Lecture – “Sculpting Light” Brandenburgische Technische Universität, Cottbus
15th January
Lecture by Ricardo Flores in the StudioTalk series with the title “Sculpting Light” at the Institut für Architektur (BTU), followed by a discussion with Ricardo Flores, Prof. Dr Jürgen Müller from TU Dresden (with a lecture on Caravaggio) and Prof. Verena Issel from the Department of Fine Arts. Institut für Architektur (Brandenburgische Tecnische Universität), Cottbus (Brandenburg).
Final Reviews – School of Gastronomy in Mendrisio
18th-19th December
Atelier Flores & Prats Autumn semester at the Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio, ‘Second Hand – School of Gastronomy in Mendrisio’ holds its final reviews with guests: Marianna Rentzou & Kanstantinos Pantazis, Ricardo Flores.
> Image gallery
> Autumn semester studio
> Atelier website (external link)
Lecture – “Dibuixar sense esborrar” @ ETSAB
13th December
Eva Prats gives a lecture ‘Dibuixar sense esborrar’ at l’escola d’arquitectura – ETSAB, Barcelona, to a group of first year students, in the main auditorium.
Second Mid Term Reviews: Second Hand – School of Gastronomy in Mendrisio
7th November
Colm Moore and Ricardo Flores are invited cirtics for the second mid term reviews of Atelier Flores & Prats, Autumn Semester 2024.
Lecture @ Cornell University, Roma
31st October
Lecture “Emotional Heritage” by Eva Prats and Ricardo Flores as part of the series of the Fall Semester of the Architecture Design course organized by the Cornell in Rome Institution.
“Recordant Agustí Obiol”, ETSAB, Barcelona
22nd October
Eva Prats participates in a Round Table with Carlos Ferrater, Josep Lluís Mateo, Joan Mercadé, Alberto Peñin, Victor Rahola and Jordi Ros during a tribute to the architect and professor of structures Agustí Obiol.
“La nova Sala Beckett a Barcelona” Escola d’Art i Disseny Deià, Barcelona
21st October
Lecture by Ricardo Flores in the opening days “Deià innova. Cap al disseny sostenible” organized with the Museu del Disseny and the programming of Barcelona Design Week.
First Mid Term Reviews: Second Hand – School of Gastronomy in Mendrisio
18th October
Martino Pedrozzi and Ricardo Flores are invited cirtics for the first mid term reviews of Atelier Flores & Prats, Autumn Semester 2024.
Lecture “Drawing without Erasing” – Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio
18th October
Ricardo Flores gives a lecture for the 2024 Autumn semester Atelier Flores & Prats, Second Hand – School of Gastronomy in Mendrisio.
Beginning of Construction: Théâtre des Variétés, Brussels
13th October
The foundation stone is laid as a symbolic act to mark the beginning of the renovation works
Workshop Arquitectura i Lloc. ETSAB
9th-22th October
Intensive workshop Documents d’Inspiració as part of the Final Thesis Design Studio Arquitectura i Lloc at ETSAB, Barcelona.
Lecture @ Form/Design Center, Malmö
10th September
Lecture by Ricardo Flores in The Architecture Day seminar organized by the Sveriges Arkitekter and the Form/Design Center together with the Swedish Association of Architects, in collaboration with Arch+ and connected with the inauguration of the exhibition The Great Repair Moves North.
Interview by WHAT IS A HOUSE FOR?
16th July
Sala Beckett, Barcelona
As part of the Porto Academy International Summer Workshop, which this year took place in Barcelona, Eva and Ricardo were interviewed by the group of architects from WHAT IS A HOUSE FOR?, Riccardo Amarri, Mateusz Zaluska and Matthew Bailey, The main theme was the domestic character of Sala Beckett’s spaces and how this was enhanced by the reuse of elements from the old building cooperative, Pau i Justícia, which links with the memory of the old and young neighbours and the emotional heritage that has reached the present day.
Porto Academy Visit to Sala Beckett
15th-16th July
Flores & Prats participate in the 2024 Porto Academy programme Visiting Barcelona, directed by Amélia Brandão and Rodrigo da Costa. The programme includes a visit to Sala Beckett and lecture by Ricardo Flores & Eva Prats at La Salle Architecture School titled ‘Emotional Heritage’.
Lecture / Book Presentation by Eva Prats, Universidad de Las Américas
2nd July
Online presentation and lecture by Eva Prats on the publication “Building Communities, Rehabilitation and Housing in Barcelona and Zurich”, showing a series of projects made by Flores & Prats on collective housing and rehabilitation of existing buildings, and how the previous experience of the office was crucial to develop the investigation process pursued by the design master students at ETH in Zurich.
Lecture Architektur und Tirol (AUT)
20th June
Adambräu Building, Innsbruck
Lecture by Ricardo Flores on Flores & Prats’ contribution to 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale, where the office presented their views on reuse and sustainability through six projects at the Arsenale.
Research by Design ETSAB-ICE
11th June
Eva Prats takes part in a session at ETSAB on the “Research by Design” methodology in the context of architecture and design, sharing her experience during the research process and conclusions of her PhD dissertation: “To Observe with the Client, to Draw with the Existing. Three Cases of Architecture Dealing with the As-Found”. Discussion with architects and ETSAB professors Pau Bajet and Raul Avilla, introduced and moderated by professor Daniel García Escudero.
Lecture @ Wiener Planungswerkstatt, Vienna
7th June
Ricardo Flores gives a lecture as one of the two keynote speakers, alongside Kristaan Borret, Bouwmeester Maitre Architecte at Brussels Capital Region, at the symposium and exhibition “Spaces Between Places”.
This symposium, organized by Tina Gregoric, chair and professor at TU Wein, is the result of research work on the Odd Lots in different cities, their examination, and ultimately the design projects that build them. The topic was initially inspired by Gordon Matta Clark‘s Fake Estates in New York and subsequently references Arno Brandlhuber‘s Option Lots in Berlin and Atelier Bow-Wow pet architecture in Tokyo. Ricardo’s lecture called “Urban Ruins”, relied on the six themes presented at the 2023 Venice Biennale, focusing on the open condition of the ruin and its capacity to preserve the passage of time in the marks left upon it, awaiting patiently, in silence for a new evaluation.
F&P @ Triennale di Milano – ‘Emotional Heritage’
25th May
Lecture during the Milano Arch Week at the Triennale di Milano, Milan.
‘Emotional Heritage’ addresses a very central interest of F&P’s work in adaptive reuse projects, as part of a constant investigation in how to dialogue with the many invisible authors that have been part of the buildings we inherit.
Lecture ‘Costruire Comunità’ – Politecnico di Milano, Milan
24th May
Ricardo Flores and Eva Prats give a lecture that revisits a series of projects that address themes like the rehabilitation of existing structures or the development of collective housing and public spaces.
WEB – NEW PROJECTS: Technicum 4 in Ghent + La Favorita Refurbishment
See details of the 2022 competition for the adaptive reuse of the Technicum 4 in Ghent as a new School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Art History, Musicology and Theatre Studies of Universiteit Gent, and the project in process: Rehabilitation of La Favorita Warehouse in Barcelona as a Co-working and Producing Centre.
Lecture “Practising Preservation” – PRS Europe Seminar, RMIT University
26th April
Lecture by Eva Prats as part of the PRS Europe Seminar hosted by Research @DSC, from RMIT University, titled “Practising Preservation”.
BAU College of Arts and Design, Barcelona.
Conferenza di Flores & Prats – Dialoghi Italia-Spagna sulla modificazione dell’esistente
19th April
As part of a series organised by the Università Sapienza di Roma and curated by Orazio Carpenzano and Gianpaola Spirito including internationally renowned Italian and Spanish architects from different generations, Ricardo Flores and Eva Prats give a lecture focused on the theme of adaptation and reuse. Reale Accademia di Spagna, Rome.
Flores & Prats – inaugural ‘Margarita Brender’ lecture @ COAC
15th April
Eva Prats and Ricardo Flores were invited to open, with an inaugural presentation, the new cycle of lectures dedicated to Margarita Brender at the COAC, highlighting their trajectory and some of their recent works.
NEW BOOK ‘Building Communities’, Studio Eva Prats ETH Zurich
The new book BUILDING COMMUNITIES. Rehabilitation and Housing in Barcelona & Zurich is released, publishing the intense experience of two years teaching between 2019-21 at ETH Zurich. The book explores how two topics were transferred from the Flores & Prats studio to this academic environment: the Reuse of existing buildings and how to address their occupation with new Housing programs.
C2C Spain + ETH Zurich D-ARCH.
> more information and selected points of sale
> Sant Jordi book signing @ COAC, 23rd April 2024
Lecture @ Forum Fensterbau Frontale 2024
21st March, NürnbergMesse, Nuremberg
Ricardo Flores participated in the Forum Fensterbau Frontale 2024 festival in Nuremberg, with a lecture titled ‘Emotional Heritage’. The festival focused on integrating new building techniques into future projects, emphasizing the growing importance of renovating existing buildings for ecological reasons and to preserve urban history. Other lectures of the event were Tivadar Puskas Ingenieure (Basel), Tim Rieniets, Architect and Educator (Hannover), and Jasna Moritz, Architect (Aachen). The session was moderated by Ilka Ruby, from Rubypress (Berlin).
Book presentation – Drawing without Erasing and Other Essays, Libreria Spazio, Milan
15th March
Eva Prats and Ricardo Flores present their book Drawing without Erasing and Other Essays, published by Buchhandlung König. The talk, with an introduction by Amanzio Farris, considered the topics contained in this book of essays, focusing on the significance of hand-drawing in architectural design.
Expo: ‘La vida quotidiana explicada a través de l’arquitectura. Barcelona, 2000-2020’
29th February – 3rd March
The Sala Beckett Drama Centre is included in an exhibition at the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion that offers a critical perspective on the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona’s construction and its impact on daily life in the first two decades of this century. The exhibition showcases works by professors from the Projects Department at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya – UPC.
> More details
> Film on Sala Beckett produced for the exhibition (Alomar & Guillamon Architectural Videography)
Interview: Arquitetura Entre-Vistas ABROAD
Ricardo Flores & Eva Prats are interviewed by Ana Catarina Silva for the second season of the Podcast “Arquitetura Entre-Vistas”, a series of conversations with some well-known international studios. The interview focused on the built work of Flores & Prats, but also on all the ideas that lead the architecture.
> Listen to the podcast here (Spotify)
Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio – Atelier Prats
Atelier Prats, run by Professor Eva Prats, commences the spring semester with the theme: Second Hand – Local Food Market For Mendrisio.
F&P @ UPenn, Stuart Weitzman School of Design
31st January
Flores & Prats give a lecture titled ‘Emotional Heritage’ at the University of Pennsylvania, USA.
“lt is not only people that contain the memory of a place, but buildings too are loaded with memories of the uses and lives that occupy them. The built fabric reflects a social behaviour. It speaks of a way of using the ground, the sky, of a way of inhabiting. As an architect, to read the memories held in buildings and people is to think about a future that counts on that past.”
2024 Annual Swanson Lecture, Cranbrook Art Museum
25th January
Flores & Prats give the 2024 Annual Swanson Lecture at the deSalle Auditorium of Cranbrook Art Museum. The lecture, entitled Emotional Heritage, is focused on the theme of adaptive re-use, central in architecture of today and the future.
Final Reviews: Second Hand – A Urban Refettorio in Barcelona
21st-22nd December
Final reviews take place for Atelier Prats at Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio with guests Mireia Luzárraga, Oliver Lütjens and Andrew Clancy.
The Construction of a Country, Casa de la Arquitectura, Madrid
18th December
Flores & Prats participate in the exhibition The Construction of a Country, curated by Moisés Puente and Miquel Mariné, as part of the opening of the Museum Casa de la Arquitectura with the 1.25 scale model of a fragment of the Sala Beckett that was also part of the International Architecture Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia 2018.
Biennale di Venezia at the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion
14th December
Flores & Prats are included in an exhibition of the work of the studios who represented the Catalan architecture in the 18th edition of the International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. Mies Foundation. Barcelona.
F&P @ Princeton University, School of Architecture
30th November
“Emotional Heritage”: Lecture at Princeton University School of Architecture as part of the Fall 2023 Lecture Series on the theme COLLABORATIONS.
‘Patrimonio Emocional’ – Universidad Andina de Cusco
14th November
On-line lecture in 3 días: 3 conversaciones. Clorindo Testa from the series Sin nombre / Episodio 6, organized by Escuela de Arquitectura, Universidad Andina del Cusco, Peru.
Emotional Heritage: FoD 2023, Shanghai
11th November
Flores & Prats are Keynote speakers at the Festival of Design (FoD 2023) in Shanghai. The Festival of Design is an inter-disciplinary design exhibition and a lecture platform sponsored by Design Republic, during art festival in Shanghai. The vision of the Festival is to embrace the communal aspect of design to be inclusive, inter-disciplinary and innovative. The theme of this year’s Festival was “RE- “. This is a prefix, and one that allows each speaker to take on their unique perspective and re-interpret and re-structure the world of architecture/design as they wish to re-present their work.
> Videos of lecture & panel discussion
Incontro di approfondimento: ‘L’esperienza della Sala Beckett, ex fabbrica di Barcellona’
3rd November
within the participatory itinerary of the urban regeneration project of the Fabbricone Theater area in Prato organized by MET Foundation and Prato City Council, introduced by Marco Brizzi.
Il Fabbricone: il teatro e la città. Prato.
Atelier Prats of Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio – Study trip to Barcelona
The studio carries out a study visit to Barcelona, visiting the areas of study for the project “A Urban Refettorio in Barcelona”.
Book launch ‘Upper Lawn Solar Pavilion’
23rd October
Launch of the book at Llibreria Finestres
Eva Prats participates in a conversation with Anna Puigjaner and artist Soraya Smithson, daughter of Alison and Peter Smithson, for the launch of the second edition of the book Upper Lawn Solar Pavilion. Originally edited by Enric Miralles and Alison Smithson in 1986, following a workshop at ETSAB by the British architect. The book is a rich document of the weekend home Alison and Peter Smithson built in the English countryside as an extended experiment in the principles of their practice. This second edition, curated by the Smithson family is extended with a diary of the family visits, plans of the pavilion and an introductory text by Paul Clarke.
Llibreria Finestres, Barcelona.
F&P workshop Arquitectura i lloc. ETSAB
9th-13th October
Ricardo Flores and Eva Prats are Professors of the intensive workshop Dibuix i Pensament as part of the Final Thesis Design Studio Arquitectura i lloc at ETSAB, Barcelona.
Lecture ‘Emotional Heritage’, AIT-Dialog
6th October 2023
Ricardo Flores participates in the Lecture Series Maintenance 1:1 Summer School as part of the workshop program of the German Pavilion at the 18th Architecture Biennale di Venezia, organized by AIT-Dialog together with Arch+, Summacumfemmer, Büro Juliane Greb, Sto Foundation. Venice.
Théatre des Variétés – Event to launch the Labo-Chantiers Variétés
29th September – 1st October
On the occasion of launching the renovation works of the former Variétés cinema, Bruxelles Laïque invited journalists, politicians, partners, local residents, neighbourhood committees, associative and cultural actors, and other citizens of Brussels to (re)discover the building before the construction starts on site, while lifting the veil on its project for this incredible place steeped in history.
Flores & Prats @ Marató del DHub 2023
30th September
The new season in Disseny Hub Barcelona (Barcelona’s Design Museum) is launched through a Creative Marathon: a non-stop all day event.
Atelier Prats, Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio
The 2023 autumn semester commences with the title “A Urban Refettorio in Barcelona”.
The Atelier will work with two parallel objectives: Food Scarcity and Emotional Heritage.
> Follow Atelier Prats on the Flores & Prats Academic Instagram page
La Ricarda (1963–): demolition postcard
23rd August
Flores & Prats write about La Ricarda, as part of a contribution to The Architectural Review Demolition Postcard series.
> See article
> See related Doctoral thesis of Ricardo Flores, LA RICARDA HOUSE BY ANTONIO BONET CASTELLANA, 2016
Building a community in Lund
The first phase of the Råängen development in Sweden by Brendeland & Kristoffersen is reviewed by Philip Cristou in The Architectural Review, alongside the next phase of the development to be led by Flores & Prats.
“Emotional Heritage” in the press
Lawrence C. Davis writes for COMMON EDGE about the Flores & Prats contribution to the Venice Biennale 2023:
“Insightful and compelling, the Barcelona practice discovers and uses subtle, but no less fascinating, new narratives through the design of buildings and space, reinforcing, through architecture, Lokko’s claim that our imagination is the main tool needed to build a better world.”
Sample of other recent publications referencing “Emotional Heritage”:
> EXIBART, “Il futuro dell’architettura. Riflessioni sulla Biennale di Venezia 2023”, Cherubino Gambardella, May 27th 2023 (ITALIANO)
> ANTITHESI, “Biennale così”, Antonino Saggio, May 27th 2023 (ITALIANO)
> BI ÖZET, ”Biennial Impressions – Emotional, Mystical, Centrifugal”, Cem Sorguç, June 8th 2023 (TÜRKÇE)
> WORLD ARCHITECTS “Flores & Prats at the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale”, John Hill, June 23rd 2023 (ENGLISH)
…See more in the PUBLICATIONS section.
Théâtre des Variétés granted planning permission
Planning permission has been awarded for the renovation of the Cinéma Variétés, a historic cinema in the heart of Brussels.
The project, led by Flores & Prats and OUEST Architecture, aims to transform the old cinema into a “cultural centre”, a laboratory for civic and cultural expression.
> See recent article in DE STANDAARD, June 14th (ENGLISH)
> Project details
Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio
Eva Prats has been appointed Full Professor at Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio Università della Svizzera italiana.
Since 2002, she has been Associated Professor at the School of Architecture of Barcelona (ETSAB) and in Spring Semester 2023 she started teaching as a Guest Professor at the Accademia di Mendrisio. Previously she has been Guest Professor at ETH Zurich from autumn 2019 to spring 2021, and Professor of Architecture and Urban Planning at the RMIT Campus in Barcelona from 2014 to 2022. The Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio offers an interdisciplinary and humanist teaching model, which has allowed the school to establish itself to play a leading role in the international scene of architecture schools.
Flores & Prats “Emotional Heritage”
Project details are released on the Flores & Prats contribution at La Biennale di Architettura di Venezia 2023.
The Morning Chapel at La Biennale di Venezia 2023
After some recent works of renovation, the little chapel at San Giorgio Island, initially designed and built for the Vatican Pavilion in 2018, is again in good shape and open for visits. San Giorgio Island, Venice.
La Biennale di Architettura di Venezia 2023 – The Laboratory of the Future
20th May
Flores & Prats contribution “Emotional Heritage” at La Biennale di Venezia 2023 opens to the public at the main exhibition located at Le Corderie dell’Arsenale in the workshop section Dangerous Liaisons.
Related press:
> THE GUARDIAN, May 21st 2023 (ENGLISH)
> ARQUITECTURA VIVA, May 24th (ESPAÑOL)
> DESIGNBOOM, May 25th (ENGLISH)
> DIARI ARA, May 26th (CATALÁ)
F&P interviewed on Catalunya Ràdio – Perspectiva
12th May
Josep Lluís Blázquez talks to Flores & Prats about their contribution to the Venice Biennale 2023.
> listen to the conversation (CATALÁ)
NEW BOOK by Flores & Prats
25th April
The new book Flores & Prats. Dibujar sin borrar y otros ensayos / Drawing without Erasing and Other Essays is presented at La Capell together with Anna Sala and the publisher Moisés Puente.
An anthology of writings around the approach of Flores & Prats to practice. Double edition, Spanish and English, with an introductory text by Fabrizio Gallanti. Published by Puente Editores and Walther König, Barcelona, April 2023.
> more information (English version)
> más información (versión en español)
> hear recording of the book discussed on Catalunya Ràdio, “Perspectiva” (link to Flores & Prats Vimeo page)
F&P at the Biennale di Venezia 2023
Flores & Prats are invited to the 18th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia: ‘The Laboratory of the Future’, curated by Lesley Lokko. Flores & Prats will participate in the section Dangerous Liaisons at Le Corderie dell’Arsenale, opening Saturday 20th May and running until Sunday 26th November 2023.
> See related article in Diari ARA (CATALÁ)
Flores & Prats at FORM/DESIGN CENTER, Malmö
4th February – 26th March
The exhibition ‘Cathedral Thinking’ presents the Flores & Prats project of the new neighbourhood of Råängen in Lund in collaboration with White Arkitekter.
The exhibited material was moved directly from WORKS + WORDS 2022 – Biennale for Artistic Research in Architecture in Copenhagen to the Form/Design Centre in Malmö.
Measuring Villa Adriana, Rome
29th January – 3rd Februrary
Eva Prats and Ricardo Flores lead a study trip to Rome as part of ETSA Barcelona annual Elective Subjects. A collaboration with Sapienza Università di Roma.
‘WAYS OF LIVING’ workshop at Lund, Sweden
16th-24th January
Flores & Prats lead ‘Ways of Living’ at Lunds Universitet related to the project of building the new neighbourhood of Råängen in in Lund.
The workshop is carried out within the Master of Advanced Architectural Design of LTH, directed by Ricardo Flores and Eva Prats with Professors Maria Rasmussen and Andreea Marcu from LTH and White Architects.
> See details.
Umbaukultur: The Architecture of Altering
The latest publication on adaptive reuse includes the project Sala Beckett in its expanded second edition discussing recent architecture examples of a necessary ‘Culture of Conversion’.
> Read here. (DEUTSCH)
Flores & Prats on Canal ARTE TV
20th November
Sala Beckett is featured on Canal ARTE TV in the cultural program ARTE Twist, dedicated to Change and Transformation. The programme includes a studio visit from the journalist Wero Jägersberg and interview with Eva and Ricardo about their position and attitude to adaptive reuse projects, discussing topics that a project like the Sala Beckett has helped to develop, such as the right to inherit, working with history without distance, the open condition of the ruin, and the value of use.
> View extract here (link to Flores & Prats vimeo page)
> See the full brodcast here (mins 18:49-23:56)
F&P Lecture ‘Emotional Heritage’, Mendrisio, Switzerland
10th November
Lecture by Eva Prats inside the program of Accademia di architettura di Mendrisio, curated by the Institute of Urban and Landscape Studies ISUP on the theme of society’s transformations and its relationship with the changes of the physical city and territories, with other guest lecturers such as Anne Lacaton, Pier Vittorio Aureli and Vittorio Magnano Lampugniani.
WORKS + WORDS 2022 – Biennale for Artistic Research in Architecture
4th November 2022 – 8th January 2023
The Round Tower, Copenhagen
Flores & Prats contribute to the Biennale with the proposal ‘Inspirational Documents’, displaying speculative documents on two projects that work on Building Communities: Building 111 on the edge of Barcelona, and the new neighbourhood of Råängen in Lund.
F&P Lecture ‘The Right to Inherit’, Copenhagen
25th October
Lecture by Ricardo Flores within the two-day symposium Sustainable Transformation focusing on transformation as an important tool of the construction industry. Organized by Building Green and held in Scandic Sluseholmen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Obra Blanca Expo, Mexico City
11th October
Flores & Prats give a lecture in alliance with Arquine editorial, with whom they have published two books, ‘Thought by hand’ and ‘Sala Beckett International Drama Centre’, within the congress Obra Blanca Expo in the Expo Santa Fe in Mexico City, with the theme ‘el encuentro con las ideas constructivas’ (‘the encounter with constructive ideas’). Felipe Assadi and the Pritzker prize winner Thom Mayne are the other speakers.
A+ interview Flores & Prats
7th October
A+ session, “Flores & Prats” interviewed by A+ architecture in Bozar – Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels on a series of quick dichotomy questions: Competition or construction? Exhibition or publication? Model or drawing? Venice or Brussels? City or countryside? Housing or public space?
Adaptive Architecture – Building Upon the Existing, DAM
15 September 2022 – 15 January 2023
Flores & Prats participates with the project Sala Beckett, combining a model with audiovisual material for a collective exhibition organized by the Deutsches Architekturmuseum in Frankfurt (DAM) with contemporary examples of clever and creative strategies in dealing with existing architecture from 30 contemporary international architecture studios. Curated by Jonas Malzahn, Katharina Böttger, Mathias Schnell. Frankfurt.
Værksted for Arkitektur (Workshop for Architecture), Copenhagen
9th–30th September
A Pop-up exhibition exhibition of Flores & Prats and the British office Feilden Clegg Bradley at the storefront space of Leth & Gori, located in Absalonsgade 21B, Copenhagen. A parallel activity to the symposium Sustainable Architecture organized by Rønnow Leth & Gori where Flores & Prats give their lecture ‘Emotional Heritage’, the concept which relates to the exhibition.
Flores & Prats: Scaffold Podcast #67
11th August
Ricardo Flores and Eva Prats are interviewed in London by Matthew Blunderfield about different issues that emerge from the studios working process and influences. Produced by the Architecture Foundation as Episode 67 for the podcast series ‘Scaffold’.
‘Arquitectura y Territorio Rural’
22nd July
Flores & Prats give a lecture, ‘Segunda Mano’ for the symposium Arquitectura y Territorio Rural summer 2022, organized by José Valladares from rvr Arquitectos with the architects Carlos Pita and César Portela at Fundación María Martínez Otero, Callobre, Galicia, Spain.
F&P exhibit at the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition 2022, London
21st June-21st August
> See details and press on the Flores & Prats contribution.
Reviews at USI Mendrisio / ETH Zürich, Switzerland
Eva Prats is an invited critic for the final reviews of Atelier Bearth Spring Semester 2022 ‘Abitare a Lisbona’ coordinated by Prof. Valentin Bearth, 30-31st May 2022, Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio, and for the final reviews of the studio of Prof. Andrea Deplazes ‘Architektur und Konstruktion’, based in Poblenou on the theme of housing, 1st June 2022, ETH Zürich.
BARQ, International Architecture Film Festival Barcelona
13th May
Flores & Prats participate in a presentation and debate about the short films of Elisava and ETSAB students researching Sala Beckett as part of a practical workshop on Architecture and Cinema led by Maria Mauti. Organized by the Ajuntament de Barcelona and Col•legi d’Arquitectes de Catalunya (COAC). Auditori Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona.
> See publication about the workshop TALLER ARQUITECTURA I CINE, PROYECTO PASOLINI 22, NO 3 including text by Ricardo Flores & Eva Prats “Teatre a tot l’edifici” (page 6).
Théâtre des Variétés in BRUZZ news
14th April
BRUZZ News from Brussels publishes an article about Variétés Laboratoire d’Expressions Culturelles et Citoyennes by Flores & Prats with OUEST architecture. Translated extract:
The former Cinema Variétés is located in the Mechelsestraat, a side street of the Adolphe Maxlaan, and has been empty since 1983. Bruxelles Laïque bought this blight on the city and wants to turn it into a ‘laboratory for citizenship’, with a program full of film and debate. The public inquiry into the building plans has started and will run until May 12.
Bruxelles Laïque – the organization behind the annual Freedom Festival – wants to screen documentaries in the building, followed by debates. The festival, organized annually by the non-profit organization, must also find a permanent home base in the building, alongside other programs of the organization.
In the middle of the former cinema will be a forum, an indoor public space with natural light coming in through the roof. This is also closely related to the function that Bruxelles Laïque has in mind for the building: a place to experience democracy and citizenship. “This place is where audiences and artists meet, where the city extends into the building,” the permit application reads.
‘Memòria del Poblenou en 130 quadres’, Neus Martín Royo
La Vanguardia publishes an article about the artist Neus Martín Royo. The painter has dedicated more than 130 paintings to the neighbourhood where she grew up and has her studio, including the façade of Sala Beckett by Flores & Prats.
F&P Lecture on Sala Beckett: Barcelona program, Washington University
1st April
Lecture and study visit of Sala Beckett as part of the Contemporary Architecture Seminar directed by Archs. Ramon Bosch i Bet Capdeferro for the Barcelona Program of Washington University, Saint Louis.
F&P at the Royal Academy of Arts
23rd March
Flores & Prats participate in a panel discussion exploring the work of late American architect John Hejduk, coinciding with the opening of the first architecture display in the McAulay Gallery, John Hejduk: London Masque (22nd March-21st May 2022)
Ricardo Flores and Eva Prats together with Vicky Richardson (chair) and Shin Egashira. Royal Academy of Arts, London.
Auction of Flores & Prats model from ‘Alternative Histories’ exhibition
18th – 25th March
Drawing Matter and The Architecture Foundation organise the auction of 26 architectural models to raise funds for New Architecture Writers, a free programme for emerging design writers.
Commissioned in 2018 as part of Alternative Histories project, the models have been donated by more than 80 contemporary practices across Europe.
Presentation of Archives_Universum #1 Flores & Prats
The first issue of the journal by C2C on Flores & Prats: Archives_Universum, is presented at Cosentino City Madrid (7th March), and Cosentino City Barcelona (14th March), with the editors Carlos Quintáns and Juan Rodríguez.
> See further details & purchase.
> See photos of event at Cosentino City Barcelona.
Workshop ‘Gaudí Weekend’
12th-13th February
One weekend workshop at the Palau Güell by Flores & Prats, within the framework of the exhibition at Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya ‘(Re)discover Gaudí. Fire and Ashes’, in collaboration with the Cercle Artístic de Sant Lluc.
> See details.
Arquitectura Viva – ‘Tactful Thinking’
AV Proyectos n.108 is dedicated to our studio, reviewing recent projects through hand drawings and models that are common in the office work process: La Favorita refurbishment in PobleNou, the new Arnau Theatre and the Can Maiol competitions in Barcelona, the Somerset House competition in London (with AOC Architecture), the Variétés project in Brussels (with Ouest Architecture), and the project for a new Community in Lund.
Measuring Villa Adriana, Rome
23rd-27th January
Eva Prats and Ricardo Flores lead a study trip to Rome as part of ETSA Barcelona annual Elective Subjects. A collaboration with Sapienza Università di Roma.
Flores & Prats at Råängen
18th January
Råängen’s Commissioning Programme – ‘Working With Nothing, Artists and Architects Building a New Neighbourhood’
Flores & Prats participate in a public discussion alongside other artists and architects involved in the programme of art and architecture commissions in Lund: Nathan Coley, artist, and Geir Brendeland of Brendeland & Kristoffersen Arkitekter. Charied by Kieran Long, Director, ArkDes. Organised by Lund Cathedral.
> See more about Flores & Prats participation in the project here.
Archives_Universum #1
Flores & Prats are chosen as the subject for a new line of publications by C2C: Archives_Universum, bringing people closer to the architects’ private world.
> See introduction video.
> Purchase here.
Théâtre des Variétés at Palais des Beaux-Arts
Building permit is achieved for the Variétés, Brussels. With OUEST architecture.
BUILDING COMMUNITIES with RMIT
La Marina del Prat Vermell, Barcelona
22nd December 2021
Final review for Design Studio 2021 ‘Building Communities’ for the Master of Architecture & Urban Design, RMIT University, led by professors Eva Prats and Ricardo Flores, coordinated by Ian Nazareth.
F&P at Paris-Belleville
2nd December
École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture Paris-Belleville, Amphithéâtre Bernard Huet.
Flores & Prats lead a conference on the theme “Prospective legacies” answering the question: How can architecture formulate through the project its relation to what already exists?
The Right to Inherit: “Why does the concept of heritage have to be associated with something prestigious and monumental? The spaces of the former Co-operative Pau i Justícia were not even a ruin as such – since ruins have the prestige of time and thus becomes timeless – but just a pile of rubble imposed the obligation to express: it represented the bond with the deepest roots of living memory of a working-class neighbourhood like Poblenou. The broken floors, crumbling walls, sinking roofs, the fragments of ceramic and glass, the pieces of plastic were all quite worthless in terms of trade value, but very dear – in the affective sense – from the standpoint of usage value, accumulated in an infinite number of layers, latent in every detail, ready to reawaken in collective memory…”
New Library for Sala Beckett
> See details.
F&P and KAAN Architecten at Palais des Beaux-Arts
23rd November
Flores & Prats and KAAN Architecten provide a double lecture on the theme of natural light followed by a discussion. The two offices talk about the use of natural light in their projects, mentioning, among others, the Sala Beckett in Barcelona and the Utopia Library in Aalst. Organized by A+ Architecture and Bozar at Palais des Beaux-Arts, Bruxelles, Belgium.
> See event discussed in A+ 292 (FRANÇAIS)
Ricardo Flores at EPFL
8-9th November
Ricardo Flores is a guest critic at the Mid Term Reviews of Studio Jo Taillieu LIF Laboratoire d’Imagination et de fabrication: LIFE MAKES HOUSE – HOUSE MAKES LIFE, together with Prof. Raoul Sigl.
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland.
Lecture – ‘Drawing without erasing’ / Prijs Jef Van Ranst 2021, Belgium
14th – 17th October
Ricardo Flores is invited to give the opening keynote lecture Drawing without erasing and to sit as the jury chairman for the Prijs Jef Van Ranst 2021 competition for bachelor and master students of all Flemish architecture faculties, within the program of the biennial Flemish Architecture Festival. Organised by VAi (Flanders Architecture Institute). Ostend, Belgium.
F&P Lecture on Sala Beckett, Vienna
13th October
Flores & Prats give a lecture as part of the series IBA_Wein meets architects #12 presenting architecture for community life in the 21st Century. A response is made by Wilfried Kühn, Professor for Spatial Design from Technische Universität Wien. Organised by Architekturzentrum Wien and IBA_Vienna – New Social Housing, Vienna, Austria.
> See recording here.
Studio Eva Prats ETH Zürich, gallery FS21
A selection of work celebrating the outcomes of the spring semester 2021 of Studio Eva Prats (FS20).
> More details on the ‘Building Communities’ studio.
New benches for Sala Beckett
> See details.
Biennale di Venezia 2021 – ‘Together’
14 September – 21 November 2021
Collective exhibition on the theme of how we lived and are living together, at Carlo Scarpa’s Negozio Olivetti as part of the Biennale di Venezia 2021. Piazza San Marco, Venice, Italy.
Munich at Building 111
The Catalan sports and fashion label Munich releases an advert produced by La Rectoria using Flores & Prats’ social housing project Building 111 as the scenery.
THE NEW CURATOR discusses F&P Liquid Light
In a new book ‘THE NEW CURATOR, Exhibiting Architecture & Design’, Fleur Watson discusses Flores & Prats installation for FREESPACE at the Venice Biennale 2018.
“Liquid Light moved beyond a simplistic exact ‘replica’ of its original; instead it experimented with display methodologies that referenced scenography and the notion of the Mise-en-scène in theatre production rather than the conventions of the gallery”
“The concept of channelling natural light drove the design of the Sala Beckett’s circulation space and, here for Liquid Light, became an abstracted element charting the movement of the Venice sun throughout the day.”
Lecture – Porto Academy
23rd July
Ricardo Flores is a guest lecturer at the Porto Academy Summer School 2021. Porto, Portugal.
F&P at Universidad de Buenos Aires
21st July
Flores & Prats participate in an online dialogue with Roberto Lombardi on “Survey in Teaching and Practice of Architecture”, inside the academic activities carried out within the chair of Antonio Díaz at FADU-UBA Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Building a Community in Lund, Sweden
Information and images for Flores & Prats’ competition winning design for housing and public spaces in Råängen, near Lund in the south of Sweden has been added to the ‘PROJECTS’ section of the website.
The collective housing buildings, completely built out of wood, will sit close to ‘Hage’, the walled garden designed by Brendeland & Kristoffersen, which is currently under construction.
Flores & Prats have been invited to contribute to this ongoing, expansive discussion about the nature of Råängen new development, adding up to the work of previous commissioned artists and architects.
F&P – BEAT Revista
17th July
BEAT Revista episode 3 of CASE 2: Online talk about American Architecture by Flores & Prats with Adrian Gasparoni and Matias Frazzi, within the programme for the Conference of Architects for the Study of the Environment, 2021 UAI ARQ.
Mextrópoli 2021
23rd June
Flores & Prats are presented by Andrea Griborio and Miquel Adrià to give an online lecture as part of Mextrópoli 2021, International Festival of Architecture City. Mexico City, Mexico.
Lecture – GSA, University of Johannesburgh
10th June
Flores & Prats give an online lecture as part of the GSA Lecture Series 2021 at the University of Johannesburg. Organized by the Graduate School of Architecture, South Africa.
‘Building Communities’ ETH Zürich Final Reviews FS21
Wednesday 2nd – Thursday 3rd June 2021
Final Reviews for Studio Eva Prats, ETH Zurich FS21 ‘Building Communities, Rehabilitation and Housing in Zurich’
Visiting Professor: Eva Prats
Adviser: Ricardo Flores
Teaching Assistants: Guillaume Guisan & Annina Meier
Student Assistant: Alessandra Ortelli
Guests: Fabrizio Gallanti (Studio FIG-Projects, Montréal), Martyn Hook (Prof. RMIT University, IPH Architects, Perth), Philip Ursprung (Prof. Dr. gta ETH, Zurich), Elly Beaumont (Editor, The Architectural Review, London), An Fonteyne (Prof. ETH, noAarchitecten, Brussels), Mike Guyer (Prof. ETH, Gigon Guyer Architekten, Zurich), Adam Caruso (Prof. ETH, Caruso St John Architects, London/Zurich), Emanuel Christ (Prof. ETH, Christ & Gantenbein, Basel), Mónica Rivera (Prof. Washington University in St. Louis, López Rivera Arquitectos, Barcelona)
> More details on the ‘Building Communities’ studio
‘Construir Comunitats’, COAIB
28th May
Flores & Prats give an online lecture as part of the lecture series Obra i Recerca, organized by the Ateneu de Maó and the Demarcació Menorca del COAIB. Maó, Menorca.
BARQ International Architecture Film Festival Barcelona
13th May
Eva and Ricardo are guests for discussion at the film screening of Charlotte Perriand: pioneer in the art of living directed by Stéphane Ghez, moderated by Georgina Surià. Festival organized by Nihao Films producer with the participation of Fundación Mies van der Rohe, ArquinFAD and COAC. Cinemes Girona, Barcelona.
‘One Building’, ETH Zürich
11th May
Eva Prats gives an online lecture on the Sala Beckett Theatre and Drama Centre in Barcelona, as part of the series IEA FS 21.
Lecture – Walk on Form
28th April
Eva Prats gives an online lecture at Studio An Fonteyne for the Soft Form Talks Lecture Series at ETH Zurich, Switzerland.
Eva Prats at UCD
16th April
Eva Prats is a guest critic for the Mid Term Crit for Final Thesis Presentations, coordinated by Emmet Scanlon and Orla Murphy at University College of Dublin School of Architecture (UCD), Ireland.
New Films
Two new entries to the FILMS section of the website are published:
> A selection of student films from the recent workshop by Flores & Prats at the Edinburgh School of Architecture & Landscape Architecture (more details).
> A short animated exploration of a folded-out printed peep theatre interpretation of Sala Beckett, created by the artist Soraya Smithson in collaboration with Flores & Prats.
Film premiere of ‘Through the Drawing’, ESALA, UK
25th March
Presentation of the final films from students of the Edinburgh School of Architecture & Landscape Architecture developed in a workshop led by Flores & Prats, Geddes Visiting Fellows 2021.
F&P at Frictions, ESALA
23rd March
Flores & Prats, Geddes Visiting Fellows 2021 at Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (ESALA), lecture as part of the 2020-21 lecture series, Frictions. Eva and Ricardo connect to the audience live from the studio, with a handheld camera explaining what’s on the drawing tables at the moment and the main projects Variétés Théâtre and Sala Beckett. They show the studio’s atmosphere through models, drawings and other objects around the table. Organised by the Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, UK.
> Watch a recording of the lecture here.
Lecture on the F&P Webpage
16th March
Online lecture by Ricardo Flores about the structure, philosophy and content of the studio website, to students of the Diploma Design Studio at ETSA Vallès, Barcelona.
‘Dirty Drawings’ – New Interview in Architecture Today
Flores & Prats are interviewed by Louis Mayes for Architecture Today, UK, about the role of ‘rough and rich collages and overlays’ in project work.
AR New into Old Awards 2021
Eva Prats is announced as a judge for the AR New into Old Awards 2021.
Flores & Prats were winners of the award in 2019 for the project Sala Beckett.
F&P at the University of Brighton
25th February
Flores & Prats give an online lecture as part of a public lecture series in which leading practitioners present their work. Organized by the School of Architecture and Design, University of Brighton, UK.
New Open Position at Flores & Prats
We are looking for an architect to join the studio. See details here.
Studio Eva Prats ETH Zürich, gallery HS20
A selection of work celebrating the outcomes of the autumn semester 2020 of Studio Eva Prats (HS20).
> More details on the ‘Building Communities’ studio.
Lecture for ASU Phoenix
3rd February
‘Second Hand’: A Virtual Lecture by Eva Prats and Ricardo Flores as part of the Spring 2021 cycle: Interiors Lecture Series for Arizona State University Phoenix.
Workshop ‘Construir Comunidades’ at ETSA Barcelona
1-5th February
Flores & Prats direct a workshop on the rehabilitation and reuse of the Prat Vermell industrial settlement.
Lecture – ‘Second Hand’
29th January
Flores & Prats online lecture at the Lebanese American School of Architecture and Design as part of the Architecture & Profession Lecture Series.
Lecture – Provocation 06: What is Conservation? Manchester School of Architecture
21st January
Ricardo Flores speaks alongside Dominic Roberts (Roberts & Stone), moderated by Sally Stone. Part of the ‘Provocation’ lecture series organised by the Manchester School of Architecture, United Kingdom.
Studio Eva Prats ETH Zürich, films 2020
A selection of short films made in 2020 that explore the social aspect of final projects by students of Studio Eva Prats ‘Building Communities’.
> More details on the ‘Building Communities’ studio.
Flores & Prats ESALA Geddes Visiting Fellows
Flores & Prats are invited to be the Geddes Visiting Fellows at the Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (ESALA), 2021.
The role includes engaging with MArch and MLA students and professors through masterclasses, tutorials, discussions and crits, leading a one-month workshop, and a lecture.
‘Inclusive City’ RMIT University final reviews
Thursday 17th – Friday 18th December 2020
Final Reviews for the Master of Architecture Design Studio 2020 ‘Inclusive City Rehabilitation and Housing in Barcelona’ led by Eva Prats, Ricardo Flores and Ian Nazareth, October 9th to December 18th 2020.
‘Building Communities’ ETH Zürich Final Reviews HS20
Tuesday 15th – Wednesday 16th December 2020
Final Reviews for Studio Eva Prats, ETH Zurich HS20 ‘Building Communities, Rehabilitation and Housing in Zurich’
Visiting Professor: Eva Prats
Adviser: Ricardo Flores
Teaching Assistants: Guillaume Guisan & Annina Meier
Student Assistant: Alessandra Ortelli
Guests: Manon Mollard, Inge Vinck, Andrew Clancy, Takero Shimazaki, Lina Ghotmeh, Philip Christou, Simon Kretz, Eleonora Maccari, John Tuomey, Ricardo Flores
> More details on the ‘Building Communities’ studio
New benches for Sala Beckett coming soon…
> 1 to 1 scale prototypes on site and at the studio.
www.floresprats.com – new sections TEXTS+INTERVIEWS / FILMS
Two new sections of the Flores & Prats website have been published:
TEXTS+INTERVIEWS is an archive containing writings and quotes from Flores & Prats organised by themes such as architectural education, adaptive reuse, light, drawings, models, use of film, working with communities, and collective housing… amongst others.
FILMS provides an introduction and filmography on the use of film in the Flores & Prats studio as an experimental tool, for focused documentaries about specific projects, and in an academic context in collaboration with students.
Lecture – The Bartlett, UCL
18th November
Eva Prats and Soraya Smithson are invited as part of The Bartlett International Lecture Series to discuss their shared joy in ‘re-purpose’ and ‘re-use’.
This talk is a medley of food, models, paintings and buildings. It presents the argument for process-oriented creative acts that respond to something that already exists; whether this is existing built fabric, a social condition or revisiting a famous painting.
> See video of the lecture here
‘Seven Questions’ – ETH Zürich
10th November
Eva Prats is invited to participate together with Zino Cucchi and Maarten Gielen (Rotor) as part of a weekly series of talks at ETH organised by Jan de Vylder. 3 different guests are invited to pose 7 questions without waiting for the answer.
Eva developed the questions in relation to a conversation started with the students of Studio Eva Prats during last spring semester 2020 at ETH. The conversation was focused on the unprecedented lockdown situation and how it affected the perception of the house we were living in during those days.
L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui N.439 – 90th Birthday
On the occasion of its 90th birthday, AA asked Flores & Prats, alongside several other architects, to choose a favourite AA cover from its history and explain why. Flores & Prats chose the issue of September 1938 “…to reflect on the current design tendency of cinemas and theatres, spaces that have lost their condition of sharing and celebration, to give way to overwhelming technical requirements which make these halls indistinguishable from each other in our memory: it seems that technique has won over emotion. The colourful cover of the September 1938 AA issue is a clear invitation to dream and enter into the magazine as if through the curtains of a theatre…”
Third Edition: ‘Thought by Hand’ / ‘Pensado a Mano’
The third print edition has been released of the first monographic book about the work of Flores & Prats, in Spanish and English versions.
The book includes well-known projects such as the Mills Museum of the Balearic Islands, Yutes Warehouse, Pio XII Square, Casal Balaguer, Campus Microsoft Italia in Milan, Building 111 of social dwellings, and the Sala Beckett Theater and Drama Centre. There is also a focus on research on portable projects like the House in a Suitcase or the Mireia Jewellery Closet. Contains writings by Miquel Adrià, Manuel de Solà-Morales, Toni Casares and Miralda, and a critical essay by Juan José Lahuerta.
‘Building Communities’ – Lecture, TU Delft
October 22nd
Flores & Prats are invited to give an online lecture as part of the lecture series ‘Berlage Keynotes’.
> See video of lecture here
SAINT STOMAK at EL BULLI
16th October
A new collaboration between Flores & Prats and Antoni Miralda: the ‘Pantry – Chapel’ is inaugurated by the celebration of Saint Stomak.
Architects for Beirut
Flores & Prats contribute 3 original drawings for the project. 100% of the proceeds of the sale will be donated to Beirut Urban Lab, leading on-the ground efforts to restore buildings and public spaces in Beirut following the devastating and historic blast in August at the city’s port.
F&P exhibit in NYC – ‘WORKING REMOTELY’ at a83
31st July – 1st October 2020
Flores & Prats are invited to contribute to the first exhibition, ‘Working Remotely’ at the new gallery a83 in Soho, New York, linking architecture, design and printmaking.
MEXTRÓPOLI 2020
8th September
As part of the Festival of Architecture and City Mextrópoli 2020, Eva and Ricardo are interviewed by Miquel Adrià about how the COVID-19 health crisis has affected our perception of life, the space we inhabit and our cities. See video of the interview here (Español).
Building Communities – Studio Eva Prats at ETH Zürich 2020-21
Eva Prats commences teaching for the 2020-21 academic year, with Flores & Prats.
This semester the studio explores urban transformations in the city of Zurich.
Interview in Drawing Matter
Flores & Prats are interviewed by Fabrizio Gallanti in the second of a series of texts on the challenges in the new world of online teaching and, particularly, on the changing role of drawings in presentations and reviews.
Age-Inclusive Public Space
Flores & Prats projects Building 111 and Nicaragua Square are featured in a new book ‘Age-Inclusive Public Space’ Edited by Dominique Hauderowicz and Kristian Ly Serena.
> See extract here
New film – Sala Beckett
A story of Flores & Prats’ Sala Beckett project produced using historic and current-day photos, drawings, and models.
> See the film in the ‘PASILLO’ of the F&P studio
‘CRITICISM’ issue, The Architectural Review
July/August 2020
Flores & Prats are featured in three separate contributions for this issue of the AR.
The issue refers to Flores & Prats AR bookshelf podcast, a sketch from a visit to St, Mark’s Church by Sigurd Lewerentz, Stockholm for the essay ‘The Open Sketchbook’, and a photograph of the wardrobe in the Virgin’s room full of process models of the project Casal Balaguer, used to illustrate Andrew Clancy’s article ‘Critical Practice’.
Studio Eva Prats ETH Zürich, gallery 2019-2020
A selection of work celebrating the outcomes of the first academic year of Studio Eva Prats ‘Building Communities’:
> Semester 1, (HS19)
> Semester 2, (FS20)
> More details on the ‘Building Communities’ studio
Interview – Flores & Prats’ AR Bookshelf
July 6th
Flores & Prats tell the story of a selection of books on their bookshelf for a new podcast series from The Architectural Review.
> See details, podcast and associated article of the interview with Eva and Ricardo.
Competitions Archive
The F&P website ARCHIVE has been updated with a selection of competition projects:
> Somerset House Auditorium, 2019
> Cal Maiol School, 2019
> The New Arnau Theatre, 2017
> Vallcarca, 2017
> Rehabilitation of the Cal Vidal industrial settlement, 2007
> Kulturforum Carlsberg, 2007
Habitar la postpandemia
June 19th
Flores & Prats participate in an online dialogue within the design course of professor Javier Mendiondo of FADU UNL, Argentina.
Presentation of Sala Beckett Book
June 11th
Flores & Prats present the new book on Sala Beckett alongside Toni Casares, director of the Sala Beckett, Jordi Martí, councillor at Barcelona City Council, and Adrià Goula, photographer.
> See video of the event (CATALÁ)
A Tavola! – Lecture, Politecnico di Milano
June 4th
Ricardo Flores and Eva Prats present ideas and doubts in the process of the latest ongoing projects.
‘Building Communities’ ETH Zürich Final Reviews FS20
Wednesday 27th May 2020
Final Reviews for Studio Eva Prats, ETH Zurich FS20 ‘Building Communities, Rehabilitation and Housing in Barcelona’
Visiting Professor: Eva Prats
Adviser: Ricardo Flores
Teaching Assistants: Annina Meier & Guillaume Guisan
Guests: Teresa Galí-Izard, Jonny Pugh, Philip Christou, Ricardo Flores, Anna Puigjaner
> More details on the ‘Building Communities’ studio
F&P at the Architecture Foundation ‘100 day Studio’
May 18th Flores & Prats On the Table
Ricardo Flores and Eva Prats present process material on the table of the recently won competition for the Théâtre des Variétés in Brussels.
F&P at Barcelona Architecture Week 2020
Flores & Prats contribute to two events at Architecture Week:
May 17th. Conference – ‘A Taula’
Ricardo Flores and Eva Prats contribute to the conference series “C of Confinement” by presenting the project of the new Théâtre des Variétés in Brussels.
> See video of the event here (Catalá)
May 15th. Debate – ‘Second Hand’
Eva Prats co-presents a debate on adaptive re-use in architecture and other disciplines, as an emotional and environmental need capable of generating new realities out of the existing.
Presentations are made by Antoni Miralda (artist), Davide Rapp (video artist), Curro Claret (industrial designer) and Lionel Devlieger (Rotor, cooperative of design) followed by architects Laia Grau, Alessandro Scarnato and Gemma Serch.
> See video of the event here (English)
Conference – Casa La Ricarda d’Antonio Bonet Castellana. Un territori formalitzat
May 12th
Ricardo Flores presents as part of the conference series “Maneres d’habitar” hosted by Escola Sert COAC.
> See video of the event here (ESPAÑOL)
Third Edition ‘Archives 1: Flores Prats’
This newly published and expanded edition includes the projects of The Morning Chapel and Liquid Light in Venice (2018) and a new photograph by Juan Rodríguez with a drawing by Flores & Prats.
F&P in times of quarantine
Eva Prats & Ricardo Flores are interviewed by L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui on working during the covid-19 lock down.
NEW BOOK – Sala Beckett International Drama Centre
‘Sala Beckett International Drama Centre – Rehabilitation of the former Cooperative Pau i Justícia Poblenou, Barcelona’ has now been published in three languages: Catalan, Spanish and English.
The book is edited by Ricardo Flores and Eva Prats and published by Arquine. Contributions from Toni Casares, Ricardo Flores, Manuel Guerrero, Juan José Lahuerta, Eva Prats and Ellis Woodman. Interviews with Toni Casares, Soraya Smithson, Miralda, Sergi Belbel and Curro Claret, extracted from the film Escala 1:5.
> More details and purchase links here
Working from home…
In recent days, we have moved our studio to our homes. Connected to the members of our team by the internet, we keep working from home on ongoing projects including the recently won competition for the renovation of the ancient Théâtre des Variétés in Brussels. We also keep on teaching our Design Studio at ETH Zurich from a distance, connecting regularly with our students from all around the world.
Sala Beckett on RTVE La 2 – ‘Escala Humana. Por amor al arte’
16th March 2020.
Interview with Eva Prats (Flores & Prats) and Toni Casares (director of Sala Beckett) in the TV program ‘Escala Humana’. This chapter, titled ‘Por amor al arte’, focuses on the relationship between architecture and art, and how architecture can facilitate the creation of art. The project Sala Beckett exemplifies these relationships in the world of theatre.
> See broadcast here, minutes 10:35 to 15:28 (external link)
Film Screening – ‘Hacer cine con la arquitectura’
10th March 2020.
Ricardo Flores participates in a short film screening and panel discussion with Maria Mauti (film director, Taller Arquitectura i Cine ETSAB) and Adrià Lahuerta (producer, 15L Films), for the course Taller Arquitectura y Cine at ETSAB.
> See video of the event (external link)
F&P + OUEST architecture win Théâtre des Variétés competition
Flores & Prats, collaborating with OUEST Architecture, have won the competition for the renovation of the Théâtre des Variétés in Brussels.
F&P lecture, Rome
February 20th. ‘The Discipline of the existing’.
Flores & Prats lecture at MAXXI Rome as part of the lecture series ‘Architecture Talks’.
F&P Somerset House competition finalists
Flores & Prats, collaborating with AOC Architecture, were finalists in the competition to design a £50 million auditorium at the Grade I-listed Somerset House in central London. Congratulations to the winner Níall McLaughlin Architects.
Flores & Prats were shortlisted from 69 entries as finalists alongside Adjaye Associates, Barozzi/Veiga with DRDH, David Chipperfield Architects, Haworth Tomkins with Citizen’s Design Bureau, Snøhetta with Orms, and Studio Seilern.
> Press coverage in the Architects Journal (external link)
> Project details (internal link to Archive)
F&P double lecture, Denmark
Two lectures by Flores & Prats
January 8th – Aarhus School of Architecture, as part of the lecture series ‘The Ordinary Daylight’.
January 9th – Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts Copenhagen, ‘The Discipline of the existing’.
‘Building Communities’ ETH Zürich Final Reviews HS19
Wednesday, 18th December 2019, from 9.30am to 7pm
ETHZ, Hönggerberg Zurich, HIL D15. (open to the public)
Final Reviews for Studio Eva Prats, ETH Zurich HS19 ‘Building Communities, Rehabilitation and Housing in Barcelona’
Visiting Professor: Eva Prats
Adviser: Ricardo Flores
Teaching Assistants: Àngel Solanellas Terés & Guillaume Guisan
Guests: An Fonteyne, Peter Märkli, Jan De Vylder, Yoshiharu Tsukamoto
> More details on the ‘Building Communities’ studio
F&P win AR ‘New into old’ awards 2019
Flores & Prats are announced as the winners of The Architectural Review ‘New into Old’ awards for the project Sala Beckett.
> More details here
F&P at the ‘WORKS+WORDS BIENNALE 2019’, Copenhagen
28th November 2019 – 19th January 2020.
WORKS+WORDS BIENNALE 2019, The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation, KADK, Copenhagen.
The Great Exhibition Hall.
Curated by: Anders Abraham, Peter Bertram, Christina Capetillo.
‘El Poblenou Building Communities’ with ETSAB + RMIT
25th November – 5th December 2019
Flores & Prats lead a two-week design-research workshop in Barcelona with RMIT Architecture & Urban Design and ETSAB students, focusing on the social and urban rehabilitation of a neglected area in the Poblenou neighbourhood of Barcelona. Workshop led by Eva Prats, Ricardo Flores and Ian Nazareth and assisted by Julia Doz.
> See photos
12th November. F&P Lecture, Luxembourg
Flores & Prats deliver a lecture “The discipline of the existing” at the LUCA Luxembourg Center for Architecture.
7th November. Architecture & Care, ETH Zürich
Prof. Eva Prats is invited to participate in the Architecture & Care Conference at ETH Zürich, alongside, Prof. Dr. Philip Ursprung, Prof. Robert Riener, Kashef Chowdhury, Prof. Momoyo Kaijima, Prof. Dr. Stefan Engelter, Prof. Christoph Gantenbein, and Prof. Jan De Vylder.
6th November. F&P Lecture, Denmark
Eva Prats delivers a lecture “The formation days at the school and with Enric Miralles till the use of drawings at Flores & Prats today”. Lecture at Aarhus School of Architecture, Denmark.
Drawing of the Year 2019 Jury
Eva Prats forms part of the jury of the Drawing of the Year 2019 award, an international student drawing competition initiated by Aarhus School of Architecture, Denmark. November 2019.
New film – Food Cultura Satellite Boqueria
A celebration of ‘Sant Stomak’ with a new film showing the story of Flores & Prats’ project Food Cultura Satellite Boqueria. A collaboration with Antoni Miralda to provide a stand in La Boqueria Mercat for FoodCultura to organise activities and exhibitions related to the universe of food and culture.
> See the film in our ‘explore the STUDIO‘ section (within the ‘PASILLO’)
> See the film on Vimeo (external link)
Flores & Prats at the Bucharest Triennale
October 12th, 2019.
Eva Prats & Ricardo Flores are keynote speakers at Bucharest Triennale East Centric Architecture, 3rd edition. Organized by Arhitext Foundation and financed by the Architecture Stamp from the Romanian Order of Architects.
Eva Prats ETH Zürich workshop in Poblenou, Barcelona
October 2019.
Eva Prats Studio at ETH Zürich, ‘Building Communities’, temporarily moves to the heart of Poblenou.
‘La Ricarda: An Architectural and Cultural Project’ – Chicago Architecture Biennale.
September 19th, 2019 – January 5th, 2020.
Documents from Ricardo Flores’ PhD Thesis on La Ricarda is exhibited as part of the partner program of the Chicago Architecture Biennale. Exhibition curated by Iker Gil at Lawrence & Clark, Chicago.
> See photos
> See further info on Ricardo Flores’ PhD Thesis in the BOOKS section
Sala Beckett within “The best architecture of the 21st century”
Flores & Prats Sala Beckett project has been included in the Guardian’s list of “The best architecture of the 21st century”.
Bienal de Arquitetura de Sao Paulo, 2019
September 10th – December 8th, 2019.
Flores & Prats collaborate with Jan de Vydler with a contribution titled “Tools forgotten in a construction site” for the Bienal de Arquitetura de Sao Paulo, 2019.
Building Communities – ETH Zürich
Eva Prats commences teaching the studio ‘Building Communities’ at ETH Zürich, with Flores & Prats.
> More details here
Eva Prats completes PhD
Eva Prats has completed her PhD in Architecture with RMIT University titled ‘To observe with the client, to draw with the existing. Three cases of Architecture dealing with the As-Found’.
More details coming soon…
New film – “La Capella Del Mattino”
Now available on our Vimeo page: “La Capella Del Mattino” is a short film produced by 15-L. Films.
We celebrate the news that ‘The Morning Chapel’ by Flores & Prats has been chosen by the Holy See to remain permanently in place along with the other 10 chapels constructed by an international selection of architects for the Vatican Pavilion as part of La Biennale di Venezia 2018.
The chapel can be visited this summer on the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venezia.
IQD – ‘SECOND HAND’
The July/September issue of IQD is edited by Flores & Prats, inviting contributions from artists, designers and architects who focus their creative work on giving a second life to things under the topic ‘Second Hand’. The result was a varied constellation on this fascinating subject.
Peña Ganchegui Award 2019
Eva Prats forms part of the jury at the Biannual Peña Ganchegui Award 2019 recognising young Basque architecture. Other members of the jury are Moisés Puente and Eduardo Mangada. Organised by Archivo Peña Ganchegui, in collaboration with the Directorate of Housing and Architecture of the Basque Government.
20th June. F&P Lecture, Roca Gallery London
Flores & Prats provide a breakfast lecture to accompany the exhibition ‘What Where. Crossing boundaries in the architecture of Sala Beckett’, curated by Vicky Richardson.
Exhibition ‘What Where: Crossing boundaries in the architecture of Sala Beckett’, Roca Gallery London
June 1st to August 31st 2019.
Exhibition that explores how the work of Irish playwright Samuel Beckett influenced the design of an experimental theatre in Barcelona. Curated by Vicky Richardson. Design of the exhibition and catalogue by Martin Perrin. Roca Gallery London, from June 1st to August 31st 2019.
FAD awards 2019 finalist
Flores & Prats is a finalist at the FAD awards 2019 for the project Liquid Light
26th May. F&P Lecture, Milan
Flores & Prats lecture at the Triennale Milano. Event directed by Stefano Boeri with the Politecnico di Milano, Triennale and Comune di Milano, in collaboration with the Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli.
17th May. Reviews at TU-Berlin
Ricardo Flores and Eva Prats are invited critics at at the mid-term reviews of students studying under Professor Jacob van Rijs at the Technical University of Berlin.
16th May. F&P Lecture, TU-Berlin
Flores & Prats lecture on their work at the Technical University of Berlin (TU-Berlin) as part of the series of conferences “Positionen”.
15th May. F&P Lecture, Varese
Flores & Prats lecture on their work at Villa e Collezione Panza during the ‘Thinking Varese 2019’ lecture series organised by Ordine Varese, Italy.
13th May. Round Table ‘¡¿Y ahora qué?!’ at Elisava
Ricardo Flores participates in a round table discussion with Daria de Seta, Mariana Eidler, Paolo Sustersic and Ramon Faura.
Exhibition ‘Import WB_Export BCN. Re-activate the city’, Barcelona
April 4th to April 23rd 2019.
Flores & Prats contribute to the collective exhibition ‘Import WB_Export BCN. Re-activate the city’ as part of the City Connections Project, at Arts Santa Mònica, Barcelona.
The Flores & Prats project Sala Beckett is exhibited amongst other public works that display a capacity to improve social cohesion in degraded urban areas.
23rd March. Lecture ‘La disciplina dell’Esistente’, Prato
Flores & Prats lecture as part of the first edition of the Prato Circular Economy Festival. Prato, Italy.
Exhibition ‘Alternative Histories’, London
March 23rd – April 14th
Flores & Prats contribute to the collective exhibition ‘Alternative Histories’ curated by Drawing Matter and The Architecture Foundation. Architects were asked to create a model from a drawing from the collection of Drawing Matter. Flores & Prats presented a model based on a drawing by Alberto Ponis from 1977 for Casa Scalesciani in Sardinia.
13th March. Lecture at NABA, Milan
Flores & Prats participate in a lecture titled ‘Teatri e Architettura‘ at the Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti (NABA), Milan, alongside Andrea Acerbi (Teatro Sociale Gualtieri), and Francesca Serrazanetti (Politecnico di Milano).
Venice Biennale 2018 – New film
Project film now available for ‘The Morning Chapel’ and ‘Liquid Light’:
A postcard from Flores & Prats’ two installations at the Venice Biennale 2018.
Visit the ‘EXPLORE THE STUDIO’ section and look for the Venice Lion…
28th February. Lecture, RCA + Women in Architecture Awards, RIBA
Flores & Prats deliver a lecture titled ‘The Discipline of the Existing‘ the School of Architecture of the Royal College of Art London.
Eva Prats participates in a discussion with the other shortlisted female architects from the Women in Architecture Awards at the Royal Institute of British Architects.
21st-22nd February. Lecture + Workshop, UCD, Dublin
Flores & Prats travel to the School of Architecture at the University of Central Dublin to give the inaugural UCD Master of Architecture Lecture and Masterclass Series 2019 and deliver the workshop ‘Paper Memories’
Architect of the year 2019 shortlist
Eva Prats has been shortlisted for ‘Architect of the Year‘ for the project Casal Balaguer in Palma de Mallorca. Women in Architecture 2019 awards, in association with The Architectural Review and Architect’s Journal.
23rd January. Lecture ‘The Discipline of the Existing’, UNSW
Flores & Prats deliver the first lecture in Utzon Lecture Series for 2019, at UNSW Sydney.
The Lecture focuses on the Sala Beckett project in Barcelona to illustrate how Flores & Prats work with existing buildings, gradually developing from a process of observing as opposed to preconceived or imposed ideas.
14th-25th January. Workshop ‘Building Communities’, UNSW
Flores & Prats travel to the University of New South Wales in Sydney to deliver an intensive workshop looking at the area of Marrickville. The theme ‘Building Communities’ focuses on gaining a deep understanding of the built and social heritage through site visits, and through the use of large scale mapping. The studio proposes to test the capacity of the area to increase residential densities and create new communities.
MIT Met project
Further details on our competition entry for a new “design hub” for Massachusetts Institute of Technology can now be found on within our project archive
18/19th December. Reviews at ETH Zürich / USI Mendrisio, Switzerland
Ricardo Flores and Eva Prats are invited critics at the final reviews for the studios led by professor Andrea Deplazes at ETH Zürich and Professor Valentin Bearth at Accademia di architettura Mendrisio – USI Università della Svizzera italiana.
New Film – “Liquid Light – From Barcelona to Venice”
Now available on our Vimeo page: “Liquid Light – From Barcelona to Venice” is a short film explaining how light travels from Flores & Prats completed project for the Sala Beckett theatre in Poblenou, Barcelona, to the Corderie at the Arsenale, for ‘FREESPACE’ at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2018.
8th November. Lecture ‘La Disciplina dell’Esistente’, Milan
Flores & Prats give a lecture ‘The discipline of the Existing’ at the Politecnico di Milano, as part of the 7th edition of ‘Lectures on Contemporary Architecture’.
- See video of the lecture (external link)
31st October. Lecture at MIT, USA
Flores & Prats give a lecture on their work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge.
Exhibition ‘Import WB_Export BCN. Re-activate the city’, Brussels
October 19th to November 18th 2018.
Flores & Prats contribute to the collective exhibition ‘Import WB_Export BCN. Re-activate the city’ as part of the City Connections Project, at the Faculté d’Architecture ULB.
The Flores & Prats project Sala Beckett is exhibited amongst other public works that display a capacity to improve social cohesion in degraded urban areas.
Exhibition ‘Metropoli Novissima’, Naples
October 10th to November 15th 2018.
Flores & Prats contribute to the collective exhibition ‘Metropoli Novissima’ curated by Cherubino Gambardella and organised by Annali dell’Architettura e delle Città Foundation at the Complesso Monumentale di San Domenico Maggiore, Naples.
The Flores & Prats project Building 111 is shown as an example of the redevelopment of urban suburbs alongside the work of various international designers and architects.
11th October. Lecture ‘Building Communities’, Konstakademien
Flores & Prats give a lecture at Konstakademien – The Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Stockholm. Organised by Stockholms Arkitektförening through Jesús Azpeitia and Christin Svensson.
27th September. MIT Met competition shortlist
Flores & Prats are selected as finalists alongside the architectural studios of Barkow Leibinger, Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Snøhetta to design a major new home for MIT School of Architecture and Planning, and Project Manus, MIT’s makerspace initiative.
More details on the competition coming soon…
28th September. ‘Semana de la Arquitectua 2018’ at COAC, Canary Islands
Flores & Prats give a lecture ‘Construir Comunidades’ during the Architecture Week of 2018 at Gran Canaria.
20th September. Conference at CREA, Argentina
Flores & Prats contribute to the 10th edition of CREA (‘Congreso Rosarino de Estudiantes de Arquitectura’).
31st August. ‘Building Communities’, RMIT
Flores & Prats give a free public lecture titled ‘Building Communities’, at the RMIT in Melbourne.
27st August – 1st September. ‘Second Hand’, RMIT, Melbourne
Flores & Prats run an intensive workshop with students of the RMIT focusing on giving new life to disused buildings in the area of Kensington, Melbourne.
Archiboo awards shortlist
Flores & Prats have been shortlisted in the 2018 Archiboo awards under the categories of ‘Best Use of Innovation’, and ‘Best Use of Video’. The website design and films have been developed by Jonny Pugh. The implementation of the current layout is by tallerestampa.
New Film – Sala Beckett
Now available – ‘Sala Beckett Performance‘ is a short story exploring the ways a member of the public, actor, and technician intertwine through an evening at the new Sala Beckett theatre in Poblenou, Barcelona.
www.floresprats.com > ABOUT THE WEBSITE
The Flores & Prats website in its current form is a work in progress developed over the past 13 years. A sample of process images, storyboards from the ‘STUDIO’ film production, and a short history are now provided on ‘ABOUT THE WEBSITE’.
10th July. Building Stories, Lisbon
The ‘Building Stories’ exhibition curated by Rodrigo da Costa Lima and Amélia Brandão Costa opens at ‘Garagem Sul’, CCB, Lisbon, including a contributed film by Flores & Prats on the construction process of Building 111, Terrassa.
- See video (external link)
PRESS coverage of ‘Liquid Light’ & ‘The Morning Chapel’
Flores & Prats contributions to La Biennale di Venezia 2018 have been critiqued in a number of international journals including The New York Times, The Guardian, and Le Monde. See a selection here.
Second Edition ‘Archives 1: Flores Prats’
The Second print edition of the monograph ‘Archives’ devoted to the studio of Flores Prats is now available.
The publication includes the projects:
Yutes Warehouse. Barcelona, Spain. 2005
House in a suitcase. Barcelona, Spain 1997
Providencia House. Badalona, Spain 2006
Building 111. Terrasa, Barcelona, Spain. 2011
Mills Museum. Palma de Mallorca, Spain. 2002
Casal Balaguer Cultural Centre. Palma de Mallorca, Spain. 2009
Beckett Theater. Barcelona, Spain. 2012
and, an interview with the artist Antoni Miralda.
Archives is a magazine developed for a paper format, as an object one would want to read with both hands and eyes. Its aim is to become an archive that orders and explains the projects and the different ways of working of a series of architects.
- See further information in our BOOKS section
26th May. La Biennale di Venezia 2018 – inaugurations
Exhibitions have opened to the public for two contributions by Flores Prats for La Biennale di Venezia 2018:
‘Liquid Light’, Arsenale, as part of FREESPACE.
‘The Morning Chapel’, San Giorgio Maggiore, as part of the Vatical Chapels.
www.floresprats.com > COLLABORATORS / ACADEMIC
The new ‘COLLABORATORS’ and ‘ACADEMIC’ sections are now live.
Sala Beckett – Monocle travel guide
Sala Beckett has been featured in the ‘Monocle travel guide – Barcelona‘: A fantastic guide to get to know (even better) our city.
La Biennale di Venezia 2018 – Vatican Chapels
Drawings, images and text on the Flores Prats designed Vatican Chapel are now public and can now be found in the archive entry for ‘The Morning Chapel’
The Vatican Chapels pavilion curated by Francesco Dal Co. for La Biennale di Venezia 2018 is a series of chapels constructed in a wooded area at one end of the Venetian island of San Giorgio Maggiore by an international selection of 10 architects: Andrew Berman (USA), Francesco Cellini (Italy), Javier Corvalán (Paraguay), Eva Prats and Ricardo Flores (Spain), Norman Foster (UK), Terunobu Fujimori (Japan), Sean Godsell (Australia), Carla Juaçaba Arquiteta (Brazil), Smiljan Radic (Chile), Eduardo Souto de Mora (Portugal).
www.floresprats.com
Phase two of a new and extended website has been launched. Major updates include a new and updated
Books and Publications section, and, new / updated Archive section, including new entries for the following projects:
- Sala Beckett (project)
- La Olla de la Memória
- Casa en Regencós
- l’antic edifici de les Fuerzas Eléctricas
- Rehabilitació d’una nau al conjunt Fabra & Coats a Sant Andreu
- Plaça dels Països Catalans
- EUROPAN 7
- Square in Guissona
- Pla Parcial Industrial al Sector SCC 123
- La Creu del Vendrell
- 16 social housing units in Guissona
- Mercado del Besos
- Exposicío Clorindo Testa
- Conservatorio en Ibiza
- EUROPAN 3: 32 social housing units (project)
- EUROPAN 3: 32 social housing units (competition)
www.floresprats.com
Phase one of a new an extended website has been launched. An updated news section will be coming soon. See the Flores Prats Facebook page for recent news.
31st March 2015. Lecture in Kent State University, Florence.
Introduced by Paola Giaconia, Ricardo Flores has talked about Flores & Prats’ work. The lecture was addressed to students from USA which take an academic semester in Florence, under the guide of professors Paola Giaconia and Marco Brizzi among others.
31st March 2015. “Cartas al constructor” (Letters to the builder) by Ricardo Flores, published in the last issue (Nº5) of ARQUIS magazine,
dedicated to The Detail in Construction. In the writing, Ricardo talks about how of the constructive detail drawings become sometimes like personal letters to the builder, without which the comprehension between designers and builders couldn’t be possible in any way. This issue of the magazine of Universidad de Palermo in Buenos Aires has been directed by architects Roberto Busnelli and Daniel Silberfaden, and contains also articles by Francisco Aires Mateus, Taku Sakaushi, Adrián Luchini, Diego Arraigada, Lucio Morini and Angelo Bucci, among others.
Architecture and life in three times. Workshop, 8th April to 10th May 2015.
Flores & Prats have been invited to run an architecture workshop in the industrial settlement Palo Alto, in the neighbourhood of Poble nou, Barcelona. The workshop will be part of one thematic seen from different disciplines. Besides the architecture workshop, another workshop will be run by Jordi Bernadó, Artist and Photographer, giving the point of view of the photography. A series of four lectures will complement these two workshops, giving the points of view of critics and professors of architecture and aesthetics, such as Marta Llorente, Iñaki Ábalos, Martí Peran and Eloy Fernández Porta. The program is ideated and directed by Ricardo Devesa, and organized by the Institut d’Humanitats de Barcelona together with the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona in collaboration with the ETSA of Barcelona.
17th March 2015. Quan l’arquitectura estima els detalls: The work of Flores & Prats and their monograph book PENSADO A MANO, featured in ARA Newspaper.
Under the title Quan l’arquitectura estima els detalls (When architecture loves the details), journalist Catalina Serra writes about the book PENSADO A MANO / THOUGHT BY HAND and also introduces some of the studio projects such as the Pius XII Square in Sant Adrià del Besòs or the future Sala Beckett in Poblenou.
9th March 2015. Mextrópoli 2015. Master lecture and roundtable.
This morning we have lectured in the first session of lectures of the Festival Mextrópoli 2015. In the same session there was the lecture of Saskia Sassen, Richard Sennett, Pedro Gadanho and Dominique Perrault. Our lecture was concentrated in the public dimension of our work, focused in two projects: the Pius XII square in Barcelona, as an example of participatory process in design, and the 111 Building, as an example of a project which seeks to create a community among the new neighbours that will live in this housing project. In the afternoon we took part in a roundtable about housing.
7th and 8th March 2015. Mextrópoli. Workshop: PENSADO A MANO / THOUGHT BY HAND.
This weekend we have been directing a workshop about housing together with Infonavit. We have sought to obtain various proposals on integration of housing (private space) with their immediate environment (public space), following the working methodology of our studio. These proposals have been applied to a case study in the Metropolitan area in the Valle de Mexico, so that they could have a real base and significance beyond the paper.
6th March 2015. Mextrópoli. First day of the International Festival on Architecture and the City.
Today Eva and Ricardo presented PENSADO A MANO / THOUGHT BY HAND at the auditorium of the Centro Cultural de España, together with the book’s editor Miquel Adrià, and invited critics the Mexican architects Juan Carlos Tello and Ernesto Betancourt. At the end of the presentation, two chocolate replicas of the book, one of the English version -dark chocolate- and one of the Spanish version -milk chocolate- were offered among the assistants. The book was on sale for those who wanted to buy it at the vestibule of the auditorium.
5th March 2015. PENSADO A MANO / THOUGHT BY HAND Lecture at Tecnológico de Monterrey, Monterrey, Mexico, to present the recently published monograph and lecture about the work of the studio.
1st March 2015. Flores&Prats, Arquitectos de papel: The work of Flores & Prats and their monograph book PENSADO A MANO, featured in the Catalan edition of ABC Newspaper.
Journalist Maria Güell writes an extensive article entitled
Flores&Prats, Arquitectos de papel
(Flores & Prats, Architects of paper) focusing her writing in some of the works of the office as part of the new book PENSADO A MANO / THOUGHT BY HAND. Maria Güell also mentions Ricardo and Eva’s background at Architect Enric Miralles’ office, relating this to the quality and character of their work.
19th February 2015. Generación post-Miralles. Flores & Prats and their monograph book PENSADO A MANO, featured in the special issue Tendències of El Mundo Newspaper.
Following the presentation of the book in Nivell Zero of the Sunyol Foundation, Barcelona (9th February), journalist Vanessa Graell writes an extensive article about the work of Flores & Prats and its recent monograph book. The article, entitled
Generación post-Miralles
(Post-Miralles Generation) speaks about the different approaches of this studio to design, and also introduces the book PENSADO A MANO / THOUGHT BY HAND, emphasizing the hand-mind relation, which she finds so present in the book and that, in her opinion, condenses the creative world of Flores & Prats. She considers the monograph “not as a book of architecture, but that mixes art, design, philosophy, poetry, urbanism, photography… as in the architects’ studio itself. In fact, Thought by Hand would become their portable studio, in two dimensions…”
15th February 2015. Arquine features the book PENSADO A MANO / THOUGHT BY HAND on its blog, reproducing the article by Miquel Adrià which introduces the book. To illustrate the article, Arquine has chosen the recently presented Teaser of the book produced by 15-L. FILMS / Adrià Lahuerta and Carlota Coloma. In the article, Arquine also announces that Ricardo Flores and Eva Prats will participate next March in the Festival of Architecture and City Mextrópoli, and will present there their monograph book.
12th February 2015. PENSADO A MANO / THOUGHT BY HAND featured in Metalocus online magazine. The article includes images of the interior pages of the book, opened in pairs, showing the diversity of design in its edition.
10th February 2015. A 30 seconds teaser to present the book PENSADO A MANO / THOUGHT BY HAND , filmed and edited by the Barcelona based filmmakers 15-L. FILMS.
In October 2014, Adrià Lahuerta and Carlota Coloma imagined a way to show and present the material and projects included in this new monographic book: to film along 3 continuous days the everyday activity on the tables of this studio, with the intention to show the process of making things, the way of working of this atelier. To achieve this, the filmmakers proposed Eva and Ricardo to wear a Go-Pro camera to each other’s chests so that while working they were at the same time registering what happened on the tables in front of them. Moving through the rooms of the studio, Eva and Ricardo show the different actions that take place on tables: model making and drawings of several projects developed at the same time. Now that the material is edited, 15-L FILMS present a short version in the form of a Teaser (30 seconds), and present it to the public, as an advanced version of the complete one, to come soon.
9th February 2015. Launching of the book PENSADO A MANO / THOUGHT BY HAND in Nivell Zero, Fundació Sunyol, Barcelona.
Miquel Adrià, Editor of Arquine; Juan José Lahuerta, Head of Exhibitions of MNAC; and the Architects Eva Prats and Ricardo Flores, have presented today in Nivell Zero of the Sunyol Foundation.
1st February 2015. Study trip to Copenhagen with our fifth year students from the ETSA Barcelona.
This trip intends to introduce students to projects that have the same program as the one they are focusing on in their exercise: housing that produces community. The study trip lasted four complete days.
20th January 2015.
Students of the Design Studio Housing and Rehabilitation at ETSA Barcelona had today their midterm presentations.
December 2014. THOUGHT BY HAND / PENSADO A MANO, recommended in Blog Ve-redes.
The first monographic book about Flores & Prats’ work, published and edited by Arquine México, is a recommended publication in this blog, focused on architecture.
December 2014. THOUGHT BY HAND / PENSADO A MANO: The book is here!
The first monographic on Flores & Prats’ work, published and edited by Editorial Arquine, which includes 15 years of studio work, is finally out. The book sprang from an invitation by Arquine publisher in México. It collects the studio’s work in different fields such as restoration, social housing, public space, neighbour’s participation and university workshops, all of them shown from a process material that allows taking part in its evolution.
- More information (English)
- More information (Spanish)
November 2014. Eva Prats Professor of Architecture / Urbanism at RMIT.
Eva Prats has been appointed new professor of Architecture / Urbanism at RMIT – Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, at Barcelona campus. The professorship is directed to the new Master of Urban Design in Barcelona, an initiative to establish a global program that will work with specificity of design responses to urban situations. The program will be developed in the 3 different urban contexts – Barcelona (Spain), Melbourne (Australia) and Ho Chi Minh (Vietnam), cities where RMIT has a campus. The role of Eva Prats will be that of establishing the new planning and strategic direction of the School at the Barcelona Campus in the field of Urban Design.
November 2014. Mies van de Rohe Award Nomination.
The Cultural Centre Casal Balaguer in Palma de Mallorca, nominated to the “EU Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award” 2015. The prize is granted every two years to acknowledge and reward quality architectural production in Europe. The prize objectives aim to recognise and commend excellence in the field of architecture and to draw attention to the important contribution of European professionals in the development of new concepts and technologies.
13th November 2014. Lecture Series: Grafting Architecture.
The lecture took place in the Catalan Architects’ Association in Tarragona, as part of the lecture series ‘Grafting Architecture’, around the Catalan pavilion presented this year at the Biennale di Venezia. Along with architect David Closes which lectured about his project Sant Francesc Church in Manresa, Ricardo Flores presented the Casal Balaguer Cultural Centre in Palma de Mallorca, project featured at the Catalan Pavilion.
November 2014. THOUGHT BY HAND / PENSADO A MANO Book.
This is a short trailer focused on the recent monograph book on the work of Flores & Prats, edited by Arquine México. In just 30 seconds, this video gives a glimpse of the content of the book: translation from drawing to building through handmade documents.
11th November 2014. Lecture at Istituto Europeo di Design, within the 2nd year Design Studio.
Flores & Prats lecture ‘Edible Architecture’.
Last 6th of November, the Catalan Architects’ Association in Sarrià-Sant Gervasi, Barcelona, organized a dinner-lecture with Flores & Prats. Eva and Ricardo called the lecture ‘Edible Architecture’, and talked about the use of food to help to explain their work to the general public, specially related to exhibitions in Spain and abroad. The lecture took place while dining in Hotel Muntaner 505.
30th October 2014. Flores & Prats at the Review Sessions at University of Queensland.
Great projects from first year’s students from the University of Queensland in Brisbane where we participated in the Review Session, and a very fun, engaging and critical jury with Sandra Kaji-O’Grady, John de Manincor, Kevin Low, Pedro Guedes and Kim Baber.
29th October 2014. On the air in Melbourne.
Eva Prats interviewed on Triple R – Melbourne Independent Radio, 102.7FM Australia by Simon Knott, Stuart Harrison and Christine Phillip.
Flores & Prats at the Australian symposium Affirmative Architecture.
Eva and Ricardo gave a lecture called ‘Meeting at the Building’ on October 28th in Brisbane as part of the Affirmative Architecture Symposium. Affirmative Architecture has been conceived as an annual event that seeks to define an emergent trend amongst young architects and designers to re-engage with the ability of architecture to make life better.
Flores & Prats interviewed by Martyn Hook for Architecture AU.
Eva and Ricardo talked to Martyn Hook for Architecture AU magazine, ahead of their appearance in Brisbane at the symposium Affirmative Architecture 2014. The interview approaches themes such as the studio’s working method, the Building 111 project and the office’s interest in social housing and its capacity in creating neighbourhoods.
Film Meeting at the Building screened at Shortcutz Xpress Viseu Festival.
The documentary film Meeting at the Building, based on Flores & Prats’ 111 Building, directed by Adrià Lahuerta and Carlota Coloma /15-L Films, was projected in Shortcutz Xpress Viseu Festival, Portugal, in the 36th session at “Só Sabão”. Photo by Luís Belo.
23rd October 2014. Collaboration with artist MIRALDA and Food Cultura Foundation in La Boqueria Market.
Presentation in Barcelona La Boquería Market of the project for the future Food Cultura stall, with the artist MIRALDA, in occasion of the World Food Day. The presentation consisted in a small show at the future stall space, with a model of the future project and an offer of stamps of ‘St Stomak’, patron of the digestion, to the visitors and friends around the market.
17th October 2014. Flores & Prats at Biennale Sessions in Venice.
Eva Prats and Ricardo Flores lecture in the colloquium “Disciplining Modernity”, part of the Biennale Sessions organized by the Iowa State University in response to the Biennale’s theme “Absorbing Modernity 1914-2014”. The colloquium took place at the Sale d’Armi of the Arsenale, Biennale di Venezia, and along with Eva and Ricardo there were lectures of OMA’s Reinier de Graaf, as well as IOWA State Alumni Jeffrey Morgan, Nora Wendl & Eric Smith.
14th October 2014. Sala Beckett Press Conference.
The project for the new Theatre and International Drama Centre Sala Beckett in Barcelona was presented to journalists and general public in a press conference, with the participation of architects Flores & Prats, the director of Sala Beckett Toni Casares, and representatives of Barcelona city council and medias.
- See photos
- See videos: BTv |: TV3 (From minute 45’08”) |: Barcelona Inspira
- News reports:
Barcelona Cultura |: Diari Ara (printed edition)|: El Periódico |: Europapress |: Teatral.net |: Vilaweb|: La Vanguardia – Time builds (printed edition)
|: La Vanguardia – Sala Beckett new headquarters in Poble Nou in 2015
11th October 2014. Film “Meeting at the building” at Cinetekton Film Fest.
The documentary film, based on the 111 Building, is screened at the Cinetekton Film Fest in the city of Puebla, Mexico, during the Film and Architecture Festival.
7th October 2014. Exhibition: Trace. Drawing for explaining.
Today Eva Prats participated in the Press Conference of the opening of the exhibition
Trace…
, inaugurated in the Arts Centre Santa Mònica of Barcelona. The Press Conference was held in the exhibition hall of Cercle Sant Lluc, where the chalk drawing of an studiolo was made on the wall. The exhibition in Santa Mònica shows the video and images of the performative lecture made some weeks ago by Ricardo and Eva in the Centre Artístic Sant Lluc. You can see an article about the exhibition on Núvol digital cultural magazine.
Palau Balaguer in Gizmo.
The article by Massimo Munari appears in the Gizmo collective’s online magazine, which deals with history and critic of architecture. The future Cultural Centre Palau Balaguer appears within the Grafting Architecture context, after explaining the connecting thread between the projects selected.
18th September 2014. Flores & Prats Performative Lecture at Cercle Artístic de Sant Lluc.
Eva and Ricardo drew a lecture in a big wall to explain a small project thought especially for this place: a Studiolo for the Cercle Sant Lluc. A drawn conference, called Drawing for Explaning, part of the lecture series Trace. Drawing as a knowledge tool, curated by Óscar Guayabero.
Palau Balaguer in Doppiozero.
L’architettura in Spagna: innesto o interno? / The architecture in Spain: grafting or interior?
The article in Doppiozero online magazine by Massimo Munari compares the Catalan Exhibition with the Spanish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale this year and talks about the Panel-Cabinet of Palau Balaguer as an example of the architectural processes that keep an artisanal character within them.
8th September 2014. The future Theatre Sala Beckett in the newspaper Ara.
The article by Juan Carlos Olivares
The ghosts wait for the opening of the new Sala Beckett
, goes around the intrinsic quality of the spaces filled with history, gained through time and carefully preserved in the future Sala Beckett. (whose last construction stage was preceded by the careful restoration of some of the spaces, a temporary facelift before its final transformation.)
8th September 2014. Miralda’s Memory Vase in the Nonument Exhibition at MACBA.
From today until the 8th of February, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona will be hosting the exhibition Nonument, including the competition submission “La Olla de la Memoria”, done by the artist Miralda in collaboration with Flores & Prats. The exhibition, part of the celebration events of the Tricentenari, looks critically into the notion of monument, its symbolic and political implications, as well as the conflictive relationships between happening, commemoration and public space. The piece displayed by Miralda, his proposal for this historic commemoration, is a huge vase which could host inside a round table where to meet, eat and celebrate in the Ciutadella Park in Barcelona.
Casal Balaguer in Dezeen magazine.
The online publication features the article
Baroque palace renovated to create Casal Balaguer Cultural Centre
, and talks about the studio’s interest in this grafting architecture.
Palau Balaguer featured in the blog of the architectural magazine Plot.
The article describes the design process as the geometrical transformation of materials and dimensions, and looks into the search for continuity with the original construction presenting pictures, drawings and sketches to support it.
Cultural Centre Palau Balaguer in the blog Plataforma Arquitectura.
The architecture blog presents the building through construction drawings, sketches, photos of the models and pictures after the second construction stage. Photos by Adrià Goula.
15th July 2014. Theatre Sala Beckett published in Q9magazine.
The article explains a visit to the future Theatre Sala Beckett with Flores & Prats. It highlights the intention of preserving the character of the former building, the Cooperativa Pau i Justìcia, through the restoration of existing elements to keep its essence and bring back the memory of a place filled with vitality and new uses for both the neighbourhood and the Catalan theatre scene.
19th June 2014. Palau Balaguer featured in Metalocus.
The article presents technical documents like drawings, sketches and pictures, but also looks into the Panel-Cabinet we presented in the Venice Biennale within the Grafting Architecture exhibition, explaining the thoughts behind it.
Palau Balaguer in Architizer.
The future Cultural Centre Palau Balaguer is presented through hand drawings, plans, sections, axonometric views and pictures of the current state of the building. Photos by Adrià Goula.
Grafting Architecture appears on TV3 Evening News.
The news features the Panel-Cabinet containing the Palau Balaguer Project, and explains how the contemporary architecture examples in the exhibition include new and pre-existing elements, a sign of identity in Catalan architecture.
6th June 2014. Grafting Architecture published in the newspaper Ara.
The article by Antoni Ribas highlights our proposal for avoiding a traditional presentation and uses our Panel-Cabinet to illustrate the article
Catalonia at Venice: The radicalism and joy of Jujol in the XXI century
. Photo by M. A. Aguiló.
5th June 2014. Grafting Architecture: Opening of the exhibition.
The Catalan Pavilion at the Biennale di Venezia has been officially opened to the public. You can see Palau Balaguer as part of the selected works for this exhibition, which seeks to elucidate the changes taking place in contemporary Catalan architecture, presenting examples of a way of going about things that is able to update a living tradition, projecting it towards the future.
Venice Biennale Panel-Cabinet.
“The closet is a good metaphor of the Palau Balaguer, a building which is also in a way a container of time. Having grown over the centuries, it has been able to contain successive lives and countless changes over time, absorbing and noting through traces and scars the different actions on it.” Presentation of the Cabinet-Panel for the Grafting Architecture Pavilion of the Biennale di Venezia. The photos inside the panel are by Adrià Goula.
Making of the Venice Biennale Panel-Cabinet.
As the main theme of the Catalan pavilion is about process and the way of developing architecture, the design of the panel focused on displaying intermediate process material of the Palau Balaguer project, with chipboard and balsa wood models produced at the studio of the several stages of its evolution. The design of the panel comes out of an actual wardrobe of the office, containing models, drawings and photographs from the several phases collected through the years.
31st May 2014. “Meeting at the Building” screening in Terrassa.
The documentary short film based on the 111 Building, was shown at the Civic Centre Montserrat in Terrassa, Barcelona to the neighbours of Torresana. This was an opportunity to discuss with them some aspects of the building and to hear their reactions both to the film and to the building itself.
27th May 2014. Eva Prats interviewed in IB3 Ràdio.
The conversation revolved around the Palau Balaguer in Palma de Mallorca and its inclusion in the Catalan proposal for the Venice Biennale. The interview focused on the building’s renovation stages and the future uses that will be added to the city of Palma’s cultural offer.
22nd May 2014. Palau Balaguer in ArchDaily.
The post includes photos of the project made after the second construction phase, drawings and pictures of the model.
20th May 2014. Palau Balaguer featured in the newspaper Diario de Mallorca.
In relation to its participation in the Biennale di Venezia, the article highlights the opportunity of being showcased in the international panorama and gives details about the third and last phase of construction of the building, waiting to be started.
Eva Prats, part of the jury of Altres Pessebres competition.
Altres Pessebres is an alternative competition of Nativities directed to architects, artists, designers, and creators to make a new interpretation of the idea of the subject.
19th May 2014. Palau Balaguer in Gooood.
The project is featured in the Beijing based online magazine, showing photos of the current state of the works and plans and models of the project.
19th May 2014. “Meeting at the building” at Short Film Festival Madrid. The documentary based on the 111 Building, will be screened at the Short Film Week Madrid at the Architects Association of Madrid (COAM) within the film series Architecture in Short. As part of the program, besides the projection of the film, there will be a talk and a round table including other film directors and producers.
12th May 2014. Palau Balaguer selected for the Biennale di Venezia.
The project will be part of the exhibition Grafting Architecture, presented in the Catalan Pavilion. This time the biennale, curated by Rem Koolhaas, will last 6 months from the 7th of June to the 23rd of November, and the Catalan Pavilion will be part of the collateral events, occupying a former shipyard located at Cantieri Navali, Calle Quintavalle, Castello 40. San Pietro di Castello, Venezia.
28th April 2014. Eva Prats and Ricardo Flores are interviewed by Gabriela Zea for Barcelonogy.
The online magazine explores the various identities that make Barcelona what it is through the eyes of different characters that have a deep interest and involvement in what happens in the city. This series of interviews starts with a visit to the studio with observations and glimpses of our view of the city, leading to a visit to Theatre Sala Beckett.
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See the interview:
Part 1 |
Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 - See the images of the interview
9th April 2014. Eva Prats lecture at Arizona State University, Phoenix, in the Design School Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts. The lecture “Drawing Without Erasing — Keeping the process in sight”, is part of the lecture series around the architectonic and pedagogical activity of Enric Miralles: Conversations | Allusions.
Recipientes y Escaleras / Containers and Ladders, an article by Ricardo Flores and Eva Prats has been published in the magazine Engawa #15. It revolves around their research on light and circulation, stairs as containers of light in their practice.
Visit to 111 Building with ETSA Valencia students.
On Friday 28th of February we organized a visit to the 111 Building in Terrassa with students from Professors José Luís Alapont and Antonio Peña Design Studios from the Architecture School of Valencia.
Visit to Palau Balaguer in Palma.
Flores & Prats have visited Palau Balaguer with the students and professors of the third year design studio from the Architecture School of Barcelona (ETSAB) this February in Palma de Mallorca, as part of a study trip throughout the island. Photos by Sergi Jimenez and Robert Zaera.
Adrià Goula in Trafalgar 12.
Last week Adrià Goula, photographer and architect, came to our office to capture the different patterns of our studio’s tiled floors, and also to portray the most recent model of the new Theatre Sala Beckett in Barcelona.
8th February 2014. Flores & Prats featured in the special issue S Moda of El País.
In this Saturday’s edition of the magazine, the article Mensajes Utópicos en la Calle / Utopian Messages in the Street, talked about Flores & Prats social approach to architecture while announcing Le Corbusier’s exhibition in Barcelona and Madrid.
Flores & Prats are now on Instagram.
Follow us @floresyprats for an inside view our working process and the studio’s everyday life, and to be updated with the highlights of our practice.
22nd January 2014. Ricardo Flores interviewed by the online magazine Plataforma Arquitectura.
The interview digs into relevant subjects like Flores & Prats’s global view on architecture and asks about the role architects should have in society, with Ricardo replying through the studio’s interest in the social dimension of architecture, social housing and the development of a community feeling within the dwellers. They also talk about the importance of innovation for the studio and about the advice he would give to someone that seeks to pursue architecture studies, making a link with future generations.
Visit to 111 Building with students of ULPGC.
The visit to the building took place last 28th of January, with around 50 students from Professor Manolo Feo’s Design Studio from the Universidad Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. The group was in Barcelona to visit this and other examples of public housing buildings.
Flores & Prats are now on Twitter.
Follow us @FloresyPrats for a summary of the latest news, updates and events related to the studio’s work and projects.
17th January 2014. Cineforum Q9 at Moritz. Cineforum Q9 at Fàbrica Moritz Barcelona with Flores & Prats and 15-L Films. Ricardo Flores and Eva Prats introduced the Building 111 and afterwards the documentary “Meeting at the Building”, directed by Carlota Coloma and Adrià Lahuerta was shown. There was a short conversation about the short film and the building, followed by an open debate with the audience.
Xmas 2013. Mexican pesebre with Danish snow.
This year we had lots of Mexico insights combined with busy days in Copenhagen. Our Nativity mixes memories of both places: a folding Mexican Pesebre with the Änglaspel of Danish Snow.
“Keep in contact after the work”.
This week came out an interview on Clarin.com, on the page dedicated to Architecture, about the post-occupancy experience of the Michelin building. It also uploaded a premiere of the film Meeting at the Building for the Argentinean audience.
18th November 2013. Torresana. Teamwork. Lecture of Eva Prats at ETSAB.
The lecture was focused on explaining the teamwork proposed by Manuel de Solá Morales in the development of the new neighborhood in Torresana, Terrassa, until the definition of a particular case of this ensamble: the Building 111. Monday 18th November at 11:30AM, at the Conference hall of the Architecture School of Barcelona (ETSAB).
Eva Prats presented Building 111 at the International Congress of Environmental Psychology…
in the Agora of Post-occupancy Assessment: Urban and Architectural Hybridity and Social Interaction held in CosmoCaixa, Barcelona on October 24th.
With the participation of Lídia Guillén (Architect of Ajuntament de Terrassa), Héctor Berroeta (Universidad of Valparaíso), Isabel Duque (Universidad Nacional of Colombia), Perla Sefarty-Garzón (Universidad of Montreal) and Zaida Muxí (Universidad Politécnica of Catalunya) and Maria Rosa Bonet (Universitat of Barcelona).
28th October 2013. Flores & Prats, featured today at the blog of Arquine magazine…
with an article by Andrea Griborio about the interview with Ricardo Flores talking about the social dimension of architecture and Meeting at the Building, the award-winning documentary on the Building 111.
23rd of October. Flores & Prats invited to the XXII International Symposium of Architecture in Monterrey, México.
Ricardo Flores gave a lecture during the symposium ‘Towards the construction of social change’. The world is changing… Society wants an architecture that comes from common sense, that solves social needs, generates communities, improves the social fabric and works for the community and not the individuals. Dwelling, public space, mobility, infrastructure and methods of architectural production should be done to improve the cities’ basic qualities.
Photos by Jó Woo.
21st October 2013. Radio interview with Ricardo Flores.
On the Mexican Radio Program La Hora Arquine by Radio Arquitectura, talking about Building 111 and coming closer to the community that inhabits the building.
21st October 2013. Sobretaules #5: Theatre, Theatres, Learning, Making Architecture.
A discussion about theater in the Architecture School of Barcelona (ETSAB) with Joan Casas (Playwright and Professor of Theatre), Eva Prats ( Professor at ETSAB and Architect of the New Sala Beckett Theatre), Iván Alcázar (theater critic and part of The Observatori d’Espais Escènics) and Toni Ramon (Professor at ETSAB and of The Observatori d’Espais Escènics).
20th October 2013. Meeting at the Building, the film on the 111 Building by Flores & Prats,
wins the Prize to the Best Documentary Short Film at the Arquitectura Film Festival de Chile. With a selection of 117 fiction and documentary films, the event invited hundreds of spectators to think about the challenges and opportunities of the city life.
17th October 2013. Suppeopskrift!
In occasion of the 7th Festival “Soups of the World”, to take place in Torresana, Terrassa, the Building 111 — better known in the neighbourhood as Michelin Building — will participate in cooking a soup during the festival. Since the building is now doing an exhibition in Copenhagen – Denmark, we have chosen a Danish recipe: Suppeopskrift. Thanks to Anne Hansen for the recipe and to Lidia for cooking it.
14th October 2013. FLORES & PRATS in Quaderns Digital, featuring a very nice article by Frans Drewniak: “The passion for architecture and people is present in the two Copenhagen exhibitions by Eva Prats and Ricardo Flores… The result of this collaboration is two unique exhibitions not to be missed if you are interested in architecture as a framework for the meeting between people.”
8th October 2013. Students of Final Thesis Studio win Awards in the Spanish Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism.
Magda Barceló Sanso and Joan Sanz Oliver, Final Project students of the group Flores & Prats from ESARQ-UIC 2012, have recently been awarded First Prize and Selected Project, respectively, among the proposals submitted to the XII Spanish Biennial 2012. These two students are to be added to María Amat Busquets, also a student of our group in 2010 and awarded First Prize in the XI Spanish Biennial 2011.
26th September 2013. We are back in Copenhagen…
to introduce the exhibition Meeting at the Building at the Forming Welfare International Symposium, with Doina Petrescu, Kjetil Thorsen, Alejandro Aravena, Marco Steinberg and Gosta Esping. The 111 Building as a built manifesto into an international discussion on the actual social housing and welfare scenario.
Meeting at the Building Exhibition in Copenhagen.
How can you build communities that people will want to both live and meet in?
A new exhibition shows the results of the collaboration between the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture in Copenhague and Flores & Prats.
For the first time, the Exhibition Hall Meldahls Smedie dedicates its 730 square meters to display only one project. This monographic exhibition on the 111 Building shows the whole process of design, construction and post-occupancy of this social housing building, in use since 2011.
Ingredients & Cakes Exhibition in Copenhagen. The exhibition shows projects by Flores & Prats along with an artwork by British artist Soraya Smithson.
Discovering that this storefront was a former bakery, gave us the idea that the show could be accompanied by a production of biscuits and cakes, reproducing images and forms of the projects on display. This has been possible through the collaboration with the Catalan pastry Escribà. We also counted with the British artist Soraya Smithson for the design of the window-shop. The INGREDIENTS & CAKES exhibition is created in dialogue with the coinciding exhibition MEETING AT THE BUILDING which opens at the exhibition venue of the Royal Academy of Arts School of Architecture in Copenhagen.
Moving from Barcelona to Copenhagen for the Exhibition. The truck has left the studio with all the material for the double exhibition in Copenhagen. To collect, to order and to pack all the material for the double exhibitions transformed the office for a few weeks, converting it into a place where huge packages filled in every space. Once the enormous truck came to pick everything up, to bring it to Copenhagen, the office came back to normality, and it suddenly seemed that there was a lot of extra space to move around… Take a look at the process of packaging, moving and loading of the double trailer truck.
Edible architecture with Escribà. For the double exhibition in Copenhagen, and after knowing that the space occupied by the Leth & Gori Storefront has been once a bakery, we decided to offer at both openings biscuits and dough with the shape of the exhibited projects. This was a way to create a complicity with the visitors to the exhibitions, giving us an opportunity to socialize and to greet them while offering them the biscuits. In this way, the exhibition was not only for looking at projects, but for eating them too.
Design and painting of a Storefront in Copenhagen. For the exhibition Ingredients & Cakes in Copenhagen, we asked our friend the Bristish artist Soraya Smithson to design and produce the image of this exhibition towards the street. The Leth & Gori Storefront, where it would take place, has two enormous windows which are the actual image to what’s exhibited inside. Soraya took the subject to be exhibited -four different projects of the office- and mixed these with the subject of edible architecture, present at the exhibition as well. These images and videos show the new window-shop specially designed for this storefront in occasion of the exhibition Ingredients & Cakes of works by Flores & Prats.
The making of the Copenhagen Biscuit Map. For illustrating the covers of the catalogue of the two exhibitions in Copenhagen, we asked our friend the artist Soraya Smithson to design map made out of biscuit, locating the two venues in this city. This biscuit map, designed and baked at her home kitchen in Stamford, England, measured two meters long by one meter wide. Fragments of the original map will be displayed at the Ingredients & Cakes exhibition. See here pictures of the making of this art piece, cooked specially for this occasion.
Video to explain the project of the exhibitions Meeting at the Building and Ingredients & Cakes in Copenhagen. The project and realisation of a double exhibition in Copenhagen with works of the office, to take place in September and October 2013, is explained in a video organized as a promenade through the city and the exhibition spaces. The video combines different kind of materials, from working models to fragments of interviews, approaching the Royal Danish Academy Hall where Meeting at the Building will take place, to jump to the Leth & Gori Storefront in the second place, to explain the Ingredients & Cakes exhibition project. This promenade intends to illustrate the distinct situation and character of both places: one in the harbour area where the school of architecture is located, and the other one right in the centre of the city, making evident that the two exhibitions connect two different areas of this town: university and city.
Catalogue for the Double Exhibition in Copenhagen. For the two exhibitions in Copenhagen we have designed and published one single catalogue, showing that both presented material from the studio and complemented each other. The catalogue explains the two exhibition projects, and at the same time the exhibited projects themselves. Therefore it serves as a guide for the exhibition but remains as a small publication of the office’s works. The process of design of the catalogue included assisting to the printer’s shop, controlling the images quality at the printing place.
- See the photos
- See the video — ‘Meeting at the Printing’
Double Exhibition in Copenhagen. The office has been invited to show works and projects in two simultaneous exhibitions in the city of Copenhagen next autumn. One of them, called Meeting at the Building, will take place on the campus of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, a 730-square-meter space, presents one single project, 111 Building, in great detail. The other exhibition, called Ingredients & Cakes, will occupy a much smaller, 36-square-meter space, the Leth & Gori Storefront, a gallery run by an architecture firm. This will show four projects that had been forerunners to 111 and, in our view, served as a guide or inspiration for the latter. The design and production of the two exhibitions is being done at our office in Barcelona and then moved to Copenhagen.
Meeting on the Road. The film Meeting at the Building about the Building 111 in Terrassa continues its Festival Tournée.
VIII International Summer Workshop: Sala Beckett at Poble Nou. The 8th edition of the Summer Workshop has opened, with extensive international participation, the new space for the Sala Beckett Drama School at Poble Nou. This has been the first test for the future theatre project. Photos by Adrià Goula and Nani Pujol.
Urban Islands Workshop
All cities contain myriad disused sites, functionally vacant and culturally distinct. They exist within the urban fabric, though via disuse or disconnection, they exist distinct from that fabric. They are Urban Islands. Two-weeks intensive design studio working at Cockatoo Island in Sydney, with students of the Schools Architecture of Newcastle, RMIT Melbourne, UNSW Sydney and Sydney University.
18th July 2013. Meeting at the Building. Lecture at the University of Sydney. The talk addressed the issue of social housing design, its capacity to generate a community among its inhabitants, and the research on how a building can work as a bridge between the house and the city.
6th July 2013. Film Meeting at the Building Premiere in Australia. The film will be presented in Sydney, with a Premiere at Neeson Murcutt’s Office.
11th July 2013. Rewind & Fast Forward. Lecture at the Queensland Chapter Auditorium, South Brisbane, Australia. “Interests do not appear in a chronological order. Their insistence makes them appear again and again in time within the most diverse programme, client or place”. The talk proposes a mental sequence of ideas to connect the non-specialized production of the office.
Film Meeting at the Building, was shown on Saturday 20th of July 2013 in Avilés, at the I International Festival of Cinema and Architecture FICARQ 2013, sharing the Closing Event of the Festival with a documentary on Sanaa’s Rolex building.
New Sala Beckett. Stencils. Preparing the opening of “Obrador Internacional Sala Beckett” for the Summer Workshop. The works of rehabilitation of the former Cooperativa Paz y Justícia end by lettering the front facade and new access.
Phase One of New Sala Beckett Under Construction. The works to renovate and adapt the Cooperativa Paz y Justicia in Poble Nou to the activities of the Sala Beckett Theatre group have just started. They should be completed by beginning of July, to allow the Summer Workshop to happen. These photographs by Adrià Goula reflect the intermediate state of the transformation of the old building into a place to rehearse and learn theatre.
New Sala Beckett featured in the online archzine Arquitectura Beta.
New Sala Beckett at Poble Nou. The Catalan photographer Adrià Goula has been to the future home for the Sala Beckett Theatre team, the Cooperativa Paz y Justícia in Poble Nou, Barcelona. He has recorded the state in which we found the building, in an advanced state of decay, but with enormous charm and possibilities. These images will serve us as a reminder of this initial state of our work.
Sala Beckett Summer Workshop. This year, the Sala Beckett Theatre will hold its annual international summer workshop at its future home, the Cooperativa Paz y Justícia in Poble Nou. This will be the first step of Sala Beckett team in the re-use of the building, as a way to occupy the place and to know more about its neighbourhood and the character of the building before starting the construction of the project.
Film Meeting at the Building. The documentary film by 15L Films, which registers one day at the Building 111 in Terrassa, is shortlisted by the cultural platform Nómade for the Screen 2013. Meeting… is shown at the session Urbanism. Borders, boundaries and other divisions, with another four films which share the problem of limit in relation to urban space.
Urban Islands Workshop. Flores & Prats invited as Studio Leaders for the 2013 edition, in Cockatoo Island, Sydney. July 8 – 20 / 2013. Urban Islands is an independent cross university program that brings renowned architectural practitioners from around the world to Sydney’s Cockatoo Island. Guest tutors each run an intensive 12 day workshop about Cockatoo. Through processes of inhabitation and insinuation, each studio will question the nature of place making in an increasingly mediated world.
A book on the Innovation Campus Microsoft Italia is edited by Editorial SKIRA. The book called
Innovation Campus – Un luogo oltre l’immaginario. La nuova sede di Microsoft Italia
, recounts the construction process of the new headquarters of Microsoft in the outskirts of Milan, a project which seeks to connect the interests of the developer and the international digital company with the local agricultural landscape. Curated by Italian critic Fortunato D’Amico, contains drawings, models and photographs of the whole design and construction process to allow to understand such a singular experience. The edition is bilingual, English and Italian, and belongs to the serie by Skira Architettura. Monografie. With critical essays by Alessandra Coppa, Cristian Vitali, Flores & Prats, Luca Molinari and Pietro Scott Jovane.
25th April 2013. The Building 111 in Terrassa, featured today at the Hong Kong online magazine Gooood!
- See article
20th April 2013. The Mills Museum in Palma de Mallorca, featured today at the online archzine AFASIA.
- See article
19th April 2013. Lecture at the Master in Collective Housing of the Universitat Politècnica de Madrid. Under the name of Public Spaces and Housing, the talk addressed the importance of public space when defining the built environment of public housing, as a double subject that goes always together in the design process.
Eva Prats, member of the jury for the prestigious FAD Awards, in the 2013 edition. The jury will judge on four categories: Architecture, Interior Design, Landscape and Ephemeral Interventions.
Building 111. See new photographs of the building after sixteen months of being occupied by its neighbours. Photographer Àlex García visits the building and shoots scenes of neighbours in their everyday activities.
12th March 2013. The Argentinean Magazine PLOT features Building 111 in its new issue. Includes images of the construction process, technical drawings and details, and photographs of the post-occupancy state by Adrià Goula. With a critical essay by Anna Font.
- See article
The film Meeting at the Building, which shows one summer day at the 111 Building, is selected to participate at the 5th Budapest Architecture Film Days, 28th February to 3rd of March 2013, Toldi Cinema Budapest.
19th February 2013. Lecture at the FORO Esarq lectures series, Barcelona. The lecture called Conferencia de Bolsillo focuses on the most recent projects of the office, the ones just completed, the ones under construction and those in project.
A three day workshop in Mexico DF: This architectural workshop was an invitation to Flores & Prats as a part of the Master Program in Social Housing, collaboration between the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, the Universidad Iberoamericana and Arquine Mexico. The workshop took place in the Universidad Iberoamericana from 1st to 3rd of February 2013, and the students were young architects from DF and other cities of this country.
Interview with Eva Prats and Ricardo Flores during their recent visit to Mexico City, in relation to an international competition in social housing. The interview takes place at one of the mythical social housing complexes in Mexico City, the CUPA (Centro Urbano Presidente Alemany), at the house of Architect Juan Carlos Tello, who has lived in the building for a long time.
Interview with Eva Prats and Ricardo Flores on Mexican Radio Program La Hora Arquine, of Radio Arquitectura, directed by Andrea Griborio, produced by Fabián Del Valle. The interview, of one hour, took place during the visit of Eva and Ricardo to Mexico City, to teach a workshop in architecture at the Universidad Iberoamericana.
6th February 2013. TV Programme Connexió Barcelona of National Channel BTV makes a LIVE connection to the exhibition ‘Portable Memories: Luggage for a young architect’ at Vinçon Barcelona.
31st January 2013. Lecture at Arquine, México. The lecture, called La Dimension Social de la Vivienda, focuses on the 111 Building.
Performances at the Exhibition Portable Memories in Vinçon Barcelona.
On Saturdays 19th and 26th January, Joan Sanz, Glòria Saus, Magda Barceló, Pilar Sanchez, Marc Casanovas, Fran Hernández and Albert Guerra, authors of the exhibited containers, performed how to open them and how to manipulate the information kept inside them.
- See photos
- See video of the containers in action courtesy of Notonlyarch
Portable Memories: Luggage for a young architect
: The exhibition shows the working material produced during a final thesis year, collected and stored by each of the students in a big container, designed in relation with the project that keeps inside. It is not about simple boxes, but containers of thoughts and knowledge that have been picked along the academic year and that cannot be forgotten. These containers accumulate documents of different nature: maps, drawings, collages, sketches, models, writings, and books. When being opened and actioned by its authors, the sequence of appearance of the different documents matches the narration, being a scenographic help to represent what is happening…
From 17th January until 9th February 2013, at Sala Vinçon, Barcelona.
The social dimension of collective buildings. A two weeks workshop, run both in Barcelona and Copenhagen, analyzing and reflecting on the topic of building community. The aim of the workshop was to study how different aspects of living in community manifest or apply differently depending on the culture and on the latitude where the work is located. Organized by The Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Copenhagen, 1st to 12th January 2013.
Presentation of the film Meeting at the building, directed by Carlota Coloma and Adrià Lahuerta, shot at 111 Building by Flores & Prats, after one year of occupation by the neighbours. The projection of the film finishes with a debate on post-occupation experiences in social housing (Monday 17th December, at the auditorium of FAD, Barcelona).
19th to 23rd of November 2012: Flores & Prats assist as lecturers at the XVIII edition of the Bienal de Quito, BAQ 2012, Ecuador.
Ricardo Flores also acts as member of the jury for the Gold Medal Award of the Bienal.
- See Photographs of the event
- See interview with Ricardo Flores.
21st November 2012. Lecture at XVIII Bienal de Quito, Ecuador . The lecture La Dimensión Social de la Vivienda is on the third day of the Bienal, under the general topic of ‘Human Being’.
19th November 2012. Lecture at the School of Architecture ETSAB of Barcelona. The lecture called La Dimensión Social de la Vivienda focuses on the housing project 111 Building and its process of Post-Occupation by neighbours.
A reality show on Italian TV, The Apprentice, with Flavio Briatore as main character, uses the Microsoft Campus in Milan, of Flores & Prats, for filming the show. The subject of the show is to select an assistant for Briatore; the candidates that compete arrive to the big final for interview, using the Microsoft Campus as location.
- See resume of the program for week 9, on air October 16th.
Front page interview with Flores & Prats in issue 106 of Via construcción magazine.
26th September 2012. Lecture to students of Cátedra Cerámica, of the school of architecture ESARQ in Barcelona. The students and professors chose to visit office and talk about several projects there.
20th September 2012. Lecture at CREA (Congreso Rosarino de Estudiantes de Arquitectura). Rosario, Argentina. Organized by students of architecture of the National University of Rosario.
5th and 6th September 2012. Shooting of the Film Meeting at the Building, at 111 Building in Terrassa. The directors of the film, Adrià Lahuerta and Carlota Coloma take two intense days to register and shoot on site, surrounded by neighbours of the building and helped by staff from Flores & Prats’ office.
4th September 2012. TV Programme Connexió Barcelona of National Channel BTV shows the project House in a Suitcase, with Eva Prats explaining the project.
See a complete video of several interviews to the neighbours at the Building 111. This video is part of a Post-Occupation Workshop at the Master program “Laboratorio de la Vivienda” at ETSAB-UPC-, in which the students put questions to the neighbours who live in the building, regarding subjects like the communal central courtyard, the open kitchen and open layout of the flats, and other themes of the design of the building.
- Video Taller Post-Ocupación. Edited by María Alcàzar. 14.22min.
Second phase of the Palau Balaguer Cultural Centre, under construction. See recent photos by Adrià Goula.
See latest photographs of the Innovation Campus Microsoft in Milan. By Enzo Barraco, Filippo Romano and Filippo Abrami. The Campus is in use from June 2011, and the images show how the offices and the external open spaces are being used.
Building 111. Post-Occupation Workshop with students participating at the Master program “Laboratorio de la Vivienda” at ETSAB-UPC. The design for the Building 111 searches to create a new sense of community among its inhabitants. The workshop records the opinion of several neighbours, after 10 months of living in the building:
- Video Ciento Once, by Daniel Fernandez, Graziano Brau, Daniel Roig, Giacomo Alessandro and Alvaro Beruben. 5.51min.
- Video Edificio 111 Estudio de Postocupación, By Aitor Martínez and Ernesto Galván Oliva. 11.45min.
- Video Edificio 111 Fragmentos, By Marta Milà and Alvaro Beruben. 8.00min.
See the latest photos of Flores Prats social housing project Edificio 111 at Terrassa, Barcelona. The building has started to be inhabited by around 70 families now, and starts to have signs of social relationships between neighbors.
21st May 2012. Lecture at the cycle ARA Arquitectura, Barcelona. The lecture was about the project Centre Cultural Casal Balaguer of Palma de Mallorca, at the moment under construction, focusing on the process of development of the project in all its phases.
12th April 2012. Lecture at School of Architecture ESAyT in Madrid. The lecture called La Disciplina de lo Existente focuses on the new project for the theatre Sala Beckett in Barcelona, referring to other projects concerned with rehabilitation of the office space.
22nd March 2012. Lecture at the Royal Academy of Architecture in Copenhagen. The lecture forms part of a cycle called Reflective Practitioners, organized by this school, and focused on the project on rehabilitation of the office.
8th March 2012. Lecture at the School of Architecture La Salle in Tarragona. The lecture called Escenes Quotidianes focused on the 111 Building and the New Theatre Sala Beckett.
Workshop Through the Canvas. The intention of this workshop is to revisit the history of domesticity, and more specifically the architectonical proposal stated by Dutch paintings of the Seventeenth Century. Students work with Dutch interiors painted by Pieter de Hooch and Emanual de Witte.
The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts / School of Architecture, 2nd to 13th January 2012
See video of Flores & Prats presenting the new project for the theatre Sala Beckett / Obrador Internacional de Dramatùrgia, won in a competition in February 2011 and now under development.
14th December 2011. Interview in Newspaper Ultima Hora, Eivissa. The interview is about a lecture given by Ricardo and Eva at the Architect’s Association of Eivissa, in January 2012, focussed on the subject of rehabilitation.
12th December 2011: The Foundation and the project for the New Theatre Sala Beckett / Obrador Internacional de Dramatùrgia is presented publicly in a press conference at Social Centre Can Felipa, Barcelona.
Editorial SKIRA prepares a book on the Microsoft Headquarters (see interactive book preview). To be presented in Triennale di Milano in September.
8th June 2011: The new headquarters for Microsoft Italia, a green campus of 7.5 hectares, is completed on the outskirts of Milan.