BIA

Where and how did BIA start up?

The history of Bilbao’s history shows how the city has been at the vanguard right from its earliest days. “Bilbao” is now known for being synonymous with first-rate architecture and urban renewal. At the same time, the professionals working in the field of architecture in Bilbao and Bizkaia are acquiring new skill-sets and increasingly greater knowledge is being created.

2013 marked the 20th anniversary of a key event, entitled “Architectures for Bilbao”, organised by Bilbao Ría 2000 at the Fine Arts Museum in 1993. Authors of the ilk of Norman Foster, Frank O. Gehry, César Pelli, Roberto Ercilla and Miguel Ángel Campo outlined and explained their projects. It seemed right and proper that nearly a quarter of a century later, an event was being held that reaps the rewards of the seeds planted back in 1993.

In autumn 2013, the Delegation in Bizkaia of the Basque-Navarre Institute of Architects embarked on establishing a platform to showcase its architecture. Months earlier, a working party under the Delegation’s Culture Committee laid down the guidelines for what this project must signify.

The proposal was to associate the transformation and the entrepreneurial spirit of Bilbao and Bizkaia, as well as their international dimension, with the strategic construction sector, and to showcase the extremely high quality of the business fabric of Bizkaia’s professional services in the sector (architecture firms, technology centres, engineering firms, building material companies, etc…)