Product Description

AV Monografías 147-148 SPAIN YEARBOOK ESPAÑA 2011

THE GREAT Recession has generated in the West an economy of fear and a culture of repentance. Impelled or imposed by the crisis, a new austerity pervades public budgets and private concerns. Both political discourse and intellectual debate are governed by regret for the excesses and by purpose of amendment, clearing the path for a time of penitence and pentimento. In Europe, the sovereign debt cri- sis that provoked the rescues of Greece and Ireland also forced a change of direction in Spain, where a series economic reforms and social cuts poured oil on the troubled water of the markets, but did not change the unemploy- ment rates or the increasing loss of prestige of the ruling elite. The discouragement of citi- zens and the paralysis of the real-estate market prompted architects to use the crisis to shed material weight and purify the spirit, going back to the basic principles of a discipline that has always set out to do more with less, supplying well-being and beauty with limited technical and economic means.

But the penitential and agitated climate of Europe, with a shrinking international influ- ence, or of the United States, which sees its military and political leadership threatened by its institutional and economic disfunctions, did not spread to the rest of the world. China, which replaced Japan as second world power, cel- ebrated its rise with the opening in Shanghai of the largest expo ever, with the shining presence of the needles of the British pavilion (Thomas Heatherwick) and the wickers of the Span- ish one (Benedetta Tagliabue). Brazil, where Dilma Rousseff replaced Lula as president, ad- vanced in the preparation of the World Cup of 2014 and the Olympic Games of 2016 in Rio, while using the 102-year-old Oscar Niemeyer to export emblematic architectures to cities like Avilés, where a new cultural center represents the will to regenerate a decaying region. South Africa, whose political transition turned Nelson Mandela into a global icon, showed its eco- nomic vigor organizing the first World Cup held in this continent, with the victory of a Spanish team that gave its country one of the few reasons for joy in the year. And the Gulf, driven by oil income, won for Qatar the bid to host the Cup in 2022, an event that will entail the construction of large stadiums that will round off the list of signature cultural works designed in the area by Foster, Nouvel, Koolhaas, Hadid, Herzog & de Meuron and other star architects.

After the rise of the West, today we are wit- nessing the so-called ‘rise of the rest’, and this historical mutation is also expressed in the dif- ferent architectural mood in the mature and the emerging economies. While Europe and the United States preach austerity and admire experiences such as those of Alejandro Ara- vena in Chile or Francis Kéré in Burkina Faso, carried out in contexts of scarcity, an attitude that inspired the congress held in Pamplona under the motto ‘more for less’ – first used by Buckminster Fuller, to whom an exhibition was devoted in Madrid – or the show organized by New York’s MoMA under the title “Small Scale, Big Change”, Asia and the Gulf continue to push a boundless process of urban growth and architectural development. Something similar could be said about sustainability, promoted on either side of the Atlantic with pedagogical and advertising initiatives such as Solar Decathlon – held for the first time in Washington and since 2010 every other year in Madrid, under the aus- pices of the United States Department of Energy and the Spanish government –, and understood in Asia as a new economic field (the manufac- turing of solar panels, which China wishes to lead), or else misunderstood in the Gulf, that can simultaneously house experiments of eco- logical urbanism such as Masdar City by Foster in Abu Dhabi and appoint the same architect to build an air-conditioned stadium to host the Qatar World Cup final.

This small and extraordinarily rich country of the Gulf, which by the way broke a world record with its millionaire purchase of rights over the Barcelona Football Club shirt, was also witness to the greatest international suc- cess of Spanish architecture in the year, the granting of the prestigious Aga Khan Award to the Madinat al-Zahra Museum by Fuensanta Nieto and Enrique Sobejano, who received the prize in a ceremony held in Doha. The Pritzker went to the Japanese duo Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, who picked up the award in New York’s Ellis Island and inaugurated in Europe the oneirically warped Rolex Center in Lausanne, while Sejima acted as curator of a refined and artistic Venice Architecture Bien- nale that gave Koolhaas the Golden Lion and in which young Spanish architects like Antón García-Abril, Andrés Jaque, Selgas Cano or Cero9 had a prominent presence. The section of prizes must also include Toyo Ito for the Impe- riale, Ieoh Ming Pei for the RIBA Gold Medal, Peter Eisenman and David Chipperfield for the Wolf, Kéré for the Swiss Award, Manuel Gal- lego for the Spanish Gold, Lluís Clotet for the National Architecture Award and, last but not least, Rafael Manzano, the first Spaniard to re- ceive the conservative Driehaus, the same year in which the Pope consecrated in Barcelona the Sagrada Familia, a basilica by the already beatified Gaudí whose completion has sparked controversy over several decades…

Balance del año Summary of the Year

Luis Fernández-Galiano 
Días de penitencia Days of Penitence
Rosas en invierno Roses in Winter
España y su fantasma Spain and its Specter
2010, una antología 2010, an Anthology

Escala mayor Larger Scale

Biblioteca y Archivo de Galicia, Santiago Library and Archive of Galicia
Peter Eisenman
Centro cultural, Avilés (Asturias) Cultural Center
Oscar Niemeyer
Complejo Manzana del Revellín, Ceuta Manzana del Revellín Complex
Álvaro Siza
Museo de la Evolución Humana, Burgos Museum of Human Evolution
Juan Navarro Baldeweg

Cultura popular Popular Culture

Auditorio municipal de Teulada (Alicante) Auditorium
Francisco Mangado
Teatro L’Atlàntida, Vic (Barcelona) L’Atlàntida Theater 
Josep Llinàs
Museo de Monteagudo (Murcia) Museum
Amann, Cánovas & Maruri
Centro Cap Vermell, Capdepera (Mallorca) Cap Vermell Center
Barceló & Balanzó

Sedes y marcas Buildings and Brands

Bodegas Portia, Gumiel de Izán (Burgos) Portia Winery
Foster & Partners
Consejo regulador, Roa (Burgos) Regulatory Board 
Barozzi & Veiga
Parque empresarial de Arte Sacro, Sevilla Religious Art Business Park
Suárez & Santas
Colegio Oficial de Arquitectos, Salamanca Institute of Architects
Arroyo & Pemjean

Cohesión social Social Cohesion

Ayuntamiento de Lalín (Pontevedra) Town Hall Building
Mansilla & Tuñón
Aulario Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Sevilla Pablo de Olavide University Lecture Hall
MGM (Morales, De Giles) & Hernández Valencia
Residencia y Centro de Día, Barcelona Residence and Day Care Center
Alday & Jover
Centro de Salud, Badalona (Barcelona) Health Center
Jordi Badia (BAAS)

Programación infantil Children’s Programs

Plaza Ecópolis, Rivas Vaciamadrid (Madrid) Plaza Ecópolis
Ecosistema Urbano
Escuela infantil, Alcorcón (Madrid) Elementary School
Rueda & Pizarro
Centro infantil, Albolote (Granada) Primary School
Alejandro Muñoz Miranda
Universidad Popular Infantil, Gandía (Valencia) Children’s Learning Center 
Paredes & Pedrosa

Residencia básica Basic Residence

131 viviendas protegidas, Mieres (Asturias) 131 Social Dwellings
Zigzag Arquitectura
Viviendas sociales, Lérida Social Housing 
Coll & Leclerc
22 viviendas sociales en El Rastro, Madrid 22 Social Dwellings
Alberola, Díaz-Mauriño & Martorell
Casa de colonias, Castellbell i el Vilar (Barcelona) Summer Camps
OAB, Ferrater & Ayala

Un año en el mundo A Year in the World

Luis Fernández-Galiano
Doce meses en portadas de prensa Twelve Months in Press Covers
Crónica de cuatro estaciones Chronicle of Four Seasons
2010 en doce edificios 2010 in Twelve Buildings

Premios y pérdidas Distinctions and Disappearances