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" What was it like to find out two people were being eliminated? Robert: I didn&amp;#039;t expect that at all. I don&amp;#039;t think anybody did. I was shocked when [India Hicks] said that. When they announced Jennifer&amp;#039;s name, I thought I was safe. Jennifer: I think both of us are responsible for what happened with our projects, so I can understand the judges&amp;#039; decision in that regard. Let&amp;#039;s talk about the challenge. You had to create a fall-out shelter for two people in a 140-square-foot space. What made it so difficult? Robert: The idea was to create a space you were going to live in for the rest of your life. I took that very seriously. It was very challenging to try to create a personal space when you&amp;#039;re sharing that with another person. Jennifer: I thought it was limiting, having a partner that was uncooperative. Some of the teams really made some beautiful environments, so it&amp;#039;s possible to make something gorgeous in there. Robert, what was your vision for the bunker? Robert: To bring in all the things that I, or we, value the most\u2014a sense of place, sense of color, objects that are important to us, textures that are important to us; and all those things that are meaningful\u2014not just to put a room together that had no meaning.  Your vision, Jennifer? Jennifer: If I&amp;#039;d had more control, we wouldn&amp;#039;t have divided the space in half. I think it was troublesome from the beginning, and I felt strongly that we shouldn&amp;#039;t do it. I said that several times, but I wasn&amp;#039;t really heard. Having the divider just seemed awkward. Both of the bottom rooms were ones the judges thought were too divided. Looking back, how would you have altered your design? Robert: I wouldn&amp;#039;t have. In this challenge, it was important to see the personalities of the two people that were sharing the space. Potentially it could have been a little bit more cohesive architecturally, but I would have stuck with the concept. Jennifer and I are completely different people. It was unrealistic to expect us to put together something that was a complete reflection of both of us. It&amp;#039;s not like we put up a wall. Jennifer:Obviously it didn&amp;#039;t work. I probably should have just said, &amp;quot;Okay, let&amp;#039;s concentrate on what each of our strengths are.&amp;quot; As an architect, my strength was planning a space, but I didn&amp;#039;t really get an opportunity to do that. I couldn&amp;#039;t really do anything that was right in Robert&amp;#039;s eyes.  Where did things start to go wrong? Jennifer: Pretty much in the first 30 minutes. It was pretty bad. I think people could see from the first episode that Robert is a very difficult person to work with. It&amp;#039;s hard to work on a team with someone who doesn&amp;#039;t want to listen. Robert, do you think you gave Jennifer enough of a say in the design? Robert: The challenging part was trying to get her to come up with a concept. What she was pulling together seemed very random. I don&amp;#039;t really feel like I was taking a lead so much as trying to get her to focus on what our concept was, instead of being just random \u2026 When Jennifer would mention things or ask questions, I would certainly listen. Every time she came up with a suggestion, I tried to focus her back on concept. If it didn&amp;#039;t relate to that, I didn&amp;#039;t see why we should venture down that road with such a limited about of time. Jennifer, do you wish you had spoken up more? Jennifer: It would have been better, given the limited time, to say, &amp;quot;Okay. There&amp;#039;s no way I&amp;#039;m going to be right\u2014ever\u2014so I&amp;#039;m going to make my space as dynamic and representative of me as I can.&amp;quot; Instead, we both kind of dumbed each other down. The groups that scored the best were the ones that got along the best. How do you think your personal chemistry affected the space?  Robert: Again, Jennifer and I are complete strangers. I hadn&amp;#039;t spoken to Jennifer at all until that day. We both have strong opinions, which is great, because that makes a really great debate, but our design process is just very, very different.  Jennifer: The energy was just bad. Jonathan [Adler] was right when he said it was a buzz kill. When you walked in there, you thought: here are two people who can&amp;#039;t get along, so they divided the room. We&amp;#039;re adults. We should be able to collaborate. What about the other contestants? Were there any designers that caught your eye? Anyone we should look out for? Jennifer: I think Eddie has a very tuned sensibility. He&amp;#039;s very clear about what he likes and what he doesn&amp;#039;t like, and that kind of direct vision comes through.  Robert: Kerry\u2014perhaps it&amp;#039;s because I can relate to him. He approaches design very seriously, and everything seems very intentional.  The challenge was to create a space you could live in for the next 50 years. How do you two think you two would fare if you had to spend that much time together in your bunker? Robert: I don&amp;#039;t think we would have lasted 50 years. I can&amp;#039;t even imagine.  Jennifer:Laughing. Yeah, I&amp;#039;m just not going to answer that one. Get the full scoop at Top Design Central. Click here o check out all the past interviews.  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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