Francisco Mangado : Arquitectura con la Mano Izquierda

The second Spaniard of this year's autumn cycle of the Circle was Francisco Mangado, the author of many large projects on the Iberian Peninsula and a fresh educator at Harvard University. It is astonishing that his name has only recently come into wider awareness in the Czech Republic. The scale of his works indeed surpasses many of his Spanish colleagues who have long been enjoying success on the international architectural scene. However, Mangado excels not only in adeptly handling large tasks but also in his ability to pass on his ideas to younger generations of students. Since the early 1980s, he has been teaching and lecturing at Spanish universities alongside his own office. Last year, he also began teaching at the prestigious Harvard University.
Prague played an interesting role in Mangado's life, as he concluded a five-year phase of study trips organized by his Navarre faculty here in 1994. After more than ten years, he returned to Prague not only to compare but also to present his current projects. The oldest presented realization was from 2000, but he much preferred to show buildings that are just about to be completed. He considers the process of realization sometimes more important than the final result. He also places weight on unrealized projects that remain on paper and their potential to influence future architecture.
On that evening, mostly young students and fresh graduates gathered at the Meet Factory in Smíchov. Therefore, Mangado attempted at the beginning and end of his lecture to clarify to the audience the basic questions of what architecture means and what questions it should ask. As images of his buildings were projected on the screen, Mangado tried to paint a less than flattering picture of contemporary architecture, which he believes has become just a product, a soulless game of volumes, and architects have turned into lackeys. Architects sometimes take on tasks that designers could portray better. Students try to create their own language at schools, which they could then sell on the market. On the other hand, they must be able to offer the market what it expects of them. An architect should not isolate himself, but rather perceive and listen to the voices from other fields and try to incorporate them. He should ask himself questions and give society more than is expected of him. The current generation of architects is offered possibilities that no previous generation had any idea about. Modern tools for creation, however, should be used so that architecture does not become banal. An architect should work with knowledge and not speculation. Unfortunately, many examples show that they are just a caligraphic speculation.
Through eight projects from the past eight years, the audience demonstrated how he manages to project his critical reflections into architectural practice. He reached the project of the congress center Baluarte in his hometown of Pamplona, like most commissions, through a competition participated by over 200 architectural offices. In the neighborhood of the old citadel and connected to the historical parts of the city center, the construction program forced him to place a 450-meter-long new structure. According to Rafael Moneo, Mangado succeeded in "creating a building as a city" connecting the Renaissance walls and creating visual contact between inner spaces and new squares. His design can never be seen as a whole but only as glimpses and parts peeking through the historical structure of the city. The scientific facility Gamesa Eólica in Sarriguren applied the concept of eco-friendly design. The building, where 500 scientists gather and process information about wind conditions around the world 24 hours a day, is, due to the ways of handling ventilation and thermal energy, one of the most eco-friendly buildings in Spain. In contrast, in Palencia, he demonstrated an innovative approach to the typology of sports buildings. The local mayor needed to build offices for officials for 10 million Euros, and Mangado managed to incorporate them into the new football stadium La Balastera. The sports complex is not located on the outskirts of the city but is part of a residential area. It is not a superfluous building that would only be visited twice a month by fans of the round nonsense, but a building that is used every day. From now on, most cities that call for competitions for sports stadiums already automatically require offices and other than purely football uses to be incorporated into the program. The terraces surrounding the stadium are wrapped in perforated sheets, allowing visitors a view of the surroundings while hinting at what is happening inside. The most striking feature of the entire project is the four angular towers with lighting. During the grand opening, journalists were most interested in the shape of the towers, and other sophisticated solutions inside the stadium escaped them. Mangado therefore joked with them in response that it is a tribute to Romanesque towers in the city center, which, of course, is nonsense, but the next day this news appeared in almost all newspapers. Therefore, I would like his Prague lecture to be taken with a grain of salt, as there was a certain discrepancy between what he instilled in us as an educator at the beginning and what he then presented as an architect.
In just one month, in January of next year, the Spanish royal couple will open the auditorium Teulada-Moraira in Alicante. Like many other large projects, Mangado also got this commission through an architectural competition. This is his first realization by the Mediterranean Sea. The city of Teulada-Moraira is divided into two parts. The tourist half is by the sea, and five kilometers closer to the interior and 400 vertical meters lies the second half with the town hall. In the prevailing rivalry, Mangado attempted to come up with an element that would have a unifying character. At the highest point, he created a house connecting the sea and the mountains. The resulting design utilizes the topography of the site to various height levels. The orchestrated geometry is conceived to bring as much daylight into the interior as possible while allowing as little direct sunlight as possible. The auditorium aims to become a new icon of the city; its expression lies on the border of an observation tower and a lighthouse.
Approximately one hundred kilometers northwest of Madrid, in the immediate vicinity of the Sierra de Gredos mountains, lies the town of Ávila, which has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1985. Ávila is characterized by its density and compactness of buildings within the historical walls, which for a long time did not allow the city to grow. Over time, development arose outside the walls, which rather emphasized the emptiness of the surroundings beyond the center. The winning competition project congress palace in Ávila stands right behind the historical walls. By burying the building deep into the ground, the new design respects the height of the surrounding walls. The congress center building presents itself as a single block carved from granite, accessed via a wide esplanade. While the ribbed structure of the exhibition hall, on the other hand, is a jet of an organic shape. In the rational scheme complemented by a poetic form, a parallel can be found in Aalto's work. The same granite as that of the nearby 600-year-old walls was used for the facade of the congress palace.
Mangado only dispatched one image and a few sentences for his tallest building project Puerto Madero in Brazil's Buenos Aires. He decided to dedicate the rest of his lecture to the pavilion of Spain at this year's Expo in Zaragoza. The competition's task was to incorporate the main theme of the exhibition, which was water, while also presenting the rich tradition of his homeland through architectural means. Mangado found inspiration when he was returning from a lecture in Toulouse, France, passing through a regularly planted forest. The dense network of trunks manages to retain the much-needed moisture and fresh air, even in an environment like Zaragoza, where summer temperatures can reach up to 45 ºC. During the four-month duration of Expo, four million people passed through the pavilion. Each visitor could find his own path to the inserted glass boxes in the "forest" of columns. Traditional, inexpensive, and sometimes leftover materials were used for the construction. Thanks to a sophisticated system of moistening the terracotta columns that reflect in the water surface, it was possible to cool the pavilion by 7 ºC. The ten-meter-high entrance doors to the pavilion itself have an impressive appearance. The light in the interior can be controlled by a special system of blinds. For buildings of this significance, theatrical night lighting is almost desirable.
In conclusion, the explanation again echoed why Mangado titled his lecture “Architecture done with the left hand” - architectural study and the profession itself are great, but they are not easy. It should be expected from an architect critical thinking and the search for deeper essence. Not to strive to be unique and new at any cost. Architecture done with the left hand is more difficult, but the results reflect that.
The first question from the audience was whether organizing world exhibitions is still significant today. Mangado sees the benefit of these exhibitions in the opportunities for meeting and sharing knowledge. While information reaches people today in a faster and newer way, the significance of gatherings has remained. According to him, the possibilities of architecture demonstrating something at exhibitions have already been exhausted. He took a critical stance towards iconic buildings, as architects and politicians reach for icons when society as a whole loses its depth. In contrast, he values buildings that are aware of their time, their temporal inclusion, and can resist aging. That is why he often asks his students whether they can imagine what will happen to their designs in, say, 300 years.
Another interesting question related to the role of ecology in his designs. Mangado does not see ecological principles in his designs as some appendages. He does not see salvation in intelligent buildings controlled by the most modern computers. When designing, an architect should primarily contemplate such primitive things as orientation to the cardinal points and find advantages in economical materials. Eight years ago, the topic of ethics in architecture was discussed at the Venice Biennale, yet not much has changed in this field to this day. From the bar at the back of the lecture hall, unbearable noise began to spread, causing the interpreter to lose thread, and Mangado concluded his lecture with the sentence: “The beer is waiting for us.”