The architecture that must help us to live better
These days Barcelona is full of architects from all over the world. Tomorrow, the congress of the International Union of Architects opens at the Tres Xemeneies in Sant Adrià, which over the course of this week will debate the great challenges and unknowns facing the profession. Just like thirty years ago, when there was also a world congress of architects that almost died of success – sessions had to be held at the Palau Sant Jordi – the expectation is high, although it is expected that, at least in the organizational sphere, the spaces will be adapted to the needs. What is curious is that the debate topics have not changed much, even if it seems so from the language used, but the context is very different.
The main change is that the fascination with architectural stars has ended, and a good part of the 10,000 congress participants who are coming are children of the 2008 crisis, that is, of the real estate crash that eventually became general and which not only paralyzed projects but also made precariousness and savings key factors in architecture. They have also experienced the climate crisis and have incorporated it as their own – construction accounts for almost 40% of greenhouse gases – assuming they are responsible for mitigating it. Furthermore, they lived through the pandemic crisis, which largely led to rethinking how the houses we live in should be to adapt them to a more digital society with more diverse family nuclei.
The World Architecture Congress showcases research carried out in Catalonia on both social housing and the relationship with landscape and ecology.
What remains between the two congresses is the will of Barcelona, and Catalonia, to contribute its vision to the global debate. And not only through exhibitions – those of the congress and those linked to the World Capital of Architecture – but also by focusing on one of the great concerns of the moment, housing, which is also the theme of our dossier. Today we look at what architects are doing to tackle some of these challenges, both in innovations in apartment typology – which have now incorporated a less hierarchical design of rooms – and in the emphasis on energy saving by using structural systems to ensure better ventilation, more light, and intermediate spaces that allow for temperature regulation.
But, in addition to thoroughly explaining some examples, seeing the pioneering impulse from the public sector, and talking to industry leaders, such as the Frenchman Jean-Philippe Vassal and the Catalan Marta Perís, we also wanted to look further ahead and offer a more complex reflection on architecture. We do this through the special supplement "Ara Diumenge" dedicated to the Olot-based RCR team – made up of Rafael Aranda, Carme Pigem, and Ramon Vilalta – the most international Catalan studio. They are the only Catalans to have won a Pritzker Prize and are leaders in understanding architecture from a cultural and, above all, a landscape perspective. In this debate on architecture and nature, also central to the Barcelona congress, their vision is pioneering and disruptive. All in all, examples that show that there is a generation of architects in Catalonia who are clear that, both at the most everyday level and in the great spaces of nature, architecture must help us improve life.
