Manuel Bouzas + salazarsequeromedina will be in charge of designing the Guest Lounge for ARCOmadrid 2026
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Download images of the project here
Manuel Bouzas + salazarsequeromedina will be responsible for the design of the Guest Lounge for ARCOmadrid 2026, which will be held at IFEMA MADRID from 4 to 8 March. Following the call for entries launched by ARCO in conjunction with the Leading Brands of Spain Forum (FMRE) and AD magazine, the jury* have selected the 350,000-ha project submitted by these architects.
The 45th edition of ARCO will have as its central theme ARCO2045, with two spaces within the fair, which will invite reflection on possible futures and tentative languages of art in order to envision new horizons. The proposal by Bouzas + salazarsequeromedina responds to this binomial by combining a built space, the Guest Lounge, with an evoked space: the forests of the northwest that burned uncontrollably during the past month of August. The title of the project, 350,000 Ha, refers to the total number of hectares burned during these fires, according to data from the Ministry for Ecological Transition, and also alludes to the beginning of a new civic awareness arising from the ashes.
The project proposes a Guest Lounge articulated around two ideas. The first consists of selecting a Material Palette which creates the entire space with reclaimed wood from fire-ravaged forests. These forests are currently being cleared by FINSA, the project’s main sponsor. For this purpose, various methods are employed to make use of the burnt trees: bark segments are repurposed as cladding; the sawn wood from the inner part of the trunk is recovered to build the light planes; these surfaces are covered with thin 0.3 mm veneers obtained by peeling the trunk; and, finally, particle boards derived from the shredding of unusable branches and trunks are incorporated into the restaurant’s wall coverings.
The second idea is to design a Lumbre on a monumental scale capable of generating a warm, welcoming and captivating atmosphere. The space is conceived as a vast semi-darkness pierced by soft light, where the visitors’ silhouettes are outlined against the backlight, creating a visual experience of calm that contrasts with the intensity of the rest of the fair.
The project is organised around the contrast between light and darkness. “We approached this challenge as a material laboratory: to explore what stories the resources and landscapes we mobilise can tell. Together with them, we propose to design a flexible space of calm and encounter during the day, which can be transformed into a stage of celebration at night; an exceptional island in the midst of the intensity of the fair: more in semi-darkness than exposed, more veiled than opaque, lighter than heavy.
*Jury
Marcos Parera, MESURA -winning project Guest Lounge ARCOmadrid 2025-; Soledat Berdegal, advisor and director of brand reputation at ACTIU; Rosa Santos, Rosa Santos Gallery and member of the fair’s Organising Committee; Maite Sebastiá, director of AD magazine; Pedro Vargas, Director of International Projects at Leading Brands of Spain Forum; Sofia Alonso, architect at IFEMA MADRID, and Maribel López, director of ARCO.
About the architects
Manuel Bouzas (Pontevedra, 1993) is an architect, teacher and curator based in Galicia and New York. His work, situated between design, ecology and material culture, explores the environmental externalities of construction processes, investigating the materials and landscapes from which they emerge. In 2025 he received the Princess of Girona Award for the Arts and was curator of Internalities, the Spanish Pavilion at the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale. He is Visiting Critic at Cornell AAP and co-editor of Obradoiro, the journal of the Official College of Architects of Galicia. Trained at the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid (ETSAM) and the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD), he has built numerous urban installations including Atlas (Braga, 2025), Cabane 7L (Rome, 2024) and Mediterráneo (Valencia, 2023), with the support of the Government of Spain, Villa Médici, the Arquia Foundation and CHANEL.
salazasequeromedina is an architecture studio founded in 2020 by Laura Salazar (Lima, 1990), Pablo Sequero (Madrid, 1989) and Juan Medina (Madrid, 1989), based in New York, Madrid and Lima. Its work is situated between building practice, research and teaching, exploring the civic character of architecture in different contexts and in dialogue with diverse communities. They have received the Architectural League Prize (New York, 2025) and recognition as Outstanding Project in the Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize (2024). His projects include Monumental Splash (Logroño, 2025), Outdoor Room (Seoul, 2023), Sobremesas (Lima, 2024) and En torno al Vergel (Seville, 2022). Laura graduated from Princeton University (SoA), Pablo and Juan from the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid (ETSAM), and all three teach at Pratt Institute, Syracuse University, Tulane University and PUCP in Lima.
About the Leading Brands of Spain Forum (FMRE)
Founded in 1999, the Leading Brands of Spain Forum (FMRE) is a public-private alliance made up of more than one hundred and fifty Spanish companies with leading brands in their respective sectors together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, the Ministry of Industry and Tourism, the Secretary of State for Trade, ICEX Spain Export and Investment, the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office (OEPM), the Spanish Chamber of Commerce, Turespaña and the Secretary of State for Tourism. Its target is to promote the strategic importance of branding, innovation and design at all levels and to foster the internationalisation of companies as a key lever for improving the competitiveness of the Spanish economy, thus contributing to boosting the image of Spain and its companies as a whole through the joint efforts of leading Spanish brands and the relevant public administrations.