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Category: Reviews

Traces of the Past

[Originally published in Baumeister January 2020] Vilanova de la Barca is a small town located on the eastern bank of … More

adaptive re-use, AleaOlea, Baumeister, brick, church, countryside, heritage, ruin, small town, stone, Vilanova de la Barca

Circle of Life

[Originally published in The Architectural Review December 2019/January 2020] Article 12 of the 1964 Venice Charter of the International Council on … More

adaptive re-use, Barcelona, Flores & Prats, materiality, renewed old, Sala Beckett, sustainability, The Architectural Review, theatre

The Poseidon Adventure

[Originally published in The Architectural Review July-August 2019] The small, idyllic Mediterranean island of Formentera, Spain, isn’t the first place … More

building materials, civil servant architecture, countryside, experimental prototype, housing, IBAVI, low carbon footprint, resource map, small town, sustainable design, The Architectural Review

Into the Woods

[Originally published in RocaGallery.com. Versión en castellano sigue a continuación] Forget steel or concrete; or even carbon fibre. The most … More

CLT, engineered wood, Lacol, low carbon footprint, rocagallery.com, sustainable design, wood

Mercats: Sant Antoni & Abat

[originalmente publicado en BCN MÉS #74] Ahora que el recién reformado Mercat de Sant Antoni lleva unos meses abierto, ha llegado el … More

Barcelona, BCN MÉS, market, Sant Antoni Market renovation

Overarching Craft

[Originally published in The Architectural Review July/August 2018] Matola, a hamlet in the semi-desert of the southeastern Spanish province of … More

brick, countryside, garden, house, landscape, Mesura, pavilion, small town, The Architectural Review, vault

Bicivia 7: El carril bici que une la metrópoli

[articulo publicado originalmente en BCN MÉS #71] En marzo [2018] se inauguró un nuevo carril bici –la Bicivia 7– de apenas … More

Barcelona, BatlleRoig, bicycling, bike lane, green corridor, infrastructure, landscape urbanism

Inner Space

[Originally published in Azure Magazine November 2017] For an up-and-coming advertising agency called The Keenfolks, following the rules is not necessarily top … More

art, Azure, Barcelona, design, design-build, Guillermo Santomà, interior design

Dialectical Destinations: Two Solo Houses

[A version of this text was originally published in Baumeister December 2017] Contemporary architecture has become such an intrinsic component … More

Baumeister, countryside, court yard house, forest, Office KGDVS, overtourism, Pezo Von Ellrichshausen, romantic gaze, Solo Houses, Spain, touristic architecture, wilderness

Diving Deep

[Originally published in Frame Magazine #118] In creating Tunateca Balfegó Espai Gastronómic, a restaurant dedicated exclusively to dishes prepared with Atlantic … More

Barcelona, El Equipo Creativo, Frame, Gastronomy, interior design, Restaurant

Disappearing Act

[Originally published in Baumeister 9/2017] As the place where Ancient Greeks first set foot on the Iberian peninsula, the archaeological … More

archaeology, Baumeister, camouflage, concrete, countryside, Empúries, garden, land art, landscape, ruin, tourism

Loop the Loop

[Originally published in Mark Magazine #69] Solo Houses is the name of a project that’s intended to include more than … More

countryside, development, leisure, loop building, Mark Magazine, Office KGDVS, Solo Houses, Solo Office, tourism, wilderness

At Home: Santa Clara 1728

[Originally published in Azure Magazine, June 2017] Nestled within a labyrinth of narrow streets, small squares and gracefully aged buildings … More

Aires Mateus, Azure, craftsmanship, detail, hotel, Lisbon, materiality, rehabilitation

Earthy, Corpulent and Well-Structured

[Originally published in Baumeister, June 2017] The Costa Brava’s Empordà region has a long history of exporting wine. Empúries, an … More

agriculture, Baumeister, brick, countryside, structure, vernacular, Vidal & Rahola, winery

Out-of-Doors House

[Originally published in Mark Magazine #67] This remarkable house cost under €900 per m2 to build. Admittedly, mentioning the cost … More

affordable architecture, architettura povera, Calders, countryside, house, Mark Magazine, Narch, sliding doors, small town

Rem Koolhaas, Mythologized on the Big Screen

[Originally published in Azure Magazine Nov. / Dec. 2016] Filmed, produced, directed and edited by Tomas Koolhaas over the course of … More

Azure, film, globalization, OMA, REM documentary, Rem Koolhaas, Tomas Koolhaas

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

architecture, building typology, Casa Erwin Broner, house, Ibiza, parti, seashore, small town, studio, vernacular

The Venetian Front

[Review of the 15th International Architecture Exhibition originally published in Mark Magazine #63. Photos by Sergio Pirrone.] Reporting From the … More

Alejandro Aravena, ephemeral architecture, exhibition, Mark Magazine, politics, problem solving, social justice, Venice Biennale

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

automobile, Barcelona, Salvador Rueda, Urban Ecology Agency of Barcelona, urban mobility, urbanism

Temporary Permanence

Earlier this summer, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the reconstruction of Mies van der Rohe and Lily Reich’s German Pavilion for … More

Barcelona Pavilion, ephemeral architecture, installation, Luis Martínez Santa-María, Mies, OMA, permanence, reconstruction

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Criticalista collects Rafael Gomez-Moriana's writings on architecture and the built environment. All photographs by the author unless indicated otherwise.

©2014 Rafael Gomez-Moriana. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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