Inauguration: From clay to AI ‘Recycling Intelligences’ and visionary architectures by Miquel Navarro

Recycling Intelligences (RI) is an installation that explores how machine learning enhances architectural intelligence in the design of social housing. Through the use of a GAN (Generative Adversarial Network) model trained on high-quality Spanish housing proposals, RI draws on a vast — often overlooked — archive of architectural knowledge. This repository offers a profound insight into housing typologies, models of cohabitation, and design trends, while reimagining the home for diverse populations in a context of climate challenges. The installation features a 12 m² table with 370 dynamically backlit 3D-printed models — both original and AI-generated — accompanied by explanations of the artificial intelligence processes involved. RI encourages a critical engagement with synthetic data, combining human and machine creativity to rethink design as a space for innovation and reflection at a time of crisis in access to housing.

In dialogue with RI, the Suñol Soler Collection presents a group of works by Miquel Navarro (Mislata, 1945) in which the artist evokes a highly distinctive vision of architecture: the industrial past of his native town merges with agricultural tradition, using clay as an alchemical and ancestral element of a civilisation in permanent construction. The cities imagined by Miquel Navarro question the very idea of the city through its most essential elements. We sense a multitude of volumes, perhaps dwellings, arranged around ‘Torre Avenida’ (1975–1976) in the manner of a certain kind of urban planning. A chimney dominates ‘Fàbrica amb laberint’ (1978), offering a nostalgic and moving reflection on the past, present, and future of industrial cities. And finally, ‘Bou embolat’ (1979), a mythological being par excellence, invites us to enter an avenue transformed by ritual and festivity.

The exhibition is part of the celebrations for Barcelona World Architecture Capital, which aims to bring architecture, urban planning, and landscaping closer to everyone, highlighting their ability to transform the way we live and coexist. At the same time, it aims to raise awareness of historical and contemporary architectural heritage and promote Catalan architecture around the world through a diverse, inclusive, and accessible program of events, in collaboration with the vibrant network that nurtures architectural culture in our city. Up to 170 organizations and institutions from the city’s architectural, cultural, and educational sectors have contributed to the program.