Vector Architects, Jingyang Camphor Court Hotel, Jingdezhen (China)

In the arena between traditionalism and imported architecture, Gong Dong had the wisdom to find virtue in the middle way, and by combining his local training with a fruitful sojourn in America he has managed to tie contemporary ideas and forms to eternal values of his country. This delicate approach to design, crystallized in atmospheric scenes, is what a selection of five buildings by his studio, all in his native land, seeks to illustrate.

The issue’s dossier presents refurbishments carried out to adapt pieces of industrial heritage for cultural purposes: the Kunstsilo Museum in Kristiansand (Norway), by the trio of Barcelona practices comprising Mestres Wåge, Mendoza Partida, and BAX Studio; the Automatic Mills Silo in Pardubice (Czech Republic), by Prokš Přikryl architekti; and Atelier LUMA in Arles, by Assemble and BC Architects & Studies.

In the Art and Culture chapter, Oliver Wainwright – architecture critic of The Guardian – recounts the turbulent history of the extension of London’s National Gallery, triggered by a rare discovery made during the current renovation; and Luis Martínez of El Mundo writes on one of the highlights of the recent Venice Film Festival, The Brutalist, which tells the story of a Jewish architect who emigrates to the United States after World War II. The usual News and Books sections are complemented with an extract from the latest book of the historian Juan Francisco Fuentes, in which he analyzes the influence of American culture on the changing scene of 1920s Madrid.