Prominent figure Interview with Alberto Veiga of Barozzi/VeigaThroughout the whole process architects must never losesight of the word “public”. The building will always be a Mies van der Rohe Award 2015 part of a very large and more important puzzle: the city. I believe in this assumption: the word “public” must guide the entire process. “People must You have worked on projects in a number of countries. Do architects need to have a knowledge of the be able to characteristics and socio-cultural needs of each place to undertake a project or should they be faithful identify with a to their philosophy? How do you deal with this issue? We have to do a little bit of both. We have to understand public building”the individual characteristics of the place we are going to work in, but, at the same time, we must remain true to our way of understanding architecture and the world. The most important thing is to understand, but you mustn’t pretend to be what you aren’t or have something which isn’t within you. First of all, you have to understand the place you are working in, in order to then give a specific response to it via your work and your own, personal way of understanding the world. How would you define your way of working? The recovery of green urban We focus on projects which we consider fundamental forspaces is becoming increasingly architecture and we adhere to certain basic principles.important and demanded by Above all, we aim to direct projects in which we can workcitizens and public authorities. towards a very specific type of architecture that responds both to the customer’s needs and the demands of theWhat is the role of architecture in location; we focus on essentials, working in an undramatic,this question? highly precise, and clear manner, which, ultimately, allows us to be expressive in what we do. We have to be able to articulate these new ways of understanding green spaces in cities and buildings. You have been awarded the Mies Architects are responsible for both promoting and provoking society’s new demands. van der Rohe Prize 2015 for the Philharmonic Hall in Szczecin, How do you believe that Poland and you have just opened architecture should evolve to meet the Museum of Fine Arts in Chur, the needs it encounters today? Switzerland. In your experience, There is not just one common style, no one single what is the most important language in architecture today. There are thousands of thing to be taken into account in different ways of viewing architecture and this is completely new. In the past, perhaps, we always functioned with buildings which receive a large fashions and trends. The challenge today is to ensure LAST FEBRUARY, THE ROCA BARCELONA GALLERY that architecture does not end up being trivialised and ORGANISED A PANEL DISCUSSION WITH THE number of visitors throughout the that everyone feels that their work is important, that it WINNERS OF THE PRESTIGIOUS EUROPEAN UNION year? gives meaning, not only to themselves, but to the lives PRIZE FOR CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE - of many people. Architecture must not be trivial; it must People must be able to identify with, feel represented by anot be just the result of speculative market investment or MIES VAN DER ROHE AWARD 2015. THERE WERE public building. If they are going to use it, people have tosimply of filling in the gaps in a city. Architects must be SPANISH WINNERS IN TWO CATEGORIES THIS YEAR: see it as a reflection of themselves. These spaces belongconscious of the fact that our work affects people’s lives BAROZZI/VEIGA, WINNERS OF THE EUROPEAN to nobody and to everybody. The main aspiration of adirectly. We have to be conscious that what we do, we do PRIZE FOR CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE; AND project of this nature is to achieve precisely this feeling offor people and because of people, but there is no single identification. way of understanding architecture. Whatever one does, in ARQUITECTURA-G, SPECIAL MENTION FOR AN whichever place, or for whichever customer, the important EMERGING ARCHITECT. WE SPOKE TO ALBERTO thing is for it to have meaning for the people who are going VEIGA OF BAROZZI/VEIGA, TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT What are the main assumptions to use it, be it urban and public architecture, or domestic an architect should have when and private. THE WAY HE WORKS AND HIS UNDERSTANDING OF CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE. constructing a public building? Above all, the architect should think about the word “public”. Architects should be conscious that what we do isn’t autonomous or isolated from what surrounds it, but belongs to something much more important: a town, which gives meaning to everything. If you do that, you have to begin to understand that, in numerous cases, the public space is much more important than your own building. A public building has to return something to the city; it has to articulate a public space or public life. Roca Sanitario, S.A. Avda. Diagonal, 513 08029 Barcelona - Spain Telephone +34 93 366 1200 www.roca.com 6102 anolecraB .A.S ,oiratinaS acoR ©