JON JUARISTI

When Cervantes Institute and the General Sub-Direction of Architecture, Spanish Ministry of Public Works began conversations to study the way of joining forces for the diffusion of Spanish architecture in other countries, they were still very far from thinking this dialogue would end in an agreement that would compile projects, becoming the richest experience of  2002 Cultural Program.

The Exhibition “Building from the Inside–Women Who Build” results from the idea of Ana Estirado and Cristina García–Rosales of gathering works from different Spanish female architects since 1995. The exhibition has already travelled through major areas of Spanish geography, and today, across the Mediterranean sea, it will be shown in Beirut, enriched with Lebanese women architects contribution.

Therefore, we may say “Building from the Inside” is the collective fruit of Spanish and Lebanese women architects discussions about their exhibits. It is the result of a living process which promotes discussion and exchanges ideas among professionals, whose different origins do not obstruct the share of similar worries: the importance of the harmonious relationship between the human being and his environment, the poetry of built spaces, the social implications of architecture, etc…Starting from the first house, that of childhood, and finishing by the final one, the end, epitomized by the project of a railway station. This vital journey through different rooms has been the conductor thread of the exhibition which, using a metaphoric language,  establishes a solidarity platform from which collective projects and new ways of cultural collaborations will arise.

As a project which incites to meditation on the professional women role of living spaces design, its presentation in Beirut, city that is building its future and is committed  to the creation of a today as well as a tomorrow architecture, acquires all sense.

I do not want to conclude this introduction, without mentioning my sincere gratitude to the Order of Engineers and Architects of Lebanon, because of their complicity and their particular contribution to the exhibition, betting on the actual incorporation of women as professionals in the field of built spaces.

Jon Juaristi.

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