Santiago Cirugeda

Santiago Cirugeda is a highly esteemed architect in Spain. As the state has withdrawn due to the banking crisis of 2008, he has stepped in to turn abandoned sites in Seville and other Spanish cities into dramatic art spaces that are inspiring a new breed of architects. His work is partly playful, exploratory, balancing on the brink of illegality, but above all, it is very functional. In 2003 Cirugeda – a ‘guerilla architect’ as The Guardian newspaper called him – set up a platform called Recetas Urbanas, focusing on social architecture. The platform works on ‘urban and social renovation’, with subversive projects in urban areas. Recetas Urbanas wants to help people claim the city and circumvent regulations, thus creating architecture for everyone, in unoccupied buildings, on unused land and in unexpected places. And often with spectacular results.

Santiago teaches the workshop ‘The right to be illegal (or extralegal)’ at U staat hier on 10 November 2016

http://www.recetasurbanas.net/v3/index.php/en/
http://www.spatialagency.net/database/santiago.cirugeda