Interview with Julien Benhamou, Architect, Former Steiner-Waldorf student
"The great contribution of the Steiner pedagogy is, for me, mainly, always, to link the body and the spirit. And then, the second point is listening."
What do you remember about your arrival in the school in Primary?
"Basically, in the Steiner school, you have your own class, which you keep for a certain number of years - you follow each other - and so I joined a new group: I joined very, very quickly. I was welcomed with a lot of kindness, a lot of benevolence. Benevolence is a magic word today, but it's important because it translates: when you drive a car, it translates when you are at a meal with friends."
"I got back into learning, I got back into working a little bit at night, and the first thing that stood out for me after that element was doing something else as well other than staying in class."
"We have the tools here at Steiner, there are lots of differentiated workshops. You can sew - I use sewing every day - you can sew your pants, I can do that. I know how to make a wicker basket, I know how to carve wood, I know how to work with clay... And that's something we learn from the time we're eight years old, and it's important because all these elements, whether it's wood - it teaches us how to channel a force - whether it's clay - it teaches us how to have a delicate aspect with our body - whether it's doing blacksmithing, with a fire, with metal - it teaches risk."
Does pedagogy accompany you in your professional life?
"I am an architect today, I spend my day mixing ideas, which I have to formalize on a document, a file, a sheet of paper, blank, starting from a blank sheet. So imagine, that's very important too, here we were taught to imagine a lot, and then make it concrete. By also using our hands a little, by participating in the work sites, and so I have the impression that it is my initial instructions that I apply today.
What path led you to your profession as an architect?
"I didn't want to go to the end of the curriculum, because I wanted to work with my hands, and so I went back to a vocational course at the age of sixteen to do cabinet making. It lasted four years, I had a blast, it was great, I made a lot of historical furniture, and at the end of the course I started to make more contemporary furniture, to design my furniture."
"So I was already a bit in search of creating and that, that led me to say to myself "it can be interesting finally to draw these pieces of furniture, rather than to realize them" and I integrated a school of design for two years, and after I integrated a school of architecture, because I said to myself "if I draw my pieces of furniture, it is perhaps necessary to draw the house that there is around."
"And today well I'm an architect, I design houses, buildings, and renovate spaces with great pleasure always drawing, always having had this origin of being able to apply the concepts in a manual way. "