On January 20, 2026, the exchange forum “A New Agent to Rebuild the Sector” was held at the Rubber Factory in Pamplona, bringing together companies, industry leaders, and public institutions. Organized by BAI, the event featured the participation of Begoña Alfaro, Third Vice President and Regional Minister for Housing, Youth and Migration Policies; Francisco Mangado, architect and Academic Director of BAI; Eduardo Prieto, architect and PhD and Technical Director of BAI; Marta Silvero, PhD in Psychopedagogy and Executive Director of BAI; and Juan Luis García, Regional Minister for University, Innovation and Digital Transformation, among other distinguished guests. More than 50 companies from the industrial, construction, and broader business sectors of Navarra attended the event.

One of the main objectives of the forum was to present the key features of this National Center for the Industrialization, Robotics and Innovation of Construction and Architecture — funded by the Government of Navarra, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda, and the Ministry of Industry and Tourism — which constitutes BAI. Another major aim was to showcase to the local business and industrial community the benefits of becoming part of the BAI ecosystem, highlighting potential forms of collaboration such as student sponsorship programs. By aligning BAI’s areas of training and research, different levels of collaboration with the business and industrial fabric are fostered, interweaving educational programs with R&D&I research initiatives and BAI’s Advanced Projects Laboratory.

During the forum, Francisco Mangado emphasized that “architecture must respond to a need; it is an art with a vocation for service,” underscoring the importance of engaging the industrial sector and stressing the necessity of understanding the intrinsic working dynamics of the architectural design and construction process. “Architects can create, but if we are unfamiliar with industrial processes, the outcome will be limited. That is why architecture must also learn. BAI was created with this purpose: to develop multidisciplinary knowledge that transforms machinery into an intelligent and creative tool in pursuit of excellence.” This vision was echoed by Begoña Alfaro, who explained that “BAI was founded precisely with that vocation: to be a space for shared knowledge, applied innovation, and cooperation between the public sector, the private sector, and academia.” Juan Luis García likewise highlighted that “BAI is not merely a physical place, but a space where talent, knowledge, innovation, and technology converge to rebuild the sector through a new way of understanding construction.”

Applying this philosophy to BAI’s educational mission, Eduardo Prieto stated that BAI represents “an opportunity to create an environment that helps transform the way professionals in this industry are trained,” with the goal of becoming “a strategic agent between the technical world and the administrative-regulatory sphere.” In the words of Marta Silvero, the institution promotes the necessary collaborations “to develop innovative projects in industrialization, digitalization, and sustainability.”

The recap video captures the most insightful testimonies from the forum, along with key highlights reflected in the accompanying photo gallery.

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