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Criticalista

Rafael Gómez-Moriana's architecture blog

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Author: Rafael Gomez-Moriana

Architect, educator and writer. Partner at ArqEstructura. Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Calgary. Blogger at criticalista.com.

Home is Where the Pathologies Are

Here we are, in the ninth month of coronavirus crisis, eagerly awaiting the birth, any day now, of a new … More

anthropocene, architects, architectural education, brico-therapy, Eduardo Aquino, house-doctor, housing, King Architecten, performance, room, studio, University of Manitoba

Dear Mayor Ada Colau:

Dear Ms Colau, internationally esteemed mayor of Barcelona. I write this letter in English because many citizens of Barcelona are … More

Ada Colau, Barcelona, Barcelona en Comú, gentrification, narco-speculation, Raval

Barcelona, posa’t guarra (get dirty)

Welcome to Carrer Príncep de Viana in the Raval neighbourhood of Barcelona, a small, normally quiet street lined with trees … More

Barcelona, drugs, narco-speculation, politics, Raval, squatters, urban degradation

Canadà Park: Barcelona’s Maple Leaf Themed Suburb

As an architect who is blessed with having double citizenship–Spanish as well as Canadian– I was quite amused, while on … More

Barcelona, branding, Canada, Catalonia, cultural hybridity, landscape, suburbia, urbanization

Pop (-Up) Urbanism in the City of Design

Barcelona is known around the world today as a city of design. Its urban grid, buildings, parks, squares, streets, benches, … More

automobile, motor traffic, pedestrians, public space, sidewalks, streets, tactical urbanism

Reassessing the Street-in-the-Sky in Times of Coronavirus

As Covid 19 spreads its way around the world, a fear of urban density is similarly catching on, with suburbs, … More

Alison and Peter Smithson, climate change, corrala, COVID-19, Cromwell Building, Edwin Lutyens, exterior access, housing, Jean Nouvel, Mario Fiorentini, megastructure, Michiel Brinkman, Moshe Safdie, Stanley Kubrick, urban sprawl, urbanism

Circular Container Housing

Does the sight of absurd architectural projects containing shipping containers make you cringe? Do you break into a cold sweat … More

APROP, Barcelona, circular economy, housing system, prefabrication, shipping containers, Straddle 3, sustainable design

110 Rooms, 22 Flats, and One Good Idea

[Originally published in Baumeister 3/2020] The number of rooms contained in a building is not the way most young architects … More

Barcelona, building typology, Eixample, enfilade, housing system, Maio Architects, room

Cocooning in Balconville

With lockdown in effect in many parts of the world, and urban streets and squares largely empty, residential balconies have … More

balcony, Herman Hertzberger, housing, social contact, social space

It's Now or Never

The whole world is grinding to a halt right now in what is surely the biggest crisis in several generations, … More

circular economy, coronavirus, COVID-19, de-growth, economics, Green New Deal, materialism, reconstruction, scarcity

Traces of the Past: Renovation of the Old Church of Vilanova de la Barca by AleaOlea

[Originally published in Baumeister January 2020] Vilanova de la Barca is a small town located on the eastern bank of … More

adaptive re-use, AleaOlea, Baumeister, brick, church, countryside, heritage, ruin, small town, stone, Vilanova de la Barca

Circle of Life: Sala Beckett by Flores & Prats

[Originally published in The Architectural Review December 2019/January 2020] Article 12 of the 1964 Venice Charter of the International Council on … More

adaptive re-use, Barcelona, Flores & Prats, materiality, renewed old, Sala Beckett, sustainability, The Architectural Review, theatre

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Criticalista collects Rafael Gomez-Moriana's writings on architecture and the built environment. All photographs by the author unless indicated otherwise.

©2014 Rafael Gomez-Moriana. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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