The impact of the economic crisis that broke out in 2008 was especially hard on construction, a sector which had contributed to Spain’s prosperity and its citizens’ well-being through improvements in housing and cities; but a sector, too, that became much oversized and whose effects on landscape and heritage were not always commendable. The paralysis of building activity brought about a healthy examination of conscience in all professions related to it, and particularly architecture, as vividly illustrated by the international congresses that have taken place in Pamplona since the year 2010, organized by the Fundación Arquitectura y Sociedad.

Already in the first of them there was a chance to verify up to what point the endeavor to offer ‘more with less’ – greater degrees of pertinence, comfort, and beauty with fewer economic means, less energy and materials, and a smaller consumption of both water and land – had made architecture a pioneering field of sustainability, and architects the main players of the attendant social and political debate. Aware of the importance of construction and urbanism in the global demand for non-renewable resources, architects have also tried to meet the challenge of climate change with a true change of climate in the priorities that guide their activity...[+]