The Instituto de Arquitectura de Euskadi opens its new floor on 6 October at Tabakalera in San Sebastián. From 7 October, the exhibition “Martín Domínguez. San Sebastián. Madrid. La Habana. New York” will be open to the public there. The opening coincides with the European Collective Housing Days on 7 and 8 October, a professional programme on the future of collective housing.
The exhibition celebrates the work and life of Martín Domínguez Esteban (San Sebastián, 1897 – New York, 1970). His career, shaped by two exiles from Francoist Spain and revolutionary Cuba, spans San Sebastián, Madrid, Havana and New York State. The exhibition features models, film footage, original documents and archive photographs. It is curated by Pablo Rabasco Pozuelo and Martín Domínguez Ruz.
The exhibition focuses on the types of projects in which Domínguez repeatedly made his mark: housing, schools, public institutions and new leisure facilities such as cinemas, sports and tourism buildings. It also highlights his consistent commitment to teamwork. Examples include the project realised jointly with Carlos Arniches and Eduardo Torroja Hipódromo de La Zarzuela (1936) and, in Havana, the residential tower block FOCSA (1956) and the complex Radiocentro CMQ (1947), which he developed with Ernesto Gómez Sampera and Mercedes Díaz, and with Miguel Gastón and Emilio del Junco.
According to the Gobierno Vasco and the Institute, the house’s new floor is intended to bring together exhibition space, educational activities and archives. At the exhibition’s presentation, Pablo García Astrain, Director of Housing, Land and Architecture for the Basque Government, emphasised the house’s educational mission: to introduce the work of an architect recognised in professional circles but little known to the wider public. The Institute’s director, José Ángel Medina Murua, highlighted its contribution to recovering a culture of remembrance suppressed by political ruptures.
The European Collective Housing Days in Tabakalera will bring together professionals from several countries. The programme will also include the presentation of the second European Collective Housing Award in San Sebastián. The opening on 6 October 2026 and the public launch on 7 October 2026 will mark the start of the programme in the Institute’s new premises.
Editor: Celestina Fuentes (Article created with AI assistance).