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Criticalista

Rants and reflections on architecture, cities, and politics

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Up Close and Personal

[Originally published in Bauwelt 4.2023] One of the growing problems facing Spain today is the ongoing depopulation of its interior…

Aragon, Auditorium, Bauwelt, brick, Magén Arquitectos, small town

The Attrition of Automobiles

The 2022 European Prize for Urban Public Space has gone to the disappearance of an urban expressway in Utrecht, Netherlands,…

Catharijnesingel, European Prize for Urban Public Space, landscape restoration, OKRA Landscape Architects, rewilding, Utrecht

Yellow Garden

[Originally published in Bauwelt #16.2022] When Spain imposed its nation-wide lockdown to prevent the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus on…

Bauwelt, COVID-19, garden, Granada, Improvisation, nightclub, Tomás García Píriz

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)…

Barcelona, macba, politics, public space, Raval

Community Integration

[Originally published in Bauwelt 14.2022] With a current average life expectancy of almost 84 years, Spain’s is one of the…

adaptive re-use, Bauwelt, Chamberí, day center for elderly persons, Madrid, Mariluz Sánchez Moral & Padilla Nicás Arquitectos

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…

CaixaForum, Enric Ruíz Geli, exhibition, greenwashing, Santiago Calatrava, theming, Valencia

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…

Raval, statistics, urban density

Hotel Empanada

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

advertising, analogy, form, metaphor, Ricardo Bofill

Public Property

[Originally published in The Architectural Review in April 2022] Before the arrival of steel and concrete, the most widely used…

housing, IBAVI, Mallorca, stone, structure, The Architectural Review, vault

Open House

[Originally published in Bauwelt March 2022] Since the emergence of the pandemic, outdoor private space has come to be newly…

architecture, Arquitectura-G, Barcelona, Bauwelt, courtyard, flexibility, house, inside-outside

Archaeological Building

[Originally published in Baumeister December 2021] Older buildings are no longer what they used to be. Until recently, the argument…

adaptive re-use, archaeology, Baumeister, homelessness, Josep Ferrando, prison, Reus, shelter, Tarragona

Presenting the E-Window®

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

developers, e-window, fakery, fenestration, housing, simulation, window

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…

consumerism, product design, recycling, reuse, sustainability, throw-away society

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…

Benedetta Tagliabue, Carme Pinós, EMBT, Enric Miralles, The Architectural Review

Hide and Seek

[Originally published in The Architectural Review May 2021] One of the first alterations that pupils of the Imagine Montessori Primary…

education, Gradolí & Sanz Arquitectes, Montessori School, Open-ended architecture, The Architectural Review, Valencia

Grit and Glam

[Originally published in DETAIL magazine 5.2021] There is no mistaking old from new in this adaptive reuse project by Baas…

adaptive re-use, Baas Arquitectura, Barcelona, DETAIL magazine, Oliva Artés Museum of the History of Barcelona, sculpture

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…

activism, adaptive re-use, Bauwelt, Boris Strzelczyk, David Estal, El Cabanyal, l'Escorxador del Cabanyal, protest, punk, Salvem El Cabanyal, Tato Herrero, Valencia

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…

Ben van Berkel, celebrity, copy, copycat, intellectual property theft, lack of originality, plagiarism, scandal, star system, UNStudio

Dear Ben van Berkel

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

Ben van Berkel, copy, plagiarism, UN studio

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…

anthropocene, architects, architectural education, brico-therapy, Eduardo Aquino, house-doctor, housing, King Architecten, performance, room, studio, University of Manitoba

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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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