OPEN Bilbao 2025 poster, courtesy of Asociación Open Urbanity.
The Open House festival in Bilbao, OPEN Bilbao, returns for its ninth edition with an extensive programme of visits and activities that invite the public to discover the city’s architectural heritage while highlighting new ways of understanding and practising architecture. Taking place from September 29 to October 5, the festival not only explores some of Bilbao’s most emblematic buildings but also highlights alternative approaches to the profession, offering a broader perspective on what architecture can mean today.
Held within the framework of Smart City Expo World Congress, Barcelona, Tomorrow.Building World Congress aims to catalyze a positive change in the way we plan, construct, renovate and operate buildings and urban infrastructures.
Waste or resources? Arquitectura en Corto invites you to the screening of Gypsum Concrete, taking place on Wednesday, September 24, at 7:00 PM at Espacio Arquia in Madrid (C/ Tutor, 16). Directed by Simon Pénochet, the short film documents the research conducted by the French architecture firm Ciguë to transform demolition waste from a construction site on the outskirts of Paris into material for a new building being constructed on the same plot. The project proposes manufacturing concrete for floor slabs using recycled aggregates and gypsum as a binder—a material recyclable through urban mining processes that is available in large quantities throughout the Paris region. The film explains how testing validates the material for this application and concludes that using gypsum instead of cement reduces CO2 emissions by up to four times. In Spain, several projects have already been completed where materials found in situ were repurposed as resources for new construction. Following the screening, Héctor Fernández Elorza (hfe arquitectos) and Josep Ricart (HARQUITECTES) will discuss the topic and present examples of their small- and large-scale interventions—ranging from single-family homes to urban public spaces—where material reuse has been a core project strategy.
