Thinking Big: The City of Culture of Galicia as Regional Development Strategy

[Text originally commissioned in 2011 by a Swiss art institution for an exhibition that never materialized and for which I … More

Barcelona’s Disappearing Green Façades

Barcelona’s ‘green façades’ are disappearing at an alarming rate. A part of this city’s vernacular tradition, the small balconies typically used by apartment … More

Carme Pinós Honours the Pillar

[Originally published in Mark Magazine #52] Our Lady of the Pillar, Zaragoza’s 17th-century baroque basilica, is dedicated to the Virgin … More

How to become a “public space” benefactor in 6 easy steps:

Pssst. Nouveau-riche and dying to go down in philanthropic history? Why not build a “public space” vanity project? It’s easy. Here’s how you do … More

Pure Shit

I couldn’t agree more, Frank.

Groupies

[Originally published in Mark Magazine #51] We’ve all heard of ‘selfies’. What about ‘groupies’? During the opening of the 14th … More

Cities that Come and Go

Within walking distance of Barcelona’s historic centre, there lies a small satellite town that comes and goes with regularity. It tends to … More

Cruise Ships

Le Corbusier famously wrote in Vers une architecture that we should look to ocean liners as examples of a new, modern architecture. This … More

Criticism 2.0, or Nobody Likes a Critic when Everyone’s a Critic

[This text originated as a talk at the CICA Critical Juncture symposium session “Architectural Criticism Now” in February 2014 at the … More

Morning Glory

It must surely be a signal from the cosmos. Yesterday, September 8th, at precisely 7:39 AM, I woke up, opened … More

Drawing Conclusions

Guerilla Architect

Al Jazeera is currently airing a series of architectural documentaries in six parts titled “Rebel Architects“, the first of which is … More

When in Rome

Barcelona’s public space is yet again being hotly contested. Protests against the many illegal tourist apartments in this city, sparked by last week’s publication … More

Reality Check: Spain

[Text originally published in Mark Magazine #50] Revisiting architecture is always a good thing to do, especially when the work … More

Criticism as Reality Check

As my article titled “Reality Check: Spain” in the current (at time of post) 50th issue of Mark Magazine hopefully makes clear, architecture … More

Architecture’s Prime Taboo, is one of its ‘Fundamentals’, too.

Russia’s pavilion at the 14th Venice Architecture Biennale, titled ‘Fair Enough’, is one of the few exhibitions in the entire Biennale … More

Destination: Barcelona’s Renaissance Fira Hotel

[Originally published in Azure, May 2014] The elevator soars up the Hotel Renaissance Fira Barcelona, and my knees buckle beneath … More

Some Reflections on Concrete Formwork

Every building material symbolizes something, and the most modern building materials are no exception. Glass, we have been told, is representative … More