hello um today I will talk about this uh quite uh quite quite important architect from Catalonia from Barcelona Karma Pinos uh I think it is his birthday her birthday today sorry um the the 23rd of June I say I think because on Wikipedia this is not mentioned but I have other sources of information that that claim that she was born indeed uh on on June uh June 23rd but on Wikipedia Wikipedia we find this this text Karma Pinos born in 1954 is a Spanish architect interestingly it's not said it is a Catalan architect Pinos graduated Escuela Technica Superior de architectura the Barcelona in 1979 and returned to the school in 1981 to study urbanism from 1982 on she phoned a partnership with her husband Eric mirallas which ended in 1991 so they worked together for nine years and they produce a very important works and Eric Mirage was a uh quite a good architect to say the least during this period the projects developed include the igualada cemetery Park which in my opinion is a masterpiece the archery range buildings for the 1992 Summer Olympic Games in Barcelona and the La La Luna School in Barcelona the work of Pinos mirayas received Awards on several occasions including the Fab prize for the La una school and the igualada cemetery Park as well the city the Barcelona prize for the 1992 Olympic archery range buildings and we are going to see all these works in 1991 Pino set up her own studio and transferred the supervision and construction uh of several projects initiated in her previous office together where it mirai's amongst them was the community center and Auditorium in hostility the balania the lamina Community Center and the boarding school in Morella since then she has combined her activity as an architect with teaching working as a guest Professor among amongst others at the University of Illinois Urbana campaign in the United States the kunst academy industrial dolphin Colombia University in New York 1999 vehicle Polytechnic Federal in 2001 2002 and the school she graduated from in Barcelona the university anyway and the Harvard University graduate school 2003 and in Switzerland Elementary so a very very rich teaching activity notable projects during her career include the padish pedestrian bridge in Petra Alicante the Juan aparicio Waterfront in torrevieja the LA Serra High School in mole Russia the says God it's along the list Espana Square in Palma Del malorca the cube Tower actually two Cube Towers in Guadalajara and we are going to see them the primary school in um well that place in Barcelona more recent projects include an ovuli housing complex in Florence the Catalan government headquarters in tordoza high school in San Carlos Del arapita and the Northeast building igualada Pino designed the gardenia Square in Barcelona as well as two Adias and buildings a housing building and the masana fine fine arts school Pino's work has been exhibited several galleries museums and universities including the the Kunta Academy in Stuttgart the this architecture in high school in the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign eight Plant Gallery in New York anyway Contemporary Art Museum Puerto Rico the founder Foundation of Madrid colleges of Architects Valencia Galicia the Spanish Pavilion in the Venice architecture biennial since 2006 the model of the cube Tower again there are two Cube Towers is part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York so as you can see a very very rich activity a total dedication to the art of architecture this is karma Pinos and this is her website you can you can find out more about her and her works from from this website it's very easy to memorize CP you know CP no scar mapinos.com and um you know something happened something changed in the world in the past more or less remote you know the wife was just the wife of someone either famous or not famous but things changed so Karma Pinos was married to a famous architect Eric Mirage he died young unfortunately I think at 45 and but before he died he they got separated and he married another famous architect Bernadette what is remarkable is that these two architects Karma Pinos and benedetta Talia not only that they didn't collapse after the death of their husband but they actually prospered they became better and and and and and and their Works uh brilliant at times testify to the fact that there is a lot of creativity in women architects it's not any longer that patriarchy where only the man counted in the field of creativity not at all so and this this shows clearly after the death of anik miraies carmepinos developed around practice beautifully and so did his second wife benedetta Talia about who will talk actually tomorrow foreign uh this is a building we are going to see in detail that she built a little later this is one of the two cubes that he she built in in in Mexico City uh again back to the this guy exaporum uh I don't have uh this presentation needs a little bit of more strict organization but we are going to see some of her most important Works she also designed uh you know uh objects if you are to call shelving system an object um often her Works um employ uh conceptual vignettes with which she describes the you know the the the essential thought besides besides a project she built here she is in her office after she separated from Eric Mirage but here she is with Enrique rice as I said he died young and igualada Cemetery which in my opinion is a masterpiece in my opinion has the same quality and significance for architecture as the Brion Cemetery by Carlos Carla uh we did she did it together with the Enemy rice they worked together and let's read a little bit about it as part of a competition to replace an older Cemetery Eric mirayas and Karma Pinos envisioned a new type of cemetery that began to consider those that were laid to rest as well as the families that still remained after 10 years of construction the guadalada cemetery outside of Barcelona Catalonia Spain was completed in 1994 as a place of reflection and memories and this is it again it's it's it's very important what is written here that this was a place conceived to be just not just for those laid to rest that is not just for the dead but also for the living and the relationship between them being being addressed the creatively it's an unusual Cemetery but anything that is very creative is unusual and it has to be unusual otherwise we'll not talk about it so the guadalada cemetery is a project that challenges the traditional Notions of what makes a cemetery mirais and Pinos conceptualize the poetic ideas of a cemetery for the visitors to begin to understand and accept the cycle of Life as a link between the past the present and the future it's understood by The Architects to be a city of the Dead where the dead and the living are brought closer together in spirit as much as the igualada cemetery is a place for those to be laid to rest it is also a place for those to come and reflect in the Solitude and serenity of the catalonian landscape I would say what we would say with modest means it's not um you know an opulent Cemetery which would be almost a nonsense uh although of course many people uh you know think that we we can only honor the dead through the imposing the mouse Orleans covered in marble and so on but I think a more uh discreet or more spiritual way of reflecting on death would be conducive to to to to create a cemetery which is um political uh it doesn't emphasize the illusion that you know through Marble and huge mouse or lemons we can actually achieve eternity uh look at the plan of the cemetery which is like almost like a human silhouette I don't know if they don't did it intentionally but it's possible that the thought didn't Escape uh didn't Escape them do we know what this is no and nor do we know what life is but but it's all the more important to to to reflect on on the end of life and I it is my my thoughts and my feeling that actually if we do not consider death seriously we also symmetrically and and almost as a consequence we do not um honor life as it should be honored because I think life and death they are like the two cups of klepsy there are one hourglass life nourishes death and death in turn through memories nourishes life they are intertwined life on death I like I love very much what um what what I look at here you know this detail of this uh of this Cemetery created by uh Karma Pinos and the uh Eric mirallas again done with the very simple means but uh artistically very valid and potent and and yes they they they show that seriousness without which designing uh uh a cemetery is not is not acceptable actually in Melancholia is unavoidable sadness is unavoidable but but the the quality of the work I think transcends even uh despair because it was said that art transgresses death maybe this itself is an illusion but it is important this illusion and without art I think life would be much more difficult but art doesn't mean to to mimic inauthentic things it is really about truth Paradox paradoxically as it may sound I think actually um art has to tell the truth even in a form which could scandalize people or make them puzzled or make them unaccepted now La Villa olympica the Olympic city that they built in 1992 that these are remarkable works here for the Olympics in 1992 and they were still young Architects both of them the pergolas of the of the Avenue icaria and I always ask myself why did they design I'm sorry no do you want to say something no I've just entered and I have had my microphone on sorry I want to say something please do so otherwise please be kind and turn off the microphone so you know but again if you want to say something please do so so these pergolas that um uh Eric mirayas and uh Karma Pino's designed are very very intriguing and I asked myself why did they build them this way and I've I found out that actually I I neglected the fact that they are placed on this Avenue icaria which probably the name comes from I don't know Catalan but it's probably connected with Icarus cause Wings melted because he approached the sun too closely and it's possible that I actually think there is a relationship between the architectonic quality and expression of this pergolas and the the fact that this Avenue is called icaria and here it is they do look like broken wings and you say my God my God you know that's not what one should do you know by the way of Olympics because this was done in conjunction with the the activities that took place in the Olympics that took place in in Barcelona I I like very much yes artistic works as cultural works as uh unconventional pergolas this this works but they they do have a symbolic meaning and I think that symbolic meaning is connected with the name of the street or the Avenue they are situated on now this is indeed this is what they were doing at that time you know it's uh of course the conventional architect and the conventional designer and the conventional critique and the conventional public would would be turned off to express myself non-academically working underneath this pergolas but I love them because they represent the tension in the human soul they represent the aspiration as Icarus himself had to approach the sun okay the wings melted down but but the but there is there was no ability though even though maybe do some foolishness of aspiring towards the Sun so these spell Bowlers do not leave you indifferent who designed such pergolas ever before nobody they did it karma ifino to them because I think we do need a provocation of art we do need sculpture we do need things that do not uh reduce themselves to the Placid function of I don't know uh serving I don't know what purpose I I totally agree with the saying let's shock the Bourgeois within ourselves as well because we are too comfortable with the idea that life is just about sitting comfortably on a comfortable sofa no I I don't think that's why we were born for so this pergolas have an existential uh meaning and the message almost you know there are exceptional works and I'm very happy that the city of Barcelona build them unconventional is there and they did so before the arrival of its Majesty the computer in our lives it was 1994. um at that time you know the digital techniques were not developed at all I mean for personal use there is Melancholia here I would say and and yes maybe some sport tips would would have been I mean you cannot compete in in Olympics from the positions of Melancholia I would understand but on the other hand the creativity of the work itself is an encouragement to to fight to to fight what you for what you believe in The Pedestrian food bridge in petrol Alicante 1991 1999 this was done and well at least was finalized by Karma Pinos without Enric Mirage but you see even here you know the disruption of uh of uh you know look at look at look at these so-called detail you know why why was this done well it's maybe a reminder of uh of uh of the fact that life sooner or later does end in a in a in a you know in in its opposite in a way yes so conflict uh and fragmentation uh disruption they they are do they do exist within life itself maybe you say well uh the function of a bridge is not to remind us of death or of illness or of sadness or whatever but on the other hand why not because because crossing a bridge you know it's a threshold this uh it's a moment of tension now you you you you you you you you walk over an abyss bigger or smaller and it's a it's a it's crossing the threshold it's a moment moment of tension it's a moment of conflict even you leave one stage behind and you assume another stage if you are so kind I still hear some noises please turn off the microphone unless you want to say something the vignettes that I said that Karma Pinos always employs to show the the you know the formal and conceptual essence of a project that here we see uh you know details of of of their work for for the archery I don't know if I showed here the archery uh I should the Juana parisios this is another work done by Karma Pinos and I think Dan by her without Eric mirallas I should have had more clearly um segregated the two periods in her creativity one with the edit Mirage and the second by herself here she is to open the battle School of Architecture summer show and I would ask the students here when do you want to have a summer show with your own Works your very creative work let's do one this summer are you ready I am I am putting that your disposal a space where you can do it we'll talk about it at the end of the presentation please remember my challenge Let's do an exhibition with you all very creative works if you think they deserve to be seen why can't we have such atmosphere here as well of course this is a famous school and but she opened you understand Karma Pinos was uh was invited to open the bathroom School of Architecture summer show and here it is I we don't see her here but we see the students and the faculty and so on the master plan for the historic Center of San Diego in France but no pictures the department building the of the new Campus of the Vienna University of economics and business was not built no no this was built and is actually built uh and we are going to see uh this fact that I just mentioned so she built this in Vienna did another project for you but this one was pure the number of students and I think is not inferior this building to um the building by sakah Hadid which is on the right I hope I have yeah here it is this building is and this building is bicarma Pinos and across the the space is a building by another important architect Peter Cook so here is zaha and here is karma Pinos very different the architecture of these two uh ladies yes here you see zachar Hadid Karma Pinos and um Mr cook Peter Cook now Cube one Tower in Guadalajara Mexico he built two towers and we are going to see both in Guadalajara they have a remarkable contemporary architecture because they uh ambitious and they have cultural uh you know longings for significance of the invited important Architects to build the Conway Pinos is one of them I like the fact that she tried to filter the light through this additional um you know this I don't know how to call it this second passage done here with wood you know is is is about filtering light and creating some kind of a mask or a second uh facade which she also employed in Vienna in that building that we just saw yes a lot of concrete and concrete pollutes at that time when she built it maybe there wasn't so much concern with concrete but today we should be very careful I like this fact that you know here you have this the center of the building is actually an excavation of the monolith which otherwise the building would have been I hope I have the plan a little bit later here so I can explain or I can describe what I try to what I try to describe but when you combine concrete with wood or concrete with break I think the even in terms of Aesthetics is better than maybe tatawando who disagree but at that one though I don't know if you know and I mentioned this some other times he doesn't live in a concrete house he lived in a wooden house yes the master of concrete is actually living in a Woodhouse in a wooden house not in a concrete house in the house he his parents you know head and now is his anyway but here we see wood and Concrete wood and Concrete and I think the the wood warms up concrete and I think Luis Khan was quite aware of this because he also employed in some important occasions concrete and um and wood like for example in the Yale Art Gallery a British art museum at Yale University I'm talking about Luis Khan this is the plan of the of this Cube one that Karma Pinos built in Guadalajara and this is the empty space you know between the the core of the building and again it's a building which which is uh sculptural is uh dramatic even is a is the sum of uh uh opposite forces that is um uh you know the concave and the convex even in the case of known curves curves but but you can even talk about concavity and you know and the concave and the convex even if you don't have necessarily explicit curves it's a good building that she built and uh again it shows the potential of a sculptural uh office tower which assume assumes risks is not afraid of cantilever Parts is not afraid of well it's true the climate thing Guadalajara is warm so you know [Music] the losses of energy that you might have in a cold private they don't have that but on the other hand since winter is almost disappearing at least in this part of Europe maybe this concern should be a little bit um less stringent the Cubans are in Guadalajara this is the vignette employed by her to illustrate the essence formal and conceptual of the project and then we are going to see the second tower she built the cube 2 Tower this one rather inappropriately called Cube because it's not a cube but maybe you know there is like there are there are relatives the two buildings very different this one from the so let's look at the vignette of this of cube one which is this one and then Cube two but you can tell is the same architect although the plants seem to differ significantly an elevation and here it is not bad in fact there are other skyscrapers around this one but I think hers is the best you see here again the potential of a veiled architecture because there are there are two facets in a way you know the one behind this uh you know uh uh Maze of horizontal lines and this veiling of the facade I think has uh virtues in other kind of climates not just in the Mexican uh context it creates an ambiguity but also it it uh it models light in in more poetical terms which I think is important the the building on the left was not built by her she built the one on the right again I think hers is best from these tall buildings this is karma Pinos right here Mexico these systems of British Olay I think they have virtues functionally but also aesthetically now the University of economics and business in Vienna this is the project that was not built as yet as far as I know now the restoration of the back facade of this Market in Barcelona 2007 2015 Bernadette also built a maybe she started the project with Eric mirallas Market but this is done by Karma Pinos not bad it is it has the drama of the sloping roof and uh you know it is cultural it is vigorous it is engaging expressing the Dynamics of a market because a market is a gathering place with the some dramas even sometimes if you don't negotiate properly with the seller anyway Pinos Barcelona here she is a proud lady who achieved something in this life and she will continue to achieve here she is with her former husband Eric mirallas they are very young here maybe they just finish school or so here she is with some furniture you know that that she created uh that now the cube taught two of his Tower in his apopan Mexico we already saw some pictures with it now we see others again only this Tower is hers this one is not you know diagonal slanted surfaces they do create a sense of becoming a sense of instability even but that sense of instability is necessary in a dynamic world to express the you know the the many forces that are in a complex interplay in our life today so I would say diagonals and you know deviations from uh strict rectangularity could have in uh in a skillful hands uh beneficial effect these are the plans of this of this Tower called Cube 2 although it's not a cube she built it by herself without that time when she built these two towers she worked alone without any Mirage we see here again the the power of diagonals the engaging Dynamic qualities the diagonals uh bring to to the work and the structures you can see in the plan as well is itself engaging here it is at the beginning of the construction process then initial sketch for the cube one not Cube 2. here is again Cube 2 in the context of those Towers now a single family house in the district of valcarca in Barcelona 2003 2010 an excellent modern house built in uh on a street as you can see with valuable older buildings but we have Harmony through contrast and here is again the vignette that illustrates the you know the conceptualization of the project I like the fact that although it is a house it doesn't look like a house so you know uh the The Hiding of the domestic aspects of the house is I think a good thing it's a house which doesn't look like a house inside though yes it does and the furniture that she designed Forum we already saw a picture of it uh zarago's architectura Espana um here it is cultural itself while architecture is not an inhabited or inhabitable sculpture it does benefit from sculpturalness maybe there are some Echoes here from uh Marcel broyer the the Whitney American the winning Museum of American art if you compare this building by Karma Pinos with each building I don't know who designed it in my opinion here we see live and here we see less of course there were great buildings done you know symmetrical here and only with right angles and so on but this one is just too Placid and too static for our for our time in my opinion while this building expresses better the time we live in even more so in the when the Technologies of the present are allowed to manifest themselves we know that was built also by Herzog and the so why not use projections or a system of you know changing the facades of the building uh using the technologies that we have yes it's true we consume electrical energy but electricity but uh you know if you assume the consequences of building then the scene was already committed so to speak this is a summer how she designed in Guadalajara in Mexico it's a little house but she combines as you can see stonework with the Sleek uh Aesthetics of newer material so to speak it's a house which is domestic but itself has you know a lot of uh the cross ventilation is one aspect of the building that derives from transparencies onto opposite elevations and also two opposite views and the house is very open it's very open on various sites so there is a dynamic quality here at work as well what would you do without a telescope right we need to inspect the Stars the distant Stars this their house is not very spectacular but you know not everything has to be spectacular it's probably a pleasant house to be in and the plan as we can see is uh playful and why shouldn't it be you can tell in this project as well that Karma pinosa enjoys you know playing with the Opposites with the contradiction even with tension with conflict there is conflict within these buildings as there is conflict in some other buildings that she built now the Catalan government headquarters in tortosa in Spain uh I like this building very much because you see the existing buildings obviously not in a you know very uh Rich area of the city but the building is stands out with the Dignity of a healthy modernity in a context that you know for someone less creative would have meant something very different and and and and and and and we see again the virtues of Harmony through contrast because obviously the building that she built has nothing in common with the buildings that that surround it but that is fine that's why I say it's Harmony through contrast why should a governmental building be you know oppressively authoritarian and without sculptural playfulness and without uh even times [Music] outrageous uh creativity like in the case of the Parliament building in Edinburgh that very mirayas and um but she finalized the work because Eric Mirai has died a very unconventional work for uh you know the governmental services at the highest level of Edinburgh now here we are now in this city in in Spain with a building built by um Karma Pinos and again what does this building have in common with with this one or that one or this one maybe what they have in common is that they they were all true of their time and their place this building was built recently so it had to be built from a different premise conceptual and otherwise and that's exactly what she did as Maria Albrecht inscribed on the elevation of the secessionist movement in the secession is building in the headquarters of the secessionist movement in Vienna in Austria to each time it's art and to Art is freedom and that's exactly what Karma Pinos did with this building look at the windows here and look at the windows here this is a different time so she built according to her time to the time she built but the building is not outrageous in any way it's just that it has a dynamic quality that the buildings around this doesn't don't have not so much implant perhaps as you can see a governmental building but I would reiterate she expresses conflicts tension the dynamic qualities of a relieved life if I can say so design and with this we'll end this short presentation on karmatinos let's let's look at some of her designs meaning you know uh design of objects a furniture a bench and you can see other works as well on on her website this is for the caixa Forum that we saw a restaurant table this one is as well for kaiksa forum often very often Architects design not only buildings but the designers so you know furnishings and so on uh some even design uh you know tapestries or you know uh even the slippers of the um you know the the client if we had to recall the case of Joseph Hoffman Architects when they are ambitious they want to design everything maybe this is obsessive and probably is anyway because a good architect is a good designer and an architect would do urbanist could do we read that that she studied urbanism after she finished her architecture studies but urbanism is also architecture so you know there is no contradiction good architect designs table designs a city designs a building sometimes better sometime less but the attempt is there so let's let's have a talk if you want a little bit