Flearchitecture

Flearchitecture is an initiative by b720 Fermín Vázquez Arquitectos for the World Capital of Architecture, Barcelona 2026, involving architecture studios, institutions and companies from the building sector.

The name of the installation claims a way of understanding architecture based on recovering the value and memory of used objects, as happens in flea markets. Extending the life of things is a measure of efficiency in the use of material resources that should guide the responsible practice of contemporary architecture.

Flearchitecture is organized as another stall within Barcelona’s Mercat dels Encants, a flea market with more than seven hundred years of activity that, since 2013, has enjoyed a new life in its current building. The stall displays objects related to other architectural experiences of re-signification, refurbishment, remodeling, urban regeneration or the reuse of construction materials.

Flearchitecture’s collection of materials, models and images offers a fragmented and incomplete, yet revealing, view of some recent “second-hand” architectures in Barcelona and its metropolitan area. The contents, combined without a precise or hierarchical order, engage in dialogue with the rest of the stalls to challenge us as users and consumers in the search for new uses and opportunities.

The golden surfaces of the stall and of the market’s own roof multiply the displayed objects in a play of mirrors that suggests other past or possible lives. Flearchitecture is an invitation to reflect on those other lives, the passage of time and the value of architecture.