Carmen Mendoza, director of the Master’s in International Cooperation in Sustainable Emergency Architecture (MICSEA) at UIC Barcelona, took part in the event Architecture is Cooperation, held in Madrid on 26 April. She emphasised that “cooperation must transfer resources to local actors in order to improve the sustainability and effectiveness of projects.”
Carmen Mendoza was part of the organising team for this initiative and moderated a panel focused on the role of architects in large humanitarian institutions, highlighting the current challenges related to shelter and human settlements.
“In 2024, there were 93 million displaced people around the world in need of shelter, but only 17 million received direct assistance from the Global Shelter Cluster,” she stated as she opened the roundtable. She offered a thoughtful reflection on the impact architects can have in emergency and development contexts. In her speech, she outlined the current humanitarian crisis landscape, made worse by climate change, forced displacement and cuts to international funding.
The panel moderated by Carmen Mendoza brought together Elena Velasco (International Red Cross), Inés Primo de Rivera (Doctors Without Borders), and Rafael Ruipérez (Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation – AECID). Each speaker presented their institution’s response to today’s challenges in humanitarian architecture, ranging from immediate action in disaster scenarios to local capacity-building, participatory urban planning and the use of sustainable materials.
Architecture is Cooperation, held at the Casa de la Arquitectura in Madrid, is a collective exhibition showcasing projects and reflections on architecture as a tool for social transformation and international cooperation. The Master’s in International Cooperation in Sustainable Emergency Architecture (MICSEA) at UIC Barcelona, directed by Carmen Mendoza, also had a dedicated exhibition panel at the event.
