TRADES
Arquitectura en Corto invites you to the screening of the documentary El Quijote de Alella, which will take place on Tuesday, May 19, at 7:00 PM at the Espacio Arquia in Madrid (c/ Tutor, 16). The film, directed by Matthias Müller Klug, Carlos de Elía, Imanol Landa Pérez, and Daniel Cortés, is a portrait of Ramón Guarda Parera, an 82-year-old master mason who became a "YouTuber" to share his knowledge of the "volta catalana" (Catalan vault) construction technique. In the post-screening debate, we will reflect on the importance of keeping traditional trades and materials alive—not only as cultural heritage but also as a strategy for shifting the building model in the context of the climate crisis. Speakers will include: Matthias Müller Klug, architect and one of the film's directors, who notes that "in times when manual labor is undervalued and prefabrication prevails, Ramón takes on, like a Quixote, a completely selfless fight for the preservation of one of the treasures of Catalan architecture." Anna and Eugeni Bach, architects and authors of the Labor project—to be exhibited at the Spanish Pavilion at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale—argue that we need "a new cultivation of trades that allows us to move from the current over-dependence on techniques resting on a mineral and petrochemical material palette to a series of production methods that work with what is available in the territory. In doing so, they seek to associate architecture with collective knowledge, economies, and ecologies; to invent work cultures or regenerate lost trades." Finally, Julio Jesús Palomino Anguí, architect and co-founder of the Grupo Taller de Bóvedas, a collective of architects, engineers, and builders who, since 2011, have balanced their professional practice with the research and dissemination of the tiled vault technique.
