Andrés Jaque


Andrés Jaque is an architect. His work explores the role architecture plays in the making of societies. In 2003 he founded the Office for Political Innovation, a trandisciplinary agency working in the making of urban networks. In 2014 he won the Silver Lion to the Best Research Project at the 14th Venice Biennale. In 2016 he was awarded with the 10th Frederick Kiesler Prize, the most respected prize recognizing creators working in the intersection of art and architecture.

Life and career

He is the author of award-winning architectural projects, including the Casa Sacerdotal Diocesana de Plasencia; 2004. Teddy House, Mousse City, ; Peace Foam City ; Skin Gardens ; the Museo Postal de Bogotá, Rolling House for the Rolling Society ; the House in Never Never Land ; the ESCARAVOX,, Hänsel and Gretel's Arenas, Shading Devices and Gathering Space for Masdar in Abu Dhabi; Weizmann Square in Holon and Cosmo PS1 in New York.
He has also developed a number of architectural experiments meant to interrogate architecture's political agency. The 12 Actions to Make Peter Eisenman Transparent, 2010, a project to make visible, and easy to understand for general public, the political implications of the construction of the singular building site Cidade da Cultura in Santiago de Compostela. A series of actions described by Bruno Latour as a «beautiful mixture of art, politics and building-site».
His 2012 intervention in the Barcelona Pavilion, ‘PHANTOM. Mies as Rendered Society’ made visible all the processes involved in the daily fabrication of the pavilion as an ordinary reality. Buckets, flags, chairs, old faded curtains, the salt that keeps the ponds pristine or the result of failed experiments carried out at the pavilion, were kept at the so far unnoticed basement.
His work 'IKEA Disobedients' was the first architectural performance to be included in the MoMA's collection.
Andrés Jaque has been Tessenow Stipendiat and he is currently the Director of the at Columbia University GSAPP and previously he has been Visiting Professor at Princeton University School of Architecture and the Cooper Union.

Publications

Andrés Jaque and the Office for Political Innovation have made major contributions to conceptualize the implications of French ecology and post-foundational politics for contemporary architectural and urban practices. They are the authors of:
Jaque has made regular contributions to both specialized and general media. With significant papers for leading architectural magazines such as El Croquis, Domus and Beyond; and regular works for broader audiences in media like Babelia, the cultural supplement of El País, or La SER radio station where Jaque holds a regular participation on architectural and urban concerns. Since 2013 he publishes the periodic column "Cuarto de estar en la galaxia" in El País Semanal and collaborates with El País' cultural supplement, Babelia.

Office for Political Innovation

In 2003 together with a number of sociologist, economist and journalist he created the Office for Political Innovation, an urban lab focused on the development of a democratically centered architecture, considering objects as material actors of equalitarian societies.