creations. And on top of that they paid me, generously. I never understood it; I would have paid to do it."
