Constructing the Public Realm

Spanish architect Iñaki Alday (University of Virginia) and Kelly Shannon (University of Southern California) talk about the singularity of Spanish architecture in the integration of architecture, public space, urban planning and landscape architecture.

This event is presented as part of the public programs of the exhibitions EXPORT: Spanish Architecture Abroad and ALTERNATIVAS/ALTERNATIVES: The Thirteenth Spanish Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism, on show from April 6 through June 4 at the Former Residence of the Ambassadors of Spain in Washington, D.C.

Kelly Shannon

Dr. Kelly Shannon is currently Director of the Master of Landscape Architecture Program and Landscape Architecture Discipline Head in the University of Southern California. Shannon has held teaching positions in Europe, Asia and in the United States and has lectured throughout the world. Her design research is at the intersection of interpretative mapping, projective cartography, urbanism and landscape. Her teaching, research and practice engages numerous contexts (Belgium, Estonia, Vietnam, China, Indonesia, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Morocco, etc.), primarily in the public sector, focused on the development of robust landscape structures as a form of resilience to deal with contemporary design challenges at the territorial and urban design scales.

Shannon is co-founder of Research Urbanism and Architecture (RUA) whose projects include the master plan revision for Cantho, Vietnam approved by the Prime Minister. She co-edits the book series UFO: Explorations of Urbanism (Park Books, Zurich), is co-editor of the Journal of Landscape Architecture (JoLA) and co-authored The Landscape of Contemporary Infrastructure.

Before entering academia, she obtained her architect’s license in New York and worked at Mitchell/Giurgola (New York City), Hunt Thompson (London), Renzo Piano Building Workshop (Genoa) and Gigantes/Zenghelis (Athens). She received a B.Arch from Carnegie Mellon University, an M.Arch from the Berlage Institute, and a Doctorate in Applied Sciences: Architecture from KU Leuven.

Iñaki Alday

Iñaki Alday, founder and principal with Margarita Jover of aldayjover arquitectura y paisaje, has been the Elwood R. Quesada Professor of Architecture at the University of Virginia since August 1, 2011. Alday was the Chair of the Department of Architecture from 2011 to 2016. He is now the Director of the Yamuna River Project –the first pan-university grand challenge project at the University of Virginia– a long-term, inter-disciplinary research program whose objective is to revitalize the ecology of the Yamuna River in the Delhi area.

Prior to joining UVa, Alday was associate professor in the School of Architecture of Valles (Barcelona, Polytechnic University of Catalonia) as well as lecturer and visiting professor at several other universities.

The role of architecture and architects, the interdisciplinary work and integration of scales, the new nontraditional programs as infrastructures and energy or the social and environmental ethics are some of the challenges to face with a global vision.

With aldayjover arquitectura y paisaje, Iñaki Alday and Margarita Jover are authors of landscape works such as the Aranzadi Park (Pamplona, 2013), the Water Park (Zaragoza, 2008) and the Recovering of the Gallego River Waterfronts (Zuera, 2001); urban public space works as the Integration of the New Tramway of Zaragoza (2011-2012) and architecture as The Mill Cultural Centre (Utebo, 2004), the District Heating and Colling (Zaragoza, 2008) or the Center for the Interpretation of Agriculture (Pamplona 2012).

Some of the latest works of aldayjover are the extension of the Parc Guell in Barcelona with new connecting paths and the New Green Diagonal, after winning the competition for the Sagrera Parc together with RCR arquitectes y WEST8, a green space of 40 Ha (100 Acres) and 4 km long (2,5 miles) over the tracks of the railway. The office received the European Urban Public Space Prize (2002), the FAD Prize of City and Landscape (2009), the Garcia Mercadal Prize (2001 and 2005), two Green Good Design (The Chicago Atheneum, 2011), the First Prize of Urban Integration (International Assoc for Public Transportation, 2012), the AZ Awards for the best Landscape Architecture (2016), and has been finalist of the International Landscape Biennale (2014), the European Landscape Biennale (2008), Iber-american Architecture Biennale (2004) and the Spanish Architecture Biennale (2005 and 2009), as well as nominated for the Mies van der Rohe European Prize (2009).

The built work has been exhibited, among others, in the Deutches architekturmuseum (Frankfurt), Architekturzentrum Vienna (AzW), Cité de l’architecture (Paris), Venice Biennale 2012, Architecture Biennale of Rótterdam (NAI) 2004 and 2014, X y VIII Architecture Biennales of Spain, IV Bienal de Arquitectura Latinoamericana and several Architects Associations and Schools of Architecture around Spain and the United States.