We were lucky to catch up with Miguel Quismondo recently and have shared our conversation below.

Miguel, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Do you take vacations? Why or why not?

As a business owner I barely take real vacation anymore. I do have the luck of traveling a lot, but I lack the actual ability to fully disconnect. Once a year, however, I choose to hide away and visit a place from my bucket list.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I was born in Spain. In 1999, upon graduating from college, I came to the US to broaden my understanding of Architecture. I founded MQ Architecture is a New York in 2012 as an outlet to work on small design jobs outside of my Construction Management roll. When the opportunity to design, develop and build Magazzino Italian Art arouse, I found the chance to propose architecture that followed the traditional values of the Polytechnic School of Architecture of Madrid, where I graduated from: a very strong blend of humanistic and technical knowledge filtered through the classical vitrubian statements: Function, Form and Construction.

Our design is heavily influenced by the knowledge and understanding of construction, materials, means and methods available in each scenario. I coined the term “Architectural Builder” as a metaphor of our full involvement on an architectural project from inception to project delivery in which the designer is also the construction manager that choreographs all trades and suppliers on a job site until completion. I believe this allows us a better control over our design and allows us to impacting how our clients live and enjoy these spaces.

The outcome of our works wants to be truthful to the materials, structural and building systems to create balanced aesthetics and a timeless design.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I founded my company as a small operation that would allow me to engage in small design works I could not do on my regular hours. MQ Architecture started small, and it was not until I finished my first large commission (Magazzino Italian Art) that I launched my website. It would take another 3 years to create my Instagram account. I thought a visual business like architecture would benefit from such a graphic social media. Catering our Instagram page has been a labor of love. Once I hired the right person, not only this outlet but also LinkedIn grew and continue to grow their following. I use media to describe construction process and to share our achievements (awards and publications). Our Instagram is very immediate and quick, while LinkedIn helps us describe things in more depth.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

As an Architect, the most rewarding aspect of our journey is to design and build. I aim to create the most beautiful buildings I could possibly do. Naturally, reality rules the actual outcome of our projects. Clients may bring limitations on budgets, styles, schedules, etc, and we have to manage their expectations. Being able to collaborate on Museum work has been the most rewarding: the opportunity to create spaces for the public that will host beautiful objects that affect the visitor is priceless. Being able to go back to those projects and see how the users enjoy them bring me joy.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.mqarchitecture.com
• Instagram: @mqarchitecture
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mq-architecture
• Other: https://vimeo.com/mqarchitecture

Image Credits
All pictures by authors named in each image. Additionally, portrait of Miguel Quismondo by Marco Anelli Portrait of MQA group by Alexia Hoyer