Jordi Badia: "Barcelona's green corridors were a very cutting-edge idea, and it should be further explored."

After being a finalist on numerous occasions and receiving various awards for works such as the Can Framis Museum of the Vila Casas Foundation, architect Jordi Badia (Barcelona, ​​1961) won the FAD Architecture Prize in June for the Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR), designed in collaboration with the Espinet Ubach studio. Badia received the award at his studio, located in a former candy warehouse in the Font d'en Fargues neighborhood of Barcelona, ​​where he moved years ago to work closer to home and maintain a more manageable pace of life. "I'm older now, and I have a degree, but I was thrilled to receive the FAD," he says. His aim is for buildings to also contribute to improving their surroundings. How does the Vall d'Hebron Research Institute do this?

— Right now, the Vall d'Hebron campus is chaotic. It's very complicated because of the slopes and because the buildings have been hastily placed in different directions. If you break a leg and need to go to the trauma hospital, which is halfway up the mountain, you can't get there without a car. The entire VHIR project, and the campus master plan, stems from how to solve this and make the mountain more accessible. You arrange the different uses neatly under a green carpet, and you automatically get level walkways. If the strategic project goes ahead, we'll have three large promenades, a completely green vision of a campus that will be like a park. And all of this will be accompanied by a vertical axis of escalators that we would install from the bottom to the top.

He has said that, instead of imposing forms, he applies strategies. Where does this interest in not crystallizing into a single style come from?

— I've always understood my craft as just that, a craft, not as an artistic strategy. So my interest isn't in showing off, but in trying to find the best garment. Although it's inevitable that a certain way of working will be recognized, I've always avoided having a style. I prefer to ask the place what it needs.

How important is sustainability to you?

— Architecture relates to its context, but this context is not only physical, but also existential. That is, the moment in which we live is also part of that context. Right now, the world is undergoing a series of changes, and it is important that architecture is aware of this. Climate change is paramount, but there are also social changes and changes in how we perceive the relationship of new architecture with the past. Now, when you design a building, you must ensure that it functions well thermodynamically; that is, that it is capable of operate by candlelight, as we were saying about the office building we built on Llull Street.

What does this mean?

— We've installed awnings that open and close automatically, hence the sail analogy. It's important that buildings can function with little or no energy. This means providing excellent protection from solar radiation. Secondly, ensuring good ventilation. And thirdly, making the most of the thermal inertia of the materials used.

How was it approached at the Vall d'Hebron Research Institute?

— It's a center that, due to its very nature, already has significant energy consumption. The fact that the building is underground provides it with considerable thermal stability, as does the protection offered by the arcades that provide shade. Furthermore, it has insulating fiberglass exterior curtains that keep it cool in the summer, which is a problem we face at our latitude. In general, the building "breathes" through three courtyards, which are also covered with awnings, and all of this operates automatically. This has become the most important aspect of starting any project.

Dominique Perrault raised the issue in an interview on the ARA. One of the key aspects of Barcelona's upcoming year as World Capital of Architecture should be the preservation of 20th-century architecture, and more recent architecture, as heritage. What are your thoughts on this?

— We used to have a rupture with the architecture of the past. In the 20th century, we felt compelled to prove our modernity. But that demand no longer exists, because it's meaningless. Instead, we seek the opposite: a certain continuity with the past. Contemporary architecture, or perhaps the sensibilities of today's citizens, appreciate the return of that lost continuity, which is intertwined with social awareness, to which contemporary architecture must respond: resources cannot be squandered. Therefore, if a building exists and can continue to exist, it deserves to be preserved, regardless of its aesthetic or architectural value. The best sustainability is the kind that avoids construction. Therefore, the best course of action is to conserve, modernize, and improve it.

How do you see the relationship between the new and the old in the same building?

— You don't do things like you used to, when you tried to make the new things clearly different from the old. Now the new things are meant to blend in with the old, so you don't end up with two separate buildings, which is what used to happen.

He was the curator, along with Félix Arranz, of the first Catalan pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale, Vogadors. Some ten years later, in 2023, Joan Roig and Carme Ribas presented the exhibition The New Realists: Catalan and Balearic Architecture since the 2008 Crisis

— We were trying to explain an architecture that I felt had a future and that was just getting started at that time. There had been a previous exhibition, Sensitive matterThis style has worked for many years and has been a kind of archetypal example of Catalan architecture. It has been very Catalan and not very widespread, neither in Spain nor in Europe, and I think that gives it even more value. Furthermore, at that time it was associated with a certain austerity stemming from the crisis we had suffered. But I think it was much more than that, and that it implied a certain return to essentiality, which has always been linked to Catalan architecture. That is to say, the form doesn't come from the architect's will or an external style, but rather has a lot to do with how it has been built. And in this, I think it has been very honest. It has evolved a great deal over the years, and each team has guided it a little in their own direction. And what I think the exhibition of the new realists does is confirm this: perhaps Rowers It was like the beginning and The New Realists It was the coda.

Barcelona's left-wing coalition En Comú Podem has demanded that Mayor Jaume Collboni, as a condition for negotiating the budget, resume the green corridors plan. What challenges does Barcelona now face?

— Barcelona has been stagnant for many years, lacking energy and vitality, although there is a great deal of commercial activity and tourism, which I believe has gotten out of hand and that someone should start regulating. For many years, there hasn't been a strong force to put us, as in other times, at the forefront of the most theoretical ideas about the city, and with the green corridors, we regained that position. I think you'll find very few people, or at least few professionals, who are against it. It's clear that Consell de Cent street has changed radically. It would be completely absurd for anyone to say they want to return it to what it was before.

Is it necessary to renaturalize cities?

— Undoubtedly. Cities have become so densely populated that private car transport is becoming impractical. Therefore, we must promote other means of transport such as walking, cycling, or public transport. This is a radical change from how things were a hundred years ago. Although somewhat aggressively implemented, the introduction of these green corridors seemed to me an extraordinary idea that I believe has worked well. I think even the detractors would now say that it hasn't gone as badly as they thought, and even the shops on these streets have surely improved. The fact is that anyone strolling through Barcelona, if they have to choose a street to walk horizontally, will choose Consell de Cent. And this demonstrates that the project was a great idea. The green corridors were a very cutting-edge concept, and we should continue exploring it. If this isn't being done, it's for purely political and electoral reasons.

His studio is now over thirty years old. How has the profession of architect changed over these years?

— It has changed radically. In fact, it has become practically unfeasible. When I started, projects were done with few plans and without so much bureaucracy, and fees were regulated by the College of Architects of Catalonia (COAC) until 2008, but this regulation disappeared. Furthermore, we are a country with many architects, because we have many architecture schools that are constantly churning out architects, which has driven prices down. So now we are looking at prices that are half of what they were in 2008 and a fifth of the fees in France, Switzerland, or Germany. But the worst part of this perfect storm is not just the drop in fees, but that the production of a project has become much more complicated.

In what aspects?

— The public administration has adopted a very protective approach, introducing numerous regulations, and therefore, projects require extensive documentation to ensure their validity. Different software models have also been introduced, such as Building Information Modeling (BIM), which, while offering significant advantages, also demands considerably more work in project production. And yet, we have doubled the work involved in carrying out a project while halving the fees. This has resulted in a highly unstable business environment for architects. Firms are finding it extremely difficult to survive.

Not only to get ahead, but also to provide jobs for young people.

— In many firms, the hiring practices for young architects are appalling, both in terms of contract types and, above all, salaries. Furthermore, firms have been forced to purchase increasingly powerful computers with absurdly expensive software, meaning that most firms are currently operating illegally. The majority of firms use illegal software and have questionable hiring practices.

The situation is paradoxical, because Catalan architecture is an international benchmark, and architecture is one of Barcelona's tourist attractions.

— Many years ago, Xavier Trias said something at a dinner that has stuck with me: Catalans aren't the best at practically anything, but if there's one area we can excel at, and one we should promote as a nation, it's architecture and biomedical research. However, while biomedical research has received significant financial and media support in recent years, architecture hasn't. Architecture has always been on the margins; it's never clear whether we're part of culture or the economy. And if you look at cultural awards, architects don't receive nearly as many as those in the visual arts, music, or theater, nor has it enjoyed much political support. Catalonia's identity is inextricably linked to its culture and language, and therefore, if we aren't politically capable of recognizing that our identity, our strength, lies in our culture and language, we're doomed; the country will disappear.