Patxi Mangado (center), at the inauguration of the sample in the conference room AEDES, together with the Spanish ambassador in Berlin and his wife. PHOTO: Courtesy

Architect Patxi Mangado, professor at School of Architecture of the University of Navarra, has been named an international honorary member of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). This lifetime distinction is awarded annually to professionals from all over the world, except the United Kingdom, to recognize their particular contribution to architecture.

In this edition, seven architects from Europe and Asia received awards. In addition to Mangado, another Spaniard, Carlos Ferrater, of Oficina de Arquitectura de Barcelona, received an award. The other winners are Momoyo Kaijima and Yoshiharu Tsukamoto, of Atelier Bow Wow (Japan); Sou Fujimoto (Japan), Anna Heringer (Germany/Austria) and Chirstian Kerez (Switzerland).

exhibition touring Europe

Patxi Mangado also inaugurated the traveling exhibition "Francisco Mangado Architect. Architecture with the left hand" at the AEDES Architecture Forum in Berlin. The event was attended by Kristin Feireiss, from AEDES; Rafael Dezcallar, Spanish Ambassador in Berlin; M. Lars Lerup, from Rice University (USA); and architect Luis Fernández-Galiano, Full Professor de Proyectos de la School of Architecture of the Polytechnic University of Madrid and publisher of Arquitectura Viva magazine.

The sample was inaugurated in early 2011 at the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid and was subsequently exhibited at the Municipal Auditorium of Teulada and at the Palacio del Condestable in Pamplona. It will then travel to Ljubljana and Paris.

Through project models and digital representations of the interiors and pieces of urban furniture, exhibition presents a large part of Patxi Mangado's production as an architect and industrial designer. A documentary takes a tour of his main built works and collects some of his most profound reflections and points of view through interviews with his mentors and friends, such as Rafael Moneo, Álvaro Siza, Eduardo Souto de Moura and Juan Herreros.

Patxi Mangado was born in Navarra in 1957. He holds a degree in architecture from technical school of the University of Navarra, where he has been a professor since 1982. In the field of teaching, he has also been visiting professor at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. He has also been Eero Saarinen Visiting Professor of Architecture at School of Architecture at Yale University. He has received numerous prestigious international awards, most recently the 'Chicago Athenaeum 2011' for the Avila Exhibition and Conference Center.