After a warm Welcome, to the new students and Eric Owen Moss, on behalf of the academic coordinator Silvia Brandi, the night was kicked off with some kind and interesting words on behalf of Mr Antoni Vives, the Deputy Mayor for the Urban Habitat of the Barcelona City Council.

Manuel Gausa, IaaC Dean, was then invited to share some words of welcoming, then recounting the very interesting story, and history, of IaaC, its founding, , its achievements, and its future goals.

Areti Markopoulou, Masters Program Director, then extended her official welcoming, as well as some inspiring words, going deeper into IaaC, its community, and also the stimulating context that Barcelona offers IaaC.

The Inauguration Lecture with Eric Owen Moss (Eric Owen Moss Architects, SCI-arc Director) then officially commenced.

Make it New

The Chinese Emperor Cheng, perhaps 4,000 years ago, made a comment that continues to be useful to us today. According to the story, each morning the Emperor arose and went to his washbasin, and repeated the inscription he had written there: Make it New. Each day his job was to Make it New.

That admonition is of special interest to those who argue that making it new in architecture is not an enduring premise. After all, how long can one continue to re-new the new? But that’s not the point. The inscription suggests that the world isn’t a redundancy, and that it’s essential to continue to consider the possibility that we haven’t reached the end, or the conclusion, or the solution. Never, ever.

It’s our job, in perpetuity, to re-think the possibility that the world ought to be other than it is, and to suggest how we might make it so. Every morning.

After a question and answer session, a final “thank you” to all was given by Silvia Brandi, then inviting us all to a toast, thanks to Moritz Barcelona, to celebrate the begining of the new academic year.

Too much is not enough

16th of October

19.00, @IAAC Auditorium

Open to the Public

Eric Owen Moss was born and raised in Los Angeles, California.  He received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California at Los Angeles. He holds Masters degrees in Architecture from both the University of California at Berkeley, College of Environmental Design and Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design.

Eric Owen Moss Architects was founded in 1973. The office, located in Los Angeles, is currently staffed with 25 professionals designing and constructing projects in the United States and around the world. The firm has garnered over 100 local, national, and international design awards.

Moss was honored with the Academy Award in Architecture from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1999. He received the AIA/LA Gold Medal in 2001. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architecture and was a recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of California, Berkeley in 2003. In 2004 he received the Dedalo Minosse International Prize in Milan.  In 2007, he received the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize, recognizing a distinguished history of architectural design.  In 2011 he again was awarded the Dedalo Minosse International Prize for Samitaur Tower in Los Angeles.  Also in 2011 he was awarded the Jencks Award by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).  In 2012 Moss received the International Design Award for Samitaur Tower, and the AIA|LA 25 Year Award for the Petal House.

There are 16 published monographs on the Eric Owen Moss office, including three by Rizzoli and one, Gnostic Architecture by Monacelli Press. Most recent are Eric Owen Moss – The Uncertainty of Doing, published by Skira in 2006; Eric Owen Moss – Provisional Paradigms, published by Marsilio in 2007; and Eric Owen Moss – Construction Manual (1988-2008), published by AADCU Press in 2009, and Eric Owen Moss, l Maestri dell’Architettura, Hachette, Italy, 2012.   Who Says What Architecture Is?, volumes 1 and 2 were published in 2012 by AADCU Press.

Eric Owen Moss first taught at SCI-Arc in 1974, and was appointed director in 2002. He has held chairs at Yale and Harvard universities, and appointments at the Technische Hochschule in Vienna and the Royal Academy in Copenhagen, and the UAE.  He received the Most Admired Educator Award from the Design Futures Council in 2013, and The AIA|LA Educator of the Year in 2006.  Moss continues to teach at SCI-Arc, and to lecture around the world.