Sandra Barclay and Jean Pierre Crousse will be present at Mugak/ to speak for biodiversity as “a powerful creative tool which we are required

2019 October 16

• In their lecture at the Basque Country Architecture Institute at 18:30, both Peruvian architects will explain that a context of “permanent crisis” makes it indispensable to focus on the environment and the local level.
• Barclay was awarded the Women in Architecture prize 2018.

Tomorrow, Thursday the 17th of October, at 18:30 h., the Basque Country Architecture Institute (EAI-IAE) will host one of the main lectures of the Basque Country International Architecture Biennial Mugak/ in San Sebastián, given by architects Sandra Barclay and Jean Pierre Crousse. They were invited to this edition by the Habic Cluster to advocate the idea that “biodiversity is entirely a creative tool”. Their lecture “Other Tropics” will be free and open to the public.

Their studio just won a project in Peru that is closely linked with biodiversity: “Architecture needs to give an intelligent answer to biodiversity. It should not just use it as a creative tool, but also foster it. Architects need to take this into account as it is their duty”, they highlight.

Barclay and Crousse are convinced that “the context of permanent crisis” in places like Peru makes the use of the elements that are available in the environment necessary for the creation of new realities: “When we returned to Peru after working in France for 16 years, we discovered its unique climate and its very peculiar conditions and realised that it was necessary to work with what is available, with the technology at our disposal, with local labour. We found inspiration in Peruvian cooks such as Gastón Acurio. Like us, they left Peru for Europe, but returned to discover undervalued, forgotten ingredients and worked with them to create a new cuisine, different from the traditional one and widely acknowledge today”.

The respect for the environment “is not a limitation; rather, it opens possibilities because it generates questions and questions only contain possibilities”. “It is important to question oneself about the meaning of the architecture developed in a certain place, with specific people and specific means; we always opt for materials that are produced locally, maybe not traditional materials, but which guarantee a low carbon footprint”.

This approach is not restricted to their country, it is easily translatable to other places in the world: “Each country has its specificities; we believe this is the path we have to take. Otherwise, our architecture would be determined by money and regulations and not by the logic of the place”. “This way of thinking and working solves local challenges and creates an architecture that contributes to global expansion”, they express. 

With their lecture and Emiliano López’s one last Monday, Mugak/ started its series of lectures, which will continue in the next two months and include names such as Álvaro Siza (31th of October) and Rafael Moneo (28th of November), both Pritzker Award winners.

Barclay is the first of the two renowned Latin-American female architects that will attend this edition. Next Wednesday (23th of October), the Mexican architect Tatiana Bilbao will give a new lecture entitled “From a house to a home”, also invited by the Habic Cluster.

About Sandra Barclay

Architecture degree from the University Ricardo Palma (Lima,1990) and Architecture School of Paris-Belleville (France, 1994). Masters in Landscape and Space from the University Diego Portales, 2013. Associated Professor at the Catholic University of Peru since 2006 and visiting professor at Yale University, USA (2019) Winner of the Women in Architecture 2018 Award given by the Architectural Review and Architect’s Journal of London. Special mention of the Jury as curator, together with Jean Pierre Crousse, of the Peruvian Pavilion “Our Amazon Frontline” at the 15th Venice Biennale. Intern with the Fulbright Foundation, honorary member with the American Institute of Architects and foreign member of the French Architecture Academy. 

About Jean Pierre Crousse

Architecture degree from the University Ricardo Palma (Lima, 1987) and Polytechnic Institute of Milan (Italy 1989). Masters in Landscape and Space from the University Diego Portales, 2013. Director of the Masters in Architecture and Project Processes at the Catholic University of Peru. Visiting professor at Harvard GSD (2015) and Yale (2019). Professor of the Architecture School of Paris-Belleville, France (1999-2006). Special mention of the Jury as curator, together with Sandra Barclay, of the Peruvian Pavilion “Our Amazon Frontline” at the 15th Venice Biennale. Member of the international jury at Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize, 2016, and of the XI Ibero-American Biennial, 2019. Foreign member of the French Architecture Academy.

About the Habic Cluster

Habic is the equipment, furniture and design cluster of the Basque Country. It gathers the main companies of the sector working on building equipment. Habic’s mission is to support the competitiveness of local enterprises in the design sector through actions that generate new visible values for users and sustainable competitive advantages, promoting innovation and business transformation through collaboration and shared knowledge.

About Mugak/

The Basque Country International Architecture Biennial Mugak/ (boundaries in Basque) holds its second edition this year with a hundred activities aimed at bringing architecture closer to society and to other related disciplines. Mugak/ intends to be a crossroads, a meeting point with a plural, transversal and multicultural character; of promoting and reactivating dialogue, discussion and reflection in order to undertake new strategies and solutions that help to redefine together new boundaries and shape a more ethical, fair and balanced society.