The role of the architect
The president of the foundation, David Chipperfield, and its director, Manuel Rodríguez, shared with those attending the conference at the School of Architecture of A Coruña a reflection on the role of the architect today. Based on his own work, David addressed the need to develop professional activity from a different logic. Manuel offered a joint vision of the work and projects of Fundación RIA.
How should we react professionally as architects, designers and planners to the real challenges of the climate crisis and growing financial and social inequality? Starting from this premise and from an autobiographical perspective, the president of the Fundación RIA highlighted the great changes that the profession has undergone since he founded David Chipperfield Architects in London in 1985 and how the environmental, social and economic crises have required architecture to expand its fields of action, becoming a transversal agent, capable of orchestrating different interests and needs, a new role that is explored through the activities of the Fundación RIA.
David Chipperfield insisted on the need to be open to learning from a younger generation, agile and free to question. Also to seize the opportunity to act as public attention shifts to issues such as the provision of social housing, the importance of public space, the impact of traffic and the need to protect the intangible qualities of place. To do this we must not abandon the territory, but reclaim it. Architecture and design have their own perspectives and formal and poetic contributions that remain valid. Architects must always consider how to improve the physical and spiritual environment, and remember the importance of architecture and design as a physical embodiment of our desire for ideas and beauty, and its potential to quietly inspire.
The president's conference was followed by a presentation by Manuel Rodríguez, explaining the activities of the foundation, and how it responds to the concerns identified by Chipperfield, together with the work that the entity is carrying out within the framework of the project "Towards a territorial agenda for Galicia".
