Emotional Heritage
A lecture from Ricardo Flores and Eva Prats
Co-founders, Flores & Prats Architects
Thursday, November 30, 6pm
Betts Auditorium, School of Architecture
Flores & Prats Architects is a Barcelona-based architectural studio co-founded in 1998 by Eva Prats and Ricardo Flores. With projects throughout Europe, their design practice focuses on adaptive reuse, social housing and urban public spaces with neighborhood participation. Emphasis on responsible design and construction are at the core of their academic and practice-based research, along with the development of mobile or portable projects. Additionally, they have experimented with the use of film to document architecture and alternative media, such as menus of edible architecture. In 2007, the firm was part of the Wallpaper* Directory for Emerging Offices, and won the Grand Prize for the Best Architectural Work from the Royal Academy of Arts in London in 2009 for the rehabilitation project Mills Museum in Palma de Mallorca. Their work has been exhibited in Venice’s Biennale Architettura in 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, and, once again with their current installation, “Emotional Heritage,” in 2023. They were nominated for the Mies van der Rohe Prize in 2005, 2015, 2016, and 2017. Their work has also been featured in such publications as Architectural Record, The Guardian, The Architectural Review, ICON, Architect, The New York Times, ELLE, Frame, and Domus. In 2014, the Mexican magazine Arquine published their first monograph, Thought by Hand: The Architecture of Flores & Prats, followed by the 2017 debut issue of Archives, which was also dedicated to the studio's work. Their newest book, Flores & Prats: Drawing without Erasing and Other Essays, was recently published by Puente Editores and Walther König in 2023.
Eva Prats received a degree in architecture from the Barcelona School of Architecture (ETSAB) in 1992, and later completed her doctorate in Architecture at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT). Eva’s prolific academic career includes directing workshops and teaching at universities, such as the Royal Academy of Architecture in Copenhagen, Mackintosh School of Architecture in Glasgow, Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, Sydney University, Facoltà di Architettura La Sapienza in Rome, and the Barcelona School of Architecture, among others. She has also been guest professor at ETH Zurich, and, as of this year, is Professor at Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio. She was nominated for The Architectural Review and Architect’s Journal Women in Architecture award in 2019.
Ricardo Flores received a degree in architecture from the Faculty of Architecture in Buenos Aires in 1992, and later completed his masters in Urban Design and his doctorate in Architecture from the Barcelona School of Architecture (ETSAB). Ricardo’s accomplished academic career includes directing workshops and teaching at universities, such as the AHO Oslo School of Architecture, Newcastle University in England, University of New South Wales in Sydney, Istituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia, and Facultad de Arquitectura de Buenos Aires, among others. He was also a guest professor with Eva Prats at ETH Zurich.
