Take a Hike

Footpaths are some of the oldest and most commonly found infrastructure works on our planet. Yet they can also be … More

A Tour of the Courtyards of Barcelona

Just about every building in Barcelona has a courtyard of some sort. Whether it’s the splendid centerpiece of an important … More

A Tour of the Passageways of Barcelona

On the occasion of the upcoming UIA (Union Internationale des Architectes) World Congress in Barcelona, I have decided to post … More

United We Stand

Demonstrations are a weekly occurence in Barcelona. Usually, they are organized well in advance, as permits must be issued by … More

Mountain Hut Essentials

Mountain huts, when situated far from any infrastructure such as a road or a ski lift, cannot afford to be … More

Power Dependency

Yesterday, in the middle of the day, the electricity went out on the entire Iberian peninsula. From one minute to … More

The Barcelona Pavilion-Crematorium

“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can give to greatness.” -Oscar Wilde. From the outside, the Crematorium … 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 Attrition of Automobiles

The 2022 European Prize for Urban Public Space has gone to the disappearance of an urban expressway in Utrecht, Netherlands, … More

Hotel Empanada

This advertisement for a Barcelona snack bar franchise contains an image of a local landmark building by the late Ricardo … More

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 … More

Gaudí’s Essential Hut

El Xalet de Catllaràs is a mountain refuge by Antoni Gaudí completed in 1905 for workers of the Asland portland … More

Small City Architecture: Walden 7 as a Social Network

[Originally published in RocaGallery.com. Versión en castellano sigue a continuación] “The city is like a great house, and the house … More

Vacation Ruin

Ruins are as sad as they are beautiful. Building abandonment is never a happy occurrence, but when it precedes building inhabitation, it’s … More

Monomateriality

Material purity is highly valued in contemporary architecture. The ideal that buildings should be materially consistent inside and out seems … More

Experitecture

Empirical experimentation has always been intrinsic to architecture. Attempting to build something that has never been built before in terms of form, height, … More

The Barcelona Pavilion as Cozy Christmas Home

Here’s yet another advertisement that features the Barcelona Pavilion. This one isn’t a print ad for a famous German brand … More

Contemporary Ruins II

Further to my last post, here is another Spanish contemporary ruin by a Pritzker laureate: Toyo Ito’s spa near Torrevieja. … More

Contemporary Ruins

As is well-known, Spain’s recent building boom-turned-bust has left behind a legacy of halted construction projects that are now in … More

Everyday Camouflage in the Countryside

The building above looks like a military installation of some sort, right? After all, it’s got a camouflage pattern on … More