Spanish Architecture - 21st Century

21st Century

In 2006, the exhibition "On-Site: New architecture in Spain" was held in the MoMA. It defined Spain as a country that has lately become known as an international center for design innovation and excellence, as it is shown in the fact that seven Pritzker awarded architects were selected for the exhibition. As Terence Riley, then in charge of the Architectural Department of the MoMA said: "There is not an "Spanish" architectural style. But there is an increasingly level of quality and beauty within the new projects, probably more than other part of the world". The curator also stated that in Spain there is a lot of construction as there is even more in China. "However, while in China you cannot find hardly any interesting proposal, there are a lot in Spain. Their variety and open-minded lines are surprising.". In 2006, Terminal 4 of Barajas Airport by Richard Rogers and Antonio Lamela won the British Stirling Prize. The Barcelona Torre Agbar or Agbar Tower, by French architect Jean Nouvel combines different architectural concepts, resulting in a striking structure built with reinforced concrete, covered with a facade of glass, with its window openings cut out of the structural concrete.There are also other minor projects in cities such as acting in Niemeyer Avilés estuary or the "City of Culture" of Eisenman in Santiago de Compostela, both without a complete but opened in 2010. From 2008, Spain experienced the late-2000s recession in a particularly severe way and especially in construction, which suffered a sharp drop. Many of the public and private architectural developments were cancelled of indefinitely delayed.

In 2011 the Oscar Niemeyer International Cultural Centre was inaugurated in Avilés, Asturias. This is the only work of the Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer in Spain. It has five elements: an open square, a dome, a tower, an auditorium and a multi-purpose building.