Renowned Spanish architect giving a talk tomorrow

Dr Chinchilla is well-known for her strong commitment to social innovation and ecology.

KUCHING: The Sarawak Heritage Society (SHS) is organising a public lecture by renowned architect Dr Izaskun Chinchilla, whose firm worked on the transformative refurbishment of a Spanish medieval castle.

Titled “Leading with the Transformation on Cultural Identity: The Case of the Refurbishment of Garcimunoz Castle”, the lecture is part of SHS’ Heritage Speaker Series which features prominent practitioners in heritage conservation and management.

An internationally-recognised architect, Chinchilla is well-known for her strong commitment to social innovation and ecology.

Her projects include the Organic Growth Pavilion in New York, Arco Sala Vip 2016, CASADECOR lecture hall and Conde de Casal Coworking for UtopicUs, showing how imagination applied to environmental and social compromise can bring new and unexpected uses to old spaces, discarded materials and daily life objects.

The Garcimunoz refurbishment in Cuenca, Spain, is a project which Chinchilla has worked on for over 13 years with her firm and a big group of advisers. It tries to put into value the former historical identity of a castle and to help with its transformation, embracing a new cultural identity for a very small rural village in Spain.

“This talk on transforming a medieval castle is pertinent and timely as it relates to our current heritage conservation challenges. Kuching has many heritage buildings which no longer serve their original function, but rather than being demolished they can be innovatively repurposed into community spaces,” SHS said in a press release.

The talk will be held tomorrow at The Charcoal at Lorong Batu Lintang 18 at 7.30pm. Admission is free.

SHS was set up in 2007 to promote the conservation, preservation and sustainable management of Sarawak’s unique cultural heritage assets, both tangible (buildings, monuments, sites, cultural landscapes and objects) and intangible (traditional arts and crafts, customs and traditions, and food).

Over the years, SHS has organised talks, film screenings and visits to raise heritage awareness for its members, the public and schools.

Its recent activities included a talk by Penang-born architect Datuk Seri Lim Chong Keat, a film screening on World War II in Borneo and a visit to a traditional Malay house.

Among its upcoming plans is a project to bring music back to the Museum Gardens.