Hi walkers!
We are delighted to tell you that two of our leading Architects are part of the jury of the FAD 2023 Awards this year! Jelena Prokopljevic is currently a member of the board of directors at Arquin-FAD and Rafael Gomez-Moriana is member of the jury of the FAD prize for thought and criticism 2023.
The Fomento de las Artes Decorativas set up in 1958 the FAD Awards for Architecture and Interior Design, promoted by the architect Oriol Bohigas. They sought to recognise the fruits of that incipient contemporary architecture that was to attain such importance worldwide some decades later. Since then, year after year the FAD Awards have been rewarding the best of Barcelonese, Catalan and Iberian architectural works. They have done so maintaining an independence and constancy, overcoming all kinds of difficulties, achieving the status of the oldest awards in Europe —and arguably the world— and one of the most prestigious.
We are very pleased to have them as part of our team! Here is a little bit about their backgrounds:
Jelena Prokopljevic, Belgrade.
Architect degree from the Belgrade University (1998) and PhD from the Polytechnic university of Barcelona (2006)
Practicing architect, researcher, writer and professor of Urban History at BAC (Barcelona architecture Center). Author of different books and articles on 20th century architecture. Co-curator of the Catalan pavilion at the 15th Venice Bienale of Architecture, 2016. She collaborated with the European Prize for Urban Public Space and the Mies van der Rohe Award for Contemporary Architecture, and is currently a member of the board of directors at Arquin-FAD.
Architecture is always the expression of an epoch: of its society, politics and ideologies, culture, economy and technological development. When a client formulates a project commission, the package contains a set of dreams, a desired image that is to be projected through the built work defining its artistic attractiveness, high technology, ecological awareness, material austerity or exuberance. I like to transmit all this complexity of architecture and its general context both to my students and to my fellow-walkers.
Rafael Gomez-Moriana, Montreal, Canada
Studied architecture at the University of Waterloo (1989) and the Berlage Institute Amsterdam (1995).
Associate Adjunct Professor University of Calgary. Has taught at several universities in Barcelona, Manitoba, Carleton University and University of British Columbia. Has lectured at the Architectural Association, Umeå University, Universidad de Belgrano, Reus and ETSAB.
Contributor to periodicals The Architectural Review, Azure, Baumeister, Bauwelt, DETAIL, Lotus, Log, Oris, Palimpsesto, Jornal Arquitectos, Quaderns, Arquitectura Viva; former Spain correspondent for Mark Magazine, and member of the jury of the FAD prize for thought and criticism 2023.
Blogs at criticalista.com
Once it is built, inhabited, and part of a living city, architecture takes on a life of its own, sometimes becoming something that was never foreseen. Barcelona itself has undergone many transformations throughout its history, including a recent post-industrial change into a global brand that is based, in large part, on its built patrimony. My interest lies in how architecture affects and is in turn affected by societal change.
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