Jose Selgas is coming to town (and why you should not miss it)

For Selgas and Cano there is a sense of play about their work through a highly balanced juxtaposition between existing and new, natural and man-made, history and renewal. Perhaps most captivating is the physical message of their work expressed through their own office in Madrid. Simple gestures of submersion and balance create an exciting dialogue between the lush canopies of trees that encompass the office volume yet the building form maintains a use of the site in a way that benefits the performance aspects of the architecture. The work of Selgas and Cano reflects a playful nature to the work of modern Spanish Architecture, from the repetitive geometric explorations of Mansilla y Tunon to the cryptic forms of Eduardo Arroyo’s No.Mad, giving both plan and section a physical language that dials down the contextual relationships to their formal essence. Further witnessed perhaps through Ricardo Bofill’s proposal for the Connected City Competition, the recent work from Spain celebrates the essence of form as a means to connect and enrich the human experience through a deliberately informed process of extracting the meaning of place and the forces that influence it. Selgas and Cano bring a uniquely eloquent approach to this statement, one that should not be missed on January 30th. If anything, their work may give new purpose to going to the DCFA to play for a winter’s afternoon. No matter how unique the process, their body of work and approach further emphasizes our need for exploring the depths of our city and to continue playing with the possibilities. Check out their work at selgasycano.net. Hosted by the Dallas Architecture Forum, the Jose Selgas Lecture will take place at the Magnolia Theatre in West Village. For more information on the Forum and upcoming events, visit online at: www.dallasarchitectureforum.org.