Miradas cruzadas sobre las Escuelas de Arquitectura de Alicante y Nantes. Lola Alonso y Anne Lacaton, creadora y productora de hábitats para la enseñanza y el aprendizaje

Abstract

This paper unfolds some gazes over two architectural works sharing their educational purpose and female authorship: the Alicante Architecture School (South-East of Spain, 1999) and ENSA Nantes (North-West of France, 2009), being Lola Alonso the architect of the former and Lacaton & Vassal the responsible for the latter. The aim is to unveil their major contributions to, respectively, the creation and production of habitats devoted to architectural training. Through the analysis of their connections and divergences, it is also intended to delve into the conceptual frameworks from which each architect has approached the place of her intervention. In order to explore the architectural ideas underlying both buildings-and therefore their authors' stances towards their environments-a comparative method is used. To do so, a reasoning from the general to the specific facilitates the discussion of parameters indicating, for example, the extent to which composition prevails in Alicante whereas design strategies are paramount in Nantes. Similarly, in both study cases, such a deductive reasoning allows the assessment of space usages, cultural references and responses to a particular time context. This comparative survey would reveal an ethical understanding of the discipline as a social fact, as well as of space as an opportunity for future transformations and appropriations.

Inclusive Higher Education and the Built Environment. A Research and Teaching Agenda for Gender Mainstreaming in Architecture Studies

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Women and the Making of the University of Alicante Campus: Critical Reappraisals of Modern Architecture (1982–1999)

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