Cristina
Díaz Moreno and Efrén García Grima, the
founding partners of AMID Cero9, are architectural project professors at the Universidad
Europea de Madrid and Unit Masters of Diploma 5 at the Architectural
Association School of Architecture in London. They have worked as project professors
at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid’s ETSAM
School of Architecture since 1999 and also teach at Cornell University in New
York state.

Díaz
Moreno and García Grima gave
a lecture at the ESARQ for second-year students doing Projects I. Together, the
two architects explained their work on the Cherry Blossom Pavilion in Valle
del Jerte, which they defined as “a contemporary chapel that
challenges the usual definitions of auditorium or convention centre”.

According
to the architects, the structure they designed is covered with flat scale-like
ceramic pieces that adapt to the underlying geometric shape, which is based on complex
mathematical structures of different sizes that depend on the curvature of the
surface. Inside, the same structure is replicated to form a tessellated surface
of rhombuses, triangles and pentagons that provide the hall with good acoustics.

As
well as teaching at several universities, the two speakers also contribute
regularly to the architectural journal El
Croquis, as well as other
publications. They have won over 30 awards in architectural contests, including
one for their work on the Cherry Blossom Pavilion in 2008. They also received awards
for the Francisco Giner de los Ríos Foundation
headquarters in Madrid in 2005; the Intermediae-Prado arts centre in Madrid in
2006; and the Europan 6 housing development in Jyväskylä, Finland, in 2001. They
were given the Opera Prima award for Best Constructed Building by the Architecture
Institute of Madrid for their building for the digital printing company
Diagonal 80.

After
the lecture, Díaz Moreno and García
Grima reviewed the students’ projects for the
subject Projects I, which deals with roofs of open-air markets.