Josep Acebillo participating in the “Energy” BIArch Seminar
Josep Anton Acebillo was born in Huesca, in north-eastern Spain, and received a degree in architecture from the ETSAB the School of Architecture in 1974. He currently teaches at the Architecture Academy at the Università della Svizzera italiana and is a partner at AuS Architecture and Urban Systems in Mendrisio, Switzerland. Acebillo is one of the key figures in the recent history of urban planning in Barcelona: he was director of Urban Projects for the city between 1981 and 1987, a period that marks the begging of the deep urban transformation experienced by the city in the last decades of the twentieth century. Acebillo led the Urban Development Insititute of the City of Barcelona between 1988 and 1994 and was responsible for the large-scale urban development projects carried out in the frame of the 1992 Summer Olympics.
Port Olimpic, Barcelona
His contribution to urban change in Barcelona earned him the Honorific Medal awarded by the city in 1992, as well as a Prince of Wales in urban design prize, awarded to him in 1990 by Harvard University. In 1994 he became CEO of Barcelona Regional, a think tank dedicated to the development of strategic urban projects and infrastructures for the city. In 1998 Acebillo was appointed “Commissioner of Infrastructures and Urban Planning” of Barcelona, and he became the city’s Chief Architect briefly after that. In 1999 he was named honorary member of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).
Barcelona in Progress exhibition, organized by Barcelona Regional
Josep Acebillo is a member of the BIArch Board of Directors, and will be teaching Territorial & Urban Studies in the first edition of the MBIArch program. Focusing on a “post-crisis” context of accute socio-economic and environmental tensions associated with rapid urbanization, Acebillo will lead students to concentrate on the observation and analysis of the increasingly socio-technical nature of cities, exploring the impact of networks on territorial phenomena.
MBIArch 2010-11 Faculty: David Adjaye
David Adjaye was born in Tanzania in 1966. He pursued his studies in London, and obtained an architecture degree from the Royal College of Art in 1993. Adjaye worked for David Chipperfield Architects and Eduardo Souto de Moura in the 1990s, and then partnered with William Russell until he founded Adjaye Associates in 2000.
David Adjaye in the first meeting of the BIArch Advisory Council
In the office’s early years, Adjaye made a name for himself with his relatively small, elegant residential and bar/café projects in London’s still-gritty East End. Today, Adjaye Associates has offices in London, Berlin and New York and large commissions like the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, in Washington, D.C.
Regardless of scale, Adjaye’s approach to design is usually austere and balanced, more focused on plays of material textures and light than formal or structural acrobatics. Adjaye has demonstrated a particular passion for projects with a social bent, such as the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo, the Whitechapel Idea Store, or the Stephen Lawrence Center. These projects run along the fine line between private and public, between openness and intimacy, and they push the definition of public space in a way that feels closer and more contemporary, even though these distinctions remain tense or uncertain at times. Adjaye is convinced that architecture is most relevant when it has a social purpose.
The Dirty House, London
Nobel Peace Center, Oslo
The Idea Store, Whitechapel
Most recently, David Adjaye is building the new Moscow School of Management, developing the African American History and Culture Museum project and has been shortlisted for the SFMOMA extension. He has also put together an intriguing exhibition at the Design Museum in London, with photos from his travels and views on “Urban Africa“.
“Sclera” Pavilion, London Design Festival, 2008
Skolkovo School of Management, Moscow
Design concept for the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington DC
In the frame of BIArch and the MBIArch program, Adjaye will deliver a second-semester Architectural Design Seminar, most likely delving into the themes that he considers important: redefining architectural typologies in a way that projects might engage with the public, become socially relevant and respond adequately to the challenges of urban change.
*Photos by David Farran, Adjaye Associates and Flickr users Dave Gorman, Arnout Fonck, suburbanslice, Dan’s Photos.