Vogadors exhibition is the Catalan and Balearic Islands pavilion at the 13th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice, and documents a sober architecture that uses very simple materials but is of a tremendous technical and intellectual sophistication and includes a strong social and ethical component enabling skillful construction with mindful openness to the environment, people and life without abandoning the most abstract and visual sentimental values.

It is the architecture of a generation that seeks to return to traditional values of meaning and continuity.

An architecture that seeks to be above its creators in order to give weight back to the argument, as David Chipperfield says in a film metaphor.

An architecture that seeks to return to addressing social contingencies, sustainability as the only path to survival and also the economy of means from an ethical, technical and intellectual standpoint.

An architecture common to architects and inhabitants whose primary objective is once again one of ethics and social harmony.

Quaderns – Guerrilla interview #14 | Félix Arranz – Jordi Badia from Quaderns on Vimeo.

More info: Vogadors

Quaderns – Guerrilla interview #13 | Peter Märkli from Quaderns on Vimeo.

More info: Märkli Architekt

Here is a brief interview about the concept of the Biennale, “Common Ground”:

Quaderns – Guerrilla interview #12 | Anton García-Abril – Débora Mesa from Quaderns on Vimeo.

>> More info: SpainLab

One of their main focal points is museum architecture: the renovation and extension of the Swiss National Museum in Zurich as well as the extension of Basel’s Kunstmuseum are actually being planned. Built projects are to be found in Switzerland, Germany, England, China and Mexico. We had the opportunity to interview them at the 13th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice:

Quaderns – Guerrilla interview #11 | Christ & Gantenbein from Quaderns on Vimeo.

More info: Christ & Gantenbein

Quaderns – Guerrilla interview #10 | San Rocco – Kersten Geers, Pier Paolo Tamburelli, Giovanni Piovene from Quaderns on Vimeo.

Our friends from San Rocco has recently been awarded with the Icon Award Emerging architect of the year. It’s quite interesting that the award went to a publishing project instead to a tradicional practice, and we like to think that the term “paper architecture” is being revisited and start having meaning again.

Kieran Long wrote on Icon Eye about the prize:

“San Rocco represents something vital about contemporary architectural practice. The network of architects, graphic designers and photographers behind the modest, black-and-white covered publication has come together around shared interests that buck the prevailing tendencies of architecture and propose a new model of practice. And all of this in what is supposed to be a side project in a time of publishing’s decline [...] Most interesting is how the magazine generates its content, through a call for papers in every issue, asking readers to contribute to the next according to a set theme.”

We leave you here with a brief conversation we had with San Rocco at the 13th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice.

Quaderns – Guerrilla interview #9 | Pierre de Meuron – HdM from Quaderns on Vimeo.

Pierre de Meuron is founder of Herzog & de Meuron. The firm was founded in Basel in 1978. In 2001, Herzog & de Meuron were awarded the Pritzker Prize, the highest of honours in architecture. Jury chairman J. Carter Brown commented, “One is hard put to think of any architects in history that have addressed the integument of architecture with greater imagination and virtuosity.” This was in reference to HdM’s innovative use of exterior materials and treatments, such as silkscreened glass. Architecture critic and Pritzker juror Ada Louise Huxtable summarized HdM’s approach concisely: “They refine the traditions of modernism to elemental simplicity, while transforming materials and surfaces through the exploration of new treatments and techniques.” In 2006, the New York Times Magazine called them “one of the most admired architecture firms in the world.”

Quaderns – Guerrilla interview #8 | Ortner & Ortner from Quaderns on Vimeo.

Ortner&Ortner are well known for their former work since the late 1960s as Haus-Rucker-Co. Since then, from 1992 they became Ortner&Ortner. There are over 1000 graphic works from the Haus-Rucker-Co period and at least the same amount from the O&O period up to the present day. These are all things worth seeing, and they share some of their thoughts with Quaderns while we interviewed them at the 13th Venice Architecture Biennale.

>> Caption: Cover. 1971, Krefeld.

Quaderns – Guerrilla interview #7 | Graham Haworth from Quaderns on Vimeo.

Graham Haworth is part of Haworth Tompkins, a studio formed in 1991. Their London-based studio has designed buildings in the UK and elsewhere for clients across the public, private and subsidised sectors including schools, galleries, theatres, concert halls, housing, offices, shops and factories.

Their buildings are influenced by the specific chemistry of individual places and cultural situations. They said: “We put enormous effort into understanding a building’s context and the needs of its users, a process which often yields original or unconventional solutions. What they have in common is an approach rather than a stylistic signature.”

More info: Haworth Tompkins

Sergison Bates are an international practice in outlook and staff composition, and have numerous collaborative projects with international project partners. In September 2010 a second office was established in central Zurich in response to the growing international commissions received by the practice.
The founders, Jonathan Sergison and Stephen Bates and partner Mark Tuff are closely involved in strategic design decisions on all projects and committed to cultivating a strong working relationship with clients and stakeholders in the development of all projects.

Quaderns – Guerrilla interview #6 | Sergison & Bates from Quaderns on Vimeo.

Quaderns – Guerrilla interview #5 | Juan Herreros from Quaderns on Vimeo.