6 May will mark the last in the UIC Barcelona School of Architecture’s Foros 2019 series of lectures. Catalan architect Josep Lluís Mateo will be the person charged with winding up the current edition, organised under the title “Identities”, with the lecture “Identity, globalization and contemporary architecture. A personal view”. 

In his talk, Josep Lluís Mateo will take a retrospective look at his vast architectural work and reflect on the concept of identity in contemporary architecture. According to the architect, “There are two opposing forces at work in our reality. On the one hand, centrifugal lines that introduce elements of connection and interaction. And on the other, forces of understanding, which take us back to a specific time and culture. I try and view this dialectic, clearly present in the contemporary world, first as a condition of work in the field of architecture, to then show how it is present in our work”. 

Josep Lluís Mateo earned a degree in Architecture from the Higher Technical School of Architecture of Barcelona (ETSAB) and a PhD from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), where he graduated Cum Laude. He is also a full professor of Architecture and Design at ETH Zurich and a member of the Ordre des Architectes de Paris, the Swiss Society of Engineers and Architects (SIA) and the Association of Architects of Catalonia. 

He has delivered and taught numerous lectures and courses at some of the world’s top academic and professional institutions. He works internationally as an architect through his studio Mateo Arquitectura, which strives to link intelligence and artistic ambition with pragmatism and objectivity. His projects include the remodelling of the Ninot Market in Barcelona, the Castelo Branco Cultural Centre, in Portugal, and the Filmoteca de Catalunya, as well as the design of Place de la République, in Paris.

This year, Foros, an annual series of lectures about architecture, revolves around the title “Identities”. Its programme looks to contribute to the debate on the concept of identity in contemporary architecture, strongly marked by the present trends in globalisation. For the second straight year, the series has been organised in partnership with BBConstrumat.

Language: English

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