Emilio Ambasz's architecture at Reina Sofía

The Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Madrid, Spain) presents Emilio Ambasz. Inventions: architecture and design, an exhibition that offers, through models, objects, original drawings, photographs and audiovisual material, an approach to the main works by this architect and graphic and industrial designer. This is the first retrospective on him in Spain, after two anthologies that MoMA New York dedicated him in 1989 and 2006.

Acknowledged in James Wines' Green Architecture book as a "forerunner of Green
Architecture", Emilio Ambasz (Argentina, 1943) has been looking to defy preconceived ideas about construction with his own vision of architecture, proposing green designs for hospitals, greenhouses, skyscrapers, apartment buildings, office buildings or department stores.

Emilio Ambasz's designs have a technique that the author himself calls "green on gray", through which he aims to reconcile the real-estate agent’s intense wish of taking full advantage with the public necessity of green and open spaces. In these projects, architecture and landscape get the best use of the soil, and at the same time they offer a wide zone of interior and exterior public gardens. This wish of "giving back" to the community in the form of parks and gardens, the equivalent of the soil that covers the track of the building, is one of the constants in this architect’s career. Designs for the Fukuoka Prefectural International Hall in Japan are a clear example of his urban and innovative style.

Emilio Ambasz studied architecture at Princeton University. Between 1970 and 1976 he worked as a design curator at Museum of Modern Art - MoMA New York, where he directed and installed several exhibitions on architecture and industrial design. His works have been exhibited in prominent institutions such as MoMA New York, San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, Musée des Arts Decoratifs de Montréal, Tokyo Station Gallery or Centro Cultural de Arte Contemporáneo in Mexico.

Date: until January 16.
Location: Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía. Santa Isabel 52. 28012. Madrid. Spain.
Opening hours: from Monday to Saturday from 10am to 9pm. Sundays from 10am to 2.30pm.