Cruz y Ortiz, Sevilla
The fascinating city of Seville has been the basis of the architectural work of Antonio Cruz and Antonio Ortiz for more than 30 years, and their work, which has been praised far beyond the borders of Spain, will now be on show in Germany for the first time. For the presentation of their 18 most important buildings and projects, mostly from the last ten years, the architects have designed an exhibition system that is adapted to the space of the Aedes East Forum. Wooden models of the buildings and projects are presented on six narrow "tables" in which drawings and photographs are embedded. The precision of their craftsmanship corresponds to that of Cruz y Ortiz's real architecture. Ever since their much acclaimed early work - a residential block with a kidney-shaped courtyard in the old town of Seville (1974-76) stands for this in the exhibition - Antonio Cruz and Antonio Ortiz have been regarded as masters of a timeless, but site-specific modernism. They have repeatedly proven that the architectural standard can be kept high in the area of tension between urban context and quality of detail, even on an XXL scale: With the railway stations in Seville (1987-91) and Basel (under construction), the stadiums in Madrid (1989-94), Seville (1997-2000) and Jerez de la Frontera (2000-2002) as well as the Spanish pavilion at Expo 2000 in Hanover, Cruz y Ortiz have meanwhile realised a whole series of first-class large-scale buildings that are particularly convincing because of their formal stringency. The Sevillian architects also demonstrate sensitivity on a smaller scale - for example, in their numerous residential buildings in Spain and the Netherlands - and especially in the transformation and addition of historical building fabric. Cruz y Ortiz are currently working on the conversion of the famous Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, among other projects, which will receive special attention in the exhibition and catalogue.
Speakers at the opening:
Kristin Feireiss, Berlin
José Rodríguez-Spiteri, Ambassador of Spain
Gerardo Mingo Pinacho, Ministerio de Fomento, Madrid
Concepcíon Gutiérrez del Castillo, Consejerís de Obras Públicas y Transportes, Junta de Andalucía, Sevilla
Oliver G. Hamm, Editor-in-Chief Deutsches Architektenblatt, Berlin
