I have always thought that architecture is, first of all, a subject of Philosophy, a subject of practical knowledge about living. The design in architecture is not a sterile design and alien to Username. On the contrary, it requires an understanding of the order of life and its use.

If Frank Lloyd Wright defined himself as an 'anti-intellectualist' in 1957, it was precisely because he understood that architecture could not be pure form: it had to be a current and democratic reflection of design.

Rafael Moneo, the 2012 Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts award , incorporates a new element with respect to the architecture of modernity. All his works are a 'creative statement', a declaration of respect for the order and use of the designed and a mastery of coexistence with the environment of his works; an environment defined by himself as 'the canvas', the 'warp' the 'frame' of the work done. Furthermore, this concept of environment elevates it from a strictly physical dimension to a dimension that includes time. As he himself has stated, every work is inscribed in time: "the work of architecture is produced in the unfinished text, which is the city".

His architecture emanates a claim for the real problem that the building has to solve, dialoguing with the existing and projecting it into the future. His work does not fall into the evocation of itself but presents itself as elements of coexistence and transformation. His projects have as mission statement solve specific problems; he does not try to impose an image or a presence, but they are directed to an attentive look and are generated from a genuine creativity capable of congregating the unexpected through design.
His contribution to the museum

Rafael Moneo's interest in cultural buildings, including the University of Navarra Museum, currently under construction, is singular. His work is extensive in this field, constant throughout his career degree program and with an international repercussion of the first order. Projects such as the Miró Foundation in Mallorca, the Davis Museum, the Museum of Modern Art and Architecture in Stockholm, Kursaal in San Sebastián, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid or the extension of the Prado Museum are magnificent examples of an architecture dedicated to extolling the arts from an exceptional and exquisite architecture.

The University of Navarra Museum is his most recent project in this field and brings together a whole thesis staff of his vision of architecture in a university context. Located in the northern part of the campus of the University of Navarra, the area closest to Pamplona, the building establishes itself as a bridge to the city. The museum presents a dialogue with the surroundings of campus, with its history and with its future, incorporating the landscaping that has characterized this place since its foundation, passing through its dialogue with the nearest buildings of Carvajal and Vicens and with the 'skyline' of Pamplona, and projecting an urban vision of a campus that approaches the city.

Described by himself as 'his most abstract building' the University of Navarra Museum is a tribute to the Collection of María Josefa Huarte, donated to this University. In its definition, Rafael Moneo has established a perfect space also for another important part of the Museum's Collection, its excellent photographic collection, as well as for the activities it will house, characterized by the research internship of art. In contrast to the museum paradigm that the visit tries to impose, Moneo has opted for a free space for visitors, converting the museum into a place, an agora.

His project Museo Universidad de Navarra once again demonstrates the vision of an architecture that marks an era, an architecture that investigates the language of construction, the city and the environment, communication, beauty and the meaning of the signs created by others, reaffirming the possibility that architecture, like art, is a place of meeting and of living experience.