Architecture is collaboration

Many minds and hands are involved in architectural production, from its conception to its final manifestation. In this exhibition, Anupama Kundoo seeks to bring to light the collaborative processes inherent in architectural production and its fundamental actors. It also considers the evolution of the practice of architecture in the future, when competition gives way to cooperation thanks to a greater awareness of our coexistence. The potential of collaboration and cooperation has been underutilized as key drivers for achieving excellence and integrated thinking, as well as creating scenarios in which grand visions can be realized with considerable attention to detail. This change in trend could accelerate the speed at which human society adopts a future approach to the built environment that is socially, economically and environmentally sustainable, and in which knowledge creation, empowerment and human relations benefit everyone.

The exhibition shows in context a selection of projects created by various groups of collaborators. The projects range from cooperation within the profession to interdisciplinary collaborations, including other participants such as artisan communities, NGOs, municipalities or the academic world. With this mix of projects of all sizes, from product development, construction technologies and large-scale urban projects, the exhibition explores Kundoo's research-oriented practice, which focuses on the rethinking of materiality, energy efficient architecture, inclusive participatory processes, affordability and the circular economy, as well as green infrastructure.

Anupama Kundoo

Anupama Kundoo graduated from the University of Bombay in 1989 and received her PhD from the Technical University of Berlin in 2008. Her research-oriented practice, started in 1990 in Auroville, has generated a people-centred architecture, based on spatial research and materials, to achieve a low environmental impact and, at the same time, offer advantages from a socioeconomic point of view. His work was exhibited in the solo exhibition “Taking Time” at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (Denmark) until May 16, 2021. He has taught Architecture and Urban Management subjects at several international universities, which has reinforced his experience on development issues related to rapid urbanization and climate change. She was the Davenport Visiting Professor at Yale University in the spring of 2020 and is currently a professor at the Potsdam School of Architecture (Germany). He is the recipient of the 2021 RIBA Charles Jencks Prize for Contribution to Architectural Theory, the 2021 Auguste Perret Prize for Architectural Technology, and the 2021 Building Sense Now Global Award of the German Sustainable Construction Council. His studios are located in Berlin (Germany) and in Pune and Puducherry (India).

Kundoo's rigorous research and experimentation on new materiality for architecture is the result of questioning the basic assumptions and construction habits that humanity has adopted during the long process of industrialization. Instead of focusing on scarcity, Kundoo sought abundance by investing in ingenuity and human resources, time, skills, care and a sense of community. The act of building creates knowledge, just as the resulting knowledge creates buildings.

 

Organized by: Roca

Curated: Anupama Kundoo

Guided tours: info.barcelonagallery@roca.net