Alberto Veiga, the co-founder of the internationally acclaimed structure agency Barozzi Veiga, emphasises that the precept of “sentimental monumentality” has guided their method to initiatives. Established in Barcelona in 2004, the apply has been commissioned for a wide selection of private and non-private initiatives, focusing totally on cultural, civic and academic buildings. Alberto will likely be a keynote speaker on the 2024 Australian Structure Convention, the place he’ll talk about the agency’s present and constructed initiatives, in addition to the design method and methodology of the apply.
Barozzi Veiga’s initiatives are extremely revered, with many the end result of nationwide and worldwide competitions. Notable works embrace the Ribera del Duero Headquarter (2011), the Auditorium Infanta Elena in Águilas (2011), the Szczecin Philharmonic Corridor (2014), the Bündner Kunstmuseum in Chur (2016), the Ragenhaus Musikschule in Bruneck (2018), the Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts Lausanne (2019), the Tanzhaus Zürich (2019), the 2 Artists’ Ateliers in London (2021), and the Aesop retailer in Barcelona (2022).
Alberto defined a big a part of the enchantment of public competitions is that the idea wholly originates from and belongs to the apply, relatively than being closely pushed by exterior influences. Past that, he stated public initiatives allow the apply to offer one thing again by creating an affecting expertise for the inhabitants and guests of a spot.
“Working in our occupation is sort of a public service as a result of we are able to have an effect on lots of people. Once we are designing a public constructing it feels as in the event you can shut the circle by some means as a result of the work is for the residents. You can provide again by way of public initiatives and that makes us really feel actually good, whether or not it’s a library, a museum, a small faculty or no matter it’s,” he stated.
Alberto likened collaborating in design competitions to going to the fitness center, suggesting that competitions function an efficient coaching floor for designers to enhance and refine their designs and design method. “On the subject of competitions, effectively, we lose plenty of them. However there’s nonetheless a lot worth in collaborating. We have to participate in competitions to know the place we’re with the concepts that we suggest in comparison with others. In fact you want a win occasionally [in a financial sense] however competitions are the most effective technique that now we have discovered to enhance our work,” he stated.
The agency follows what they check with as a method coined “sentimental monumentality” all through the design course of. Sentimental pertains to the specificity of web site in a cultural, contextual or historic sense, whereas monumentality refers to autonomy. “It’s about looking for a stability between these two ideas of sentimental, that means having a type of private method and being contextual, and monumental, that means one thing autonomous, one thing that has values by itself,” he added, “monumental just isn’t linked with context.”
The incorporation of the “sentimental” element might be noticed within the design of the Szczecin Philharmonic Corridor in Poland. The apply chosen an imitation gold leaf to be utilized on the inside partitions of the principle live performance corridor after discovering that it was customary inside the tradition to work with gold leaf and apply it inside church buildings and different historic buildings resembling live performance halls. A number of workshops throughout the town proceed to specialize in working with gold leaf for the aim of sustaining and restoring historic buildings.
“For us, there was this need to reinterpret a traditional live performance corridor typology in a recent manner however there was additionally the added advantages of there being an area gold leaf trade already there and labour in Poland is far more inexpensive than in different nations in Europe. We simply thought it made sense, due to the constructing, the positioning and since it was inexpensive,” Alberto stated.
“The ladies who utilized it labored tirelessly, making use of gold leaf for eight hours a day, always, for about eight or 9 months. It was wonderful to see them work.” Two expansive skylights strategically positioned inside the principle live performance corridor enable pure mild to bounce off the golden partitions at completely different instances of the day, providing a singular visible expertise each time you go to.
One of many predominant goals of Barozzi Veiga, Alberto defined, is to create buildings that belong to a particular place however that would additionally merely belong. “A constructing belongs to the place that it’s positioned however in addition they have to belong to one thing better than the bodily place that they’re. When you concentrate on an impressionist portray, it all the time shocks me to see that everyone can perceive what the painter in France within the nineteenth century was making an attempt to characterize of their work of flowers in a village. The portray could also be hanging up in China but you continue to hundreds of individuals taking a look at that portray and relating, understanding. They don’t know the place, they don’t know the painter, however they really feel one thing. We modestly attempt to obtain that very same end result with the work that we do.”
Alberto Veiga will likely be a keynote speaker on the 2024 Australian Structure Convention, to be held in Melbourne from 8 to 11 Could. See the complete program and buy tickets on the Australian Institute of Architects web site.