Study abroad program takes students throughout Spain

Zoom image: A group photo taken of past trip participants. Program director and UB professor of architecture Miguel Guitart can be seen in the middle row, center.

A group photo of the students who participated on the trip in the past in Madrid.

A group photo taken of past trip participants. Program director and UB professor of architecture Miguel Guitart can be seen in the middle row, center.

Published June 26, 2018 This content is archived.

UB architecture professor Miguel Guitart recently kicked off an exciting study abroad program in Madrid with a lecture series that will put students face to face with top practitioners, scholars and design thinkers from across Spain.

Students will also participate in a studio, seminars and an extensive travel program throughout Spain. Stops include: Salamanca; Toledo; Barcelona; Merida; Lisbon; Granda; Cordoba; Sevilla; Cadiz; El Escorial; Bilbao; San Sebastian; and Leon.

The Madrid study abroad program at UB was initiated in 2016 by Miguel Guitart, a clinical associate professor of architecture at UB (see examples of his work and past projects).

According to Guitart, Spain has traditionally played a key role not only in national and international architecture production but also in the development of architecture teaching and research.

Guitart has designed the program to engage architecture students with the context and production of Spanish architecture and its practitioners. The time spent in the city of Madrid and the rest of the country provide the students with a unique cultural, professional, intellectual and, not to be forgotten, gastronomic experience.

In addition to a design studio, students participate in two three-credit seminars in which they explore Spanish master architects and visit landmarks, sites and architectural offices throughout Madrid and beyond. Students stay at the Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca campus de Madrid, located in the heart of Madrid.

A lecture series kicks off the program and puts students face to face with top practitioners, scholars and design thinkers from across Spain. Topics include "The Potential of the Structure in the Creative Process of the Architectural Project," by Juan Rey Rey, and "The Permeable Nature of a Creative Universe: Lina Bo Bardi and Brazil," by Mara Sanchez Llorens, among others.

Students also spent a day at the Norman Foster Foundation in Madrid. Founded by internationally regarded architect Norman Foster of Foster + Partners, the foundation promotes interdisciplinary thinking and research to help new generations of architects, designers and urbanists anticipate the future. The Norman Foster Foundation holds the Norman Foster Archive and Library, which provide a window into the larger narrative and history of our built environment through the work of Norman Foster.