As part of their mission to foster debate about architecture and the city within a broader social context, the Fundación Arquitectura y Sociedad will carry out the 4th edition of their International Architecture Congress from June 29-July 1st in Pamplona. Titled “Architecture: Change of Climate,” the latest event echoes themes from the previous years, which were related to the crisis affecting Spain and its architects. This year the debate seeks to emphasize the need for change in architectural practices in order to improve our environment.
The title of this year’s congress refers as much to the change of climate taking place in architecture, which the crisis has put at an economic and ethical crossroads, as to the importance of architecture and planning when facing the challenges posed by climate change, perhaps the most pressing matter of our time.
Read on after the break for the full program and text from Luis Fernández-Galiano, Director of the IV International Architecture Congress, which introduces the paradigms that architects like Rem Koolhaas, Bjarke Ingels, Winy Maas, Pierre de Meuron, Iñaki Ábalos and Jean-Philippe Vassal will examine at this event.
Following the first congress, which took place in June 2010 under the motto ‘Architecture: More for Less,’ the second, held in June 2012 under the theme ‘Architecture: the Common,’ and the third, celebrated in June 2014 under the title ‘Necessary Architecture,’ always at the Baluarte Center of Pamplona, the fourth congress of the Fundación Arquitectura y Sociedad has been convened in the Navarrese capital to address the ‘Change of Climate’ in architecture, a field undergoing a deep transformation as the urgencies posed by climate change call for a rethinking of how to make buildings and cities: architecture changes to change the world.
The initial congress was attended by Renzo Piano, Jacques Herzog, and Glenn Murcutt, three holders of the Pritzker, architecture’s Nobel, along with Harvard’s and Columbia’s architecture school deans, the philosopher SlavojZizek, and others from five continents. The second encounter brought in three other Pritzker laureates – Norman Foster to open the symposium and two Iberian masters, Rafael Moneo and Eduardo Souto de Moura, to close it – to head a distinguished cast of international architects. The third, like its precedessors, put veteran figures like Dominique Perrault side by side with architects with shorter but equally brilliant careers, and ended with the presence of the first Iberian ever to receive the Pritzker, Álvaro Siza.
The first three congresses proposed tools for dealing with our lingering crisis; the fourth endeavors to throw light on the need for change in architectural attitudes if our environment and the lives of people are to improve. To this end we again bring together world architects and figures of different countries known to combine professional excellence with attention to sustainability and architecture’s social dimension. The title of this year’s congress refers as much to the change of climate taking place in architecture, which the crisis has put at an economic and ethical crossroads, as to the importance of architecture and planning when facing the challenges posed by climate change, perhaps the most pressing matter of our time.
If the first congress (‘More for Less’) advocated austerity, the second (‘The Common’) called for solidarity based on what we share, and the third (‘Necessary Architecture’) denounced the superfluous in favor of the indispensable – “The necessary, but no less than the necessary” –, this fourth congress seeks to examine the current situation of architecture by simultaneously addressing the ongoing transformation of its academic and professional base, which perhaps signals a change of paradigm in how it is understood and practiced, and the relevant role that construction and the city play in climate change, given that most of the energy we consume and most of the carbon dioxide we release in the burning of fossil fuels ultimately comes from the way buildings are conceived and territories are occupied: architecture needs a change of climate, and climate change needs to be tackled from the angle of architecture.
PROGRAM
June 29 - July 1, 2016
Pamplona, Palacio Baluarte
June 29th
June 29th, morning
Introduction: Climate Change
Rem Koolhaas (OMA), Rotterdam
Pierre de Meuron (Herzog & de Meuron), Basel
Relator: Richard Ingersoll, Florence
June 29th, afternoon
Strategies of the Essential
Kjetil Traedal Thorsen (Snøhetta), Oslo and New York
Jean-Philippe Vassal (Lacaton & Vassal), Paris
Relator: Llàtzer Moix, Barcelona
Awards presentation
June 30th
June 30th, morning
Aesthetics of Energy
I. Ábalos y R. Sentkiewicz (AS+), Cambridge and Madrid
Louisa Hutton (Sauerbruch Hutton), Berliin
Relator: Antonio Lucas, Madrid
Awards presentation
June 30th, afternoon
Sustainable Experiences and closing
Dietmar Eberle (Baumschlager Eberle), Lustenau
Winy Maas (MVRDV), Rotterdam
Bjarke Ingels (BIG), Copenhagen and New York
Relators:
Peter Buchanan, London
Vicente Verdú, Madrid
July 1st
July 1st, morning
Visits to the Oteiza Museum and Ultzama Equestrian Center
Sign-up and Information:
+34 915 412 679
info@arquitecturaysociedad.com
Website Fundación Arquitectura y Sociedad
The Fundación Arquitectura y Sociedad is a private non-profit cultural endeavor with a public national and international reach. It was created in 2008 thanks to the initiative of the architect Francisco Mangado and his interest in promoting architecture as a field indissolubly linked to life and society.
The Foundation goes by the conviction that architecture is called upon to address the problems that afflict the complex social fabric, and provide solutions by interacting with other disciplines. It understands architecture as a service that should bind together, condition, and facilitate the life of citizens. Hence, the Foundation seeks to bring together the knowledge and know-how of all fields concerned with the great challenges of our times.
