Cosentino Group, the main sponsor for the “Made in Spain” international lecture series

• Cosentino supports this initiative which is promoted by the Spanish Foundation for Contemporary Architecture. In 2016, with the aim of making Spanish architecture more known abroad, it organised the visit of a number of renowned Spanish architects – together with an outstanding example of each of their work – to some of the main cities in the US.

• The first of these lectures was held this past Monday and Tuesday at the RICE School of Architecture in Houston. The Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos studio; architect and professor at RICE, Carlos Jiménez; and the executive director of the Pritzker Price, Martha Thorne, all took part.

• The international “MadeinSpain” lecture series, held since 2009, was recognised last year with the “Award for International Spanish Architecture” by the Forum of Spanish Architecture of the Superior Council of Colleges of Architects of Spain (Forum CSCAE ).

Cantoria (Almería), 24 February 2016.- Cosentino Group, the Spanish world leader in the production and distribution of innovative surfaces for architecture and design, is the main sponsor of the fifth edition of the “MadeinSpain” lecture series organised by the Spanish Foundation for Contemporary Architecture. This year, these lectures will be given in the United States and the first of them was offered this past Monday and Tuesday in Houston.

In line with its commitment to the world of architecture and the well-deserved international projection of Spanish professionals, Cosentino supports this initiative that will, in 2016, introduce a number of important Spanish architects to some of the main cities in the US. This is the fifth edition of “MadeinSpain”, the name that the Spanish Foundation for Contemporary Architecture has coined to make the architecture of Spain known abroad: It does this via the organisation of lectures in which Spanish professionals, whose work is outstanding, participate.

This is the case of the first event of this year that took place this past Monday and Tuesday in Houston. The RICE School of Architecture hosted the lecture by the Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos studio. Fuensanta Nieto and Enrique Sobejano explained their perception of current architectural ideas and showed some of their most outstanding work such as the Madinat al Zahra Museum in Cordoba (recipient of the 2010 Aga Khan Award) and the Andalusian Space for Contemporary Creation (a finalist of the 2015 Mies van der Rohe Prize).

The first series of lectures, which ended on Tuesday with a round table on Spanish architecture, was attended by Carlos Jiménez – an architect and professor at the RICE School –, and Martha Thorne – executive director of the Pritzker Prize – who represented the Spanish Foundation for Contemporary Architecture.

This year's series of lectures will be topped off by the talk to be given by the winners of the latest edition of the Mies van der Rohe Prize, the Barozzi / Veiga Architecture studio, on 17 March at the Spitzer School of Architecture at City College in New York. They will also be accompanied by Julio Salcedo-Fernández, Director of the Department of Architecture at City College, and the architect Juan Gavilanes. Miami will host the last lecture towards the end of the year, in November, the highlight of which will be the presence of Juan Domingo Santos, the architect from Granada, who will be accompanied by Josemaría de Churtichaga, architect and professor at the School of Architecture in Miami, and Pura García Márquez who will represent the Foundation.

For Santiago Alfonso, Director of Marketing and Communications for Cosentino, “it is a privilege to participate in this prestigious and successful initiative that joins two worlds that are intimately linked to our company. One, of course, is the case of architecture, in which we are ever more present thanks to the various singular projects and collaborations we work on with architects from all over the world. And the other is the case of the United States, currently our main market and where we are absolute leaders in the sector of surfaces for decoration and design.”

The international “MadeinSpain” lecture series, held since 2009, was recognised last year with the Award for International Spanish Architecture and hailed as an example of an initiative created for the purpose of internationalising and disseminating Spanish architecture abroad. These awards are given by the Forum of Spanish Architecture of the Superior Council of Colleges of Architects of Spain (Forum CSCAE) whose honorary president is the Minister of Development. To date, there have been four editions of “MadeinSpain” and these have taken the most renowned Spanish professionals and architecture studios to Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa.

The Foundation highlights that, “by organising these series of lectures, which have had the support of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport in previous years and now have that of Cosentino Group, our aim is to strengthen international relations with academic and cultural institutions that are dedicated to the promotion of architecture. Architectural output in Spain today is of great quality thanks to architects from different generations and from different parts of the country, however, it is not as recognised as it should be abroad.”