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EVA PRATS RICARDO FLORES / FLORES & PRATS

Second Hand IQD 56

BIOGRAPHY

Born in Buenos Aires in 1965, Ricardo Flores studied architecture at the University of Buenos Aires. From 1993 to 1998 he collaborated as Design architect at Enric Miralles’ office. In 2016 he completed a PhD in architecture at ETSAB (Escola Tècnica Superior d’Arquitectura de Barcelona”). From 2004 to 2012 he was professor of the Design School at the International University of Catalonia (Esarq-UIC) and he is professor at the Faculty of Architecture, Design and Urban Planning at the University of Buenos Aires and at the ETSAB School of Architecture in Barcelona. Eva Prats was born in Barcelona in 1965. She studied architecture at the ETSAB, where she graduated in 1992. Starting from 1986 she has collaborated with the internationally renowned architect Enric Miralles. Since 2014 she is professor of Architecture and Urbanism at the RMIT – Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, and since 2019 she is also Guest Professor at the ETH Zurich. In 2019 she was shortlisted for theSince 2014 she is professor of Architecture and Urbanism at the RMIT – Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, and since 2019 she is also Guest Professor at the ETH Zurich. In 2019 she was shortlisted for the “Women in Architecture Award”. In 1998 they founded in Barcelona the design firm Flores & Prats. Their projects include the Museum de los Molinos, Nave Yutes, Plaza Pio XII, Casal Balaguer, Campus Microsoft, Building 111 and the Sala Beckett Theatre, as well as portable projects like the House in a Suitcase or the Mireia Jewellery Cabinet. Their works have been widely awarded, published and exhibited; in 2009 they obtained the Grand Award for the Best Work in Architecture at the Royal Academy of Arts in London for the rehabilitation project Mills Museum in Palma de Mallorca and in 2011 the International Award Dedalo Minosse of Vicenza for the New Campus for Microsoft in Milan. Their work was exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2018. Sala Beckett’s restoration project received the Barcelona City Prize in 2016, in 2017 it was shortlisted for the FAD Architecture Prize, ENOR Architecture Prize and Beazley Designs of the Year at the Design Museum in London and in 2019 it was the winner of The Architectural Review ‘New into old’ award. Flores & Prats received a special mention in the National Architecture Awards for Spain and were named Architects of the Year at the AD Awards 2018. Since 2014 she is professor of Architecture and Urbanism at the RMIT – Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, and since 2019 she is also Guest Professor at the ETH Zurich. In 2019 she was shortlisted for the “Women in Architecture Award”. In 1998 they founded in Barcelona the design firm Flores & Prats. Their projects include the Museum de los Molinos, Nave Yutes, Plaza Pio XII, Casal Balaguer, Campus Microsoft, Building 111 and the Sala Beckett Theatre, as well as portable projects like the House in a Suitcase or the Mireia Jewellery Cabinet. Their works have been widely awarded, published and exhibited; in 2009 they obtained the Grand Award for the Best Work in Architecture at the Royal Academy of Arts in London for the rehabilitation project Mills Museum in Palma de Mallorca and in 2011 the International Award Dedalo Minosse of Vicenza for the New Campus for Microsoft in Milan. Their work was exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2018. Sala Beckett’s restoration project received the Barcelona City Prize in 2016, in 2017 it was shortlisted for the FAD Architecture Prize, ENOR Architecture Prize and Beazley Designs of the Year at the Design Museum in London and in 2019 it was the winner of The Architectural Review ‘New into old’ award. Flores & Prats received a special mention in the National Architecture Awards for Spain and were named Architects of the Year at the AD Awards 2018.

Second Hand

A used dress incorporates the memory of its previous owner; starting to use it is always an exercise that requires time and confidence until you get to feel it as your own. Wearing “second hand” means entering a discipline of adaptation and, as architects, when we work with existing buildings to adapt them to a new use, our work has something very similar to this form of adaptation to a dress already used by others: you have to unstitch it to discover the used pattern, start to work from it, cutting on one side to add on another one, you may need new fabric or to add some pockets … and so on until the garment perfectly fits and identifies with the new user. We have accepted IQD magazine’s kind invitation to edit a section in this issue, together with the publication of other projects, as an opportunity to develop the theme of re-use in the world of things and ideas, something about which we are starting to talk much in architecture under the term “Adaptive Reuse”. Now we are striving to define and add to this term the many dimensions that this implies, with the perplexity caused by having to enter an ancient discipline such as that of reuse, something that we had distanced from the focus of our interests in a society always in a hurry and accustomed to the new. Our first approach to the discipline of adaptive reuse has been through our work as architects and later we have dedicated our courses to it in the different universities where we teach. In this issue of IQD the term “Second Hand” allows us to present the theme of reuse in a more open scenario and to collect in these pages projects by architects, artists, chefs, designers, dramaturges or filmmakers who tell us about a second possible use, dealing with memories, spaces, things or ideas: concrete projects that share the same responsibility, love, form and also fascination for those proofs that time regularly leads to the border between two generations.

SECOND HAND

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