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

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

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

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

Less Glass

In 1832, as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe lay on his deathbed, he famously uttered the words “Mehr Licht” (more light). … 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

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. This is a post denouncing UNStudio’s shameless plagiarism of over a decade’s … 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