Design for Living: Global Contest to Rethink Our Habitat from the Body to the City

The Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia calls its 8th Advanced Architecture Contest titled “Design for Living,” an opportunity for a global reflection to rethink human habitats where 126 proposals from all around the world help to shape our understanding of contemporary design and architecture.

This effort offers the opportunity for a global reflection to rethink human habitats, at a time when the fight for life and climate allows us to consider how we would like to live in the coming decades. We like to think that each person’s life begins at home, which is the center of their universe and the origin of their social interactions. During the pandemic, we had been confined to our homes and they have become microcities where we live, work and rest, connected to the world through information networks. So, after this experience, how do we imagine the future for our living environment?

The contest encourages participants to propose a design related to their way of life, at the scale that most interests them from our bodies to the city, anywhere in the world, and that reflects different cultural, environmental, economic or social conditions. In total, the competition received 193 proposals from all around the world and the book includes all the rules and results of the competition, the 33 members of the international jury and the images and information of 126 selected projects. Seen as a whole, this effort serves to build a contemporary vision of the conditions that are currently shaping design and architecture and will continue to shape it in the following years.

Vicente Guallart was a chief architect (2011-2015) of Barcelona City Council with the responsibility of developing the strategic vision for the city and its major development projects. He also co-founded and directed the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (2001-2011) where he led projects such as Media House Project (with MIT’s CBA), HyperCatalunya, or the Fab Lab House. His professional office, Guallart Architects has developed projects widely published like the ports of Fugee and Keelung in Taiwan, or the Sociopolis neighbourhood in Valencia and now it works in projects of several scales around the world. He is developing now projects in China, Russia. He is the author of books like Plans and Projects of Barcelona (2011-15) Geologic or The Self-Sufficient City and co-author of the Metapolis Dictionary of Advanced Architecture. His work has been exhibited at the Biennale of Venezia or NY MOMA. The American Institute of Architects organized in 2010 a solo exhibition of his work in Washington DC.

Laia Pifarré studied Law at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and at the Università degli Studi di Parma, in Italy (Erasmus Programme). She is about to finish her second degree in Administration and Political Science at the Universitat de Barcelona. She has been involved in managing projects in the field of Law and Architecture. Laia joined IAAC in March 2008 as Assistant Director, but she took leave of absence during the period 2011-2015 to work for the Barcelona City Council as a Chief of Staff for the Deputy Mayor for Urban Habitat. She holds a diploma from the programme ‘Global Trends, Local Impacts: An Urban Futures Masterclass’ by the London School of Economics. She returned to IAAC in January 2016.

Fabio Capra Ribeiro graduated second of his class in a five-year program in Architecture allowing him to participate in a four-year Master’s in Science in Architectural Design, both at the Universidad Central de Venezuela. He started to teach in the same institution in 2009, becoming Assistant Professor in 2013 and Associate Professor in 2019. During these years, he acted as Coordinator of the Master’s in Urban Design and then as Director of the School of Architecture Carlos Raúl Villanueva. During his 11 years as a university professor, Fabio has taught a wide array of architectural and urban design studios, as well as research methodology and representation courses. He has also supervised several graduate, postgraduate and PhD thesis.