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Bienal Internacional de Arquitectura

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Participants

behark

Both architects graduated from the ETSA in Donostia, after approximately a decade of working in large architectural studios in the Basque Country, where they had the opportunity to collaborate with architects such as Carlos Ferrater or coop himmelb(l)au, Beñat Saratxaga and Gentzane Goikuria created the behark platform in 2009 with the intention of developing a silent architecture, based on analysis and observation, aimed at satisfying the objectives established for each project in the most efficient and relevant way possible, proposing only what is truly necessary to achieve them.

In addition to numerous new construction projects for both public and private developers, including some award-winning works, such as the farmhouse for a family of livestock farmers and veterinarians in Gorbeialdea (Egurtek award 2014), the transformation of a warehouse into the Aiaraldea Ekintzen Faktoria socio-cultural centre (COAVN 2022 award) and the Last Chance for a Slow Dance covered public space in Larrabetzu (COAVN 2022 award, Egurtek 2022 award, AITIM 2022 award, finalist in the CSCAE ARCHITECTURE 2021 awards, of the XII Ibero-American Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism, and Finalist of the AHI European Award for Architectural Heritage Intervention, among other awards) the behark studio's work is characterised by its dedication to the transformation of the built environment, rehabilitation and urban regeneration, especially in degraded neighbourhoods or those not equipped with buildings or infrastructures adequate to current standards, favouring citizen participation in the design (and enjoyment) of public space. In this regard, it is worth highlighting the experience acquired in the drafting of several technical studies for the formulation of Preferential Rehabilitation Areas carried out for the Bilbao Urban Rehabilitation Company in different neighbourhoods of the city, which included the technical study of around 350 residential buildings. Thanks to the experience accumulated in the preparation of these studies, behark has recently carried out several unique interventions of transformation and efficient rehabilitation of residential buildings, including the one carried out in the building located in Cuesta de Olabeaga 14, and the transformation of the building Dique 2A Berria de Olabeaga, finalist of the COAVN 2019 architecture awards.

In order to facilitate strategies for the transformation of the built environment behark has devised several unique systems, such as Parkez, a modular system for the extension of pavements and urban regeneration, or HABIT[ar], a system for the transformation of residential buildings that allows them to resist the standard.

Their work has been widely published and exhibited, and they have been lecturers in the Master in Public Housing at the UPV-EHU and at the UEU.



The Programme is being prepared