D-R-O.NET - Key Persons
Valis Loizides was born in Cyprus. He graduated from the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London with Honours in 1997. He continued at the AA for Postgraduate studies until 1999, on a full scholarship offered by the Architectural Association, and received a Master of Arts. He established the Design Research Office (DRO) in 2006, and practices architecture internationally in the private sector, with offices in the UK and Cyprus.
For Valis Loizides, architecture is a process in which ideas are developed through a synthesis of research and physical application. With interests that range from technical sciences to the arts, he is both a pragmatist and a visionary, using practical means to aspire to beauty and wonder. His curiosity drives him continually to explore new techniques, materials and processes, and to glean knowledge from other professionals. The work by the architects and radical thinkers Ryue Nishizawa, Kazuyo Sejima, Rem Koolhaas, Peter Zumthor and Aires Mateus was important in the formation of Valis' ideas.
Valis has a deep interest in contemporary art. Artists such as Cy Twombly, Raoul de Keyser, Franz West, Luc Tuymans, Marlene Dumas, Wolfgang Tillmans, Nicos Alexiou and William Forsyth have inspired his work. Since 2000, he has been following art in London, New York, Berlin and Milan. He soon discovered he had a strong affinity with abstract art, and this passion inspired him to create his own private collection of contemporary, international art, with an emphasis on paintings and drawings.
Architecture makes an indelible impact on a place and it is a complex and dignified artform. Valis' drive is for the creation of space for daily life in relation to the human requirements for shelter, comfort and functionally usable spaces with a sense of complex beauty. He has been following the fashion (or anti-fashion) from the unconventional ethos in the raw creativity of Rei Kawakubo, Issey Miyake and Yohji Yamamoto that influenced his design evolution. Their avant garde tailoring and clothing designs, produces garments that are oversized, and asymmetrical, and twisted and bulged or otherwise don't conform to the lines of the human body.