José Manuel López-Peláez: "Architecture must develop solutions to improve the environment where life takes place"

2017 October 3

The Professor Emeritus of the Technical University of Madrid, José Manuel López-Peláez, will devote the lecture he will give at the MUGAK Biennial to the 'Casa Imanolena'. This house, built in Mutriku (Gipuzkoa), is a key piece in its creator's trajectory and is the star of one of the exhibitions included in the MUGAK Programme, at the Miramar Palace. This talk is entitled: ‘Desdibujar fronteras. Peña Ganchegui en la Imanolena’ (Blurring boundaries. Peña Ganchegui in Imanolena).

During his lecture, the Madrid architect intends to "present its values and importance, not only in the architectural scene of that time, but also on what its appreciation can contribute to our current culture. This architecture can be understood in a physical, and also time, boundary, and tends to dilute them both.

López-Peláez, National Architecture Award recipient in 1971, understands that participating in the Biennial, "like in any event that summons and gathers specialists, offers the possibility of exchanging points of view on specific topics (in this case 'boundaries' in their broadest sense) and represents not just an opportunity to think individually about this issue, but also a chance to share knowledge with other colleagues, to discuss it and expand our perspectives".

For the professor, "architecture must develop solutions to improve the environment where life takes place. Understanding the value of the relationship between architecture and human life is fundamental. How this occurs and is put into practice depends on many factors far beyond the scope of our discipline. Other artistic activities can be performed through individual processes and later on be presented to the public with more or less practical repercussions. However, architecture involves financial, social and political means that often are filters, insurmountable obstacles to its implementation".