¿Anyway Architecture,? Mies 2013

Twenty years ago, during the debate on the "Anyway" Congress (*) in Barcelona about whether the architecture should be a matter or program, the debate seemed to be a consequence, - excessively heavy or heady, about the interpretation change of architectural discourse, after the deep influence that poststructuralist tenets by Deleuze or Derrida, were exercising in all theoretical architectural discourses.

'Emerging Architect Special Mention'. Nave de Música Matadero (Red Bull Music Academy) Mies van der Rohe Award 2013. Salón / Langarita-Navarro Arquitectos. Photography © por Luis Díaz Díaz

Le Fresnoy project, admiration and irritation caused alike, even someone heralded the end of the architecture with such postulates. In that context we were with Le Fresnoy's ideas.

Currently, far from those theoretical discourse, the debate seems to be on the same station after the jury's verdict of Mies van der Rohe Award 2013, won by architects, Henning Larsen Architects, Batteríið Architects and Studio Olafur Eliasson, with Reykjavik Concert Hall and Conference Centre in Iceland, and having been the 'Emerging Architect Special Mention' award to María Langarita and Víctor Navarro for the Nave de Música Matadero (Red Bull Music Academy) in Madrid, Spain.

The result is not surprising, knowing the questionable selection of finalist projects and jury components, and also not surprising that the members of the jury were unable to escape the notorious involvement of an not-architect and the value of his great contribution in the winning project.

The Auditorium Harpa is a project with a program well resolved in all its aspects and brilliantly executed, however is this enough to be awarded the Mies van der Rohe? probably not, there are many good projects, something else is what makes a project stand out over others and that something else in this case is certainly exceptional is its facade, designed by artist Olafur Eliasson.

A few months ago we presented the project, now awarded, in an article entitled "When the Guest is better than the Author. Olafur Eliasson." Not the first time this Icelandic artist has collaborated with architects or involved in architectural projects, one such occasion was Olafur involvement with architect Kjetil Thorse, in 2007, with the Serpentine Gallery pavilion, at London.

Collaborations between architecture and art, between architects and artists, are very common, however what happens when the work by the Guest is better than work by the Author?, Who really has been awarded Mies van der Rohe Award 2013, the artist or the architects?

The 'Emerging Architect Special Mention' award to María Langarita and Víctor Navarro, without forgetting the brilliance of their project, again place us in a similar position. The project, of course, is a good project, is the result of intervening on an existing building, the nave 15 Matadero, with a project that not anyone is slipping, is more scenographic than architectural, organizing a program, a distribution of interior space, conceptually like the programs for employees in google headquarters, in this case, (the Nave de Música Matadero) is the same for those who use the facilities under the sponsorship of Red Bull.

Interior architectures, ephemeral architecture, programmatic architectures, scenographic architecture, decorated architectures, architectures, without any doubt, however, if we questioned the Spanish intervention in the Venice Biennale for his detachment from reality, we are convinced that the results by Mies van der Rohe Award are bright reflections of an exhausted period, are Anyways.

* "Any Congresses" organized by Peter Eisenman, was held in different cities accompanied by a second particle, that defined part of the contents of the proposed discussion to participants. In 1993 Barcelona was "way" resulting "Anyway".

The jury members who selected the finalists for 2013 are: Wiel Arets, Chair of the Jury, Principal, Wiel Arets Architects, Maastricht/Dean, College of Architecture, IIT, Chicago; Pedro Gadanho, Curator, Contemporary Architecture, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York; Antón García-Abril, Principal, Ensamble Studio; Louisa Hutton, Principal, Sauerbruch Hutton Architects, Berlin; Kent Martinussen, CEO, The Danske Arkitekter Center (DAC), Copenhagen; Frédéric Migayrou, Director, Architecture & Design, Centre Pompidou, Paris; Ewa Porebska, Editor-in-Chief, Architektura-murator, Warsaw; Giovanna Carnevali, Secretary of the Jury, Director, Fundació Mies van der Rohe, Barcelona.

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Mies van der Rohe Award 2013. Harpa de Reikiavik by Henning Larsen Architects, Batteríið Architects and Studio Olafur Eliasson. Photography © Nic Lehoux

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JOSÉ JUAN BARBA

José Juan Barba (1964). Architect from the Madrid School of Architecture (ETSAM) in 1991. He received his PhD in Architecture from ETSAM in 2004, graduating summa Cum laude with the doctoral thesis "Inventions: New York vs. Rem Koolhaas, Bernard Tschumi, Piranesi." In 1991, he received a Special Mention in the Spanish National Graduation Awards. Until 1997, he worked as an advisor to several NGOs. In 1992, he founded his architectural practice in Madrid (www.josejuanbarba.com).

He is an architectural critic and, since 1998, Editor-in-Chief of the internationally acclaimed bilingual architecture journal METALOCUS (Spanish/English), recipient of several national and international awards.

Barba is an Associate Professor at the University of Alcalá and a member of several research groups. He has been invited to participate in numerous international forums on architecture and urbanism, including the II Forum of Mexican World Heritage Cities, Urban Development, History and Modernity, organized by the Pan-American Committee for Urban Development and Historical Heritage; the World Urban Development Forum (FMDU), held in Culiacán, Sinaloa, Mexico; and the International Conference on Architecture and Urbanism from the Perspective of Women Architects. He has also been invited as lecturer and guest critic at numerous national and international institutions, including the National Building Museum, Roma Tre University, Politecnico di Milano, University of Genoa, Université Pierre Mendès France Grenoble, the Madrid and Barcelona Schools of Architecture, National Autonomous University of Mexico, the Faculty of Architecture in Montevideo, the Schools of Architecture of Medellín and Ecuador, Universidad Iberoamericana, IE University, as well as the Schools of Architecture of Zaragoza, Valladolid, Málaga, Granada, Seville, and A Coruña, among others.

He has extensive professional experience in architecture, urbanism, landscape intervention, and territorial regeneration. His work has received numerous awards, including First Prize in the “Gran Vía Posible” competition for Delirious Gran Vía, Madrid; recognition for the Rivers Interpretation Centre in Zamora, awarded and exhibited at the World Architecture Festival 2008; and recognition for the Santa Bárbara Park project in Toledo. He was also awarded the Erich Degner Prize for Architecture (1995), promoted by the BBVA Foundation. His project for a Day Centre for the Elderly was included in Volume 3 of the Madrid Architecture Guide published by the Official College of Architects of Madrid (COAM) in 2007. His work has been widely published in national and international books and journals.

He served as Maître de Conférences at the Institut d’Urbanisme de Grenoble, Université Pierre Mendès France Grenoble, during the 2013–14 academic year, following his appointment through a European open competition. His work has been published internationally. He regularly serves on academic and professional juries, including the editorial competition jury for the journal Quaderns (2011), the selection committee for the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Awards (2007–present), and the jury panels for EUROPAN 13 (2015–16) and TRANSFER, Zurich (2019). He was also invited to participate in the Biennale di Venezia 2016 as part of the exhibition Spaces of Exception / Spazi d’Eccezione.

He has authored several books, including "The Dark Line. michele&miquel, dA Vision Design" (2024), "CONGRESO ANYWAY. La ciudad de las ciudades" (2020), "#Positions" (2016), and "Inventions: New York vs. Rem Koolhaas, Bernard Tschumi, Piranesi" (2015). He has also contributed to publications such as "Espacio público Gran Vía. La Ciudad del Turismo" (2020), "Spaces of Exception / Spazi d’Eccezione" (2016), "La manzana de la discordia" (2015), and "Contemporary Japanese Architecture: New Territories" (2015), as well as chapters in numerous books, including "Women Architects: A Professional Challenge" (2009), "21st Century Architectures" (2007), "Ruta de la Plata, New Conquerors of Space" (2019), and "The City of Tourism" (2020).

Selected awards include:

• “SANTIAGO AMÓN” AWARD, award for the promotion of architecture, COAM Madrid, 2000.
• “PANAYIOTI MIXELI AWARD,” SADAS-PEA, award for the promotion of architecture, Athens, 2005.
• “PIERRE VAGO” ICAC. International Committee of Art Critics Award, London, 2005.
• FAD Award 07, Ephemeral Interventions, First Prize, M.C. Escher Exhibition, Arquin-FAD, Barcelona, 2007.
• World Architecture Festival, Center for Research and Interpretation of the Rivers, Tera, Esla, and Órbigo, Finalist, Barcelona, 2008.
• Gran Vía Posible, First Prize, Delirious Gran Vía, Madrid, 2010.
• Reform of the Río Segura Surroundings, Award, Murcia, 2010.

Published on: May 1, 2013

Cite:

metalocus, JOSÉ JUAN BARBA

"¿Anyway Architecture,? Mies 2013" METALOCUS. Accessed

<http://www.metalocus.es/en/news/anyway-architecture-mies-2013> ISSN 1139-6415