TIMELINESS
CARLES ENRICH
INTRODUCTION BY TINA GREGORIC & ELISABETTA SCHMIDTLEIN
TUE, 18.04.2023, 18:00 – HÖRSAAL 7, TU WIEN

By generation it has been our turn to intervene basically in situations of reformulation of an existing element. Our work starts eminently from a built environment. Since the beginning of our practice we have carried out small actions of rehabilitation and transformation, sometimes invisible, that have allowed us to investigate the potential of pre-existence and become aware of the value of time.
Time as sequence. Time as mesure. Time as context. Time as heritage. Time as energy. Time as opportunity. Time as future. Timeliness as the quality of happening at the right time. Timeliness to bring past into another future. We are interested in this sequential condition of architecture, as opposed to the objective condition. A sequence that links the inhabitants with the ecosystem and that allows a temporal and spatial continuity that grants opportunities. Opportunities for social development but also for environmental improvement.
Architecture as an intervention in a timeline that understands the place as a sediment were we intervene in a precise moment in order to adapt the site to a new condition. This condition might be ephemeral but the transformation could be permanent. In this sense, we built new layers for temporal uses as an immediate response to current needs that also anticipate another life based on its reuse as a future pre-existence.

About the speaker:
Carles Enrich Giménez (Barcelona 1980), architect ETSAB 2005, master in Theory and Practice of the Architectural Projects 2010, founder of Carles Enrich Studio in 2013. Professor of Projects in ETSA Barcelona since 2016, Head of Master in Architecture in La Salle Barcelona since 2022 and Guest Visitor Professor in TEC Monterey (México) since 2021. He is also former professor in ETSA Reus (2008-2017) and ETSA Vallès (2015), Guest Visitor in TUWien (2023), Guest Visitor in UNAV Pamplona (2022) and has collaborated in international workshops as tExtra-Local for the GSAP Columbia University (2019), Re-Use the Ruin for Reuse Italy (2022), BIARCH (2012), has directed the vertical workshop at the ESARQ Barcelona (2018), and has lectured at international congress and universities such as Roger Williams University (Rhode Island), TEC Monterey (México), Artlecta (México), TUWien (Vienna), Naples Univeristy (Naples) and in seminars such as Piran Days of Architecture (Piran) in 2021 or Nights of Architecture (Sarajevo) in 2022.

About the practice:
Carles Enrich Studio is a young Barcelona-based practice that works at different scales in the fields of architecture, urban design and landscape, with an across-the-board focus and a meticulous diagnosis of pre-existing conditions. The Studio approaches every project with absolute dedication to research, technical and material exploration, and commitment to reaching beyond the requirements, an approach to architecture that make its interventions an exercise in rigour and respect for the conditions of the place. The quality and rigour of the practice’s built work are endorsed by consecutive nominations for the European Union Mies Award 2017 and 2019, managing to be among the selected works in 2021, awarded in the Spanish Bienal of Architecture and Urbanism in 2016, 2018 and 2021, winners of the Emerging Awards from the Architectural Review in 2020, the FAD Opinion Prize in 2016 and 2021 and winner of Young Architecture ENOR Award in 2020. They were also recognised in the studio’s participation in the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2012, with the exhibition Context in “Architectural Rowers” in the Catalan Pavilion and, in 2016, as part of the exhibition Unfinished, which earned the Spanish Pavilion the Biennale’s Golden Lion. His work has been extensively published in specialized magazines such as El Croquis, Detail, AV, On Diseño, Quaderns, etc.

www.carlesenrich.com