The skyscraper race is over. It’s been won hands down by an absurdly high building in Dubai which doesn’t look … More
Category: unsolicited text
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
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
Benidorm: The Pursuit of Pleasure by the Most Efficient Available Means
Benidorm is a city in southeastern Spain with an urban morphology that is highly unusual for Europe: it is a … More
