Barcelona is a great city to be trained in, but when the only people you know are your own colleagues from university, you face two options: to continue collaborating with some studios or to shut yourself off with a partner to live the “wonderful” world of the architecture competitions.
It's well known that in our profession it is basic to have acquaintances or family contacts to start having some projects and, in a way, to become known. Of course, until this moment, everything was this way...or that was what I was told. So I packed my things, put them in a car, and I left for Mallorca.
The truth is that even though some promised project failed, as soon as I arrived, I took advantage of the opportunity of a free position at the Urbanism department at the Architects' Board, and there it began my relationship with the urbanism world. A world that, to be perfectly honest, is totally unknown at the University.
During this period, I alternated my work at the Architects' Board with some architecture offices. I also got some projects, but the love for tiles and balustrades of my clients and my fight against it damaged these relationships, so “goodbye houses”. Despite that, I built my first project, which, even though it was for a family member, the satisfaction of being able to develop some ideas made up for the economic losses.
Then all the crisis talk arrived, but I got my stroke of luck. An open position at the Urbanism department in a city hall. At some point, my colleagues looked at me as a freak, but as time went by, I realised, and so did they, that this was the best choice I could ever make.
This job brought out the opportunity of meeting a well-known urbanism specialist architect from the island which whom I share a studio now. The most fulfilling thing about this relationship was something that very few times happens in our profession: an architect from an older generation treating you as an equal, giving you the chance to learn and sharing his knowledge with you. Honestly, I've never understood how a colleague could have another one working for him from morning till night, poorly paid, far below the profits he provides. This is another of the big hypocrisies that our neoliberal system generates.
The perspectives for the future are not so good. I think we should take advantage of this moment to rethink the role of the architect in our society. Our profession must stop its egocentrism, just as we have been doing until now, and we should realise that besides opening a new way for specialisation, we should be able to be present in other fields where other professionals already are ahead of us.
Personally, I believe that the architect education should be reoriented in order to not generate so much frustration in the future. Architects should be trained to work in all the fields that the profession offers, from a little house rehabilitation to interior design, from construction site management to how to manage and administrate a small office.
Not everything is big museums, kilometrical buildings or TGV stations...at this point is when I truly believe in the Less is more thing.
TO BE CONTINUED... NEXT WEEK MORE!! > "GRAPH PAPER"
IN TREATMENT - METALOCUS.
DIRECTOR: JOSÉ JUAN BARBA. COORDINATION: INÉS LALUETA. ORGANIZATION: INÉS LALUETA, PEDRO NAVARRO. ENGLISH VERSION: KAREN SIMPSON. GUESTS FIRST SEASON: JOSÉ JUAN BARBA, MARINA DIEZ-CASCÓN, SERGIO DIEZ-CASCÓN SOLER, LARA FERNÁNDEZ GONZÁLEZ, CARLOS GERHARD PI-SUÑER, MONTSE PLA GARCÍA-CASTANY, XAVIER NICOLAU CUYÀS, FERNANDO RIAL PONCE, VERÓNICA ROSERO.
