Juan Mera: "Architecture is the most politically-charged art form"

2017 September 29

Juan Mera, Director of the School of Architecture of the Castilla-La Mancha University, comes to the I International Architecture Biennial, 'MUGAK', attracted by different things: "the city of San Sebastian; the historic moment in which the Biennial is taking place; and a curation approach that has understood that architecture is following a different direction, along a path considered to be on the fringes not so long ago".

The prestigious architect is contributing to MUGAK with two proposals. A talk, entitled 'The seven-sided box', which "attempts to rethink the house and to understand the reasons behind its shape. This essay is critical to some degree with certain trends that have dominated the architectural scene in the last few years", he explains. Additionally, during his lecture, Mera will launch a proposal he has baptised as 'Brandless Architecture' and he will analyse the points that must be covered to bring this idea to life.

Juan Mera sees architecture as "the most politically-charged art form" and he clarifies, "that this is why it is so tricky to put a price on it". In this sense, he considers that "it is very easy to make it appear as progress when, in fact, too often it serves the interest of the powerful".

With regards to what the objective of this discipline should be, Mera believes that "architecture only makes sense if it has a commitment to social issues. The problem is that operations concentrated in very few works are concealed within winning formulas and they become propaganda tools that eat up budgets that should be split up to create smaller operations that would actually help to have a more balanced city". He considers this to be a "pending issue" and that "the big question is that nearly everything around us must be improved, often by taking away rather than adding to".