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Hakan Agca
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Architecture as a strategy
London,
united kingdom
united kingdom
How does an architect think? Why is scale more important than typology? And why does an architectural bureau need its own technologies? We talked about it with Hakan Agca, the founder and managing director of Cross Works, a bureau working at the intersection of architecture, urbanism and digital technologies.
An interview with architect, founder of the Cross Works bureau Hakan Agca
How does architectural thinking work?
It’s an interesting question. I'm not sure if there's a single "architectural way of thinking," but for me, the key thing is scale. In the industry, it is usual to divide architecture into typologies: housing, retail, hotels, and so on. I never thought that way. For me, the difference is not in function, but in scale: from furniture design to a building, from a building to an urban environment, from it to the planning of an entire city.
And it's the scale that determines how we think about a project. An architect who works with a building thinks differently from someone who works with a city. The scale radically affects the approach.
In our practice, we constantly switch between levels — from architecture to urbanism and technology. And I try to adjust my thinking to a specific scale every time, rather than applying a universal approach to everything.
It’s an interesting question. I'm not sure if there's a single "architectural way of thinking," but for me, the key thing is scale. In the industry, it is usual to divide architecture into typologies: housing, retail, hotels, and so on. I never thought that way. For me, the difference is not in function, but in scale: from furniture design to a building, from a building to an urban environment, from it to the planning of an entire city.
And it's the scale that determines how we think about a project. An architect who works with a building thinks differently from someone who works with a city. The scale radically affects the approach.
In our practice, we constantly switch between levels — from architecture to urbanism and technology. And I try to adjust my thinking to a specific scale every time, rather than applying a universal approach to everything.
You have a very wide geography of work: Uzbekistan, England, India, Congo. Was this your plan from the beginning, or did it happen by accident?
This is largely accidental. There is a network of contacts, someone invites us, someone offers to work together. But there is also a conscious choice: it has always been more interesting for me to work in different contexts than in one. Every country is a new culture, new constraints, new challenges. It expands the mindset and makes the work harder and more interesting.
You are engaged not only in architecture, but also in digital technologies related to it. How did you come to this intersection?
When I worked in other companies, it became obvious to me that technology was far ahead, and architecture and construction were lagging far behind. It seemed strange to me that such a large industry, which shapes our lives, is technologically quite conservative.
Therefore, it seemed important to me to work precisely at the intersection of architecture and technology. When I created Cross Works, I originally wanted to name the company Cross-Disciplinary Works — interdisciplinary practices. As a result, the name was shortened, but the essence remained.
I'm not a programmer myself — we have a strong development team. But ideas, strategies, and setting goals are my area of responsibility. And now, with the development of AI, this is becoming even more important. Tools like Claude Code and other systems automate programming, so the key competence is not coding, but the ability to come up with ideas and formulate tasks.
This is largely accidental. There is a network of contacts, someone invites us, someone offers to work together. But there is also a conscious choice: it has always been more interesting for me to work in different contexts than in one. Every country is a new culture, new constraints, new challenges. It expands the mindset and makes the work harder and more interesting.
You are engaged not only in architecture, but also in digital technologies related to it. How did you come to this intersection?
When I worked in other companies, it became obvious to me that technology was far ahead, and architecture and construction were lagging far behind. It seemed strange to me that such a large industry, which shapes our lives, is technologically quite conservative.
Therefore, it seemed important to me to work precisely at the intersection of architecture and technology. When I created Cross Works, I originally wanted to name the company Cross-Disciplinary Works — interdisciplinary practices. As a result, the name was shortened, but the essence remained.
I'm not a programmer myself — we have a strong development team. But ideas, strategies, and setting goals are my area of responsibility. And now, with the development of AI, this is becoming even more important. Tools like Claude Code and other systems automate programming, so the key competence is not coding, but the ability to come up with ideas and formulate tasks.
What difficulties have you encountered? What mistakes have you made?
Mistakes are normal in projects. Architecture generally consists of constantly solving problems.It always surprises me when people get upset about problems. If your profession is solving problems, why do you get upset when they appear? I love this moment: there is a problem, which means that my work makes sense.But if we talk about the difficulties, then the most difficult ones are not project ones, but business ones. Bureau management is a constant balance: team, finances, legal issues, and project selection. These are no longer just tasks, but a whole system where a mistake can be very expensive. Therefore, it is the business side that is more interesting to me now - the development of the company, working with people, searching for new markets.
I'm interested in building a team, finding talented people, giving them direction, and seeing what they create. This is perhaps the most powerful feeling when something more is born out of your idea thanks to other people.
Mistakes are normal in projects. Architecture generally consists of constantly solving problems.It always surprises me when people get upset about problems. If your profession is solving problems, why do you get upset when they appear? I love this moment: there is a problem, which means that my work makes sense.But if we talk about the difficulties, then the most difficult ones are not project ones, but business ones. Bureau management is a constant balance: team, finances, legal issues, and project selection. These are no longer just tasks, but a whole system where a mistake can be very expensive. Therefore, it is the business side that is more interesting to me now - the development of the company, working with people, searching for new markets.
I'm interested in building a team, finding talented people, giving them direction, and seeing what they create. This is perhaps the most powerful feeling when something more is born out of your idea thanks to other people.
What does your process of working on the project look like? Where does it start?
Always it starts with a conversation with the client and the context. We'll figure it out first.: what the client wants, where the site is located, what is the scale of the project and what impact it will have.
Then everything is built sequentially: we first formulate tasks, then come up with strategies to solve them, and from this specific architectural or urban solutions are born. It's important that we don't design for design. For us architecture is a tool for achieving goals. That's why we don't have a preset style: we let the project decide for itself.
One of your landmark projects is the master plan of New Tashkent. Tell us, please, about it.
This is indeed our key project. We have received an invitation to participate in the competition from the Government of Uzbekistan. They were given only 8 weeks to develop the concept. It was a risk: the budget covered only basic expenses, and there was no guarantee that we would win.
But we were lucky, and a lot of work began from the concept to the details of the master plan and architectural regulations. The project took about two years, and now the master plan is being implemented.
The most important thing in such projects is the customer. If he articulates his goals clearly and is open to dialogue, everything works. That's exactly what happened in Tashkent.
Always it starts with a conversation with the client and the context. We'll figure it out first.: what the client wants, where the site is located, what is the scale of the project and what impact it will have.
Then everything is built sequentially: we first formulate tasks, then come up with strategies to solve them, and from this specific architectural or urban solutions are born. It's important that we don't design for design. For us architecture is a tool for achieving goals. That's why we don't have a preset style: we let the project decide for itself.
One of your landmark projects is the master plan of New Tashkent. Tell us, please, about it.
This is indeed our key project. We have received an invitation to participate in the competition from the Government of Uzbekistan. They were given only 8 weeks to develop the concept. It was a risk: the budget covered only basic expenses, and there was no guarantee that we would win.
But we were lucky, and a lot of work began from the concept to the details of the master plan and architectural regulations. The project took about two years, and now the master plan is being implemented.
The most important thing in such projects is the customer. If he articulates his goals clearly and is open to dialogue, everything works. That's exactly what happened in Tashkent.
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