Foros UIC Archives - Architecture Walks and Tours in Barcelona

Foros 2020 lecture series

Posted on January 20, 2020 by cm

The Foros 2020 series of lectures organised by the UIC Barcelona School of Architecture, the essential annual event in the field of architecture and urban planning, begins a new edition in early 2020 that will run from 29 January through to 29 April.
Under the heading of “co-benefits”, Foros 2020 aims to consider the links and the processes of cultural interaction between contemporary architecture and other artistic manifestations such as dance, sculpture, film and comedy.

The series will be managed for the second year running by lecturers Guillem Carabí and Fredy Massad. “In the same way that contemporary art, in all its different manifestations, often takes ownership of architectural elements, devoid of any connotations of habitability, architecture also feeds from the different artistic disciplines to reclaim its emotional character and thus recover some of the bonds it has lost with its users,” they explain.

The series kicks off on 29 January with a lecture by the well-known caricaturist and architect Klaus (Koldo Lus Arana). Since he launched his blog, Klaustoon, ten years ago, Klaus has stood out for his biting criticism of the architectural status quo. His work has been published in numerous architectural magazines and shown in both solo and group exhibitions. As a lecturer at the School of Engineering and Architecture (EINA) at the University of Zaragoza, he studies the interactions between architecture and the media, as well as urban visions of the future in architecture and the visual arts.

The second lecture will take place on 12 February, given by MADOLA (M. Ángeles Domingo Laplana), a plastic artist with a PhD in Fine Arts based in Premià de Dalt; she is a member of the International Academy of Ceramics and the Work-Craft Council, which is based at UNESCO in Paris. Madola is known for her large-format ceramic works in public spaces, some of her most notable interventions being the Plaça de la Font Castellana in Barcelona, the Rotonda Blava in Premià de Mar and the “Organic” installation in the Design Museum of Barcelona.

On 26 February, Carme Torrent will give a performance-based lecture. The Catalan artist has many years of experience as a performance artist for choreographers of the stature of Min Tanaka, Carmelo Salazar and Xavier Le Roy, and has participated in many programmes for exhibition spaces worldwide.

Foros lecture series at UIC Barcelona School of Architecture

Posted on February 3, 2019 by cm

The new edition of Foros, which is due to get underway soon, explores the concept of identity in contemporary architecture.

A new edition of the UIC Barcelona School of Architecture’s Foros lecture series, a can’t miss event for members of the architecture community, has been organised in cooperation with BB Construmat and is due to run from 11 February to 6 May.

Entitled “Identities”, this new edition seeks to contribute to the discussion surrounding the concept of identity in contemporary architecture, a field heavily influenced by the forces of globalisation. Foros 2019 is co-directed by School lecturers Guillem Carabí and Fredy Massad. According to the organisers, “Architecture, particularly in this century, is subject to a series of globalising dynamics that frequently put into question the territorial discourse. In response, this has given rise to other more specific ways of doing things that vindicate local wisdom”.

The series will begin on 11 February with a lecture by Manuel Delgado, full professor of Anthropology at the University of Barcelona (UB). The second lecture will take place on 25 February, with a talk by Daniele Giglioli, professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Bergamo (Italy). Giglioli recently published Crítica de la Víctima [Critics of the Victim] (Herder Editorial) in Spain, an essay that explores the origins and symptoms of the ideology of the victim in today’s society. On 11 March, the floor will be given to Spanish architect Elisa Valero, a recent recipient of the prestigious Swiss Architectural Award (2017-2018).

The series will continue on 25 March with a presentation by members of the Barcelona-based studio Addenda Architects (Roberto González, Anne Hinz, Cecilia Rodríguez, Arnau Sastre and José Zabala), the team behind the winning project for the new Bauhaus Museum Dessau (Germany), which is due to open in 2019, the German institution’s centenary year. On 9 April, the Foros series will move to the Filmoteca de Catalunya, where video artists Bêka&Lemoine (Ila Bêka and Louise Lemoine) will lead a seminar followed by the screening of one of their films. Selected as one of the 100 most talented personalities by the magazine Icon Design, Bêka&Lemoine have spent the past 10 years experimenting with new cinematographic narratives related to contemporary architecture and the urban environment. Following the lecture on 9 April, the Filmoteca de Catalunya will dedicate two days (10 and 11 April) to their work.

The sixth lecture will take place on 29 April and feature young architects Nicolas Moreau+Hiroko Kusunoki. In 2015, they were named winners of the design competition for the Guggenheim Museum in Helsinki. Foros 2019 will come to an end on 6 May with a lecture by Catalan architect Josep Lluís Mateo, full professor of Architecture and Design at ETH Zurich.

Foros is an annual lecture series organised by the UIC Barcelona School of Architecture, in which prestigious national and international architects use their work to share their views on architecture. The lectures are open to students, industry professionals and anyone interested in participating.

Closing session Foros 2018: Jordi Pimàs

Posted on May 7, 2018May 7, 2018 by cm

Jordi Pimàs Lecture “Suburbia”

Following talks by Alejandro Haiek, Itziar González Virós and Toni Cumella, among others, the seventh edition of Foros -coorganized by BBConstrumat– will come to an end with a lecture by Catalan engineer and architect Jordi Pimàs. His lecture, entitled“Suburbia”, will discuss the importance of the field as a basis for innovation in building processes.

93 viviendas sociales. 1984 Architectes.

“Sustainable development only makes sense if it helps improve quality of life, broadly speaking. It is important to take into account the kind of local economy the act of building generates, as well as the impact of production processes on landscape and society due to their material nature. Our architecture is based on savoir-faire and the resources that are available and/or mobilisable locally. Resources that, though considered modest, have a clear capacity to produce a favourable impact on the areas they come from and generate a more prosperous local reality”, concludes Jordi Pimàs.

Ejemplo de eco-construccion. 1984 Architectes

The lecture is officially sponsored by Evowall, a company specialising in the construction of prefabricated houses from traditional materials, with over 20 years of experience in the sector. The speaker will be presented by Santi Alcaraz Ribes, Technical Director for Evowall.

Viviendas pasivas en Preuschdorf. 1984 Architectes

Member and founding partner of the studio 1984 Architectes, in 2014, Jordi Pimàs, alongside the other three members of the team, won the so-called Albums of Young Architects and Landscape Architects, a distinction awarded each year by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication. Jordi Pimàs has also taught at the Academy of Architecture in Mendrisio (Switzerland).