[Originally published in Baumeister, June 2017] The Costa Brava’s Empordà region has a long history of exporting wine. Empúries, an…
Destination Architecture
[Originally published in Mark Magazine #68] Barcelona may be well known today as an urban tourism destination, but it was…
Interview with Daniel Mòdol, Architect and Politician
[Originally published in Mark Magazine #68] In Barcelona, architect and independent politician Daniel Mòdol was recently appointed city councillor for…
Out-of-Doors House
[Originally published in Mark Magazine #67] This remarkable house cost under €900 per m2 to build. Admittedly, mentioning the cost…
Award Politics
Architecture’s top award is the Pritzker Prize, as we all know. Often referred to in the media as the “Nobel…
Vacation Ruin
Ruins are as sad as they are beautiful. Building abandonment is never a happy occurrence, but when it precedes building inhabitation, it’s…
Monomateriality
Material purity is highly valued in contemporary architecture. The ideal that buildings should be materially consistent inside and out seems…
Why Be Normal
Recently, I visited two buildings that provoked me to seriously question everything I learned in school. One is a student residence…
Experitecture
Empirical experimentation has always been intrinsic to architecture. Attempting to build something that has never been built before in terms of form, height,…
Vernacular Precedent?
When I first saw an image of De Rotterdam, by OMA, I knew I had seen something vaguely similar before…
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…
Three Roles Played by Architecture in Three Recent Films
[Originally published in O magazine] Buildings are as ubiquitous in films as they are in our lives. Even in the most…
Scatological Cantilever?
Unlike so many contemporary cantilevers whose only purpose, seemingly, is to out-do other cantilevers in depth, height or width, the tiny…
Hyperbolic Holiday Greetings…
…and may the funicular be with you in 2017
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…
The Barcelona Pavilion as Cozy Christmas Home
Here’s yet another advertisement that features the Barcelona Pavilion. This one isn’t a print ad for a famous German brand…
Building on top
Sometimes, the best option is one on top of the other. It might be because available space is too constricted, because an opportunity is…
The Definitive Solution to All Gentrification Everywhere
Gentrification is like cancer: everything seems to cause it, and there’s no cure; there’s no answer. We all know by now that…
The Venetian Front
[Review of the 15th International Architecture Exhibition originally published in Mark Magazine #63. Photos by Sergio Pirrone.] Reporting From the…
Super-Islands
The city block is a fundamental element of urbanism. The Ancient Romans called a city block an insula, or “island”, which is…
Criticalista 