Bilbao issue launch in Bilbao

Koldo Lus Arana is an architect, illustrator and architecture scholar. He earned a Master in Design Studies from Harvard GSD in 2008, and a PhD from the University of Navarra in 2013 with the dissertation Futuropolis: Comics and the Transmediatic Construction of the City of the Future. His main lines of research deal with the interactions between architecture and media, and with architectural prospective. He currently teaches Theory and History of Architecture in the University of Zaragoza (Spain).

Ibon Areso is an architect and politician who graduated from the School of Architecture in Barcelona in 1970. After becoming the Basque Government’s Deputy Minister for Land Planning in the early 1980s, he was hired in 1987 to run the Municipal Office. In that role, he oversaw the preparation of the new General Urban Development Plan for Bilbao, which set up the guiding principles behind the transformation of the city. In 1991, Areso was elected as the Bilbao City Councillor and appointed as Deputy Mayor of Bilbao and, concurrently, the Head of Urban Planning Division. After the death in office of Mayor Iñaki Azkuna in March of 2014, he served as the Mayor of Bilbao until June of 2015.

García de la Torre Arquitectos is the architecture office founded by brothers Francisco Javier and Bernardo I. García de la Torre in 1977. Based in Zalla, Biscay, their work ranges in scale and typology from residential developments and sport complexes to cultural institutions and building renovations. They also work in the fields of graphic design, interiors, urban planning, research about architectural and cultural heritage, and publishing. They are the authors of several books, including Bilbao: Arquitectura / Architecture (gt., 2009) and Bilbao: Nueva Arquitectura / New Architecture (gt., 2014).

Iker Gil is a founding partner at MAS Studio, editor in chief of the nonprofit MAS Context, and executive director of the SOM Foundation. Iker has edited or coedited several books including Radical Logic: On the Work of Ensamble Studio and Shanghai Transforming. He has curated multiple exhibitions including Nocturnal Landscapes, Poured Architecture: Sergio Prego on Miguel Fisac, and BOLD: Alternative Scenarios for Chicago, part of the inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial. He was Associate Curator of the US Pavilion for the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale and cocurator of Exhibit Columbus 2020–2021. He was the 2024 Morgenstern Visiting Chairs at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) and has taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), and the Escola da Cidade (São Paulo).

Ruth Mayoral López is part of ZAWP (Zorrotzaurre Art Work in Progress). ZAWP was founded in 2008 to address the “in the meantime” period before the urban development plan approved for the neighborhoods of Ribera de Deusto and Zorrotzaurre. ZAWP is now a consolidated movement involving many people that works for the social, economic, and cultural revitalization of the neighborhood through creation, intervention, and valuing of its past.

Meneo is a graphic design studio based in Bilbao founded in 2010. They develop projects related to art, culture and fashion which include publications, digital media and visual identities. Their design ideas are simple and effective, understanding design as a source of learning and joy.

Lucía C. Pérez-Moreno is Associate Professor of History and Theory of Architecture at the University of Zaragoza and researcher at the Institute of Heritage and Humanities (IPH) of this university. She holds a Ph.D. in Architecture from the Polytechnic University of Madrid (2013), a master’s degree from Columbia University (2008, New York), postgraduate Studies from Aalto University (2004, Helsinki), and she studied Architecture at the University of Navarra (2003). She is currently in charge of a research project funded by the Spanish Government entitled “Women in Spanish Postmodern Architecture Culture,1965-2000.” She is also a member of AMIT (Association of Women Researchers and Technologists), AECA (Spanish Association of Art Critics), PMAC (Platform of Women in Contemporary Art), and EAHN (European Architectural History Network).