Reality Check: Spain

[Text originally published in Mark Magazine #50] Revisiting architecture is always a good thing to do, especially when the work … More

Architecture’s Prime Taboo, is one of its ‘Fundamentals’, too.

Russia’s pavilion at the 14th Venice Architecture Biennale, titled ‘Fair Enough’, is one of the few exhibitions in the entire Biennale … More

Some Reflections on Concrete Formwork

Every building material symbolizes something, and the most modern building materials are no exception. Glass, we have been told, is representative … More

Skin-Deep Beauty

Rambla de Canaletes, Barcelona. 8:30 AM. The morning light is shining through the window openings of a façade that has been … More

Architecture and Status-Anxiety

Ever wondered why luxury products are advertised so heavily in mass-circulation media, even though the market for such products is … More

Perspective is Everything

Neon duty-free stores selling discounted liquor and cigarettes to ski bums already high on oxygen and speed, causing interminable traffic … More

Everything is Art

In September 2012, the fiscally and socially retrograde People’s Party governing Spain raised the value-added tax on most items to 21%, … More

Power, Corruption and Architecture

Transparency International released its annual report some weeks ago, and this year’s corruption perception index, which ranks 177 countries from least to most … More

Spanish Steps

[Originally published in Azure, Nov/Dec 2013] One thing becomes immediately apparent when approaching MediaLab-Prado. There is no confusing old with … More

Old Buildings, New Buildings

“I don’t know whether we should be designating heritage buildings.” — Frank O. Gehry Why is preserving old buildings only … More

Hotel Agbar?

Barcelona’s La Vanguardia newspaper reported three days ago that the Agbar Tower, an office building designed by Jean Nouvel and completed in … More

Product Placement / Emplazamiento publicitario

Product Placement [Originally published in Arquitectura Viva #153 under the title “Marcas y contextos”. Translation: Eduardo Prieto] “Designed by Apple … More

NO a la LSP

Spanish architecture is respected the world over, if the number of exhibitions, publications, Gaudí fans, and archi-tourists who visit this … More

Gaudí’s hanging chain models: parametric design avant la lettre?

It is known that Gaudí preferred modelling architecture over drawing it; especially models made of chains hung from a ceiling, or strings … More

Architectural Art

Art galleries and museums seem to be showing with greater frequency artworks about architecture, many of them by artists who … More

Quietly Brilliant: Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos

[Originally published in Mark Magazine #35] Fuensanta Nieto and Enrique Sobejano are truly architects’ architects. They may not be a … More

Quaderns #262: A Gut Reaction

[Originally published in Quaderns d’arquitectura i urbanisme online] Quaderns d’arquitectura i urbanisme #262 is provocatively titled “Parainfrastructures”, an invented word that … More