The second edition of MUGAK, the Basque Country International Architecture Biennial will be held during 2019. The project is organised by the Ministry for Environment, Land Planning and Housing of the Basque Government through its Housing Department, and in collaboration with the Regional Council of Gipuzkoa and the City Council of San Sebastian.
MUGAK intends to remain addressed to all citizens, thus fulfilling one of the Housing Department’s priorities, which is “to promote architecture”, trying to bring it closer to the whole of society.
In recent words of Thomas Vonier, President of the UIA (International Union of Architects) during the celebration of the World Architecture Day in 2018, (01.10.2018):
"Architecture can make our world better, for all people. Through design, we can help meet the staggering global scale of human need, much of it concentrated in our largest cities.
The world’s architects - now numbering some 3.2 million in all - share a commitment to providing basic services for all people; to making our cities cleaner and stronger; to helping people in need; and to providing safer, more accessible public spaces for everyone."
MUGAK still maintains its objective of being a crossroads, a meeting point with a plural, transversal and multicultural character; of promoting and reactivating dialogue, discussion and reflection in order to undertake new strategies and solutions that help to redefine together new boundaries and shape a more ethical, fair and balanced society.
This approach intends to keep its internationality without losing sight of another of its main objectives, which is being the Biennial of the Basque Country . That is why this edition will programme and hold events in the other two main cities of the Basque Autonomous Community besides Donostia, main headquarters of the Biennial: Bilbao and Vitoria-Gasteiz, in the idea of expanding the Biennial over the whole territory of the Autonomous Community.
Therefore, the invitation to all citizens to participate in the celebration of Architecture represented by MUGAK constitutes an attempt to reduce the distance that often separates Architecture from the society it must serve.