"Gonzalo Goena and Óliver Sancho, founders of the GOS studio and alumni of the University of Navarra, received us in their studio in a close and enthusiastic manner.
GOS is a business focused on architecture, investment and construction where they define 'true luxury' as a concept that brings together functionality and utility, sensibility and balance, and beauty and art.
The visit became a lighthearted chat around a table. What at first we would have imagined as a one-way speech by the hosts, became, due to the closeness of Gonzalo and Óliver, an active dialogue between all those present in which we had the opportunity to ask all the questions we wanted.
Gonzalo and Óliver spoke to us, more than about their projects, about their Philosophy as entrepreneurs. If I had to summarize my perception of their Philosophy in three concepts, they would be: passion, humility and continuous improvement.
About passion, they said the following: "It is very important that passion is what guides you to work. You have to persist in the small detail, in the desire and in the importance of everything in life. There are always many details that are not taken care of but that does not matter, what matters is the attitude and being aware to do better the next time, more so in architecture and in this sector. Fall and get up, fall and get up".
Regarding humility, they commented: "We have achieved that, thanks to our values, people trust in what we do. You are going to move people in some way by showing passion, seriousness and transparency. With humility you learn from everything. If you go with ego, it is like a ball that bounces wisdom and you stay there inflated, but with nothing inside. Humility is the other way around, it is a bowl that, when something comes, you keep it inside and in the end you are filled with wisdom".
On 'continuous improvement', they explained: "Try to look at everything in the projects. Everything is everything. See what happens every day. If they leave the debris, how they lower the debris, if they leave through the window, through the door.... If you write down and analyze all those details, you start to have your first analysis in those notes, so that next time you already have all that information".
Another of the topics on the table was the evolution they had as entrepreneurs. They began working on their own projects in Ignacio Vicens' studio. "We had a symbiotic relationship, we helped each other and in exchange we could be in his studio. It was a kind of coworking but better," Óliver commented.
The next office they had was a noticeboard in a construction site on trestles to work there and the rest from home. Their first office was a space of 30 m2 and a bathroom with a large table that occupied the entire space, which they currently have in their studio in Gran Vía. Along the way, they acquired a business vision and began to invest in real estate, which is what most of them do today: buy homes, renovate them and sell them. "Most people do conventional housing, doors are doors, floors are floors. And we try to make another architecture subject , maybe the doors are not so obvious, we spend a lot of time in the continuous search for different materials and quality ...".
He ended the visit after showing us all the nooks and crannies of the studio. We students left with the feeling of having had a truly enriching colloquium ."
Text written by: Alba Berzal, student of Master's Degree en Real Estate (MRE)
