Navarre architect Francisco Mangado joins the Academy of Architecture of France
In his speech, the University professor calls for "architecture and the city to regain their cultural and social dimension".
FotoCedida/PatxiMangado accompanied by members of the University of Navarra at the ceremony of his appointment. From left to right: Rubén Labiano, professor at School of Architecture; Igor Errasti, Administrator of the University of Navarra; Patxi Mangado; Carlos Naya, director of School of Architecture; Juan Miguel Otxotorena and José Manuel Pozo, professors at the University of Navarra. School of Architecture
31 | 05 | 2024
"I hope that the younger ones know how to give rise to a status in which architecture and the city can recover their essences". This is what architect Patxi Mangado, professor at the University of Navarra, said in his speech admission to the French Academy of Architecture. The new academician, who with this appointment now forms part of the high school of foreign members of this institution, has called for architecture to recover its cultural and social function.
In his speech, with the degree scroll "crisis of architecture or crisis against architecture", the architect from Navarre reflected on how the transformations of today's Western society mean, "beyond a healthy disciplinary crisis that results in an advance of architecture, a direct attack on its conceptual and practical essences". In his opinion, this is a difficult context to be faced by what he describes as "the last Renaissance profession", which is architecture.
According to Francisco Mangado, in this society, marked by materialism and individualism, "architecture is transformed into a purely productive and economic fact, leaving aside its cultural dimension and its foundations, especially those that have to do with the social and service dimension of being an architect".
Extensive academic and professional experience
Born in Navarra in 1957, Francisco Mangado is graduate by the School of Architecture of the University of Navarra, where he has been working as Extraordinary Professor since 1982 and as a professor of projects at Master's Degree University in Architectural Theory and design . In the field of teaching, he has also worked at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University; Eero Saarinen Visiting Professor of Architecture at School of Architecture at Yale University; he has been visiting professor at l'École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne; Baird/Gensler Visiting Professor at Cornell University and visiting professor at the Politecnico di Milano.
Among other awards, Francisco Mangado has received the award Nacional de Arquitectura on two occasions: in 2009, for the Spanish Pavilion at the Zaragoza Expo, and in 2017, for the Palacio de Congresos in Palma de Mallorca. He is also an International Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects and Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and Gold Medal of Merit in the Fine Arts.
Parallel to his academic activity, Mangado has developed an extensive professional career as an architect degree program . He is the author of the project of the BIOMA Center of the University of Navarra, soon to be built. This new building will house the Science Museum, the Biodiversity and Environment Institute, spaces for the Schools of the area of sciences and the headquarters of the Innovation Factory entrepreneurship service. In fact, the development of the place next to which the BIOMA Center will be built began this May.
