AGUSTINA GARCÍA DEL RÍO
Agustina is an architect, designer, teacher, and founder of Common Dwells. Over the last eleven years, she has worked in a diverse range of disciplines, from architecture, interiors, furniture, and stage design to jewellery, photography, and creative direction. From 2012 to 2020, she served as a Professor of Professional Practice at the University of Buenos Aires in the architecture program before moving to Copenhagen. Originally from Argentina, she currently resides in Vancouver with her husband, Pablo. Her exploration of multiple cultural and design avenues has granted her a unique and refreshing perspective, which she wholeheartedly weaves into her projects, infusing them with care, thought, and a genuine sense of purpose. Experimenting with living in different cultures expanded her horizons and introduced her to a vibrant global design community, fostering new ideas and collaborations. During her quest for new experiences and meaningful connections, she met Rebecca, co-founder of Common Dwells.
Interviewed by Rebecca Norberg
What are three ways that you identify (labels you’d give yourself), they don’t necessarily have to be the only or the most important ones.
It's interesting because I've always struggled with this. I never feel completely identified by one label. I start adding ones and I'm not sure what is acceptable and not. I would say that the easiest label is my educational degrees, architect and teacher. Those are my two master degrees. Lately I've added one more label that is immigrant, which I never thought about before. Since I moved away, I started realising how much being from another place impacts your traditions and your culture. I never thought about that when I was traveling. It wasn’t until I moved away and I realised how different our cultures are. The Argentinian versus the Danish, the Danish and the Argentinian versus the Canadian – things that unravel or that you realise when you spend more time in a place.
What are three small ways in which these are reflected in your home?
I would say is, um, books. Books are a really important part of my life. I left a lot of books behind in Argentina that I am slowly bringing to Canada because they're a really important part of my life and my being. The books give me inspiration, even when they're close, and that comes from the architect and the teacher. Being an architect and a designer also means that I don't like my house to be completely done or finished. I like to bring things to my home that have a specific place in it and in my heart. I like to honor things that come to my home and give them a special place. Having said that, I like the feeling of a growing home, one that can change as my interests change.
Another thing, as an immigrant, would be that when we left Argentina to Denmark, we only brought with us two bags, two suitcases, and we knew we couldn't get anything from Denmark to Canada because we didn't have extra space. I remember that I bought only one book in Denmark, and a coffee grinder. Everything else was borrowed. I would say our home became really minimal after that, in the sense that we really don’t bring anything that doesn't have a special place. We like the feeling of having only the things we need and only the things we have space for. I like the idea of honoring the home we have in the moment instead of always dreaming of something else. Well, we have our dream of the perfect home, or the home we would love to have one day. But the home that we have at the moment, whatever it is, it's perfect for us because it's a space for where we are at and that we are living our lives in. With time, the house will grow and the dreams of the house will grow with us.
What is one common practice that you have in your everyday life, that you do in your home, that you are proud of?
It's all connected with the cleanliness organisation of the home: the skincare routine, the bath routine. I really enjoy the house when it's clean, when the windows are open, when the linen is fresh, the skincare, the messages of the face and body, and having a shower. I always have a shower in the morning to get to work, to start the day. And, I always have a shower at the end of the day to unwind and to wash off all the things from outside before going to bed. It's like a ritual for me.
When I get home I usually change, I like to have my clothes clean, I really like to feel that freshness. It's the same with ironing the clothes. I think there's a certain love that you need to give to your garments in order for them to keep their shape and their colors and their structure. I really enjoy having a feeling of putting on clothes that have been ironed and have been taken care of. That's a ritual that I have in my home, and in my life in general, that I take good care of all the things I own because I believe that they need to be cared for with respect, even though they're objects.
I don't like to have dirty things around the house. I can feel it, I can't relax (haha). I like things in my home to be calm. I would say that is something that I feel really proud of, that I'm taking care of my home. For me, doing laundry or cleaning the house is not, of course it's a chore, but I enjoy it. I think it's a really important part of my life, something that I learned from my parents.
I would also like to add aromatherapy. I have two oil burners, one in my living room and one in my bedroom. I always turn them on when I'm home and use certain oils depending on the day or on what I want to achieve, depending on the time of the year. At night I open the windows too, and I usually burn some oil. That is something that I really, really like as well as playing some music, however, I don't do that as much as before. My dad, the first thing he does when he wakes up, is he turns on the music. There's a really big speaker in my parents' home and I always love that he gives that soundtrack to the house and burns some incense. That was kind of the background of my life when I lived with my parents and I’ve always wanted to reproduce that because it felt like the house was awake. He just turned on the radio and he would listen and that's it. With Alexa, or those kinds of things, you need to make a decision. Usually that's why I don't put on a lot of music. I do, but it’s not such a thing that I get up and just do it without thinking. I would like to do that more, actually, to get that feeling of the house having its own life, and you're there sharing it with her, or him.
What is one common practice that you have in your everyday life, that you do in your home, that you are not proud of (but it makes you human and some may most likely relate to this)?
Well, definitely something that I don't like is that I go to bed really late. We tend to do way more things that the day allow us. Pablo cooks because I usually don't cook. I clean, he cooks, and we end up eating kind of late. After, we don't want to just go directly to bed, so we end up watching something on the projector. We like to unwind a little bit and have some tea with fruit or chocolate depending on the day. But I would love to be able to have a common practice of unwinding earlier and going to bed earlier, and getting up earlier. I don't want to have to run in the morning, I wish I could have my breakfast sitting down and not just standing in the kitchen because I have to leave. I'm always kind of running because I want to do so many things!
Can you describe an object that you have brought with you from Argentina to first Denmark and now to Canada? What does it remind you of?
As I mentioned before, we didn't bring too many things, and we left and sold a lot of things in Argentina. We still have our home in Buenos Aires, where we left most of our furniture, so bigger pieces were left there. I did bring really important books and notebooks with me. That's something that was really important for me. I don't remember exactly which books I brought, but one is the japanese book In Praise of Shadows, which is one of my favorite books so it came with me. Also some books of philosophy and design, and my camera. I would say those are the objects that made me see my new life in different ways. It was a way of reflecting on my new life, my new stage in life. It was through the camera, through reading, and through writing. That exercise was really important for me.
I would say that I'm not so attached to objects like furniture because I love what I have but I can let it go. You realise that you don't need so many things when you move. That was a great learning process. I would say that because I like so many things, and so many aesthetics, and so many traditions, I think I would be fine with leaving things behind and getting new things if I had to. New objects, new experiences, and only bringing with me some specific items that are really important to me.
One dream of mine is to have a furniture piece from Charlotte Perriand, Isamu Noguchi or Faye TooGood, creatives I truly admire, enabling me to have a little bit of history with me. I've never been able to do that, but I think that all the rugs I own are objects that will move with me. It's weird because on one hand, I love those things and I don't have anything in my home that I don't consider important, yet on the other hand, I will be okay with letting them go at some point. Movement is life, I believe.
If you had no limits, what’s one thing you would invest in for your future home?
It's more about one thing that I always loved. I think it's because when I was a child, we used to rent a house in the summer where the kitchen had a winter garden with all glass like it was a skylight. I always wanted to have that, a kitchen that has a skylight and a winter garden to sit down and have your breakfast or your lunch in. I would love to get the sun, see it inside your home, and be connected with nature. I really liked the feeling of being in your home, but being able to go outside, but still being in your home, not having to go somewhere. I was raised in a home with a big garden, so I would love to have a nice garden or a space outside that connects with the home so that you are still in your home even though you are outside.
I would also say a really beautiful view that has some connection with water because I'm watching water right now and I'm seeing these houses, that are basically in the middle of the forest overlooking the water and it's completely amazing.
If I'm allowing myself to get excited by this question, I would also say to have a workshop near the house so that Pablo and I can work and have our things there too. That would be the perfect home.
Photo by Zelmira Frers
Photos by Agustina
