García, Ernesto

Something is broken is a project about the environmental situation of the world and the change we need to do. This is something I have reflected on in a self-critic, poetic and philosophical way also about how sustainable issues have affected my practice. It has started with some kind of paralysis, facing the climate crisis and the idea of “the best to do is not to produce anything at all” which can become a pause to reflect on the problem and imagine other alternative ways to make/design things. And it was in this pause that the idea of “something is broken” occurred to me.

In the PhD project my aim is to explore the idea of “healing” that is embedded in the concept of “repair”. I think about the act of repairing in a metaphorical way as something that we need to do as individuals and in society.

By repairing a built space or an object, pieces can be put together in a different way. This concept can be used to explore different ways to reprogram the already built spaces. An important aspect in this is the relation between public and private spaces, especially to understand which spaces we can share and do things in a more collective (and collaborative) way to reduce our impact on the environment.

My aim is also to test and explore the aesthetic of the objects that are not brand new, objects/spaces with patina, objects/spaces that has been repaired in different ways and the ways these reparations could be done. When we take care of a space, and put effort in it, could it then be appreciated in a different way?

Ernesto García is an interior architect and furniture designer SIR/MSA with a master exam from Konstfack and a bachelor’s in industrial design from Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City.

Since he took his master exam he has been working as an interior architect with different commissions in the fields of culture, healthcare, office, education, and buildings with cultural heritage.

Some of the projects he has been involved with are Medborgarhuset at Medborgarplatsen in Stockholm, the hospital Nya Karolinska Solna where he collaborate in the design of the furniture for the main entrance, the refurbishment of the Stockholm city library that open first in 1928, design by Gunnar Asplund, The Artistic Faculty at the University of Gothenburg (HDK-Valand and Academy of music and drama) and Agnes kulturhus in Gävle. Several of these projects has been nominated and publish in Arkitektur, El Croqui, ROT priset, Vårdbyggnadspriset and Årets arkitektur.

Main supervisor: Kristina Fridh
Admitted to: Konstfack
Project period: 2024-2028