dr. architect At a moment in our culture when noise is enormously dense I have chosen an architecture that acts in silence, serenely and without drawing attention to itself. I began my career in México with the restoration of Felix Candela’s work, ‘Los Manantiales’ and wrote my first book at the Academia de España in Rome. Since 1997 my workplace is a small office in front of The Alhambra, Granada. My ties to the art world began in my childhood and it is thus natural that my work involves interaction with other arts. My mother was a painter and I discovered the world through her intense gaze and palette. I am interested in living space, landscape, sustainability, precision and an economy of expressive resources. I am not interested in styles. I am more interested in books than in magazines, in consistency than in genius, coherency than artistic composition. And I understand originality as the rediscovery of the true meaning of things. I am interested in architecture rooted in the earth and in its own time. I accept the determinants of architecture as the rules of a very serious and enjoyable game and I try to play it in a coherent, rigorous way. While it is no longer stylish to speak of serving, I believe that an architect’s work is a quintessential service intended to make people’s lives more agreeable—a noble calling that seeks to make the world more beautiful and more human and to make society fairer. Architecture is no place for the nostalgic, it is a job for rebels.
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Ordinary Professor of Architectural Projects at the Superior Technical School of Architecture of Granada.
Published books: La materia intangible, reflexiones sobre la luz en el proyecto de arquitectura 2004.Ocio peligroso, introducción al proyecto de arquitectura 2006. Espacios de aprendizaje 2006. La Universidad Laboral de Almería 1971-1974. 2008. Diccionario de la luz, 2008. Elisa Valero 1998-2008. Visiting professor at the Technische Universität Berlin Institute für ArchiteKtur, Facoltà di Architettura de la Università di Roma Tre, Facultad de Arquitectura de la UNAM México DF, the BTU Architecture School Cottbus, The Royal Academy of Fine Arts School of Architecture, Copenhagen, Escola da Cidade, Sao Paulo.
Leading researcher in the Research Projects “Urban Recycling: rezoning residential areas for sustainable development” Ministry of Education and Science R & D (2008-2011) “Recycling Neighborhoods; a sustainable alternative” a research Project for the General Office of Architecture and Housing of the Government of Andalusia. July 2007. “Experimental Applications of Energy-efficient Building Systems in Mediterranean Residential Settings”. Project involving the participation of the universities of Seville, Malaga, Granada and Jaen, 2011.Financed by Feder funds. Responsible for the research Group: Urban Recycling, Efficient Housing BIO 909 Doctoral Dissertations directed about experimental housing in the last two years: Experimental Incursions into Prefabricated Housing. The Furniture Kit. 2011 Inhabited Contexts. From the Modern Movement to Team 10, The Evolution of Two Residential Projects: Corviale – Toulouse le Mirail. 2012 The Recycling of Collective Social Housing. Strategies and Technologies. 2012 The Europan Home, (1988-2008) An Approach to Lifestyles in Turn-of-the-century Spain. 2012 UGR coordinator of the Andalusia Team for the construction of the Patio 2.12 solar home. In September 2012 was held in Madrid the second European edition of the prestigious international competition Solar Decathlon. Eighteen teams from twelve different countries competed in the design and construction of the most efficient sun-powered house in the world. Here are the results of Andalusia Team: First Award in Communication and Social Awareness First Award in Energy Efficiency First Award in Energy Balance First Award to Public’s Favorite Second Award in Sustainability Second Award of the Green Building Council Second Award in Innovation Third Award in Engineering and Construction Second Final Award Solar Decathlon Europe 2012
Prize-winning works in architecture contests: Shortlist FAD 2013 awards Reciclaje del Colegio Santa María del Llano. Ogíjares (Granada). Finalist XI Ceramica ASCER awards Viviendas de alquiler en Gojar, 2012. Finalist FAD 2012 awards Asunción Linares Kindergarten (Granada), 2012. Finalist XI Biennale of Spanish Architecture Kindergarten in Chana (Granada). 2010. Finalist XI Biennale of Spanish Architecture Polyvalent Social Center in Lancha del Genil (Granada). 2006. 1st Prize, “Abitare il Mediterraneo” called by the UMAR (Mediterranean Architects Unions). Italy 2011. 3d Prize for constructed work at the Contest for Social and Officially Protected Housing called by the Superior Council of Associations of Architects in Spain for 13 self-built houses in Palenciana. January 2003. Shortlist in the XI Biennale of Spanish Architecture with the work, House Studio on 17th Belén street, Granada. Shortlist for the X Biennale of Spanish Architecture with the work, A Crossways Garden, new space at the Arango House. Shortlist for the II Thermal-clay Prize, 2004. Honorable Mention for constructed work in the Single-Family Housing Contest called by the Superior Council of Associations of Architects of Spain, 2004 for the San Isidro House, a bioclimatic house in the Historical District of Granada. October 2003. Nomination for Restoration and Rehabilitation for the restoration of the church, Nuestra Señora de las Angustias in Granada as one of the IV Architectural Nominations by COAGR 2005.
