On 6 October, Esther López and Miguel Hernández, founding partners of the Sevillian architecture studio AF6, spoke at this year’s Barcelona Ceramics Chair at UIC Barcelona School of Architecture. 

The Chair’s director, Vicenç Sarrablo introduced the session by highlighting the Andalusian studio’s journey and their ability to combine ceramics with other materials in their architectural projects. “In architecture, as in any other creative endeavour, combining and fusing different elements enriches the final product and gives it a very interesting character”, he said.  

Esther López and Miguel Hernández spoke next, outlining some of their main projects from the past few years, among which they included the notable revival of two large ceramics factories located in the Triana neighbourhood of Seville, now known as the Triana Ceramics Centre and Hotel Montalván.  “Architecture forms part of a continuous process to transform reality, which we see as an underlying principle in the creative process of each of our projects” they stated.  

Over the course of the conference, the architects explained some of the principle concepts behind their work, such as the determination to preserve the landscape and buildings’ original layout as part of their projects, as well as valuing the culture of working with traditional ceramics and the need to find a balance between the cultural and touristic use of all these pieces of the puzzle.  “In both projects, the existing archaeology on site proved to be a feature, more so than a hindrance, that enriched our final result, as we weren’t trying to work against it”, they concluded.