The "Rowers" exhibition in Toulouse
Between 20 June and 14 September this year, the Southern Centre for Architecture and the City (CMAV) in Toulouse hosted the exhibition 'Rowers, Young Architecture in Catalonia and the Balearic Islands', featuring the project which Catalonia and the Balearic Islands exhibited at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2012.
Conceived by Jordi Badia and Félix Arranz and produced by the Ramon Llull Institute in collaboration with the COAC and the COAIB, ‘Rowers’ highlights the importance of austere architecture based on respect for the environment and its users, taking a quotation from Jorge Oteiza as its basic premise: 'He who forges ahead creating something new does so like a rower, moving forward but back-paddling, looking behind him, towards the past, towards what exists, so as to be able to reinvent its underpinnings.'
Thus, through the works of new Catalan and Balearic architects, the aim is to demonstrate that this kind of architecture is not just an automatic response to the economic crisis but a cultural and aesthetic trend that is directly connected to a whole intellectual, technical and social tradition of Catalan and Balearic architecture which has remained in place even when the international context was calling for other formal and expressive representations. It also makes a connection with the international trends that were already alerting us to the excesses of certain types of architecture in recent years.
The COAC has also developed a specific app that provides a guide to Catalan and Balearic architecture, featuring information on the 151 works and projects in the ‘Context’ section of the ‘Rowers’ exhibition.
The organisers of the ‘Rowers’ exhibition in Toulouse enjoyed the support of the companies CRICURSA, ESCOFET, FLEXBRICK and LAMP.
For more information on the exhibition, visit the Toulouse CMAV website.
Organised by: Southern Centre for Architecture and the City (CMAV)
From: June 20th to September 14th
Follow the 'YES to Architecture' campaign
In the context of the preparation of the LCSP (Law on Professional Associations and Services), the Architects' Association of Catalonia has been working in order to support architecture and reveal the social role of architects. To this end, the COAC has made two videos, for which we are asking your help to disseminate.
The first video, What it is to be an Architect, is a Catalan adaptation of an original production by the American Institute of Architects (AIA), which was presented last June and is already proving to be a great success on social networks, where it has already been viewed 2,900 times. The other video sums up the YES to Architecture campaign, and has been visited over 1,800 times.
You can also download the YES to Architecture logo and use it as your screensaver or send it to your friends.
You can follow us on our Twitter account @COACatalunya with the hashtag #SÍalaArquitectura.
View all the digitized versions of Quaderns
You can now consult all the issues of the Quaderns journal from 1944 to 2010 with a new feature that makes it quicker and easier to view each issue in the 'Publications' section.
The digitization of 66 years of the history of Quaderns has become a milestone in the dissemination of architecture, borne out by the fact that between 2009 and November 2013 some 235,000 views from all over the world were recorded.
View the digitized Quaderns journals here
Download the book on the history of the Association
The book Architects’ Association of Catalonia. 1874-1962 looks back over the first half-century of the Association from its foundation through to its move to Plaça Nova.
According to its authors, architects Enric Granell and Antoni Ramon, the book 'focuses on relating the cultural activities of architects’ associations and at the same time provides a history of Catalan architecture from the perspective of its local associations.' In short, it takes you on a journey through the living history of the collective, represented by a series of well-known names.
The achievements of the men and women who have consolidated the Association show that 'over a century and a half, Catalan architects have understood that they have a role to play in public life and a duty to perform it'.
Taking as a starting point the embryo of the current association, the Architects’ Association of Catalonia, the book covers the almost nine decades of the organization through to its move into the building that Xavier Busquets designed in Plaça Nova, opposite the Cathedral, in 1962.
From this link you can view and download the book about the Association