AMID09 - Free Educational Institution. Francisco Giner de los Ríos Foundation

Free Educational Institution. Francisco Giner de los Ríos Foundation

Madrid, Spain, 2004 2014  [Competition First Prize]

The Institución Libre de Enseñanza (Free Educational Institution) was an initiative of a reformist-minded group of university professors in 1876 who included intellectuals such as Francisco Giner de los Ríos, Gumersindo de Azcárate and Nicolás Salmerón. It was an experimental school where new, constantly evolving educational methods were tested under the supervision of a group of people committed to the profound regeneration of society through education. The institution attracted the support of leading figures of the time such as Joaquín Costa, Leopoldo Alas, Antonio and Manuel Machado and Juan Ramon Jiménez. A network of groups pushing for a profound scientific and cultural renewal of Spanish society emerged around the new Institution. The project for the Francisco Giner de los Ríos Foundation building must therefore work with a dense, delicate network of invisible interconnections including the intellectual and material legacy of the Free Educational Institution, links to other institutions and the intense emotional bonds between a group of people and this important part of Spain's intellectual history. The working material is as sensitive and hard to manage, define and evaluate as its spirit&mdash a shared way of feeling and thinking. © 2016 EL CROQUIS S.L. Edición digital: ISSN 2174-0356