On Yona Friedman a conversation with José Juan Barba

Emmanuele Lo Giudice (Palermo, Italia, 1975) es arquitecto y artista italiano, ha participado en diversas importantes exposiciones y festivales internacionales de arte y arquitectura en Italia, Suiza, Venezuela, Alemania, España y Colombia:FESTARCH de Perugia 2011; Hamburg Art Week 2012; Museo de Arquitectura Leopoldo Rother de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia en Bogota, la Casa Velasquez en Madrid,  la Universidad de Arquitectura de Venecia IUAV y ARCHIZOOM en Lausanne.

Desde el año 2010, Yona Friedman junto con Emmanuele Lo Giudice han desarrollado algunos projectos, analizando especialmente el tema del museo y llegando a soluciones aún más radicales con respecto a otros proyectos de Friedman, estudiando los siguientes proyectos: Venice Street Museum 2012; Perugia Street Museum 2011, Venice; The Museum of Civilization 2010.

El trabajo de Emmanuele Lo Giudice es de carácter multidisciplinar, donde la arquitectura, el dibujo, la fotografía y el ready-made se convierten en los instrumentos de análisis crítico de la arquitectura y de la ciudad.  Sus trabajos han sido adquiridos para el importante Archivio Progetti IUAV de Venecia y algunos de sus obras y artículos han sido publicados en ABITARE y por SKIRA.

La idea central en estos proyectos es que la tierra está sobre-construida, por lo tanto lo que se requiere no son más edificios, sino aprender a administrar de manera creativa el espacio con el que contamos. Se entiende así la arquitectura y el urbanismo como marcos para la vida y la creatividad humana. Se cuestiona el protagonismo que puede llegar a tener el edificio, permitiendo que éste se imponga ante el espectador y compita directamente con la exposición. Museos públicos, de bajo presupuesto, que no tienen necesariamente que ser edificios, sino un despliegue visual y una transformación conceptual de esta nueva forma de admirar el espacio, un museo enfocado al contenido y administración de un espacio no construido.

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.

Yona Friedman was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1923, and pass away Paris, France, February 21, 2020. He studied at the Technical University in Budapest (Budapesti Műszaki és Gazdaságtudományi Egyetem) and in Haifa. His work has spanned areas ranging from architecture, art and animated film to education and writing. He has participated in numerous art biennials including Shanghai, Venice and Documenta 11. His highly visionary ideas have nurtured various generations of architects and urbanists, influencing groups such as Archigram and even Kenzo Tange, who declared as such in 1970 in Osaka.

In 1956 he published L'architecture mobile, his manifesto which conceived of an urban structure on piles, appropriate for spaces where building is not possible or permitted. This also became the foundational document of the GEAM, Groupe d'étude d'architecture mobile. He created urban concepts such as the Spatial City, based on the free organisation of a city by citizens using low-cost mobile and reusable modules. In 1965 he founded, together with Ionel Schein, Walter Jonas and others, the GIAP, Groupe International d'Architecture Prospective.

From the 1960’s he also became interested in animated film making which would lead him to propose a series of do-it-yourself construction manuals with simple pictograms addressing basic questions, which we could summarise under the title L´habitat c’est mon affaire. Comment habiter la terre (Habitat is my business: how to inhabit the earth). These were edited by the United Nations and given broad distribution in India, South America and Africa.