Gaudí must be rolling over in his grave. A Formula 1 race car burning rubber and making noise before one … More
Author: Rafael Gomez-Moriana
Architect, educator and writer. Partner at ArqEstructura. Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Calgary. Blogger at criticalista.com.
A Moving Structure
It has won the 2022 City of Barcelona award, the Best Public Library of 2023 Award, the 2023 FAD Architecture … More
The Pointlessness of The Line
The Line, that gigastructure for Saudi Arabia that has recently been reduced to only a tiny fraction of its initially … More
Everyday Camouflage in Suburbia
[Originally published in Bauwelt 9.2024] The suburban single-family house has long been promoted as the ideal residential building type; as … More
Form Follows Footwear
[Originally published in The Architectural Review April 2024] Plaza Gomila, a small urban square in Palma on the Mediterranean island … More
Bike Lanes and Politicians
This is Christians Brygge, a central Copenhagen traffic thoroughfare. It varies between one and two lanes for motor vehicles in … More
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
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