The title ‘Architect’ usually conjures up either Starchitect’s with huge egos or old cantankerous men who dawdle sketches on paper all day in serious seclusion. So when I walked into the offices of Winka Dubbeldam's firm Archi-Tectonics and a giant Golden Retriever nearly knocked me over eager for a playmate I was pleasantly surprised. A lively young man offered me water and then the woman herself popped out of an office tossing up a Nespresso capsule looking at me with a smile and a wink offering to make me a cappuccino to get me through our interview. Clearly this woman breathes a breath of fresh air into the industry.

After offering me some chocolate to go with my espresso I ask Winka to tell me everything she does. “Well I am Principal of Archi-Tectonics as well as a professor of practice and the director of the M.Arch II Program at University of Pennsylvania and I am working on a school in Africa. Isn’t this chocolate divine?” Yes it was.

Growing up in The Netherlands her parents moved about a lot and revamped various homes. Winka was always interested in design from a young age. But she was also interested in America and she studied in Chicago and then did her post graduate at Columbia. She later worked for Steven Holl and Bernard Tschumi and considered moving to LA but figured, “if I lived there I would just be a sun and pool girl!”

Later she worked for Peter Eisenman for two years and finally in 1994 she opened her own office with some friends. “It wasn’t planned and I still wasn’t sure I would stay here,” she explained. But here we are 17 years later and Winka is not only still here but also a pioneer in her industry. Dubbeldam was fortunate to have a speedy start, in 1995 they had their first solo gallery and in 1997 Archi-Tectonics were selected to participate in the ‘Unprivate House Exhibit’ in MoMa with a house they designed for clients in Millbrook. Clearly she is the Bette Davis of the architecture world taking on the more cutting edge and amusing projects. “I don’t want to just pump it out,” she smiles.

If you follow Winka’s work there is a strong sculptural look to many of her projects. ‘That is because I wanted to be a sculptor but switched to architecture as that dream faded. We still do installations that are abstract,” she told us. In the National Building Museum in D.C. she had a sound piece made by a composer that became a ‘soundscape’. She also worked  on a residence for  clients upstate. “We built a house with an intelligent core. The digital model of the core was sliced and animated as a hologram and exhibited in the Frederieke Taylor Gallery. The hologram was activated by the visitors interacting  with a  floor made by MIT Media Lab, this  transformed the core's holograph into an environment of light, sound and speed.  It was quite an attraction as it was interactive and when people would walk, dance or even tap their finger on the floor the holographic space would change.”    

After our espresso and chocolate binge I lean back in my hydraulic chair and have a look about. There are so many different building models and so many different styles. What is her aesthetic? She is quick to inform, “I don’t like to have a style but I do have an aesthetic. It’s not about style but how it performs. I want the space to have an out of body experience. What is it really? How can we optimize or rethink this?” Rethink she does. She hates hallways and starts questioning the space. Fans can see this in her 10,000 square foot curtain wall at 497 Greenwich and the shifting floors at 33 Vestry.

She gives the perfect example of her aesthetic-her former car. “I used to have a Pacer and it was built as an efficiency model. But it was not just that it was a whole new aesthetic. Whenever I would park it between two normal cars I would just laugh. It is the essence of designing something that has an aesthetic but does not have style. It’s not about being hip or cool.”

But fashion is all about hip and cool. So how does she work in that world? “Well my former worker, Siki Im is a fashion designer and he asked me to work with him on an instillation at a Dutch fashion biennale last May.” The pavilion she created was basically one of Siki’s jacket designs made of a thin frame, covered in a thick felt impregnated with concrete. “It was simply amazing,” she laughs.

 Next up on the fashion front was designing three Ports stores. Winka first met the Creative Director of Ports through a friend and worked on her townhouse. Then she asked me to work on the stores. New York and Los Angeles were already done so they began working on London, Shanghai and now Paris. Are there different looks for each? “The London store is in Harvey Nichols and is a runway with a living room. Shanghai is much more experimental. We like to have a style but locally influenced,” she explains. The wood in the Shanghai shop is from an old Chinese house so it is very organic.

 And for her home? Little did I know I was in it. “I own the building and live upstairs!” she laughed. “I always have living and working spaces very integrated. I like having it close. I keep them both very clam and Zen like. I worked with my favorite people to create this place.” She chose non-colors since she has so many windows surrounding her. She also has collected quite a bit of art so she wants it to shine although she does have a bright Moroso carpet to counterbalance it all.

After all this design talk what really gets Winka going is when we speak about the school in Africa she is working on, pro bono of course. “I would like to get it finished soon. It is also an orphanage and we have housing, academic schools and staff buildings so that students can stay there until they are 18 to have a chance in life.” She got involved when she met Macdella Cooper at a benefit. “When the economy was so down I still felt so well off and thought I should help someone else and this felt like the perfect opportunity,” she said with a grin.

Spending a couple of hours in the world of Winka was pretty wonderful. Her positive spirit, good vibes and incredible talent can do that to you. The chocolate didn’t hurt either.