BIArch Journal

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Notes from the Director

Publications

A foundational event always has a symbolic component. As the sequence of inaugural occasions becomes more intense, this symbolic nature fades and gives way to a reality that is increasingly solid, tangible, exciting and complex.

It is now two years since the Barcelona Institute of Architecture began its public activity. Since then, the BIArch Open Lectures, the BIArch Open Seminars (Energy, Reviewing Architectural Knowledge Formats and Work in Progress), its MBIArch Post-Professional Degree Program, September 2010, and professional symposiums (Economic Crisis and Architectural Change, and the upcoming Middle East Conference) have formalized what the BIArch is and where it is heading.

The Institute walks towards the constitution of a plural space directed at conceptual analysis and the development of design instruments for contemporary architectural practice, where the interchange of knowledge among professionals and researchers defines a productive place from which to operate in a professional reality subject to constant redefinition.

In this context, and embarking on a new field of production, the Barcelona Institute of Architecture starts 2011 with the launch of the BIArch Press, an editorial platform to disseminate the research and contributions produced by the professionals, teachers and postgraduate participants linked to the Institute.

As a foretaste of the books and publications that will be appearing over the coming months, BIArch Press presents the first issue of the BIArch Journal. In a twice-yearly periodical format, and regularly in its digital version, the BIArch Journal will reflect the foremost activities to have taken place during the previous semester and offer a foretaste of those coming up in the future.

Parallel to the MBIArch program, then, this first issue reflects the conceptual, analytical and methodological approach proposed for the start of the Institute’s academic program. The texts by Professor Agustí Obiol and Associate Professor Juan Gallostra outline the bases of the contents studied in Building Structure and Sustainable Building Services, respectively.

At the same time, the interview with BIArch’s Visiting Professor, Pier Vittorio Aureli, puts forward some of the concepts about the city and the work carried out in the course of a month in his seminar.

Also, looking ahead to the design aspect of the second part of the program, Associate Professor Joan Roig, along with the photographic work of Andrés Flajszer, examines the notion of landscape by means of a productive look at the territory that is quite distinct from a formal or purely aesthetic approach.

With their Design Studios, Visiting Professors Stan Allen and David Adjaye represent the meeting of international practice and local reality on the outskirts of Barcelona and in the Igualada Project, respectively.

Finally, in an extensive article Professor Iñaki Ábalos sets out the intellectual substratum and propositional nature underlying his latest academic investigation into the subject of the Verticalscape.

We hope that these first contributions to the BIArch Journal will serve to generate new discursive lines among current and future postgraduate participants, and among professionals and professors, both within and outside the Barcelona Institute of Architecture.

Jorge García de la Cámara
BIArch Director

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