[Originally published in The Architectural Review July/August 2018] Matola, a hamlet in the semi-desert of the southeastern Spanish province of … More
Tag: landscape
Disappearing Act: Empúries Visitor Reception Centre by Fuses-Viader Arquitectes
[Originally published in Baumeister 9/2017] As the place where Ancient Greeks first set foot on the Iberian peninsula, the archaeological … More
Everyday Camouflage in the Countryside
The building above looks like a military installation of some sort, right? After all, it’s got a camouflage pattern on … More
Design and Decadence in Sabiñanigo
The land-scars of Spain’s construction boom-gone-bust have been documented photographically to great extent. More typically than not, these images portray a landscape of newly built … More
Seeing Things
Mountain architecture is very different from its flatland counterpart. (I know this may be stating the obvious, but I’m referring … More
Pure Shit (II)
This building in the Catalan Pyrenees is a perfect example of the kind of “pure shit” that constitutes 98% of everything that is … More
Barcelona’s Disappearing Green Façades
Barcelona’s ‘green façades’ are disappearing at an alarming rate. A part of this city’s vernacular tradition, the small balconies typically used by apartment … More
Destination: Barcelona’s Renaissance Fira Hotel
[Originally published in Azure, May 2014] The elevator soars up the Hotel Renaissance Fira Barcelona, and my knees buckle beneath … More
Perspective is Everything
Same place seen from different viewpoints (Pas de la Casa, Andorra). Neon duty-free stores selling discounted liquor and cigarettes … More
Making Bullshit Mountains out of Buildings
“If architecture is landscape, buildings are mountains.” -Vicente Guallart, chief architect of the city of Barcelona and general director of Urban … More
Fashion Victim
Plastic green wall at a fashion boutique on La Rambla dels Estudis. You know green walls have become trendy when … More
Invisible Architecture: Turó de la Rovira Memory Landscape
Why is it that, in places where nothing is needed, there is often nevertheless a nagging architectural compulsion to add something … More
