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Guillermo Vázquez Consuegra


Biography

One of Spain’s best-known contemporary architects, Guillermo Vázquez Consuegra (1945) graduated from the School of Architecture, University of Seville in 1972. His considerable number of building and urban renovation projects in Spain have brought him international acclaim and recognition.

As he stated during the award ceremony for the Andalusia Prize for Architecture 2007: “I wanted to bring to my land the values seen elsewhere and I wanted to incorporate the South’s values into my projects”.
A statement that highlights how Consuegra’s designs are necessarily influenced by other cultures and their architecture, where tradition must continually renew itself so as not to fall into sterile isolation, nurtured by introducing other experiences. While the designer’s role is to "decipher and reformulate the messages of tradition in the contemporary era without being tempted to literally reproduce or mimic them, interpreting means being creative".

In addition to his design work, Consuegra has had a long career in education. He lectures in Seville, is a visiting professor at several other universities (Buenos Aires, Lausanne, Navarra, Syracuse New York and Venice), and is a visiting scholar at the Getty Center in Los Angeles and Course Director in Architecture at the Università Complutense, Madrid (1993-2004).
Since 1980 he has participated in numerous international exhibitions, including the Venice Biennale in 1980 and 2004, Milan Triennale 1988, Pompidou Center, Paris 1990, Art Institute of Chicago 1992, Museum of Modern Art, New York 2006, RIBA London 2007, DOMUSae Madrid 2010 and BIAU Rosario, Argentina 2014.

His main projects include public housing in Seville, Cadiz and Rota between 1987 and 2004, the Navigation Pavilion at Expo ‘92, again in Seville, a series of urban planning projects along the waterfront in Vigo (1997-2004), multi-award-winning restoration of the Palace of San Telmo now the presidential headquarters of the Andalusian government (2010) and Conference Center, Seville (2012). More recent projects include the CaixaForum Cultural Center, again in Seville (2017) and Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Luxembourg (2017).
Since 2000, he has designed numerous museum projects including the Museum of Illustration in Valencia (2001) and National Museum of Underwater Archeology in Cartagena (2008) part of a substantial development of the entire port area.
Both projects feature his signature use of reinforced concrete (exposed in Valencia and with red pigment in Cartagena), and shrewd use of lighting effects.

Materials are crucial to Consuegra's designs, as the architect himself said: “Architecture is inextricably linked to construction, I cannot think about a project unless I think about how it will be built and its materials.”
His renovation of the Museum of the Sea and Sailing in Genoa is also significant. The largest sailing museum in the Mediterranean region was officially opened in 2004 when Genoa was the European Capital of Culture.
From the point of view of social impetus linked to developments in his profession, Consuegra notes the increasingly central role of building an interwoven relationship, starting with the home, the structure of a European city and continuing with public spaces (…) in order to turn voids into places where people and their status as citizens are recognized. Not optical effects, rather a place where memories are consolidated.

His numerous awards include the Construmat Prize (1993), Spanish National Architecture Award (2005), ASCER (2006), Ugo Rivolta (2008) European Architecture Award, Ibero-American Bienal Prize (2014), International Architecture Awards from the Chicago Athenaeum Museum (2015) and The Plan Award 2015.

His professional career was recognized by the Arpafil Award (International Book Fair, Guadalajara, Mexico) in 2006, Andalusian Architecture Award 2007 and Grand Prix, International Bienal, Buenos Aires 2011.
He has been an honorary member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) since 2014 and won the Spanish Gold Medal for Architecture in 2016.

Consuegra’s work has been the subject of numerous publications since the early 1980s. These include the volume bearing his name edited by Electa in 2009, with a critique by Víctor Pérez Escolano, and the book-interview Saper credere in architettura (Clean, 2007).
 
Guillermo Vázquez Consuegra selected projects and works
 
- World Car Center (progetto), Vigo (Spagna), 2019
- Biblioteca de Las Artes en Montecarmelo, Madrid (Spagna), 2018
- Centro di letteratura e di linguaggio - Planeta Lem, Cracovia (Polonia), 2018
- Nuovo edificio Bundestag Aleman en Unter den Linden, Berlino (Germaia), 2018
- Caixaforum, Siviglia (Spagna), 2017
- Ministero degli Affari Esteri, Lussemburgo, 2017
- Torrent MArket e Centro Civico, Torrent, Valencia (Spagna), 2015
- Atelier G.V. Consuegra, Siviglia (Spagna), 2014
- Palazzo dei Congressi, Siviglia (Spagna), 2012
- Recupero del Palacio de San Telmo, Siviglia (Spagna), 2010
- ARQUA - Museo Nazionale di Archeologia Marittima, Cartagena, 2008
- Casa Robinson, Zahara de los Atunes, Cadice (Spagna), 2007
- Palazzo di giustizia, Ciudad Real (Spagna), 2007
- Archivio de Castilla La Mancha, Toledo (Spagna), 2005
- Ristrutturazione Galata, Museo del mare, Genova (Italia), 2004
- Ristrutturazione Municipio, Tomares (Spagna), 2004
- Riordino del lungomare, Vigo (Spagna), 2004
- MuVIM - Museo dell’Illustrazione, Valencia (Spagna), 2001
- Padiglione della navigazione all’Expo’92, Siviglia (Spagna),
- Edifici di case popolari a Siviglia, Cadice e Rota (Spagna), 1987-2004
- Ristrutturazione Istituto Andaluso del Patrimonio Storico, Siviglia (Spagna), 1995

Official web site

http://www.vazquezconsuegra.com

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