• The well known Portuguese architect Gonzalo Byrne gives a magisterial conference at the Monterrey Technology Institute.
• Students and teachers travel to the Lusitanian country to visit the most representative architectural structures in Portugal.

Gonzalo Byrne in the magisterial conference “Architecture and Life”

As part of the activities of the “Vitro Chair”, spring 2008, the Portuguese architect Gonzalo Byrne on April 9 conducted a magisterial conference called “Architecture and Life” at the Tech of Monterrey and a few days later welcomed students and professors of the career in his native country to tour the more important architectural structures in Portugal.

“I wish to honor the great effort by Vitro and the Monterrey Technology Institute to enable students to have the opportunity to broaden their knowledge about the use and applications for glass in sustainable architecture”, commented Byrne before the student body.

The prestigious architect, who in 2005 was named Doctor Honoris Causa by the Lisbon Technological University, also took time to review the projects of the students enrolled in the “Vitro Chair” program.

“I have reviewed with great interest the different projects and saw a tremendous amount of creativity and quality”, he commented.

After completing an intense schedule of activities in Monterrey, México related to the “Vitro Chair”, Gonzalo Byrne returned to Portugal where he welcomed the visit from 10 students and 3 professors from the Monterrey Technology Institute that are enrolled in the program along with a representative from Vitro.

“It was determined that Portugal should be the next field trip destination for the “Vitro Chair” since it coincides with the idea that the field trip should be preferably to the country of the guest architect in order to visit his building projects and learn about his work environment”, pointed out Alejandro Gebara, Marketing Manager for Vidrio Plano of Vitro.

He adds that the trip, that took place from April 10th to April 16th, represented a great opportunity for the students to visit the more outstanding urban structures in the country accompanied by internationally renowned architects to experience first hand the benefits of the optimum use of glass in actual architectural projects.

According to Antonio Garza Sastré, Director for the Department of Architecture at the Monterrey Technology Institute, Monterrey Campus, a tour route was drawn up based on some of the more symbolic locations such as Lisbon, Coimbra and Oporto.

“The students were able to observe up close the work studio and different projects designed by Gonzalo Byrne such as the Museum of Architecture, the Cristal Palace Park, the Museum of Modern Art, the School of Architecture, and a prototype of a Contemporary House, among others”, he concluded.

Web links of interest:

• Vidrio arquitectónico (Vitro)
  http://www.vitro.com/vidrio_plano/espanol/home.htm

• Cátedras de Arquitectura Tecnológico de Monterrey, Campus Monterrey
  http://arquitectura.mty.itesm.mx/cate.html

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