The MUGAK Biennial will be presented before 200 architects from 18 countries to foster its international projection

2017 September 20

 

• In collaboration with the Habic Cluster, the Basque event, which will be held in San Sebastian from the 7th of November to the 31st of January, is being publicised amongst prestigious professional in various forums since last week.

 

• The San Sebastian Biennial, as well as hosting all the students from the Higher Technical School of Architecture of the University of the Basque Country, will be visited by French students from Montpellier and Bordeaux, as well as students from Reus, Irun and Vitoria.

 

MUGAK, the Basque Country Architecture Biennial that will be held in San Sebastian between the 7th November and the 31st January, has begun to be projected internationally. The event, organised for the first time this year, will be publicised amongst large numbers of foreign professional, thanks to the collaboration with the Habic Cluster, the association of Basque Hospitality, Wood & Design companies. One of the first events will be this morning in Tabakalera, in front of group of Scandinavian architects.

Since last week and until January, the Biennial is part of the agenda in the trade missions regularly organised between Basque companies and international architects from 18 different countries.

In the first of these trade missions, around twenty Latin American professionals, creators of important projects in Chile, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Argentina, visited the Basque Country with the intention of learning first hand about the quality of Basque design. MUGAK's curator, Pedro Astigarraga, presented the master lines that will guide the MUGAK Biennial, as a meeting point between architecture and society and invited them to visit San Sebastian on the dates of the event.

Today, it will be presented in front of Scandinavian architects in San Sebastian

The next event has been planned for this morning, when the Biennial will be presented to a selected group of architects from Scandinavia, specifically from Denmark, Norway and Sweeden. It will take place in the Habic Cluster's space in the courtyard of Tabakalera.

The Biennial will also be present at major industry events, like the Feria Hábitat, that will take place in Valencia, from the 19th to the 22nd of September. The MUGAK name will travel a few days later, from the 3rd to the 6th of October, to Mexico's capital city, where the Habic Cluster will be hosting an event known as Basque Living in front of approximately one hundred architects from that country, as well as presenting its new permanent office and a showroom of design made in the Basque Country.

A similar event will take place in San Sebastian, on the week of the 18th of October, and it will be attended by around thirty architects and interior designers from France, the guest country on this occasion. The Biennial will be presented at that event, and also some days later, during a visit by around ten Egyptian and Jordanian architects.

Following the opening week of MUGAK, with events planned from the 7th to the 10th of November, the international activity of the Biennial will not stop. First, architects from South East Asia (basically from Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines) will visit on the 20th of November, and approximately twenty professionals from the United States and Canada will arrive at the beginning of January.

Student visits to the Biennial

The San Sebastian Biennial has aroused special interests from architecture and design schools, both nationally and internationally. One of the most unique initiatives taking place under MUGAK is the presence of all the students of the Higher Technical School of Architecture of the Basque Country at the main venue, the Miramar Palace, during the opening week of the event, from the 6th to the 10th of November. Furthermore, the Biennial is organising visits by students from the French architecture schools of Montpellier and Bordeaux, as well as from Reus. Students from the Irun's Kunsthal Advanced Design Centre and Vitoria's Advanced Design and Art School.

MUGAK will include fifty events, with exhibitions, talks, workshops, round tables and it will include spaces for professionals, scholars or businesspeople, as well as for university students and ordinary citizens. The Miramar Palace will be the main venue, although approximately fifteen prominent spaces within the city will also be used.