20 Years in Spain

20 YEARS IN SPAIN 1993-2013 Few of us would have imagined that 20 years after we opened a small office in Madrid we would be looking back on our contributions to some of the most innovative and influential projects that have been realized in Spain over that period. Probably none of us would have foreseen that five years after the onset of a lingering global financial crisis we would have a thriving multi- disciplinary Spanish practice, advising, planning, designing and supervising the delivery of projects all over the world. We are tremendously proud of the achievements of our colleagues in Spain over these 20 years and are confident that they will go on to achieve more great things in the next 20. Gregory Hodkinson Arup Group Board 20 YEARS IN SPAIN 1993 - 2013 At the service of life Arup has been able to successfully combine the small with the large, engineering with architecture and Scandinavian democracy with British empiricism. The firm, started in 1946 by the Danish engineer, Ove Arup, and founded in its present form in 1963 with the British architect, Philip Dowson, celebrates its first twenty years in Spain as mindful of its legacy as it is to its future. Those who have made many iconic works possible in recent decades are also responsible for minimal works in harsh and demanding social and technical environments, because as much talent is required to build a small bridge in a remote region of China as it is to erect a skyscraper in Europe. It is a saga of mythical engineers of the likes of the late-lamented Peter Rice – without whom iconic works such as Sydney Opera House by Jørn Utzon and the Pompidou Centre by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers would certainly be very different – or our contemporary Cecil Balmond – who collaborated with Rem Koolhaas in the design of CCTV’s headquarters in Beijing and Shigeru Ban in the Pompidou Centre Metz – who have erected some of the most outstanding buildings of recent decades, the mere listing of which is dizzying: skyscrapers like the already canonical Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation headquarters by Norman Foster or three of London’s most unique buildings: Lloyds by Rogers, the ‘Gherkin’ by Foster and the Shard by Piano; great civic works by Spanish architects far away from Spain, such as Los Angeles Cathedral by Rafael Moneo and the Scottish Parliament Building by Enric Miralles; cultural realisations of the likes of the Casa da Música by Koolhaas in Porto, the California Academy of Sciences by Piano in San Francisco, Madrid’s Thyssen Museum by Moneo, the transformation of the Alhóndiga Bilbao by Philippe Starck, the recent renovations in Amsterdam of the Rijksmuseum by Cruz y Ortiz and the Stedelijk by Benthem Crouwel; as well as Kansai airport by Piano, the Selfridges Building by Future Systems in Birmingham and stadiums as memorable as the Allianz Arena in Munich and the Olympic Stadium in Beijing, both by Herzog and de Meuron. Alongside these works of unanimous admiration are also a number of more controversial achievements, but no less complex to materialise: the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore by Moshe Safdie, the European Central Bank by Coop Himmelb(l)au in Frankfurt, the Arcelor Mittal Tower, which served as an icon of the London Olympics, and two buildings in Spain, the Metropol Parasol in Seville by Jürgen Mayer and Zaha Hadid’s Bridge Pavilion in Zaragoza. And, in inevitable contrast, three necessary and meticulously-designed schools – the Evelyn Grace Academy in London by Hadid, the exquisite Druk White Lotus School in Ladakh and the exemplary Shalom International School in Uganda – which represent examples of buildings that show Arup’s priorities in the social field of community needs and service to people, and in the area of environmental sustainability and the effective use of resources: a firm that can work equally for the likes of Lou Reed as for CERN in Geneva, bringing to the discourse the colossal and the minimal, combining technique with nature and simultaneously pursuing beauty and invention. Luis Fernández-Galiano Editor of Arquitectura Viva magazine 2 3 20 YEARS AGO... Tudor Salusbury Mark Chown José de la Peña Founder and Director of the Director of the Madrid office from Director and Structural Discipline Madrid office from 1993 to 2009 2009 to the present Leader in the Madrid office 20 years ago, Arup entered the Spanish market, What was that first office like? opening an office in Madrid in 1993. Why Spain? TS: During the course of the work on the Thyssen- Tudor Salusbury (TS): Like many stories in Arup, Bornemisza Museum, I was alone in a small office this office came about as a result of a project. In 1989, with a fax machine and a landline phone in a market Baron Thyssen contacted Cecil Balmond, the director where nobody knew us. It seems incredible now, of the Building Engineering team at Arup in London, doesn’t it? But that’s how the office began. After the to refurbish the Villahermosa Palace in Madrid. Cecil museum opened in late 1992, the project office became gave me the opportunity to lead the project and, in a market research office. In October 1993, Arup was 1992, I moved to Madrid to supervise the work. We formally constituted in Spain, and with the intention opened a small project office in Barquillo Street and, of building a design team, I moved to a 250-metre- although there was no real intention of creating a squared office in Orellana Street. Here is where our permanent office, we began to research the market operations really began in Spain. I remember that one and discover its potential. At that time, Spain had just of the first people who showed confidence in us was entered an economic crisis after the intense activity the architect Salvador Pérez Arroyo, with whom we it had just experienced with the Seville Expo, the started working on the building services design for the Barcelona Olympics and Madrid’s tenure as European Castilla-La Mancha Science Museum in Cuenca. Capital of Culture. It was obvious that the country would take a while to recover, but despite this, we MC: I started working on this project in London, decided to take the risk. Opening this office was not helping Tudor to do the design, and then the possibility initially a strategic decision, but rather the result of a came up for me to come to Spain to join the group. number of circumstances. As I was also interested in exploring new horizons, I accepted the challenge. I remember how I felt when I Mark Chown (MC): It is very common at Arup for entered the office in Orellana Street for the first time expansion to occur as a result of a seemingly short and and saw a space that was well, almost empty, with two one-off project. simple tables that were actually just two white boards sitting on trestles. 4 5 1 Palace Hotel, Madrid José de la Peña (JDP): I remember when I went How did you manage to incorporate Arup’s The Westin Palace Hotel, popularly to the first interview in ‘95, I was there with Mark characteristic holistic design vision? known as the Palace Hotel, is a five-star hotel located in the heart and Tudor and they were telling me about their plans of Madrid. Opening its doors to the for the future. At that time, Arup was a completely MC: It was quite difficult. In Spain, structural public in 1912, it was, for a long unknown firm in Spain and, of course, unknown to me engineers only used to make calculations based on time, the largest hotel in Europe. as well. the structures designed by the architect, and there was In 1995, this prestigious building with 450 guest rooms underwent not much interaction between the parties. In the case a process of complete renovation What was the process of entering such a different of building services, it was different: architects were and Arup carried out the building market like? accustomed to working with installers with the support services engineering. of equipment manufacturers, but they didn’t have an TS: It was very hard at the beginning. On the one independent advisor or consultant to give an overview hand, the market and the country was in the midst of of all of the building services. This is where we came a recession, but on the other hand, people saw us as in by providing a holistic design, a vision of “Total very good engineers, albeit with a foreign mentality Architecture”, which didn’t exist here at that time. and expensive. TS: The roof of the Prado Museum was one of JDP: We have to thank the architects that had the first projects in which we could really apply a more international and innovative vision, like our holistic approach and offer a comprehensive Salvador Pérez Arroyo, Jerónimo Junquera, Josep solution. The sponsor of the project was the company Lluis Mateo, Francisco Longoria, Ricardo Bofill and Cubiertas & Mzov (now Acciona) and the end Enrique Miralles, who understood the importance client was the Prado Museum Board of Trustees Museo Nacional del Prado, of involving Arup in their projects. They were the (chaired by José Antonio Fernández Ordóñez).We Madrid ones that gave us our first projects; many, who were had the opportunity to work for a prestigious public The Museo del Prado is the main familiar with the local market, didn’t see the added institution that trusted us to resolve, through a holistic Spanish national art museum located in Madrid.

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