ARCHITECTURAL
TALENT














We listen to


Jury
Nikos Ktenàs, Manuel Aires Mateus and Selgascano comprise the international jury that will select the projects for the exhibition “Their First Buildings.” The common Mediterranean lineage of these judges and their consistent academic profile, assure their proximity with the works of students. Furthermore, the distinct profiles of these offices achieve a pluralism and summarize some of the most significant current developments: the austere orthogonal architecture with untreated concrete, the refined version of white minimalism articulated in extreme geometries and the innovative architecture rich in semi transparent and colorful materials.
Nikos Ktenàs, Piraeus, 1960. From 1978 to 1983 after studying Mathematics, Physics, Music Theory and introductory courses in Architecture at various schools in the United States, amongst them Columbia University, and The Cooper Union, he obtains his professional degree in Architecture from Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.
From 1984 to 1992 he taught at EPFL_École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland in the chair Luigi Snozzi. He establishes his architectural practice in Lugano, Switzerland, in 1987 and in Athens, Greece, in 1993. From 1992 to today, he has been invited at various Greek and European architecture faculties and from 2005 he is a guest professor of Architecture at the Accademia di Architettura in Mendrisio, Switzerland, while from 2009 he is a guest professor in the Graduate Program of Architectural Design, in the Department of Architecture of the University of Thessaly in the city of Volos.
He has conducted various architecture workshops in Europe, such as, ‘Lid’A2’_Università degli Studi Mediterranea, Reggio Calabria, The Polytechnic of Crete, Department of Architecture, ‘SE de Projet intensif ÉNSA-V’_École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Versailles, ‘SIA’_DA/Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa, etc. Has given public lectures in various European faculties amongst them, Palermo, Reggio Calabria, Vico Morcote, Paris, Versailles, Athens, Patras, Chania – Crete, Thessaloniki, Lisboα, Sevilla, Ischia – Napoli, etc. He is author of over 80 works and his work has been exhibited in the ‘NAI’ (Netherlands Institute of Architecture), Rotterdam, in the ‘Archivio Cesare Cattaneo’, Cernobio – Como, in the “Pavillon de l’Arsenal” Paris, while he has been an invited participant in the ‘7th Biennale of Architecture’ in Venice. Has received numerous prizes and recognitions on a national and international level, last being the ‘Special Distinction’ for three built works from the ‘EIA’_Hellenic Institute of Architecture in the ‘2008 Architectural Awards’.
In 2006 the review Architecture in Greece dedicated a monograph issue on his work and the same year a theoretical discourse on the architectural thoughts and pedagogical principles of Nikos Ktenàs, ‘Semplice / Complesso’, was published in Italian by +XM - iiriti editore.
www.nikosktenas.com
Manuel Aires Mateus born in Lisbon, Portugal in 1963. Graduates as an architect in F.A./U.T.L., Lisbon Portugal in 1986. Collaboration with architect Gonçalo Byrne since 1983. Collaboration with architect Francisco Aires Mateus since 1988. Teacher in Graduate School of Design,Harvard University, USA, in 2002 and 2005. Invited teacher in Fakulteta za Arhitekturo,Universa v Ljubljani, Ljubljana, Slovenia in 2003/2004. Teacher in Accademia di Architectura,Mendrízio, Switzerland, since 2001. Professor in Universidade Autónoma,Lisbon, since 1998. Professor in Universidade Lusíada,Lisbon, since 1997. Invited for several seminars and conferences in: Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Croatia, England, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and USA.
www.airesmateus.com
Selgascano
José Selgas (1965) graduated from the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura of Madrid, and in 1993 founded Selgas-Cano with Lucia Cano. In 1994- 1995, he worked with Francesco Venezia in Naples. In 1997-1998, he was awarded a grant to study at the Spanish Academy of Fine Arts in Rome.
Lucia Cano (1965) graduated from the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura of Madrid. Between 1992 and 1996, she worked with Julio Cano Lasso, and from 1997 to 2003, she was a partner in the studio Cano Lasso.
Selgascano works in Madrid. It is a small atelier and its intention is to remain so. They have never taught at any university and they tend not to give lectures in order to avoid focusing intensely on projects. They centre their work on the construction process investigation, treating it as a continuous listening to the largest possible number of elements involved on it from manufacture to installation. They have exhibited at the MοMA in NY, the Guggenheim in NY, the Venice Biennale, the GA Gallery in Tokyo, The MOT (Contemporany art museum of Tokyo) and the Design Museum of London.
www.selgascano.net