Three housing blocks promoted by the Balearic Housing Institute (IBAVI), all of them in Ibiza, are among the twenty works awarded by the XVI Spanish Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism (BEAU), which from Thursday (and until 21 November) exhibits its selection of the twenty best buildings signed by Spanish professionals during 2021 and 2022 (out of a total of 500 presented), at the Royal Artillery Factory of Seville. IBAVI has distinguished itself for its firm commitment to innovative and environmental architecture.
After years of buildings weighed down by the pressing effects of the 2008 economic crisis, the Sevillian architects María González García, Juanjo López de la Cruz and Ángel Martínez García-Posada, curators of this BEAU, which carries the motto Medium Term, have wanted to look a little further and distinguish works in which they see seeds of the future for their discipline. This is materialized, they say, in works that “demonstrate a strong social commitment, a deep cultural value, a humanistic confidence and a strategic proactive capacity.”
It should be added that almost all of the awarded works exhibit, despite their diversity, environmental sensitivity, refined formal restraint and exquisite attention to detail.
Housing dominates among the distinguished typologies, starting with the three Balearic works mentioned, signed by Peris/Toral – the experimental Raw Rooms (built with compacted earth) –, Tizón/Ripoll and Guardiet/Torres. And continuing through the HArquitectes social housing in Gavà. Or, on another scale, the four homes in Garralda by Núñez/Gutiérrez/Carrascosa or the Casa Cortijo, in Extremadura, by Vidal/Catalán.
The selection, which covers various generations, typologies and dimensions, also includes institutional work by professionals with longer careers, such as the Córdoba Library, by García de Paredes and García Pedrosa, or the New Munch Museum, in Oslo, by Herreros/Richter , or the CAP Cotet by BAAS Arquitectura.
On the other hand, works of different ambition stand out but all notable for their careful insertion into the environment or their desire for natural recovery, such as the restoration of the Rec Comptal, by Carles Enrich; the restoration of hermitages on the French Camino de Santiago as it passes through Aragon, by Sebastián Arquitectos; or the rehabilitation, in Galicia, of the Ciprián shipyard, by Fuentespenedo Arquitectos.
There are also public space works, such as the remodeling of the madrileña plaza de España and its surroundings, by Fernández-Ordóñez/La Casta/Porras Isla; and Olimpo Nômade, the ambulatory equipment for Langarita/Navarro music festivals.
The list of twenty awarded works is completed by the edge of Porte de Son, by Creus e Carrasco; The Dark Line, by Michele i Miquel; the library and theater of Martínez/Matos/Montenegro/Gelabert; the town hall of Fuentes, in Laguillo; the industrial recovery elements Blasón, from BURR; and the Reggio School of Office for Political Innovation.
This BEAU, which has awarded ten research prizes and twenty-five for Final Year Projects, will travel from Seville to Coruña, Cartagena and Zaragoza, and perhaps to other Spanish and foreign cities, using a system of easily foldable and transportable display boxes.
