On 6 April, UIC Barcelona's Aula Magna hosted a new session of the Foros lecture series of UIC Barcelona School of Architecture. Under the title “The Future of Tradition”, the participants of this event were Marc Aureli Santos, architect and director of Architecture and Heritage at the Barcelona City Council, and Izaskun Chinchilla, architect and professor of architectural practice at the Bartlett School of Architecture (University College London). Lecturers Teresa Batlle and Cinta Lluis Teruel moderated the session. 

In his speech, Marc Aurelii Santos emphasised that one of the elements that define architectural intervention in heritage is the management of the complexity of the project. He highlighted the value of the time period in this work. “A good heritage intervention has to make the different time periods in the same space work together so that they create a unified structure,” he said. He then examined other determining factors in this type of work more closely: technical issues, experience, the value of small things and the importance of the symbolic. 

Izaskun Chinchilla focused his talk on the refurbishment of the Castle of Garcimuñoz in Cuenca, a project on which his office has been working for over than a decade. He explained that the refurbishment project was created to be an economically and environmentally sustainable rejuvenation of the castle in order to revive the local economy. “Our work aims to make heritage sustainable in terms of programme, social use and energy consumption. To this end, the project is defined by a strategy that is clearly temporary, of a flexible nature and with self-sufficient energy use,” he said. 

Both speakers agreed that heritage intervention should have a more contemporary approach, incorporating factors related to the environment, civic participation and new technologies. “Tradition is the starting point, but heritage requires working from a contemporary point of view,” said Marc Aureli Santos. “The traditional idea of preservation, which involves keeping things as they were, needs to be reformulated. Heritage must be adapted to the evolution of society and to the needs of each moment,” said Izaskun Chinchilla. 

The theme of Foros 2022 is “The leap into the void.”  This new edition aims to examine self-awareness in architecture today within its different aspects and fields of application. The lecture series has recently inaugurated a new format, based on the dialogue between two industry professionals who participate in sessions structured by topics related to current architectural practice and the challenges facing the sector.