SPAINLab, the name of the exhibit, looks to expose the research process behind the works of contemporary Spanish Architects:
- RCR Arquitectes (Rafael Aranda, Carme Pigem, Ramón Vilalta)
- Selgascano (Lucía Cano, José Selgas)
- Urban Habitat / Barcelona City Council (Vicente Guallart)
- SMAO — Sancho-Madridejos Archiecture Office (Sol Madridejos, Juan Carlos Sancho)
- Menis Arquitectos (Fernando Menis)
- Cloud 9 (Enric Ruiz-Geli)
- Ecosistema Urbano (Belinda Tato, José Luis Vallejo)
More photos about the pavilion and description from Anton and Débora after the break:
The pavilion brings together the work of seven teams of active Spanish architects who strongly defend their vocation for innovation, and who have built personal worlds outside styles and fashions, not without professional risk.
The exhibition opens an indiscreet window onto each of these world, revealing the scientific processes that seek a balance between ideas and their necessary realisation, and transcending the finished products to provide access to the reasons and emotions that have made then possible, to the incomplete versions, to the reference of which they are fed, to the findings, and – why not? – to the errors as well. The works appear then as crystallisation points of continuos research processes that are displayed as raw information, without dressing, exposed in a space under construction, like a laboratory of an architect office; which invites visitors to read between the lines and seeks to provoke learning.
- Antón García-Abril, Débora Mesa
The physical installation is complemented by a digital platform that will collect and expand the contents of the pavilion and will survive the exhibition and serve as a meeting and exchange point of a wider network of virtual visitors.
SPAINLab does not support ideologies or methods, but it does come with a clear strategy: to demonstrate that the true value of architectural works is not in their final image, and that the future of Spanish architecture need the support and protection of personal research processes, as the essence of the genetics that will give life to the works.
