Water Parliaments: Projective ecosocial architectures by Eva Franch i Gilabert, Mireia Luzárraga and Alejandro Muiño won the process, convened by the Institut Ramon Llull, to select Catalan culture’s participation in the Eventi Collaterali programme of the 19th International Architecture Exhibition. Through architecture, the project addresses the study of codependent relationships between humans and non-humans and the water systems on which they are based and proposes hopeful future scenarios.
Water Parliaments is divided into three distinct stages, which constitute three interdependent spaces for research, investigation and communication. The first is Atlas: Water architectures, a constantly growing database that seeks situations which, from a hydrological point of view, are of interest in the Catalan and international arena. The second is Futures Laboratory, where the material (installations, models, drawings, diagrams) and immaterial (videos, sound activations, websites) contents of the case studies selected from the Atlas will be produced and subsequently presented at the Biennial. The third is Exhibition, which will present experientially the material of the Atlas and the result of the Future Laboratories.
The committee of experts who chose the proposal comprises professionals with extensive and internationally recognised experience. The Presidency was led by Pau Bajet and Tomeu Ramis, members of the curatorial team of Becoming, Architectures for a Planet in Transition the proposal of the World Architecture Congress of the International Union of Architects (UIA) 2026 and has a single vote. The members were Maria Buhigas, chief architect of Barcelona City Council; Judit Carrera, director of the Centre for Contemporary Culture of Barcelona (CCCB); Guim Costa, dean of the College of Architects of Catalonia (COAC); Marina Otero Verzier, architect, curator and researcher, curator of the Dutch pavilion at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale and co-curator of the 13th Shanghai Biennale 2021, and Eva Serrats, architect and co-curator of the exhibition of Catalan culture at the Biennale Architettura 2023 (Following the Fish).
The committee stated that "the proposal Water Parliaments: Projective ecosocial architectures has been chosen because it addresses the water crisis from the perspective of the management and the present and future architectures of water resources in the Catalan and Balearic territory. The jury values the ambition of the research, which includes the creation of a laboratory of the future which, as its starting point, will draw up an atlas to group multiple case studies and convene local agents, experts from other disciplines and architects. The goal will be to generate new ways of visualising and producing ecology through design, while maintaining a speculative attitude and a rigorous approach."
The Biennale Architettura 2025 is directed by the architect, engineer, activist and professor of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Carlo Ratti (Turin, 1971), who has chosen the theme Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective. According to Ratti: “The title Intelligens is linked to the modern term “intelligence,” but it also evokes a wider set of associated meanings. In fact, the final syllable, “gens” is Latin for “people”. A new, fictional root emerges, suggesting a future of intelligence that is inclusive, multiple, and imaginative beyond today’s limiting focus on AI."
Besides being in line with the motto chosen by Carlo Ratti, the proposal by Eva Franch, Mireia Luzárraga and Alejandro Muiño is also linked, as required by the conditions of the selection process, to the theme of the World Architecture Congress of the International Union of Architects (UIA) to be held in Barcelona in 2026, coinciding with the year in which the city will be the World Capital of Architecture. The theme of the Congress is Becoming, Architectures for a Planet in Transition.
As in previous editions, the Institut Ramon Llull will submit this proposal to the Curation of the Biennale Architettura 2025 for the announcement in the upcoming months whether Water Parliaments will be at the Eventi Collaterali.
The Institut Ramon Llull produces and organises the participation of Catalonia and the Balearic Islands in the Collateral Events of La Biennale di Venezia, and has been present at the Biennale Architettura since 2012, and at the Biennale Art since 2009.
Eva Franch i Gilabert (Delta de l 'Ebre, 1978)
An architect, curator, researcher, and educator based in Barcelona, Prague, and New York. Franch is a professor at UMPRUM, the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague, and has served as Director of the AA Architectural Association in London, Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York, and has taught at Cooper Union, Princeton University, GSAPP Columbia University, Rice University, SUNY Buffalo, and IUAV Venice. Her work as a thinker, community activator, and director of institutions and projects from pioneering perspectives has made her one of the most influential voices in the international architecture community.
Franch has curated over 30 exhibitions worldwide, from Taipei to Buenos Aires and Berlin. Most recently, she curated and designed the exhibition "Picasso: Untitled" at La Casa Encendida in Madrid and co-founded and served as artistic director of Model. Festival of Architectures of Barcelona, founded by the Barcelona City Council and the Architects' Association of Catalonia (COAC). In 2014, Franch directed and co-curated the United States Pavilion at the Venice Biennale with the project OfficeUS, which included three publications: Manual, Atlas, and Agenda (Lars Müller), and the film "The Architects" (Amie Siegel), recently acquired by MoMA, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, as part of its permanent collection.
Mireia Luzárraga and Alejandro Muiño (Madrid, 1981 and Barcelona, 1982)
They are behind the architecture and research studio TAKK, with headquarters in Barcelona and New York. Mireia Luzárraga is director of Studio I at Columbia University GSAPP in New York and together with Alejandro Muiño are visiting professors at the University of Tokyo.Their work explores how architecture can promote the development of fairer lives by integrating feminism and ecology into spatial practices.
Their work has received the "Design Vanguard 2024" award, the "Best Archilover Project 2023" award, the special mention of the jury at the "FAD Awards 2023", the "COAM 2022" award, and the "Temps de les Arts 2022" award. Besides, the work of Luzárraga and Muiño is present in some of the most prestigious collections of architecture museums in the world highlighting the FRAC Center Val-del-Loire, the Vitra Design Museum, the Mak Center for Art & Architecture in Los Angeles, the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rabat and the Design Hub in Barcelona.
