Spanish architects on the move

On July 1, Spanish architect Alejandro Zaera took over as dean of the University of Princeton. Two decades ago, after he and his partner Farshid Moussavi won the bid to build the terminal in Japan's largest port of Yokohama, he garnered international fame. With an office in London and one in Barcelona, the 48-year-old is now even more respected, which is why few were surprised when he took over the top job at the Ivy League university.

More and more Spanish architects are moving abroad, in part because they are unable to find work in a country where new projects have fallen by 40 percent during the last five years, and in part because this country has established an international reputation for the quality of its architects, who are considered well-trained, talented and, just as importantly, cost effective.

Iñaki Alday and his wife and business partner, Margarita Jover, designed the Water Park for the 2008 Zaragoza Expo. But a year ago, Alday decided to accept an offer to run the architecture department of Virginia University.

"US universities have had to import talent," he says. "This country selects those that it believes can strengthen its elites." He is not alone. Other Spanish architects currently running departments and lecturing at leading US universities include Xavier Costa at Northeastern University, Antón García-Abril at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Zaera and Iñaki Ábalos at Harvard.

"This is a protestant society, which means that American universities are based on merit, as opposed to our system which is largely about friendships. They can be merciless, but they are much more efficient than we are. It would have been impossible to rise this quickly in a Spanish university, where you have to move up slowly, and via the appropriate contacts," Alday remarks.

We didn't go to Baghdad to leave our brand behind us, but to improve people's lives"

So what led Alday to leave his comfortable life in Spain and up sticks with his family to live in Virginia? "This is a project. It takes around five years to put up most buildings. So now we have decided to spend five years on an academic project," he says. "Our idea is to open ourselves to the world; we don't see this in terms of leaving anywhere," adds Margarita Jover.

Victoria Garriga, who, with her husband Toño Foraster, has designed dozens of buildings throughout Spain, along with the Balenciaga Museum just outside San Sebastián, is also prepared to move to where the work is. "To where the work that I want to do is," she clarifies. Which in this case is Baghdad. She first visited Iraq six years ago.

"I immediately understood the transformative potential of architecture. I thought that I should try," she says from her studio in Barcelona, recently returned from the Middle East. She says that after working there for six years on several projects, among them the reconstruction of the Shiite district of Khadimiyah in Baghdad, she has also changed.

"I see living in Iraq as an incredible opportunity, and had no problems with religion. In fact the religious authorities there were very considerate, even the most traditionalist ones were very helpful and blessed me for my work in trying to transform their holy places," she says.

The end of Spain's property bubble has also brought about the downfall of the figure of the so-called starchitect.

Spanish architects have been very brave and able to see where things are heading"

"In our profession, there are people that don't need architecture to live. That changes the rules of the game," says Foraster. "To be able to work with few resources and a lot of energy requires a certain humility. We didn't go to Baghdad to leave our brand behind us, but to improve the life of people there. And that has given us a greater sense of awareness of what we are doing," Garriga explains.

Julio de la Fuente and his wife and partner Natalia Gutiérrez say that around 60 percent of the bids they put in are outside Spain. They are currently involved in a project in Austria, and another in Germany.

In the Bavarian city of Selb, where they have already carried out two projects and are working on two more, Gutiérrez and De la Fuente have been joined by another Madrid-based studio, TallerDE2. Having finished a first building, they are now working on what they call "urban acupuncture."

The aim is to provide services that didn't exist in the city before: a youth hostel and a children's center. "We have had to look for projects abroad, but we are lucky that we have been trained so well, and we are generally well respected for this. We work, and we work hard. This is the secret of our success," says Julio.

Enrique Krahe, a 40-year-old architect based in Madrid, says that he started out with the idea of living in Madrid and working around the world; but he says that he now works in Madrid and lives in the world. How come? He says that it is more efficient to create a European profile. Responsible for the prize-winning theater in Zafra, Krahe belongs to an internationally trained generation. After studying in Paris and Venice, he says that he is now "perfectly comfortable taking on new projects in places I have never been to." He spends three weeks a month teaching in Delft, and one week in Spain. "I am very keen to try my work out in a place like the Netherlands, where the market is consolidated, but at the same time, more conservative than one might think; at the same time, it's a place where people reward initiative and creativity," he says.

"Spanish architects have been very brave, optimistic, and able to see where things are heading," says Alday, adding that his daughter has adapted to life in Virginia, but also misses her grandparents. He is full of praise for the meritocratic US system, but when he lists the benefits of living there it sounds more like the reasons for living in Spain: "The food is great; we drink wine, not beer, and we watch soccer." Above all, what he most appreciates about living in the United States is the importance of the common good.