BIArch Journal: Spaces of Encounter, Common Places

Toni Gironès

Last December 15 Toni Gironès delivered the final BIArch Open Lecture of the Fall 2009 cycle: “Espais de trobada, llocs comuns” or “Spaces of Encouter, Common Places”. Gironès was introduced by Pere Riera of RGA Arquitectes, who described Gironès as being a “a post-industrial craftsman” due to his work that Riera characterized as intensity and clarity translated into built form, as well as a particular sensibility that combines the limits of creative desire, immediacy, and proximity, or “the absolute local”.

Pere Riera introducing Toni Gironès

Echoes from the past two Open Lectures resonated as Gironès spoke of the need to distance himself from the spectacle and the iconic saturation of contemporary architectural production, in order to focus on seeking out spaces of encounter (intermediate spaces) between nature and artifice.

Housing, Badalona

Through a brief review of some of his most significant works –including the Barcino Tennis club pergola and terrace, the project for the Vilassar de Dalt Roman ovens archeological site, the Weyler housing block in Badalona and the ongoing Environmental and Climate Museum in Lleida– Gironès addressed what he considers the fundamental challenge in urban contexts: finding ways to relate to the environment. Gironès’s projects were presented as shared spaces between urban life and nature, between large and small scales, between past and present. The lecture ended with a round of photographs that documented the ultimate encounter: projects as they are lived.