Bilbao: The Latest Architecture and News

+ 15

“Reinventing Cities,” C40’s renowned global design competition, has just announced its fourth edition. The competition’s main goal is to “transform underutilized sites or buildings into beacons of sustainability and resilience and act as a showcase for future zero-carbon urban developments.” This year, 15 cities have stepped up the challenge, inviting professionals from various disciplines to reimagine underutilized urban sites and design transformations prioritizing sustainability and inclusivity.

With a commitment to zero-carbon, urban resilient projects, Reinventing Cities has engaged over 3,500 businesses worldwide with 40 projects currently under development globally. This year’s competition is characterized by its ambitious environmental and social objectives; with participating cities spanning continents, including Almere, Bilbao, Bologna, Brussels, Glasgow, Milan, New York, Palermo, Renca, Rome, San Antonio, San Francisco, São Paulo, Seattle, and Venice.

+ 2

+ 39

The Bilbao Fine Arts Museum remodeling and expansion project was attributed to Foster + Partners following an international competition in 2019. Now the construction phase was initiated with a breaking ground ceremony on November 17^th. The project includes the restoration of the existing 20th-century building and the expansion of the currently available spaces with a new public atrium and a contemporary art gallery organized in a floating pavilion. The design also highlights the relationship between the city and the museum by creating a new pedestrian path that runs from north to south. The path connects the original 1945 building, the 1970s extension, and a new visitor center while making the site more permeable at the street level.

The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao is celebrating its 25th anniversary this October 2022. Set on the edge of the Nervión River in the Basque Country, Spain, Frank Gehry's Guggenheim boosted the city's economy with its astounding success and changed the museum's role in city development. Twenty-five years on, the Bilbao Effect continues to challenge assumptions about urban transformations and inspires the construction of iconic pieces of architecture that uplift cities' status, calling investors and visitors.

+ 3

Boston is the latest city to announce a city-wide plan that, if passed, would eliminate the use of fossil fuels in new constructions and major renovation projects. This measure expands upon the commitment to enact climate action and make Boston a Green New Deal city. Other US cities like New York, Los Angeles, San Jose, Seattle, and Berkeley have all imposed similar measures in recent years. Seven European cities - Bilbao, Bratislava, Dublin, Munich, Rotterdam, Vienna, and Winterthur - have also developed a project to phase out fossil fuel from urban heating and cooling.

+ 2

Four emerging architecture studio profiles from Switzerland, Germany, and Spain have been chosen by New Generations, a European platform that analyses the most innovative emerging practices at the European level, providing a new space for the exchange of knowledge and confrontation, theory, and production. Since 2013, New Generations has involved more than 500 practices in a diverse program of cultural activities, such as festivals, exhibitions, open calls, video interviews, workshops, and experimental formats.

+ 15

+ 9

+ 15

+ 17

+ 37

+ 9