A large, dense and welcoming space, crowded with fragments of incessant work that transforms into a narrative, substantiating a unique approach to architectural design that positively exalts
a personal approach to rehabilitation. Amidst dozens of studio models and hand drawings, in-progress design iteration open for collaboration, marvelous repositories of documentation, films, and animations, photographs of buildings under construction, visitors find themselves immersed in the intensity of Flores & Prats’s projects, presented with descriptive accounts of their creation and an invitation to participate. In a laboratory-like atmosphere, amidst endless stimuli and spotlights, the architects Ricardo Flores and Eva Prats guide visitors into their world.
Architects Ricardo Flores and Eva Prats, founders of Flores & Prats are participating in the 18th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di
Venezia, entitled “The Laboratory of the Future” and curated by Lesley Lokko. The exhibition will run from May 20th to November 26th, 2023.
The aim of the installation is to occupy the Corderie space as if it was their own studio in Barcelona, moving the atmosphere of their creative
space through this open material which presents the themes and interests that are on the actual tables of the studio, ready to open a conversation with visitors of the exhibition.
Leone d’Oro for the Unfinished exhibition) and the Biennale Architettura 2018 in the main exhibition FREESPACE curated by Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara and in the Holy See Pavilion (along with 9 other international architects, they were each invited to build a chapel on San Giorgio Island — their chapel is still open to the public), this year Ricardo Flores and Eva Prats were invited by Lesley Lokko
to be part of the “Dangerous Liaisons” section of the main exhibition at the Corderie of the Arsenale in Venice. The section is composed of practitioners from around the world who work across disciplinary boundaries, geographies, and new forms of partnership and collaboration.
This is the fourth time that Flores & Prats participates in the Venetian event. After the
Biennale Architettura 2014 as part of the Collateral Event “Grafting Architecture. Catalonia at Venice,” the Biennale Architettura 2016 in the Spanish Pavilion (awarded the “Emotional Heritage” is the title of the installation conceived by Flores & Prats to respond to curator Lesley Lokko’s interpretation of the exhibition as a workshop and laboratory. Architects and
practitioners across an expanded field of creative disciplines draw out examples from their contemporary practices to guide visitors on a journey of discoveryand to imagine the future. The immersive installation by Ricardo Flores and Eva Prats offers
a glimpse of their fertile and bustling workspace where their architectural designs take shape. The exhibition encourages visitors to explore and engage with their creative process.
The audience is invited to experience how Flores & Prats observe places and built spaces as repositories of emotions and memories. According to Ricardo Flores and Eva Prats, “People are not the only ones to contain the memory of a place. Buildings are also imbued with memories of the uses and lives that occupy them.
The built environment reflects social behavior, speaking of a way of using the ground, sky, and a way of inhabiting. As an architect, reading the memories held in buildings and people is to think about a future that counts on the past.” This idea is reflected in the studio’s cultural approach and in its projects, especially those focused on the rehabilitation of old structures for new occupations.
The architects also suggest that when a building is closed and abandoned, it still remains alive in the memories of those who lived there. These abandoned buildings carry civic and moral values embedded through use and time, along with the stories of the people who used them over the years. These occupations have created an invisible constellation of social relationships that expand the influence of the building to a universe around it.
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Name of the project Flores & Prats. Emotional Heritage
Dangerous Liaisons
Corderie dell’Arsenale, Venice, Italy
Project schedule Design: August 2022 – March 2023
Construction: April 2023 – May 2023
18th International Architecture Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia
The Laboratory of the Future curated by Lesley Lokko
(20 May – 26 November 2023)
Architects Flores & Prats / Ricardo Flores and Eva Prats
Authorial collaborators Curro Claret, Adrià Goula Photo,
Duccio Malagamba Photography
Studio collaborators Guillem Bosch, Jonny Pugh, Laia Montserrat,
Florette Doisy, Davide Dentini, Elena Wagner
Carpentry Fusteria La Barana (Josep Margalef )
Photographs Adrià Goula
Additional support from Institut Ramon Llull, Acción Cultural Española (AC/E), Cooperativa Jordi Capell, EGM Laboratoris Color
