A Heroic Architect-Politician Exists

A previously little known architect is the topic of conversation in Spain right now. The discussion has nothing to do … More

A Guide to the Many Flags Visible in Barcelona These Days

[Originally published in Art4d Magazine] Barcelona is currently festooned with flags hanging from apartment balconies. It’s been this way especially … More

Dialectical Destinations: Two Solo Houses

[A version of this text was originally published in Baumeister December 2017] Contemporary architecture has become such an intrinsic component … More

Contemporary Ruins II

Further to my last post, here is another Spanish contemporary ruin by a Pritzker laureate: Toyo Ito’s spa near Torrevieja. … More

Contemporary Ruins

As is well-known, Spain’s recent building boom-turned-bust has left behind a legacy of halted construction projects that are now in … 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

Avoid the Void

[Originally published in Mark Magazine #60] In recent decades, architecture commemorating violent death has typically relied on a dark, austere and … 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

Tradition

It’s early January, and in Spain the Christmas shopping season is still in full swing. Aarrgghh! It’s all because of … More

Thinking Big: The City of Culture of Galicia as Regional Development Strategy

[Text originally commissioned in 2011 by a Swiss art institution for an exhibition that never materialized and for which I … More

Rebel Rebel

Al Jazeera is currently airing a series of architectural documentaries in six parts titled “Rebel Architects“, the first of which is … More

Reality Check: Spain

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

Criticism as Reality Check

As my article titled “Reality Check: Spain” in the current (at time of post) 50th issue of Mark Magazine hopefully makes clear, architecture … 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

Going Slowly: Cadaval and Solà-Morales

[Originally published in Mark Magazine #39] “Young architects” is a culturally loaded term, often conjuring notions of rebellion, utopian idealism, … More

Ill-Fitting: The Balenciaga Museum

Fashion, Architecture, Politics: Image is Everything The inauguration of a cultural institution is normally a cause for widespread celebration; even … More

Park, Shop, and Pray

Churches are architecture whereas supermarkets and parking garages are not. At least, that’s what we’ve been taught by Nikolaus Pevsner. What, then, … More