Manel Castellnou

Manel Castellnou, architect by the ETSAB (Technical School of Architecture of Barcelona) in 1983, lives between Barcelona and Lleida. As the result of the work of a multidisciplinary team, Castellnou s projects suggest a new way of living public space, understood as a meeting and entertainment area.Manel Castellnou wants to set in motion the dream of creating a warm city. He shares this idea with Alfredo Rodríguez "only the ones in love with the city should take part in it" -; Adam Caruso, who sees cities as the expression of a certain living culture; Allan B. Jacobs, who has graded cities according to their quality of life (in his book Great Streets), or Jordi Borja, who defines cities as a concentration of meeting points, of exchange and diversity.Castellnou s urban elements are solid and a clean appearance of pure shapes. A clear example of this is his Vía Augusta bench (1999), that was thought to resist great mechanical and environmental pressure, and is at the same time a place of contemplation, peace and quietness. When he creates buildings, on the other side, he plans them globally, parting from the architectural project and going down to every small detail of its interior design.Along with his work as an architect, Manuel Castellnou also teaches in Barcelona at the Project Workshop for architecture students at the Col.lectiu Bruc of Barcelona and for the last five years at the University of Architecture of La Salle (U.R.LL); tutors projects in international Workshops, collaborates with other architectural teams and participates in national and international awards.