Six N. Five
Ezequiel Pini & Isern Serra
MATERIALITY
&
ABSTRACTION
-
Written text about Six N. Five, the scenario for the editorial of the issue.
The editorial is the section of the magazine where Openhouse places pieces of contributor brands in a paradigmatic place.
-
-
Art direction by Isern Serra and Openhouse Studio isernserra.com
Art direction assistance by Aasheen Mittal @aasheenm
Written by Inma Buendía inmabuendia.com
Photographed by Martina Matencio martinamatencio.com
Photography assistance by Xavi Garcia xavigarcia.work
Styling by Jaume Vidiella jaumevidiella.com
Styling assistance by Laia Tornil @lalabananaltg
Production by Lucía Palazzi @luciapalazziandreu
Model Shannon Cheung from Fifth Avenue Models 5thmodels.com
Make up & Hair by Bárbara Mattel deKasteel Artist Management @barbaramattel @kasteelartistmanagement.com
Six N. Five sixnfive.com
-
For those born in the 1980s and 90s (of which I am one), certain images from our childhood strongly imprinted our minds with an idea of what the first decades of the 21st century would look like. Films such as Back to the Future and Blade Runner invited us to dream of what is now our present, back then a future that was perceived as distant, and when the era of home computers and mobile phones was in its infancy. I don't know if reality has surpassed fiction, but I would venture to say that perhaps one of the factors behind Ezequiel Pini’s success is the fact that his growth in the digital world has mirrored that of technology. His project Six N. Five is a creative platform that designs virtual worlds in which he twists the socially constructed, collective imagination in order to create a new place that begins with human reality but with the intention of going far beyond it. To the point where there is no limit.
Ezequiel’s belief is that 3D is a creative tool and he a digital artist. “I’ve always been interested in the artistic and creative side, but I also have a very strong technological side. During my secondary education in Argentina, I chose to specialise in computer science. Then, of all the university courses available to me, I chose to study graphic design, while exploring such different fields as web programming, animation and designing in code. That was until I found that using 3D as a tool gave me more freedom to represent my ideas in a realistic way.” Ezequiel founded Six N. Five in 2014. A few years later, just after moving to Barcelona, he began to explore his own style, and he experimented with the 3D design of landscapes and objects as a starting point until he developed realities that were neither representative nor descriptive, but its own.
When a project required a formal design in terms of a physical space, Ezequiel contacted Isern Serra and entrusted it to him. The latter had been working for some time, initially with Toni Arola, and then at a studio of his own, catering to the needs of a not insignificant portfolio of clients. However, Isern’s career reached a turning point with the design of his own home: “When you start, it’s more difficult to show what you like because you’re bound by what you’re asked to do. The design of my own home had quite an impact; it brought about a big change in the studio, and it was also how Ezequiel got to know me.”
There was constant dialogue between the two on the project to design the Six N. Five offices. However, it also brought about friction between the digital rendering and real construction, which led them both to question themselves about their way of working: “Ezequiel lays out the digital spaces as if they were static works. Therefore, he doesn’t perceive space so much as a reality. But, on the other hand, we are very much in sync in terms of aesthetics because our references are very similar. I had a lot of freedom.” For Ezequiel, not being able to visualize the project digitally posed a small challenge: “At one point, I needed to see renderings because my whole creative process is very visual and spur of the moment. I need to see it.”
“Ezequiel lays out the digital spaces as if they were static works. Therefore, he doesn’t perceive space so much as a reality. But, on the other hand, we are very much in sync in terms of aesthetics because our references are very similar. I had a lot of freedom.”
The result is a true reflection of the two personalities and represents a new paradigm in which the digital has come to influence the stylistic outline of the physical, inhabited spaces. “I liked the idea of a workplace that also worked a bit like a home. I wanted it to be very warm because ultimately we spend so many hours here,” Ezequiel explains. The table, the sofa and the way the walls open out onto the terrace are features that apparently do not correspond to those of an office. “The table is minimalist, but it isn’t minimal, because we designed it from an architectural perspective. It has weight and value, but it doesn’t contain much detail. It’s almost brutalist,” Isern declares, adding: “Over time, the design gradually adopted Ezequiel’s mindset and ways of working". Six N. Five’s physical appearance responds to a series of values where the static elements of the interior design help the design to eschew a certain trend for expansion that Ezequiel does not necessarily perceive as a good thing. “For the main work table, while large, my intention was that it should have a very limited number of potential workstations. Being static and specific would force me not to follow the trend to expand, which would mean having to take on projects I may not want to take on in order to maintain a larger structure. Expanding would mean becoming a conventional design studio, a machine to churn out commissions, which I never envisioned myself to be. I like the idea of a small art workshop, where each piece is made to measure.”
Open to the public thanks to the addition of Three Marks Coffee, a coffee shop and retail space that invites you to take refuge from the noise outside and sit down to a good cup of coffee, the ‘home’ that Six N. Five has become is the result of a dialogue between materiality and abstraction. It’s the empirical interpretation made by an interior designer, Isern Serra, of a world created by a digital artist, Ezequiel Pini, that cannot be touched, but it can be felt.