The House of Architecture: building a better reality

Architecture as a cultural expression that reflects the identity of each society. And societies contemplated as the sum of the present and the inherited legacy, which determines people's future. Architecture, then, as an asset of general interest that demands the recognition and involvement of the public administration in promoting its protection, development and dissemination. The Casa de la Arquitectura, which gives its name to the new National Museum of Architecture and Urban Planning, has been created under this ideology. 

The recently inaugurated institution aims to explore the transformative potential of architecture as a multidisciplinary activity and to disseminate its values to society as a whole. The promotion of research and conservation of architecture as a cultural and heritage fact, and its prospective, are translated into new exhibition spaces and the documentation of contents for study. 

Of the three exhibitions that kick off the new institution, two are dedicated to the younger generations. ‘Zip Ecosystems. New processes, new architectures’ gives visibility to 60 emerging architecture studios that were given a blank sheet of paper, where they explain their work processes. Curated by the architects Sol Caride Ferreira, Miguel Fernández-Galiano, Jorge Mañas Álvarez and Pedro Torres García-Cantó, it disseminates the new architecture created by the generation born after 1986, and how the great mortgage crisis of 2008 determined the reinvention of their approach. The team of curators define them as a collective that has worked ‘constructing an ecosystem that is as happy as it is precarious in which, through a change of format, scale and objectives, they have been able to develop their creativity.’ 

According to architect Pedro Torres García-Canto of Bizna estudio and co-curator of ‘Zip Ecosystems’, "architecture today must respond to the fundamental role it has always had: to provide the best possible spaces for society to develop its lives. Spaces that must be as welcoming, and spatially and energy efficient as possible. Actions that are measured and very conscious of the conditions in which they are developed". He adds: "I don't believe that discipline can afford to be hostage or accomplice of another bubble." 

He himself belongs to this generation, which was formed at a high point of architecture and construction in Spain, although it was cut short at the time of its emergence due to the real estate crash. “Another of the key points", he adds, "is the relationship between the studios. In fact, the name of the exhibition ‘Ecositemas.zip’ is due to the intention of revealing all these networks of collaboration, origins, references and friendship.” This is done with the focus on how work processes have changed, and with respect to previous generations, languages and the appearance of ways of working that are completely digital. And also the fact that the discipline has extended its field of action to diffusion, research or curating. 

Architect Maria Povedano - co-curator of the second exhibition ‘Nameless Models’ - defines its function in today's society as follows: "Architecture must enable physical spaces for the development of our rights as citizens, the care of urban and rural heritage, the guarantee of the rights of the less privileged and equity". He also points out that it is essential for architects to guarantee the habitability of the spaces they design, the capacity to promote social cohesion and the adaptability of their proposals to the climate crisis. 

‘Nameless Models’ - curated by Eduard Fernández, Arnau Pascual, Marina Povedano and Laura Solsona - includes the work of 14 young Barcelona studios founded over the last decade. 

Povedano emphasises that what they have in common as a generation when it comes to tackling architectural practice is that "they leave formal issues to one side and start working on a closer scale. They are studios committed to more welcoming interiors, with better habitability conditions and less aesthetic prejudices. They also work with materials that are conscious of their footprint and impact on the environment.” 

A reflection of the most recent architectural history is the exhibition ‘The Construction of a Country’. Its curator Moisés Puente traces a journey through more than 65 buildings constructed in Spain by Spanish architects since the transition, in the 1970s with the beginning of democracy, to the present day, through models. "If with the last economic crisis (2008) the figure of the architect lost much of its power and prestige, good architecture today would inevitably involve recognising its usefulness in society", he notes in his declaration of principles. 

The great Casa de la Arquitectura, publicly owned and managed by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda, is recognised as a contemporary museum and, as such, a platform for meeting, exchange and learning for a cross-cutting and intergenerational public. Its stated objectives also include fostering the principle of quality and valuing its impact on built environments to advance sustainability and resilience. The ultimate goals are the well-being and health of people, without compromising that of future generations.