Andrés Jaque’s Work on Display at the Museum of Modern Art in New York

The work of Andrés Jaque, dean of the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation (GSAPP), is featured in the permanent collection display at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. This long-term exhibition, centrally installed off the museum’s atrium, is a tremendous recognition reserved for a small number of architects, especially contemporary ones.

Dean Jaque’s architectural project on view at MoMA is Reggio School in Madrid, Spain, which was completed in 2022. The school is represented through a large-scale model, photographs, digital drawings, and handmade sketches by Jaque that are now part of the museum’s permanent collection. The work is shown in conversation with that of a small group of other architects from around the world, who are all redefining contemporary practice and establishing new approaches to architecture by reimagining relationships with the natural world and plant and animal life. Under the title, Down to Earth, this installation specifically highlights projects such as Jaque’s Reggio School for their connections to nature, and the relationships they establish with other species and plant life, particularly in the context of climate change and the urgent need for new design paradigms.

“In this project, I made a big effort to explore further how architecture works environmentally,” said Jaque. “This building is more than sustainable; its design enhances the biodiversity of ecosystems. For instance, the roofs collect rainfall, and allow water to circulate through a series of small gardens inserted throughout the building, which are designed to restore the species of birds, insects, and microbes that are crucial for restoring the health of the soil.” 

“It’s been a great satisfaction to see how the Reggio School has expanded architecture’s contribution to climatic and ecological action,” Jaque said. “GSAPP is at the forefront of architectural innovation, and I’m proud that my work can be part of that.”

The Reggio School, designed by Jaque and his firm, Office for Political Innovation, has received much recognition, including as a finalist for the prestigious EU Mies Award, and as winner of the Spanish FAD Award and Architects'’Newspaper’s Project of the Year Award. The school was also called the most significant building of 2022 by Dezeen Magazine. Jaque is a prior recipient of the Frederick Kiesler Prize for Architecture and the Arts, a UNESCO Global Award for Sustainable Architecture, and the Silver Lion at the 14th Venice Architecture Biennale.