Documentary film Archiprix International Madrid 2015 – I am ARCHIPRIXer
(Arne Verbrugh, Christiaan van Schermbeek and others. NL, 2015, 40 min.) 
language: English

WORKSHOPS Over a hundred of the worlds most talented young architects, urban designers and landscape architects travelled to Madrid to join the Archiprix International workshops. The profession of these designers is changing. Private clients are getting more important while project developers play a less important role. There are more conversions of existing structures to design and less completely new developments. More bottom-up, less top-down. The question is what the consequences are for the designer and how both poles can be connected: politicians and investors at one end, the users at the other. Therefore Archiprix examined under the title ‘towards a middle-out urbanism’ how the designer can position himself in the heart of the process. In dynamic teams with experts from other disciplines, together with users, clients, policy makers making plans in a multidirectional approach to the city. During a week in May the Archiprix participants made proposals for new relevant tasks in Madrid. They discussed and designed proposals. They became acquainted with colleagues from around the world and went back home as Archiprixer. They can use the network of Archiprixers and the acquired knowledge in the future in their professional careers. The film gives an insight into the new reality of the designer and provides a basis for the discussion on how education and the discipline can respond to that.

WORLD’S BEST GRADUTION PROJECTS The best graduation work from all over the world presented by Archiprix is a treasure trove of ideas and investigations into all possible relevant aspects of the profession. The documentary film introduces a few of these projects. Like the project War and Peace designed by Alon Sarig en Nir Shveka from Israel in which they show to where the militarizing of the society can lead. Or the prize winning project Red Meat, a New Centre  of  Re-education and  Political  Propaganda designed by José María  Martín Padrón and Ana Caracuel from Madrid, and the prize winning project Recording and Projecting  Architecture, a library for the blind in the city of Rome designed by Filippo  Doria from Delft, exploring the themes of representation and imagination.