[Originally published in Bauwelt 14.2022] With a current average life expectancy of almost 84 years, Spain’s is one of the…
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…
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…
Hotel Empanada
This advertisement for a Barcelona snack bar franchise contains an image of a local landmark building by the late Ricardo…
Public Property
[Originally published in The Architectural Review in April 2022] Before the arrival of steel and concrete, the most widely used…
Open House
[Originally published in Bauwelt March 2022] Since the emergence of the pandemic, outdoor private space has come to be newly…
Archaeological Building
[Originally published in Baumeister December 2021] Older buildings are no longer what they used to be. Until recently, the argument…
Presenting the E-Window®
Are windows really necessary in buildings? Is an LED panel that simulates a window an acceptable substitute? Some seem to…
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…
Enric Miralles, 1955-2000
[Originally published in The Architectural Review July-August 2021] It has now been more than 20 years since Enric Miralles died…
Hide and Seek
[Originally published in The Architectural Review May 2021] One of the first alterations that pupils of the Imagine Montessori Primary…
Grit and Glam
[Originally published in DETAIL magazine 5.2021] There is no mistaking old from new in this adaptive reuse project by Baas…
Urbicide Rebellion Slaughterhouse Reno
[Originally published in Bauwelt 8.2021] The adaptive reuse of L’Escorxador del Cabanyal, a former slaughterhouse in Valencia, Spain, as a…
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…
Dear Ben van Berkel
Dear Ben, To have a design idea copied by you, a global starchitect with offices all over the world, is…
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…
Dear Mayor Ada Colau:
Dear Ms Colau, internationally esteemed mayor of Barcelona. I write this letter in English because many citizens of Barcelona are…
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…
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…
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,…
Criticalista 