At 30 years old, SCT Architecture Studio, led by Ángel Sánchez-Cantalejo and Vicente Tomás, is committed to a serene, timeless architecture focused on quality of life. In this interview with Gunni & Trentino—following the renovation of the Hotel Formentor—they discuss their vision of luxury, collaborative work, and future challenges.
After a 30-year career, what would you say was the most important decision you made at the beginning and how has it shaped the studio's trajectory?
The beginnings of a career are essential, and the first commissions—whether you accept them or not, and how you approach them—shape the studio's trajectory. You haven't yet defined a line of work, and projects come your way that you're not comfortable with and have to turn down. This is very difficult when you're starting out, but in retrospect, it's undoubtedly one of the best decisions we've made, allowing us to create the architecture we believe in.
Throughout your career, how has the concept of 'luxury' in architecture evolved?
Luxury has evolved and is no longer understood solely as opulence, but also as a high quality of life that can be found in both high-end and more affordable homes. This implies that everything functions well, through the control and efficient management of resources, reduced consumption, comfort, energy savings, and sustainable materials.
His approach skillfully blends modern techniques with historical and traditional elements. What inspires him to innovate while still honoring the values of traditional design, and how does he achieve that balance?
The fusion of modern techniques with historical and traditional elements in architecture is based on a balance between innovation and respect for historical, cultural, and physical identity. Innovating without losing these values involves studying traditional solutions and adapting them to current needs, designing flexibly to allow spaces to evolve without losing their essence, and reinterpreting traditional styles from a contemporary perspective.
In projects where they collaborate with interior designers like Terraza Balear, part of Gunni & Trentino, how do they ensure a harmonious integration between architecture and interior design? What benefits does it bring?
Our studio operates like a multi-geared machine, where collaboration and teamwork are essential and enriching factors. Integration is achieved when architecture and interior design work together from the outset, guaranteeing aesthetic and functional continuity that results in spaces conceived as a coherent whole, where each element fulfills a purpose and contributes to the overall harmony.
Collaborating with interior designers like Terraza Balear, part of Gunni & Trentino, has always been creatively enriching, allowing us to accurately materialize the ideas we imagine.
Her projects explore composition, communication between spaces, and the coexistence of interior and exterior. How is this pursuit consciously manifested in her work?
An architectural project is a process where reality coexists with a romantic ideal of form, materials, and space. Conceptually, we favor clear and bold forms, pure volumes that blend, overlap, and superimpose, proportions that create order, material and chromatic simplicity, balance, and timelessness.
We also pay great attention to the treatment of light, which we filter through slats, porches, patios and terraces to generate a spatial sequence and a 'very Mediterranean' transition between interior and exterior, which is rarely immediate and achieves a physical and visual depth and circulation.
Given the growing concern for sustainability, what principles do you incorporate into your designs and what role does architecture play in responding to climate change?
For us, the main principle of sustainability is how the project responds to and engages with aspects such as the geographical location, cultural context, and climate, which influence the architectural proposal. We are interested in environmentally friendly and highly recyclable materials that also contribute different connotations, such as concrete, wood, and glass.
They collaborated on the Hotel Formentor project with Carlos Lamela and Gunni & Trentino. What aspects would you highlight from this multidisciplinary collaboration, and how is SCT's identity reflected in the final result?
An architect is like an orchestra conductor for whom the team is essential, and shared creativity is one of the greatest virtues a studio should possess. At SCT, everyone contributes, and what matters is not who starts or finishes a project, as we understand our work as a long-term endeavor where consistency is far more valuable than a single commission.
How would you define Terraza Balear part of Gunni & Trentino in three words? What key features would you highlight about its showroom?
Elegance, dedication, and professionalism. From my perspective, their success is based on a constant commitment to innovation, which has transformed the showroom: it has gone from being a simple exhibition space for furniture and materials to becoming a place where it is possible to imagine, design, and plan any type of project in a comprehensive way.
Looking to the future, what challenges remain for you as a studio, and what is your vision for the evolution of architecture in the coming decades?
Up until now, we've been fortunate enough to work with very different typologies and scales, which have provided us with many tools for tackling new projects. Now, we'd like to step outside our comfort zone and explore typologies in other geographical areas. Regarding the evolution of architecture, I don't know; architects propose projects in response to circumstances, and we don't know what the future holds. In any case, our work and creativity are severely limited by increasingly restrictive regulations, not only in urban planning but also in technical aspects, which both condition and affect creativity.
