AHI Architectural Heritage Intervention

“Contributing to enhancing our heritage, as the way forward for 21 st Century architecture is our raison d’être; to emphasize a diverse, rich vision that necessarily complements the intervention is our mission, and achieving it with reflexive and purposeful efforts is the challenge”.

This project, founded in, and directed since, 2011 by Ramon Calonge, Oriol Cusidó, Marc Manzano and Jordi Portal, architects and members of the Group of Architects for the Defence and Intervention in Architectural Heritage (AADIPA), has, through the years become a platform that includes four actions that are both independent and transversal.
 
The European Award, a biennial event that brings together and showcases the multiple approaches of intervention in Europe.

The International Biennial, a framework that serves to compare and gain closer insight of quality interventions in architectural heritage in non-European countries.

The digital Archive, a live and open window that provides a panoramic view of interventions in the history of our surroundings.

The Forum, a meeting place where you can participate in on-going debates about the main preoccupations and lines of thought about interventions in architectural heritage in Europe.

The AHI’s Duel on Architectural Heritage Intervention. Maison Frison - Casa Vicens

The AHI’s Duel on Architectural Heritage Intervention. Maison Frison - Casa Vicens

18 April 2023

Debate on Belgian Art Nouveau and Catalan Modernisme featuring the directors of Horta's Maison Frison in Brussels and Gaudí's Casa Vicens in Barcelona, the session will conclude with the presentation of the fifth edition of the European Award AHI catalogue.

Next Thursday, April 27 at 6:30 p.m., in the Sala Mirador of the COAC and within the programme of the Model Festival d'Arquitectures, the second "AHI Duel" on Architectural Heritage Intervention will take place. On this occasion, the heritage, art, and culture consultant Nupur Tron, promoter of the Foundation Frison Horta in Brussels, and the director of Gaudí's Casa Vicens in Barcelona, Emili Masferrer i Fons, will take part. Both will share their experiences and concerns in managing two iconic masterpieces of Belgian Art Nouveau and Catalan Modernisme.

The Maison Frison, built in Brussels at the end of the 19th century for the lawyer Maurice Frison, is the only house by the architect Víctor Horta that remains practically intact today, and is open to the public as a house-museum after its restoration in the year 2018. Casa Vicens, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, was built between 1883 and 1885 for the stockbroker Manel Vicens and was one of the first commissions Antoni Gaudí received. It was restored in 2017 to be opened to the public as a museum and consisted of restoring the building to how Gaudí originally conceived it.

5th edition of the AHI European Award catalogue presentation
The "AHI Duel" will end with the presentation of the catalogue of the fifth edition of the European Award AHI by the directors Ramon Calonge, Oriol Cusidó, Marc Manzano and Jordi Portal. The book includes the 291 projects submitted for the Award in 2021, in its different categories: built heritage, interventions in exterior spaces, urban planning, and disclosure. A total of 231 architecture studios and institutions from 25 different countries participated, confirming the moment of consolidation of the award, which has positioned itself as an international benchmark event in its field.

The catalogue has been published with a completely renewed design in accordance with AHI's new visual identity. Launched in 2021 on the occasion of its tenth anniversary, it reflects AHI's purpose: to understand architectural heritage and enhance it from a broad, pluralistic, contemporary perspective.

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