On 26 April, the UIC Barcelona School of Architecture will host the closing session from the latest edition of the Foros lecture series. Entitled “Evolutions of the Metropolis”, the event is slated to feature Alfonso Vegara and Josep Bohigas, who will take a retrospective look at the strategic approaches of two metropolitan cities and their future evolution. Lecturers Jaime Batlle and Ignacio Arizu will be on hand to moderate the session. 

Alfonso Vegara is the founder and current president of the Metropoli Foundation, an international institution that promotes innovation and sustainable development in cities. He holds degrees in Architecture, Economics and Sociology, as well as a doctoral degree in City and Regional Planning. Formerly president of the International Society of City and Regional Planners (ISOCARP), he is currently a fellow and trustee at Eisenhower Fellowships. He also serves as jury member for the Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize. In 2005, he was named honorary consul-general of Singapore in Madrid. His ideas and projects, through which he promotes the strategic value of cities, have been disseminated around the world. His projects have earned him awards from the United Nations, the European Union, the European Council of Spatial Planners and numerous architects’ and business associations. He works as an adviser for several international cities and the Government of Singapore. 

Josep Bohigas is an architect who, since 2016, has served as director of the Barcelona Regional Strategic Planning Agency. He is also an associate lecturer of Projects at the Higher Technical School of Architecture of Barcelona (ETSAB) and, prior to this, taught classes at both ELISAVA and the Mies van de Rohe Chair. He is a founding partner of the architecture studio BOPBAA, where he carried out the extension to the Thyssen Museum in Madrid, the Forum social housing project in Barcelona and the El Molino Theatre in Barcelona, among others. He has curated several cultural projects on housing, including Barraca-Barcelona (2003) and APTM (2005). From 2001-2005, he served on the Board of Directors at the FAD Awards, and is currently sponsor of the EINA Foundation and Signes Foundation. He was won three FAD awards and three City of Barcelona awards. He has also curated cultural activism programmes such as Arquitectos de Cabecera (2014) and research programmes aimed at finding solutions to the issue of housing, such as Pilot Flat. 

This year, Foros, an annual series of lectures on architecture and urbanism, is entitled “The Leap into the Void”. This latest edition calls for increased self-awareness on the current state of architecture in its different aspects and fields of application. As a new feature this year, the series has premiered a new format based on dialogue between two industry professionals, who take part in sessions on specific topics linked to current architectural practices and the challenges facing the sector.

Language: English

Place: Aula Magna at UIC Barcelona (free admission, based on availability)

Time: 7 p.m.

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