An interview with architects STOKUĆA dooel – Skopje, North Macedonia

What makes your winning project New offices for Pivara Skopje one of a kind?
The project for the new offices was put on paper pre-pandemic and realized during the pandemic following modifications to suit the new reality. The project is proof that when you work with visionaries you have a unique opportunity to bring a soul into unused space. With elements to write a story, with textures to create power and add magic where it did not exist.
The project represents the step into the future of creating a workplace culture, – a place that supports individuality and stimulates movement, exchange of ideas, gatherings, formal and informal where futurism, vision, and emotions come together connecting the brands our client is representing Heineken, Coca Cola and Skopsko. We successfully achieve to create offices with a relaxed working atmosphere that encourages creative energy to circulate through space through a set of places – nodes for informal gatherings, isolated voids and passages.

What did you learn from this project?
We learned that architecture is very adaptable and the importance is to have ability to create the same vision with the client in order to succeed in realizing a successful project to the end.

To keep pace with change and balances creativity with reality. We – architects, are thinkers, we need to ask the question and give answers through shapes. We always feel that things can be made different better not sure what is the right solution thru all we got in our minds or drawings.

What are you working on at the moment?
Currently we are working on several projects in different fields, from which we want to list:

• Reconstruction and adaptation of and industrial facility into a multi-functional center with small commercial and business units, a hotel and a pedestrian area with a park as the centerpiece of the facility, with an overall area of 8500 m² in Kocani, Macedonia.
• Interior design for our new company offices with an open space concept on 3 levels and an overall area of 750 m² in Skopje, Macedonia.
• Extension of the planned development phase of and industrial complex, consisting of several buildings for LTH Casting, which comprises design and constructions of a warehouse, as well as roof reconstruction with the installation of a PV power plant, with an overall area of 8000 m².
• Revision and coordination of electrical installations for construction of Mercure hotel in Priština, Kosovo

What is your driving force?
Creativity, passion and  vision is our driving force to do our very best. The natural extension of this mission is to focus on value and converting local and global challenges into opportunities. In this global market, it is imperative that we continue to demonstrate our expertise and ensure that architecture continues to be a viable field.

Any ideas you think should be front and center in the minds of architects?
To keep pace with change and balances creativity with reality. We – architects, are thinkers, we need to ask the question and give answers through shapes. We always feel that things can be made different better not sure what is the right solution thru all we got in our minds or drawings. But in the end, always the realized project is a good one because it came out thru the process of thinking. The most satisfying thing is to have these ideas realized. The thoughtful, collaborative and lasting creation of architecture has the ability to impact the quality of life for those who use it.