After a successful first edition in
Granada, TAC! The Urban Architecture Festival is already celebrating its second edition in two Spanish cities, first, the doors were opened in València with the
"temporary Mediterranean pavilion", designed by the architect
Manuel Bouzas, and now in Donostia-San Sebastián with the
"Lost Forest" project, designed by architects
Julia Ruiz-Cabello Subiela and
Santiago Del Águila.
The initiative, promoted by the General Secretariat of Urban Agenda, Housing and Architecture of the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda (MITMA) together with the Arquia Foundation, seeks to explore in this edition the role of architecture in the face of the impact of the climate emergency in the urban environment, providing solutions that help mitigate its consequences.
The construction of the pavilion aims to transfer the problems generated by forest fires to urban environments and draw attention to this problem head-on. The proposal is inspired by the morphology of Mount Urgull, a sculptural symbol, and lung of the city, to confront it by rising as an iconic structure composed of burned tree trunks.
Lost Forest TAC Pavilion! 2023, Julia Ruiz-Cabello Subiela and Santiago Del Águila. Photography by Mikel Blasco.
Sculptural in nature, it is also a space of refuge that seeks to remain in the memory of those who visit it and question our disconnection and distance from this reality, bringing a fragment of lost forest closer to the city, in the form of a walkable monument. The species is black pine from the eight fires that in June 2022 devastated almost 15,000 hectares in Navarra.
"We understand our pavilion as a place of transit and contemplation, a sensory walk through the majesty of nature that, although burned, continues to create spaces for reflection."
Julia Ruiz-Cabello Subiela and Santiago Del Águila.
In Spain, these catastrophes show a constant increase in their frequency and severity. It has been detected that 40% of the hectares burned in the European Union in 2022 are located in our country. Forest health is declining dramatically and recovery could take decades.
Lost Forest TAC Pavilion! 2023, Julia Ruiz-Cabello Subiela and Santiago Del Águila. Photography by Adriá Goula.
The construction of the pavilion has been possible thanks to the involvement and commitment of people and companies that share the values that accompany the project. Thanks to Santos Casajús and his company Maderas Larreta, in charge of planning the use of the burned mountains in the Puente la Reina area (Navarra), the architects were able to learn up close the work of the forestry services on the ground. These have been the ones who, interested in making known their important work in the forests, have collaborated with the project by providing all the wood for the construction.
Lost Forest represents a turning point in Julia and Santiago's professional practice. In this collaboration, the architects fuse their experimental knowledge of technique, aesthetic, and discursive value with the rural and urban environment. It is a new personal challenge on a constructive scale, a fruitful collaboration, and a lasting bond.
Lost Forest TAC Pavilion! 2023, Julia Ruiz-Cabello Subiela and Santiago Del Águila. Photography by Adriá Goula.
The pavilion will witness several talks such as the one given by Mónica Parrilla, a member of Greenpeace, on the large forest fires, colloquiums on climate missions, talks on wood week, a workshop given by José María Torres under the title Greening is giving visa to the culture of the earth or a performance by the artist Koldobika Jauregui.
The program is completed with an exhibition at the Añarbe Space, where you can see a selection of outstanding projects presented to the ideas competition, both for its Valencian and San Sebastian headquarters, a set of projects that have provided highly original responses to the challenges of climate emergency.
