Luis Fernández-Galiano   Matter is today very spiritual. In a world swamped with digital images, the return to the physical, tactile humility of primary materials becomes a pilgrimage to the essential sources of construction, a path of knowledge that drains the superfluous a

David Cohn   Contemporary tectonic poetics rest on the ambiguities that arise between the physical qualities of materials and their symbolic resonances.

Li Xiaodong   China   The library is a small facility for the small locality of Huairo, situated on the outskirts of Beijing, away from the hustle and bustle of the city. Distancing from the noise and stress of the huge metropolis is reinforced by the particular choice of

Peter Zumthor   Norway   Facing the sea, a memorial made of wood, plastic and glass shelters a flame that commemorates the 17th-century burning of supposed witches on a Norwegian island. 

Kengo Kuma   Japan   Located in the southern Japanese town of Yusuhara, Yusuhara-Machino-eki is a market for local products that includes a small fifteen-room hotel. Drawing inspiration from the Cha Do – a cluster of small buildings that in the olden days would offer san

Gabinete de Arquitectura   Paraguay   La renovation of this children’s rehabilitation center was executed with the intention of taking advantage of leftover materials like ceramic rubble, placed in vaults of unique geometry.

TYIN Tegnestue   Indonesia   Wood extracted from the cinnamon tree, a Sumatran symbol, was used to build the structure of a large pergola as well as to execute the intricate details of a small training center.

Bangkok Project Studio   Thailand   The emphatic and hermetic character of the film and animation school building comes from the sculptural force of its striking walls of native red brick laid by local artisans.

Robbrecht en Daem, Marie-José Van Hee   Belgium   A new market covered by a huge roof of origamic pitches, clad with wood and glass, has served to organize one of the most emblematic spots of the historic center of Ghent.

RCR Arquitectes   Spain   At a crossroads between architecture, minimalist sculpture and landscaping, the marquee of Restaurant Les Cols generates a rich interior atmosphere through common materials.

Andrea González   The case of Japan throws light on the role that architects are able to play as mediators between the voice of the State and that of the citizenry.

Ramón Rodríguez Llera   A good part of the essential principles of architectural modernity would not be understandable without the influence of Japanese culture.

Roberto Segre   The publication of Atlas: Architectures of the 21st Century is the greatest editorial event of the first decade of this century. In 2007, under the auspices of the BBVA Foundation, Luis Fernández-Galiano printed Atlas. Global Architecture circa 2000,

Álvaro Ardura Urquiaga   A professor at City College of New York who made a name in Spain as editor of Variations on a Theme Park, Michael Sorkin presents in this third anthology of his – after Exquisite Corpse (1991) and Some Assembly Required (2001) – 76 essays that take o

Alba Carballal   Social awareness is the first step in taking political action, so in a conflict as acute as the Sahara’s, anything providing access to clear, true, updated information must be considered the most powerful of weapons. The recent publication of From Ca

José M. García-Fuentes   The architecture of Juan Navarro Baldeweg has a prominent place in the international scene not only because of the architect’s trajectory, which has unfolded with success in painting and sculpture as well, but very especially because of its peculiar

Isabel Rodríguez   Kengo Kuma belongs to the generation of Japanese architects that has known to uphold a fully modern architecture without relinquishing tradition. A defender of local values in a globalized world, Kuma has centered his work on the quality of materials

Linazasoro & Sánchez Arquitectura   Spain   While the interior of the new university campus stands out for its breadth, the exterior is fragmented to adapt to the small scale of the place, located on the old outskirts of the city of Segovia.

Eduardo Torroja, Junquera arquitectos   Spain   Fifteen years after it was closed and following a careful restoration process, the Zarzuela Hippodrome of Madrid, icon of Spain’s first budding of modernity, has again opened its doors.

Marta Álvarez Tirado   Polymeric foams can be commercialized in a relatively large number of sectors – from architectural and naval construction to food and packaging, etc. – but without a doubt one of the most important applications of these products is in the building in

Because they grow quickly, and are evidently sustainable and furthermore easy to cultivate, microalgae are becoming an alternative to the use of fossil fuels in the field of construction (see Arquitectura Viva 140). The upcoming challenge seems to be

Reinforced concrete is the most commonly used material in contemporary construction. Its use adds up to 5% of the total emissions of greenhouse gas, so one of the main challenges today when using reinforced concrete is that of improving its environme

Designed by the Boston studio Machado & Silvetti, the Global Center for Academic and Spiritual Life is a complex in the New York University campus, harboring its numerous religious associations. Not being linked to a specific creed, the symbolic

It is not unusual for star students to end up being feted with the same awards as their masters. A celebrated case in point is that of the Portuguese Eduardo Souto de Moura and Álvaro Siza, both Pritzker laureates. What is rare is the case of masters

Twelve years have passed since Cruz & Ortiz won the competition for the renovation and enlargement of Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum. During this time the Sevillian partners have had to deal not only with the predictable – the program’s complexity and t

Juhani Pallasmaa   Architecture is a hybrid and ‘impure’ discipline which, instead of being grounded in its own independent theoretical foundation, largely relies on the theoretical views of other areas of research and knowledge, The practice of architecture fuses ingr