A seminar on good architectural practices for housing will close the Biennial MUGAK tomorrow
2018 January 25
- The Regional Minister Iñaki Arriola will open the lectures at 9:15 am in the Santa Teresa Convent in San Sebastian; he will be followed by 14 speakers coming from the Basque Country, Navarre, Madrid and Bordeaux.
- The lectures will show specific cases of building rehabilitation, pilot projects, examples of "Passivhaus"-buildings, the regeneration of whole neighbourhoods as well as outstanding works by renowned architects.
- This weekend (Friday, Saturday, Sunday) will offer the last chance to visit the RCR Arquitectes exhibition in the Miramar Palace.
Tomorrow, a seminar entitled "Housing Architecture"’ will close the first edition of the Basque Country International Architecture Biennial MUGAK. Throughout the morning, several lectures will share good practices for architecture related to housing, and especially to public housing in the Basque Country as well as in Navarre, Madrid and Bordeaux.
The seminar opening session at 9:15 am will be presided by Iñaki Arriola, Minister for Environment, Regional Planning and Housing of the Basque Government, the Ministry that has promoted the Biennial. Afterwards, 14 professionals will present the details of different successful cases in short lectures of 15 minutes each. The seminar will take place in the Santa Teresa Convent in San Sebastián, future home of the Institute of Contemporary Architecture of the Basque Country and permanent headquarters of the Biennial MUGAK.
The projects that will be presented tomorrow include the exhibition "Housing the Basque Country. Vivienda Pública en Euskadi" [Public Housing in the Basque Country], which will be shown in Bilbao this year and explained tomorrow by the architects Asier Santas and Luis Suárez. Later, the seminar will be divided in three blocks. The first one will focus on specific projects that will show "three different proposals to a common problem”. Aitor Fernández Oneka will speak about "La Casa del Arco", a historic building in Sestao that triggered a social and urban regeneration process; Cristina Acha and Miguel Zaballa will explain their project for a public residential park; and Germán Velázquez (VArquitectos), a specialist in "passivhaus" from Navarre, will explain his construction project for a large tower with 171 dwellings in Bolueta (Bilbao).
The next block will focus on the latest developments being implemented in the Basque Country, which will be “the driving force of a new urban regeneration”. A good example is Txomin Enea in San Sebastian, where the development of 109 council flats at regulated prices is planned, as the Local Councillor Enrique Ramos will explain. Another topic will be the rehabilitation of full neighbourhoods, such as Coronación in Vitoria, which is part of the European "SmartEnCity" project, aimed at creating CO2-free intelligent cities. It will be presented by Carlos Quindós, General Manager of the state-owned enterprise VISESA. Pablo Otaola will talk about Zorrotzaurre, a design by Zaha Hadid that will transform a former industrial area in Bilbao into the new entrance "hall" to the city over the river.
The third and last block will present three studios that look a long way into the future of residential architecture. Located in Vitoria, Aurora Fernández and Javier Mozas are the founders of the magazine "a+t". In their lecture, entitled "Density is home", they will address their proposal to promote a compact city through research and analysis. The architect from Madrid Blanca Lleó will talk about her projects in places "between private life and public spaces" in a lecture entitled "Viviendo entre viviendas" [Housing among houses].
The seminar will be closed by the French architects Marjan Hessamfar and Joe Verons, whose work includes “a commitment to environmental quality in every project from the first steps, so that architecture respects and promotes the landscape in which it is placed”. It was precisely this work which won them the Housing Award of the French Academy of Architecture in 2017.
Registration to the event is still open and free under the following link.
Closing of Exhibitions
Tomorrow's seminar will be the last public event of the Biennial, although some MUGAK exhibitions will still be open for visits. The Miramar Palace shows will finish this Sunday, including the outstanding 'RCR Arquitectes. Creatividad compartida' [Shared Creativity]. 'A fine line: Scenarios for bordering conditions', shown in the Santa Teresa convent, will also finish on Sunday. 'La ciudad que perdimos. Gestión del patrimonio urbano en San Sebastián, 1950-2017' [The City We Lost. Urban Heritage Management, 1950-2017] will remain in the convent until the 25th of February.
In the Carlos Santamaría Centre of the University of the Basque Country - UPV, the models of 'Análisis Técnico de Construcciones Históricas' [Technical Analysis of Historic Buildings] can be visited until the 30th of January. Miren Doiz's installation in Tabakalera will be closed on the 31st Finally, the Museum Cemento Rezola will host Elisa Valero's exhibition 'Concrete Work' until the 24th of February.
