Every office has a heart and at Blakstad Design Consultants, our heart comes in the form of Angeles Martinez. She is so much more than an office manager; really her title should be Queen of the Office. She’s one part taskmaster, one part dorm-mother and another part fixer. Originally from Madrid, Angeles was one of the very first people to join the Blakstad team. Passionate about her job and dedicated to her co-workers, she’s the one you call when you need to know exactly what is happening at any given moment.
When did you first come to Ibiza?
I came here for a holiday when I was 25. I stayed in a campground for a month and I loved it so much I came back again the next year. I was offered a job as a DJ of all things, even though I had no idea how to do it. I would spend summers here then go back to Madrid. One time, during one of those holidays, I met the man who ended up becoming my husband and the father of my daughter. I stayed for love.
How did you come to work for Blakstad Design Consultants?
Rolf is my brother-in-law! So, I already knew the family. His father, Rolph – who we called the Abuelo (granddad), was getting older and the business was growing. They needed someone they could trust to help, so Rolf asked me. It had just been the two of them, father and son, until then. I was working elsewhere and thought I’d come and help out for a while. That was 12 years ago!
What is a normal day for you?
I don’t have normal days! I don’t stop. I walk in through those doors and I am on. It’s never monotonous here. No day is the same. It keeps me on my feet, it keeps me awake and that’s what I love about it. This is not a typical office job that’s always the same. It’s very fast and you have to be on top of it. I love working like that, it keeps you very active.
What do you love most about your work?
I love challenges. It’s very satisfying when there is something that needs a solution and you find the right way. I also love to organise things. I’ve challenged myself all my life. I didn’t know anything about architecture when I started here. I’d had no real contact with it, no idea. It was a good challenge. When you are challenged like that you learn quickly.
What was it like working with Rolph, El Abuelo?
Both of them, Rolf and his father, really engaged me with what they were doing. At first, it was a challenge for me to understand everything, but Rolph made it easy, which made it easy to commit myself to my job. Rolph influenced me a lot in how he chose to live and in how he saw things. I had the great fortune to have spent time with him. He taught me to value the essence and the beauty of what we were creating. He showed me how to love it. He showed me that there is harmony in everything and you can miss if you don’t look for it. I had no idea of these things before.
What does architecture mean for you?
For me, it’s about finding harmony and beauty in a space. In the end, it’s something where you are going to be. It’s your cave, your place in the world and if it can be created with harmony, beauty and light, then you can live idyllically. But honestly, everything that I know about it comes from the Abuelo. If you had asked me 12 years ago, I would have said architecture is four walls in which you live and that’s it. He showed me how much more it is than that.
What do you do in your spare time?
I’m an actress. I’m in a theatre group and once a week we do a workshop. We’re working on a play at the moment too. I spend a lot of my time on that. Otherwise, I do Pilates and I love to go walking in nature. My father, my sister and her children are here too, so we spend a lot of time together as a family and my daughter lives in Malta so I go to see her whenever I can.
What do you love most about your job?
No day is the same and I love that. What I value the most is the minute you park your car and enter the office you can’t help but say wow, look where I have found myself. At eight o’clock in the morning, you’re half asleep, you come in past the ancient olive tree, you open the door to the pond and it’s really beautiful to arrive. You hear birds, you have trees and water – I love it. Also, we are all very close to each other. When people ask me where I work and I say in an architectural office, then they ask which one and I tell them Blakstad, they always give me a look and say: “You don’t work in an architectural office. You work in the architectural office.” And it’s true, I do.
