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Foros 2022 the series of lectures at UIC

Posted on February 8, 2022February 8, 2022 by cm

Foros 2022 calls for self-awareness regarding architecture today in its different aspects and fields of application

On 9 February, the UIC Barcelona School of Architecture will inaugurate a new edition of the Foros 2022 series of lectures, an unmissable annual event in the field of architecture and urban planning. The official programme will run until the end of April with two sessions per month and free admission until seating capacity is complete. It will also be possible to stream these sessions online.

Titled “The leap into the void”, Foros 2022 aims to heighten self-awareness about architecture today in its different aspects and fields of application. As a new feature, the lecture series is introducing a new format based on a two-way dialogue between professionals from the sector who will partake in sessions structured by themes linked to current architectural practice and the challenges facing the sector.

The series is being directed by lecturer Juan Trias de Bes and coordinated by the School’s Projects Department. The ‘leap into the void’ expresses the moment of action that lies between decision-making and the realisation of its effects. The field of architecture has experienced such moments throughout the course of history. The current challenges (environmental, humanitarian and socio-economic) are presented as vectors that will mark the evolution of times to come, that is, the times that those now studying architecture will have to face”, explains the director of the lecture series.

Six lectures structured by theme
The series kicks off on 9 February with a lecture titled “The dissolution of functional typology”, which will address the accelerated transformation of habitat requirements (housing models, workspaces, urban space and even places of leisure) to respond to the inexorable renewal of the socio-economic reality. This first session will be led by Luis Basabe, founding partner of the architecture studio Arenas Basabe Palacios, and Rosa Rull i Bertran, founding partner of +ADDARQUITECTURA.

MADOLA: Sixty years of work

Posted on February 11, 2020 by cm

Foros 2020 Lecture with MADOLA: Sixty years of work

On 12 February, Foros will be hosting the Catalan artist Maria Àngels Domingo Laplana, MADOLA, who will give a lecture entitled “MADOLA, sixty years of work”.

This versatile artist studied ceramics at Escola Massana, and in addition, has a degree in Sculpture and a doctorate from the Faculty of Fine Arts of Barcelona. Since the mid-60s, she has held individual and collective exhibitions in Spain and internationally. Soon after, she began to work with large-format pieces for public spaces. Her work includes her interventions at Plaça de la Font Castellana in Barcelona, the Rotonda Blava in Premià de Mar, the “Memory Catalonia-Korea” intervention at the Icheon Park in Korea or the “Organic” installation at the Barcelona Design Museum.

In her lecture, she will take us through her career and reflect on her creative processes. She explains “In thought I find the narrative thread to be able to express an idea, a concept. This way, taking a leap of faith, the work slowly comes into being, connected with my ideology, in dialogue with the material and in deep meditation, to achieve a complete, sincere and expressive piece of work.”

MADOLA is a member of the International Academy of Ceramics in Geneva, and the World Crafts Council, part of UNESCO in Paris. She is also member of the Royal Academy of Sciences and Arts of Barcelona.

This year, Foros, an annual series of lectures about architecture, revolves around the title “Co-benefits”. Foros 2020 seeks to reflect on the links and the cultural interaction between contemporary architecture and other art forms such as dance, sculpture, film and comics.

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.

Exhibition 22@_What?

Posted on July 16, 2019 by cm

Exhibition 22@_What? How to achieve balance in Northern Poblenou, Barcelona.

On 18 July, the exhibition of Final Degree Projects (TFGs) by students from the UIC Barcelona School of Architecture, which this year is entitled 22@_What? How to achieve balance in Northern Poblenou, Barcelona, will open in the former textile factory Ca l’Alier, the current headquarters for the urban innovation centre BIT-Habitat.

The exhibit will feature work by 10 final year Architecture students, who have put forward new architectural and urban planning proposals for 22@, an area that began a process of metamorphosis in the early 2000s in accordance with the “compact city” model, with housing, public facilities and high-quality green areas where residents could “work, live and learn”.

Divided into three workshops directed by lecturers Iñaki Baquero, Marta García-Orte, Mamen Domingo and Ernest Ferré, the students revisited the Barcelona 22@ Plan in efforts to address, through their architectural and urban planning projects, the concerns the project has raised in the 20 years since its implementation. With their projects, the students looked at ways to increase the sparse residential population of Northern Poblenou, remedy the fragmentation of the urban space and discontinuity of free spaces and mitigate the problem of gentrification that is causing many residents to leave the district. These interventions were undertaken by students, based on an urban project and its analysis as part of 22@ Barcelona in the previous year within the framework of projects they created for a subject called Urbanism 3. This subject was coordinated by lecturers Álvaro Cuéllar and Pere Vall.

During the event held to inaugurate the exhibition, experts involved in developing the Barcelona 22@ Plan and representatives from among the district’s inhabitants will take part in a discussion session aimed at promoting reflection on the district’s present and future situation. This open debate, which will take place at 6 p.m., will focus on aspects such as the need for new architectural proposals in the face of outmoded solutions and patterns and the appropriateness of involving the academic world in the restoration of areas that require greater flexibility and adaptability.

During the event, the UIC Barcelona School of Architecture Chair in Industrial Construction and the Environment (CEIM) Awards will also be handed out, in recognition of projects with the most innovative solutions in the area of sustainability. The event will also serve as a platform for the Schindler Elevators Accessibility Awards, which recognise the TFGs that best integrate the parameters of accessibility from an architectural perspective.

The exhibition will be organised in cooperation with BIT-Habitat and the Barcelona City Council, with sponsorship from the construction company Aislux.

Ca l’Alier – Pere IV, 362

UIC Barcelona School of Architecture

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.

Foros 2018. Itziar González Virós: “Las Ramblas sociales”

Posted on March 5, 2018 by cm

”Las Ramblas sociales” Itziar González Virós

El ciclo Foros de UIC Barcelona School of Architecture, cita anual imprescindible en el ámbito arquitectónico, celebra 20 años y presenta una nueva edición, con la colaboración de BBC Construmat. Hoy Itziar Gonzalez, en el marco de #Foros2018 “Plural Innovations” hablará de innovaciones sociales desde su experiencia como mediadora en múltiples procesos participativos que han definido espacios públicos de Barcelona como la plaza Lesseps. Desde el día 26 de febrero hasta el 7 de mayo, un total de seis profesionales y académicos ofrecerán en el Aula Magna de la Universidad su visión sobre el concepto de innovación en el ámbito de la arquitectura.

Bajo el título “Plural innovations” (“Innovaciones plurales”), esta nueva edición incidirá en la necesidad de expandir el campo de la arquitectura. En este sentido, la innovación se plantea como elemento primero para provocar esa expansión en lo arquitectónico, pero desde un punto de vista abierto y plural, desbordando el marco disciplinario tradicional. El ciclo Foros 2018 cuenta este año con la co-dirección del profesor de la escuela, Miquel Lacasta, junto a Marc Chalamanch y Carmen Santana, los tres integrantes del estudio Archikubik.

El 5 de marzo interviene en Foros Itziar González Virós. Arquitecta y urbanista por la Escuela Superior de Arquitectura de Barcelona (ETSAB /UPC), 1995. Realizó su proyecto final de carrera sobre Christiania, en la Real Academia Danesa de Bellas Artes y la Escuela de Arquitectura en Copenhague. En 1996 abrió su propio despacho profesional en la ciudad de Barcelona, que se especializó en decrecimiento urbano, optimización de viviendas públicas, rehabilitación de centros históricos urbanos y de edificaciones en el medio rural.

Desde 2002 se ha especializado en procesos de mediación y resolución de conflictos entre ciudadanía y administración a través del diseño y coordinación de la participación ciudadana en materia de urbanismo y obra pública. Ha sido concejala electa del distrito de Ciutat Vella de la ciudad de Barcelona desde junio del 2007 hasta mayo del 2010. Desde octubre del 2012 participa activamente en los movimientos sociales y es miembro fundadora y presidenta del grupo promotor del Parlamento Ciudadano y directora del Instituto Cartográfico de la Revolta. Acaba de ganar el concurso internacional para la redacción de las estrategias de actuación y el proyecto de urbanización de la Rambla de Barcelona.

“Las arquitecturas sin las personas no sirven. Soy una terapeuta que intenta rehacer la arquitectura de los vínculos entre las diferentes personas que se encuentran en un sitio. Después de 30 años he llegado a definir lo que hago como cooperación ciudadana en el territorio.”

María Langarita Lecture at Foros 2017

Posted on April 24, 2017 by cm

Foros 2017: Lecture by María Langarita entitled “Resistencias blandengues”

On Monday 24 April, at 7 p.m., the ESARQ – School of Architecture at UIC Barcelona will host a lecture by María Langarita, from Langarita Navarro Arquitectos, as part of the Foros 2017 lecture series The Agency of Architecture. Under the title “Resistencias blandengues” [Soft Resistance], Langarita will put forward the notion of categorising architecture on the basis of material consistency.

María Langarita will talk about description as creation. “Bust and pelt”, asserts the architect, “is a way of arranging the content of the physical part of the world. The bust represents the hard side of architecture: inorganic and inert, it erodes slowly and is expensive to alter. The pelt is organic and soft; it rots and decomposes easily. The annals of culture have focused their attention on and spoken and written about the bust. Techniques associated with the pelt, on the other hand, remain scattered among a host of registers that are of secondary value to the architect.”

“Resistencias blandengues” is, explains Langarita, “a willingness to record and apply the wisdom of the pelt in the city.”

María Langarita graduated with a degree in Architecture from the University of Navarre and is now a lecturer in Architectural Projects at ETSA Madrid. Together with Victor Navarro, she founded the Madrid-based practice Langarita-Navarro in 2005. Their work has been recognised with Special Mention at the 2013 Mies van der Rohe Awards, as well as with an award at the 12th Spanish Architecture and Urbanism Biennial, the 2012 FAD Award, the 2012 AR+D Award for Emerging Architects and the 2013 COAM award. Additional career accolades include the 2014 Young Architect of the Year Award and the 2013 AD Nuevos Valores Award. Their work has appeared in various publications and was featured in the monographic magazine 2G. Their work has also been selected to be exhibited in a number of different places and events, including the 2014 and 2008 Venice Biennale.

Foros 2017 Markus Bader

Posted on March 17, 2017 by cm

Lecture by Markus Bader at Foros 2017: The Agency of Architecture

Next Monday 20 March, the UIC Barcelona ESARQ-School of Architecture will host the third lecture in Foros 2017 “The Agency of Architecture”. The conference, which is open to the general public and scheduled to take place at 7 p.m. in the Aula Magna on the University’s Barcelona Campus, will be given by Markus Bader, member and co-founder of Raumlabor, an architectural collective renowned for its cross-cutting work which incorporates architecture, urban planning, art and urban interventions, such as the transformation and revitalisation of the Tempelhof Airport as a public space in Berlin.

Under the title “Co-Producing Some Spaces”, the guest speaker will reflect on how we all, through our private and collective actions, generate space, and how the synchronisation of these activities in one single space creates a city. According to Bader, “architecture is a tool in the search for the city of tomorrow, and as architects we are activists, because we operate within the city.” By analysing Raumlabor’s work, projects which explore the limits of architecture and are deeply rooted in the local context, Markus Bader will invite attendees to change their opinion of the city and reformulate contemporary concepts such as “participation”, “collaboration” and “site-specific”.

Markus Bader combines his work as an architect with education, and not just in academia as Professor of Projects at the University of the Arts in Berlin, but also at the Urban School Ruhr, an open university developed by Raumlabor in cooperation with Urbane Künste Ruhr, a learning platform and pedagogical experiment that investigates participative and artistic practices in urban space. With projects such as the Göteborg Sauna, Bader has been nominated for the Kasper Salin Prize, the 2015 National Swedish Architecture Award.

Conferencia del estudio GOIG “Producción Skype”

Posted on March 6, 2017March 6, 2017 by cm

Foros 2017: Estudio GOIG “Producción Skype”

El próximo lunes 6 de marzo, la School of Architecture de UIC Barcelona, en el marco del ciclo Foros 2017 “The Agency of Architecture”, acoge una conferencia de la plataforma de producción arquitectónica GOIG.

Bajo el título “Producción Skype”, los ponentes plantean un recorrido por temas y conceptos sobre los que se construye su trabajo en común; ideas que nutren formal y estéticamente sus diseños, pero que se expanden para construir una narración propia que se aplica a toda su producción. La intención es explicar no solo los productos, sino los procesos que definen su práctica, marcada por la distancia, YouTube y el realismo.

GOIG es una práctica arquitectónica con base en Londres y Barcelona que busca la alegría de vivir. El estudio fue fundado en el 2015 y está dirigido por Pol Esteve y Miquel Mariné.

Pol Esteve es arquitecto, licenciado por la Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Barcelona y máster en Historia y Pensamiento Crítico por la Architectural Association School of Architecture (2012). Ha colaborado con MACBA, Olga Subirós Studio y Cloud9, arquitectos en Barcelona, y R&Sie(n), en París. Actualmente enseña en la Architectural Association School of Architecture y es candidato a doctorado en The Bartlett (University College London).

Miquel Mariné es arquitecto, licenciado por la Escuela de Arquitectura de Barcelona (2005). También asistió a la Facultad de Arquitectura de la Universidad Técnica de Delft (TU Delft). Anteriormente colaboró con Plasmastudio en Londres y Carles Muro en Barcelona. Actualmente imparte clases en la Escuela de Arquitectura de Barcelona (ETSAB); en ELISAVA, la Escuela de Diseño e Ingeniería de Barcelona; en ESDI, la Escuela Superior de Diseño, y en el programa de máster en el Istituto Europeo di Design (IED). Ha obtenido el premio FAD de la opinión en 2015.

El trabajo de GOIG ha sido presentado en publicaciones nacionales e internacionales.

Aula Magna

C/ Immaculada, 22, Barcelona

ESARQ-School of Architecture de UIC Barcelona

UIC Foros Lecture Series 2017 The Agency of Architecture

Posted on January 26, 2017 by cm

The UIC Barcelona School of Architecture launches a new edition of the Foros lecture series The Agency of Architecture, a benchmark in today’s architectural scene.

This new edition of the UIC Barcelona School of Architecture’s Foros lecture series hinges on the title The Agency of Architecture, a concept which encourages reflection on architects’ ability to enrich, alter or even call into question their own environment.

Coinciding with the celebration of the UIC Barcelona School of Architecture’s 20th anniversary, the new edition of Foros, considered a benchmark in today’s architectural scene, has a new director and has sought to highlight the public, open nature of the event.

On Monday 6 February, the UIC Barcelona School of Architecture is due to launch Foros, a series of lectures that are open to the general public and in which renowned national and international architects will visit the UIC Barcelona School of Architecture and, through their work, share their views on architecture and the profession. This edition, which coincides with the celebration of the School of Architecture’s 20th anniversary, has incorporated new features through which the event aims to enrich and bring renewed insight to the local architectural scene.

The 2017 Foros series will be directed by architect, critic and curator Ethel Baraona, co-founder of the research practice and independent publishing house dpr-barcelona. Under the title “The Agency of Architecture”, the event seeks to give voice to practices that constantly strive to enrich, alter or call into question that which we believe the agency of architecture should be, understanding agency in the philosophical and sociological sense of the word, whereby it is defined as an organisation’s ability to act within a specific environment. According to the new director of the lecture series, “the agency of architecture can be understood as a catalyst for creating alternatives for the built environment, and there are as many ways of doing so as there are ways of practicing architecture: from research to urban interventions, exhibitions and building”.

The underlying objective of the School of Architecture’s Foros, to enable students to create their own architectural universe based on the experience of nationally and internationally renowned architects, goes beyond the classroom. By opening up the event to the general public, the series has become an established benchmark in today’s architectural scene, as well as a meeting point for professionals in Barcelona. For this new edition, held in partnership with Mediolanum Bank, and in efforts to underscore the series’ public, open nature, one of the conferences will take place at Palacete Abadal, a noucentista building located on the corner of Carrer Capità Arenas and Avinguda Diagonal.

The 2017 Foros series will feature talks by renowned architects from a host of different backgrounds, who together will provide a broader overview of architecture. The series is due to start on 6 February with a talk by Ines Weizman, a professor of Architectural Theory and director of the Institute for History and Theory of Architecture and Planning at Bauhaus-Universität Weimar. On 20 February, the School of Architecture will welcome Ippolito Pestellini, a partner in one of the most renowned contemporary architecture studios, OMA, and its research studio, AMO. There will also be talks by: members of GOIG, a young Catalan architecture studio run by Pol Esteve and Miquel Mariné (6 March); Markus Bader, co-founder of Raumlabor and director of Urban School Ruhr (20 March); Rafi Segal, architect and professor at MIT (3 April); and María Langarita, founder of Langarita-Navarro, a Madrid-based architecture studio that received special mention at the 2013 Mies van der Rohe awards (24 April). This edition will be crowned by provocative German architect Arno Brandlhuber, creator of the “Antivilla” weekend home project and place of exile for artists from Berlin (8 May).

R_Urban Hubs: Questioning the Limits of Barcelona in the 21st Century

Posted on July 17, 2016 by cm

Students from the UIC Barcelona School of Architecture present their projects in the MUHBA Oliva Artès

The UIC Barcelona School of Architecture opens, for the fifth consecutive year, its end-of-degree project exhibition. The exhibition is to showcase the 30 projects put forward to regenerate and strengthen the Delta de Llobregat as a productive area and urban innovation hub, as opposed to the speculative growth of the territory, while maintaining its agricultural character.

Thursday July 21 at 19.00, at the MUHBA Oliva Artés in Barcelona, will see the opening of the exhibition of end-of-degree projects from the UIC Barcelona School of Architecture “R_Urban Hubs: Questioning the Limits of Barcelona in the 21st Century “. This exhibition is the school’s response to the agreement signed with the Directorate General of Planning of the Ministry of Territory and Sustainability of the Generalitat de Catalunya, in which the educational institution is committed to contributing to the regeneration of strategic areas in the Metropolitan Region of Barcelona. During the ceremony a panel discussion will be held where experts such as Eva Prats, architect; Enric Batlle, architect and director of the Master’s degree in Landscape Architecture of UPC BarcelonaTech; Joan Roca, director of MUHBA; and Victor Ténez, Chief of Fluvial Systems of the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona, will reflect on the new scales of territorial urban space. In addition, during the opening ceremony the Schindler Accessibility Award and the Award of the Chair in Industrialised Construction and the Environment from the UIC Barcelona School of Architecture will be given to the most innovative projects in terms of accessibility and sustainability.

During the academic year 2015-16 TFG (end-of-degree projects) students from the UIC Barcelona School of Architecture have worked in an area of exceptional ecological, economic and social value: the limits of the Baix Llobregat Agricultural Park in the Delta. The aim is to ensure the viability of agriculture in serving the metropolitan area of Barcelona. An intervention created to give a critical response to unlimited speculative growth proposals where the territory loses its identity and becomes a commodity in the hands of the global market. The proposals in the exhibition develop the provisions of the General Metropolitan Plan, which seek to protect the area from speculation, following a local, sustainable model.

The authors of the 30 projects are final year students from the UIC Barcelona School of Architecture, divided into three workshops led by architects Rosa Rull, Miquel Lacasta, Alberto T. Estévez, Álvaro Cuéllar and Pere Vall.

Event