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

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

One Permanent Exhibition / Theme Park Inside Another

How many architects have an exhibition of their work permanently on display at a cultural institution, replete with nearly full-scale … More

Statistical Error

In 2018, a study was published that situated “Europe’s most densely inhabited square kilometer” in the working-class town of L’Hospitalet … More

Hotel Empanada

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

Presenting the E-Window®

Are windows really necessary in buildings? Is an LED panel that simulates a window an acceptable substitute? Some seem to … More

The Anti-Circular Pepper Mill Scandal

The other day, I was preparing a dinner party when I realized my pepper mill was empty. I ran to … More

UNStudio’s Plagiarism of Elastic Living by Angelo Roventa

In the field of research, plagiarism is unacceptable and denounced. Here begins a post denouncing UNStudio’s shameless plagiarism of over … More

Dear Ben van Berkel

Dear Ben, To have a design idea copied by you, a global starchitect with offices all over the world, is … More

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

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

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

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

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

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

Circular Container Housing

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

Cocooning in Balconville

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

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

The Politics of Architecture

Why is supposedly “advanced” architecture appreciated by so many of today’s dictatorial rulers, and what does this tell us about … More

The Phenomenology of Solar Energy

I recently installed a thermo-solar water heater on my rooftop, and it has profoundly changed the way I live, making … More

A Heroic Architect-Politician Exists

A previously little known architect is the topic of conversation in Spain right now. The discussion has nothing to do … More

Eco-Monsters

A recent news item I came across stated: “If SUV drivers were a nation, they would rank seventh in the world … More

Gaudí’s Essential Hut

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

Electoral Architecture

Elections for the mayorship of Barcelona are coming up later this year, and we’re already being delivered promises in the … More

Fake Architecture News II

A few posts back, I discussed “fake architecture news” (FAN) in blogs and social media, describing an offer I had … More

How Much Does Your Conscience Weigh, Mr. Foster?

Dear Norman, I just read the following in the Architect’s Journal: “Amid an escalating crisis over the missing journalist Jamal … More

Is Tourism the Only Thing Killing Barcelona?

A few days ago, The Guardian published a piece titled “Why Tourism is Killing Barcelona” that describes the damage that “overtourism” … More

Knock on Stone: A Brief, Informal Acoustic Experiment at the Barcelona Pavilion

The original Barcelona Pavilion is believed to be the first time that stone was “hung” in the form of thin … More

Mega-Market

Barcelona’s biggest market, Mercat Sant Antoni, has finally opened its doors after a renovation process lasting nearly a decade. The … More

Stop Demolishing Useful Buildings

I’m a walking nightmare, an arsenal of doomI kill conversation as I walk into the roomI’m a three line whipI’m … More

A New Low: the World’s Tallest Building

Faced with a half-day layover in Dubai recently, I decided to visit the tallest building in the world. I could … More

Fake Architecture News?

A few weeks ago, I received a curious e-mail from someone representing “a digital marketing agency currently working with a … More

Spongifying the City

Esponjamiento urbano, a Spanish term that literally translates as “urban spongification”, refers to the process of aerating dense, historical urban … More

Notes from a Recent Construction Site Visit

I was recently fortunate enough to be shown a truly interesting work of architecture currently under construction in Barcelona: La … More

Vinylizing the Barcelona Pavilion

The Barcelona Pavilion is as white as Greek yoghurt right now. All the Roman travertine, ancient green marble, green Alpine … More

Archispeak in Political Propaganda

The Catalan independence movement has for years been churning out a great deal of propaganda in order to win over … More

Award Politics

Architecture’s top award is the Pritzker Prize, as we all know. Often referred to in the media as the “Nobel … More

Vacation Ruin

Ruins are as depressing 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

Why Be Normal

Recently, I visited two buildings that provoked me to seriously question everything I learned in school. One is a student residence … 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

Vernacular Precedent?

When I first saw an image of De Rotterdam, by OMA, I knew I had seen something vaguely similar before … More

Scatological Cantilever?

Unlike so many contemporary cantilevers whose only purpose, seemingly, is to out-do other cantilevers in depth, height or width, the tiny … More

Architecture Without ‘Parti’

One of the first lessons every student learns in architecture school is that an architectural design must always be based on a … 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

Building on top

Sometimes, the best option is one on top of the other. It might be because available space is too constricted, because an opportunity is … More

The Definitive Solution to All Gentrification Everywhere

Gentrification is like cancer: everything seems to cause it, and there’s no cure; there’s no answer. We all know by now that … More

Super-Islands

The city block is a fundamental element of urbanism. The Ancient Romans called a city block an insula, or “island”, which is … More

Temporary Permanence

Earlier this summer, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the reconstruction of Mies van der Rohe’s German Pavilion for the 1929 Barcelona … 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

Built-In Obsolescence

The other day, out of the blue, my printer suddenly stalled, even though it had been working perfectly for once. Strange warning … 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

Dizzying Inequality

Ben Wheatley’s film High Rise, a multi-story about decadence and class war in a Brutalist housing estate in London, brought plenty … More

Architecture Only an Artist can Get Away With

New York’s Guggenheim Museum has just announced plans to install a new artwork by Maurizio Cattelan consisting of a toilet made … More

Love-You Architecture

“The envy and hostility of Wall Street leads many to a common goal: to amass enough money so as to … More

Farewell Zaha

Zaha Hadid left us yesterday. She won’t be forgotten for a long time, as she was an architect who actually changed architecture. … More

Revisiting Casa Bloc

The architecture of housing differs fundamentally from the architecture of other building types in that it is never a purely qualitative … More

Inteligencia empresarial / Corporate Intelligence

[English text follows below] Ya sabemos que hoy en día está muy de moda llamar ‘inteligente’ o ‘smart’ a todo … More

But is it Architecture?

The recent adjudication of Britain’s Turner Prize to some Liverpool houses regenerated through neighbourhood participation by a young collective known as Assemble speaks … More

Plus ça change…

This is a screengrab of what appeared on my laptop recently when I downloaded a New York Times article titled “What You … More

Cycling Barcelona versus Copenhagen: an Experiential Comparison

The other day I read an interesting critique of Barcelona’s cycling infrastructure titled “The Arrogance of Space”, by the Copenhagenize … More

Twisted Logic: Turning Torso as ‘Innovative’ Housing?

I recently had the pleasure of visiting Malmö, Sweden; best known –in terms of contemporary architecture– for its Santiago Caltrava-designed … More

Why is BP sponsoring an architecture biennial?

Why is BP sponsoring an architecture biennial; specifically the Chicago Architecture Biennial, titled “The State of the Art of Architecture”, … More

Still Nurbing Along

Enric Ruiz Geli’s Villa Nurbs is still incomplete after 13 years. The good news is, however, that it does not appear to … More

Design and Decadence in Sabiñanigo

The land-scars of Spain’s construction boom-gone-bust have been documented photographically to great extent. More typically than not, these images portray a landscape of newly built … More

How to Find Work as an Architect

The perennial problem for the 99% of architects who are not stars is: how and where do you find work? There are many ways … More

The First BIAM: 20 Years After

I recently attended a reunion to celebrate 20 years since graduating from the Berlage Institute Amsterdam. This first ever BIAM, or ‘Berlage … More

Beauty

‘Beauty’ is one of the rarest words used by professionals when talking about architecture, yet it is one of the most used by … More

The School in the Forest

Els Xiprers –The Cypresses in Catalan– is the name of a Barcelona primary school situated in a very special setting: a forested … More

Selfie Scene

With the invention of the ‘selfie’, the traditional comic foreground or carnival cutout is rendered obsolete, along with the profession of carnival portrait photographer. … More

Architecture and Crime

A recent escape from a maximum-security prison in upstate New York, in which two convicted murderers cut through steel jail-cell walls to … More

Sign o’ the Times

Isn’t it great when something that looks ‘arty’ turns out not to be art at all? A well-designed object that … More

New ‘Public’ Space in Barcelona

“The goal is to turn this old, unloved port into the best super marina in the world, to integrate yachting … More

From Baukunst to Kunstwelt: The Biennalization of Architecture

There is no doubt that architecture is an art. The eternal question is which kind. Is architecture a building art? A … More

Taste

RCR, the Catalan architectural firm known for its love of Corten steel, has an exhibition in Barcelona’s Palau Robert that … More

The Tall Building Politically Reconsidered

The tall building has been an expression of machista one-upmanship since its earliest beginnings. San Gimignano’s stone towers are a built testament … More

Death of a Manifesto

“Architecture Must Blaze” is the title of a 1980 manifesto by Coop Himmelb(l)au. In it, the architects declare: “we don’t want to exclude everything … More

Emot-Icon Building

Considering the recent spate of ‘icon’ buildings, you would think that an Emoji would exist for ‘Architecture’ by now, but no, this is in fact … More

Multiple Discovery, Idea Theft, or Tweaking?

Having an original idea is everything in architecture. Its history is one of innovations and breakthroughs; of new ideas, materials, and … More

Radical Architecture at its Most Subversive

This house near Barcelona ranks among the most radical and subversive works of architecture of 2014, and yet it’s not by … More

Seeing Things

Mountain architecture is very different from its flatland counterpart. This may be stating the obvious, but I’m referring here to … More

Seriously now, folks.

The other day, a friend of mine posted a rather humorous item titled “Religious Truths” on Facebook along with the … More

Tradition

It’s early January, and in Spain the Christmas shopping season is still in full swing. Aarrgghh! It’s all because of … More

Pure Shit (II)

This building in the Catalan Pyrenees is a perfect example of the kind of “pure shit” that, according to Frank … More

The STEM Turn

STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. It’s an acronym that can be heard a lot coming from the … More

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

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.  

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

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

Rebel Rebel

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

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

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

Groupies: A Mark Magazine project at the Venice Architecture Biennale

We’ve all heard of ‘selfies’, perhaps even taken a few ourselves. So why not ‘groupies’? During the opening of the … More

Skin-Deep Beauty

Rambla de Canaletes, Barcelona. 8:30 AM. The morning light is shining through the window openings of a façade that has been … More

The Barcelona Brand

Barcelona is the sixth most powerful urban brand in the world, according to a report published today in The Guardian, … More

What’s in a Name?

How should we name an important temple after it undergoes a complete religious change of use, but only a partial architectural transformation? And … More

Generic No More: Toronto Modernism in Denis Villeneuve’s ‘Enemy’

Canadian cities such as Toronto or Vancouver are often used by Hollywood to represent either generic modern cities that could … More

From Bauhaus to Vitrahaus and Beyond: a new Meme?

Architecture and Status-Anxiety

Ever wondered why luxury products are advertised so heavily in mass-circulation media, even though the market for such products is … More

Tourism versus Terrorism

Is tourism a form of terrorism? Some Barcelonins seem to think so. All over the city — especially near tourists sites … More

Perspective is Everything

Same place seen from different viewpoints (Pas de la Casa, Andorra). Neon duty-free stores selling discounted liquor and cigarettes to … More

The Ramp of Justice

Ever since Infanta Cristina, King Juan Carlos of Spain’s younger daughter, was called into Palma de Mallorca’s courthouse for questioning … More

Calatrava May Bleed You Dry, But Who is Ultimately Responsible?

Several Spanish media (such as El Diario and El País) are reporting that Santiago Calatrava is suing Esquerra Unida País Valencià … More

Everything is Art

In September 2012, the fiscally and socially retrograde People’s Party governing Spain raised the value-added tax on most items to 21%, … More

Power, Corruption and Architecture

Transparency International released its annual report some weeks ago, and this year’s corruption perception index, which ranks 177 countries from least to most … More

Ice Fishing in Gimli, a book project by Rob Kovitz

One of my favorite publishers, Treyf Books, is celebrating its 25th anniversary. To mark the occasion, Treyf is offering, for the first time, Ice … More

2014

Media-TIC, another Sad Spectacle?

In an article I wrote a few years ago on Barcelona’s Media-TIC building, for Mark Magazine #25, I concluded my optimistic … More

Old Buildings, New Buildings

“I don’t know whether we should be designating heritage buildings.” — Frank O. Gehry Why is preserving old buildings only … More

Hotel Agbar?

Barcelona’s La Vanguardia newspaper reported three days ago that the Agbar Tower, an office building designed by Jean Nouvel and completed in … More

Sagrada Familia Doubt

A recent video illustrating “the final stages of Gaudí’s masterpiece”  represents, we are led to believe, La Sagrada Familia completed. However, … More

How Much Does Your Conscience Weigh, Mr. Koolhaas?

Mr. Koolhaas, you designed a daring and ambitious building for CCTV, China’s state-controlled television broadcaster. But it is from this … More

Adam’s House in Paradise

The courtyard house may be ancient, but it is still contemporary and modern. This became apparent to me on a … More

Step Right Up. Architectural Monumentality. Three Boxer Shorts for Only 6€.

Flea markets are normally found under bridges, in empty parking lots, or in old industrial sheds. This flea market (which … More

Remembering Marshall Berman

I think it was in 1985. I would have been in my second year of study at University of Waterloo’s … More

Architecture Road-Tripping: Marseille

Earlier this August, I went on a roadtrip through southern France and spent two nights in l’Unité d’Habitation in Marseille, … More

La Grande Motte Revisited

I first saw La Grande Motte in the summer of 1978, more than a decade before I would graduate from … More

The Forest Metaphor

The Drassanes Reials (royal shipyard) of Barcelona has recently reopened after a lengthy renovation by architects Robert and Esteve Terradas. … More

Bullshit Island

“Barcelona Island will be an out of this world experience for all guests of ‘Mobilona Space Hotel’ who wish they … More

Making Bullshit Mountains out of Buildings

“If architecture is landscape, buildings are mountains.”  -Vicente Guallart, chief architect of the city of Barcelona and general director of Urban … More

Provocative Architecture?

In “Little Frank and his Carp”, a 2001 video of a performance by artist Andrea Fraser, architecture, replete with its … More

NO a la LSP

Spanish architecture is respected the world over, if the number of exhibitions, publications, Gaudí fans, and archi-tourists who visit this … More

Architects’ Struggle

Today, I ran into a small protest: a squadron (herd? platoon? pack?) of young architects protesting dismal working conditions. Other … More

A Whimsical Water Tower in…Barcelona?

I spotted this fantastic water tower the other day while walking around Poble Nou, Barcelona’s industrial graveyard. Claes Oldenburg and … More

Fashion Victim

You know green walls have become trendy when a designer fashion label puts one up that’s made of plastic. Kinda … More

Construction as Spectacle: Mercat dels Encants

The construction of the new Mercat dels Encants / Fira de Bellcaire (Barcelona’s flea market), by b720 Arquitectos, is not only spectacular … More

Get Smart

A façade design in which photovoltaic panels end up casting shadows upon other photovoltaic panels does not seem to me … More

Pseudo-Choice

Potato chips, or crisps, come in a fantastic panoply of artificial flavors. BBQ, Ketchup, or “regular” are standards the world … More

Invisible Architecture

Why is it that, in places where nothing is needed, there is often nevertheless a nagging architectural compulsion to add something … More

Garden and Gaffe

Leon Battista Alberti famously wrote: “The city is like some large house and the house in turn like some small … More

Strange Bedfellows

The image at left shows the construction of the “Instant City” during the congress of the International Council of Societies … More

Gaudí’s hanging chain models: parametric design avant la lettre?

It is known that Gaudí preferred modelling architecture over drawing it; especially models made of chains hung from a ceiling, or strings … More

Villa Nurbs: a Sad Spectacle

It is June 2012, and  after a decade of construction Villa Nurbs is still incomplete. In fact, construction has now seemingly come … More

A Reminder to Urban Planners

Given the choice, most children would rather play in a terrain vague than a playground. They would rather make mud … More

Not So Different

“Spain is Different” was a tourism campaign slogan coined in the mid-1960s by dictator Francisco Franco’s Ministry of Information and Tourism (!), … More

Architectural Art

Art galleries and museums seem to be showing with greater frequency artworks about architecture, many of them by artists who … More

Architourism

Tourism is the only ‘industry’ in Spain that is not downsizing in the current (well, actually it’s been five years … More

Paragraphs on Architectural Criticism

Architectural criticism is what distinguishes architecture from building, inasmuch as those two terms are distinguishable. Buildings exist perfectly well without … More

Pool Typology

We’ve all seen that famous aerial photograph of an American Southwest suburb in which each and every house has a … More

Park, Shop, and Pray

Churches are architecture whereas supermarkets and parking garages are not. At least, that’s what we’ve been taught by Nikolaus Pevsner. What, then, … More

Collective Intelligence or Collective Stupidity?

The above image is circulating on the internet representing all sorts of cities on all sorts of continents, showing us … More

Calatravaland

El País reported recently that the government of the Autonomous Region of Valencia, when it was presided by Francisco Camps (the … More

The Cantilever Race

The skyscraper race is over. It’s been won hands down by an absurdly high building in Dubai which doesn’t look … More

Context is Still Everything

The building visible in the photo above is a soon-to-be-completed design museum by the veteran firm MBM (Martorell, Bohigas, MacKay). … More

Experimental Bamboo

Bamboo is an ancient building material that fell largely out of favor in the twentieth century, only to be used … More

Pop Architecture

Ordinary, everyday objects — that’s what most popular nicknames for buildings refer to. A gherkin, a paperclip, a typewriter, a … More

Ugh Canada

An architect is, by definition, a designer of buildings, right? Well, the government of Canada, a nation whose credo is … More

Learning from CajaGranada

Morning Delivery

The maintenance of buildings is somewhat of a taboo subject in architectural discourse, which actually says a great deal about … More

BMW Welter

Luxury automobiles are fetish items par excellence. The advertising, branding and merchandising of this kind of consumer good is designed … More

W: what is it good for?

A building has been going up–or did it come from outer space?–on Barcelona’s Sant Sebastià Beach that is popularly refered … More

Everyday Camouflage in “The Visitor”

The story told by Tom McCarthy in his highly commendable film The Visitor, which deals, among other things, with the … More

Designer Façadism

A new luxury apartment building for tourists has recently opened on Passeig de Gràcia, across from Antoni Gaudí’s Casa Milà, … More

Us and Theme

If Venice, the Wild West, or Asia can be themes for parks, casinos, or hotels, then why not contemporary architecture? … More

Disseny Hype

“Disseny Hub” is a new cultural institution in Barcelona dedicated to design; or, to put it more correctly, to promoting … More

Gaudí in Red Alert

“Gaudí en alerta roja” is the title of an online petition currently the source of much debate in Barcelona. Its … More

Lighten-Up in the Mies Pavilion

The installation by SANAA (Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa) at Barcelona’s Mies van der Rohe Pavilion is simple, subtle, and … More

Welcome to the Hotel Barcelona

In case anyone hasn’t noticed, Barcelona is in the tail-end of a hotel construction boom. And Barcelona being “Barceloooooonaaaaaa” means, … More

Soft Architecture

“There will be…a reaction against the rigid, rectilinear architecture expressed in such structures as the United Nations Secretariat building. Buildings … More

Architecture Beyond Talk

“Out There: Architecture Beyond Building” is the title of this year’s Venice Biennale of Architecture, curated by Aaron Betsky. The … More