Veinte años de bienales españolas de arquitectura y urbanismovanguardia y difusión de la arquitectura

Abstract

The Spanish Architecture and Urbanism Biennial is an award established in 1991 by the Ministry of Public Works and Transport. The main objective of the award is to promote Spanish architecture in a national and international realm through the selection and subsequent dissemination of the most representative works; these works should be executed two years prior to the event. The award, which I will hereafter refer to as Biennial, leads to the development of various activities such as exhibitions, workshops and seminars. Simultaneously with this process a catalogue is published in which institutional assessments, minutes of the jury, several critical essays, written and graphical information of the works and the most significant summary points of the events related to each celebration are collected. Since its conception it is considered a group award. It brings together a set of various works under a common umbrella of the recognition of quality regardless of the initial conditions of the various works. In the catalogues works are regarded as equal and are organized into groups between 17 and 40. The groups feature an anthology within the framework of national architectural culture, which is relevant to particular time in our recent history pertaining to a specific field of construction and urbanism. This award is a showcase of the architectural work in Spain. It is defined by its disseminator nature and focuses his vision on the works built. Together, as constructed facts, these works reflect the society that built them. The jury works, however, with the immediacy of the glance directed barely two years ago, a short time to adequately evaluate this area. Pieces of Architecture and Urban Design considered in each edition are very recent, no more than two years have elapsed since their construction. Given this short time interval, the criteria judged by the jury is subjective instead of objective; and consequently, results in an inaccurate depiction of the work among competitive works. Due to the lack of sufficient time, a theoretical scheme, that can apply the appropriate objective weights to each work, has yet to be developed. Therefore, at the moment the entire process is conducted, to some extent, with future intuitions.