This is Christians Brygge, a central Copenhagen traffic thoroughfare. It varies between one and two lanes for motor vehicles in … More
Author: Rafael Gomez-Moriana
Architect, educator and writer. Partner at ArqEstructura. Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Calgary. Blogger at criticalista.com.
Failing the Test of Time
The famed Sant Antoni Library by RCR Arquitectes, Catalonia’s only Pritzker Prize-winner, has been undergoing a complete renovation since September … More
Greetings from Barcelona
[Last December, Bauwelt Magazine asked their contributors to send them a postcard from their hometown along with a new year’s greeting addressing … More
A Highly Contested Urban Space in Barcelona
It’s finally happening. A commercial thoroughfare in my neighborhood that is much too narrow, traffic-laden, and overcrowded with shoppers is … More
Making a Difference
[Originally published in DETAIL Magazine 5.2023] Project Gomila is a micro-urban reconstruction initiative by the owners of the Spanish global … More
La comida es un medio para hablar de espacios e infraestructuras
[Originalmente publicado en Bauwelt 11.2023] Bajo el título FOODSCAPES, el pabellón español presenta un examen del contexto agroarquitectónico y analiza … More
The Post-Olympic Transformation of Barcelona
[Originally published in Heide Wessely and Sandra Hofmeister, editors: Barcelona: Urban Architecture and Community Since 2010. Munich: Edition DETAIL, 2023] … More
Life in a Gated Community
When my parents retired around 20 years ago, they decided to move to Seville, my father’s hometown. Since they were … More
Gaudí, Ecologist
Antoni Gaudí is often cited as an architect who was “in tune with nature.” His complex, curvilinear forms, it is … More
Grassroots Gentrification?
A few years ago, dozens of residents of a street in Barcelona’s El Raval neighborhood started hanging potted plants from … More
Less Glass
In 1832, as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe lay on his deathbed, he famously uttered the words “Mehr Licht” (more light). … More
Save Barcelona’s Plaça dels Àngels from MACBA contemporary art museum’s expansion
Please consider signing this petition. [Versión en castellano sigue a continuación / Versió en català segueix a continuació] Barcelona’s Plaça … More
The Metaphysics of Zoning
Welcome to one of Barcelona’s “newest” green zones. Barely a year old, it’s located one block off Las Ramblas, the … More
Trees in the Air
What is the point of suspending trees in the air? They grow much better on the ground, where they also … More
Sharing School
[Originally published in Bauwelt 5.2023. Photos by Aitor Estévez] Barcelona has some of the densest neighborhoods in Europe, so it … More
Up Close and Personal
[Originally published in Bauwelt 4.2023] One of the growing problems facing Spain today is the ongoing depopulation of its interior … More
The Attrition of Automobiles
The 2022 European Prize for Urban Public Space has gone to the disappearance of an urban expressway in Utrecht, Netherlands, … More
Yellow Garden
[Originally published in Bauwelt #16.2022] When Spain imposed its nation-wide lockdown to prevent the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus on … More
Not in Our Public Space
Public space belongs to everyone. That’s why the latest proposal to expand the Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona (MACBA) … More
Community Integration
[Originally published in Bauwelt 14.2022] With a current average life expectancy of almost 84 years, Spain’s is one of the … More
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