The Protagonists of 2011 were an abyss and a clamor: the abyss into which European economies threaten to sink, struck by the debt and euro crises, in a fall that would affect the United States and even the booming emerging countries; and the clamor o
The physical tsunami of Japan and the lustrate the contrast between the exemplarity of peoples and the corruption of elites. Above all, they have thrown light on the fragility of our material and social architectures. Two civilizations have each init
The city of Cartagena has undergone an intense transformation process involving the refurbishment of a decaying historic center and the construction of new infrastructures to attract tourism. The Auditorium and Congress Center El Batel is a key piece
This new building, which goes up in Águilas, a town in southern Murcia that is very close to Andalusia, is one of the last fruits of the decade of prosperity that Spain experienced prior to the financial crisis. It rests on the ground as if it were a
In Algueña, a small town in the province and an economy based on agriculture and the marble industry, a new public building will gather all the town’s activities related to music and culture. Music bands have a long tradition in the region of Valenci
Located up high on the Paseo de la Alameda, the building has a vantage position within the city center, from which it enjoys views of the whole promenade and of the fishing port of Tarifa. The plot has a slightly uneven shape with two clearly differe
Conceived as the fusion of a museum and a park and connected by a series of green spaces in the city, the new building is buried and with its green roof creates a prairie with a sinuous pedestrian path. This green surface is pierced by a group of cyl
THE BOHEMIAN neighborhood of El Raval has a long history of conflict. Over the last decades, the Barcelona City Council has promoted several interventions to improve safety and in this way ensure that this area close to landmarks like Las Ramblas or
Located by the Ebro River, this building’s objective is to give a friendly image of the nuclear power station in the town of Ascó, Tarragona. The interpretation center will welcome around 3.000 visitors per year, which will receive information about
To build in the voids of the historic city means settling into them, finding space in the openings and porous areas that have taken shape over time. The early 19th-century architecture of the old slaughterhouse of Medina Sidonia is made up of a dense
THE HOSPITAL of the Instituto Cartuja de Técnicas Avanzadas en Medicina (ICTAM, or Cartuja Institute for Advanced Techniques in Medicine) goes up on the north section of this Sevillian island. The complex, located between two parallel streets running
The new Rey Juan Carlos Hospital redefines conventional healthcare spaces, departing from the preestablished patterns appropriate to its typology. Though this approach focusses mainly on the reorganization and optimization of the program, it also e
The center for Biomedical Research of the Hospital of Navarre is located on aperipheral urban block in the city of Pamplona, occupied by a large health complex with 19th- century structures. Adapting to the rectangular subdivision of the plot, it ta
On a hillside of the Coll Cardús mountain massif, in the municipality of Vacarisses, the new Waste Treatment Facility goes up on the terrains previously taken up by a controlled waste landfill site. The state of the old landfill, which was abou
After the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, the Church of Riberas de Loyola – promoted by the bishop of Donostia-San Sebastián in the new neighborhood under development along the meander of the Urumea River – was a new experience in the field of r
The church of Santísimo Redentor (Most Holy Redeemer) is devoted to the episode of the biblical narration. Located in a plain residential area of San Cristóbal de La Laguna, the second largest city in the island of Tenerife, the fractured volumes of
THE NEW office building of the ProvincialGovernment of Zamora faces the challenge of adjusting to one of the key environments in Zamora, the Plaza de Viriato. This new facility had to round off the square, becoming the fourth facade of a complex made
The intervention carried out in Baeza included the restoration, refurbishment and extension of the old Town Hall. The complex, located in the historic center, had a Renaissance style attributed to the Vandelvira school andma stately staircase that ha
THE SO-CALLED ‘Palmeral de las Sorpresas’ (palm grove of surprises) restores the relationship between Málaga and the sea. The port, which has gone through periods of growth and stagnation, has marked the history of the city since its foundation by Ph
This work was inaugurated almost as an epilogue of the real estate bubble, as asymbol of what happened in Spain during the first decade of the 21st century. Its voluptuous and striking forms therefore constitute a belated paradigm of the era of arc
LOCATED ON the southern slope of Molinete hill, in the municipality of Cartagena, the project’s purpose is to protect a group ofarchaeological remains and to wrap up the urban border at the foot of the hill. Molinete, one of the five hills that chara
IN THE TOWN of Ripoll (Gerona) a core-ten steel enclosure has transformed an empty plot amid party walls, once occupied by a theater that has been demolished, into a new public facility that acts as a plaza, bridge and gate of access to the historic
THESE NEW social dwellings built in the Atocha neighborhood, north of Méndez Álvaro street, propose a contrast with the homogeneous scheme that characterizes the urban blocks raised in the area. Parallel to the railway tracks as they reach Atocha St
The absence of urban references or of an established residential activity in the new peripheral developments demands setting new guidelines for projects in these areas. In this case, the entropic landscape of the Ensanche de Vallecas determines
This building helps to cover the demand for housing in the Parc Mediterrani de la Tecnologia (PMT), a new university campus in the metropolitan area of Barcelona, in the municipality of Castelldefels. The campus is organized inside a ring-shaped
THE HOUSE of the Xuklis is a residence for the relatives of children diagnosed with cancer and under treatment in Barcelona hospitals. The project, an initiative of AFANOC (association of relatives and friends of children undergoing oncological trea
David Chipperfield The London architect David Chipperfield has received the RIBA Gold Medal 2011, thus obtaining the most important recognition for a British architect in his country. The RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) had previously di
Ricardo Legorreta Endowed with 15 million Yen (over 150,000 euros), the Praemium Imperiale of the Japan Art Association is given yearly, since 1989, o five artists in the categories of painting, sculpture, architecture, music, and cinemaor
Eduardo Souto de Moura The second Portuguese architect to win the Pritzker Prize – the first was his mentor Álvaro Siza, laureate in 1992 –, Eduardo Souto de Moura began his solo professional career in 1980 – year of project of the Carandá Municipal
Fumihiko Maki In the 67th edition of its Gold Medal, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) has distinguished the work of the Fumihiko Maki (Tokyo, 1928). After Kenzo Tange and Tadao Ando, Maki – Pritzker Prize laureate in 1993 – will be the thi
Álvaro Siza The maximum recognition of the UIA – the Gold Medal – has gone in 2011 to Álvaro Siza. Aside from Siza, in its triennial prizes the UIA has also awarded the American Kenneth Frampton and the Mexican Louise Noelle Gras, ex-aequo winners of
Wang Shu Founder with Lu Wenyu of the Hangzhou-based firm Amateur Architecture Studio, established in 1997, the Chinese architect Wang Shu has received the Grand Médaille d’Or from the French Architecture Academy. Wang Shu’s work belongs to a minorit
Robert A.M. Stern The Driehaus Prize, awarded by the University of Notre Dame in Indiana to a living architect whose work reflects the principles of traditional and classical architecture, has gone to Robert A.M. Stern (New York, 1939). As an archite
Evelyn Grace Academy, London Awarded yearly by the Royal Institute of British Architects, the Stirling Prize is worth 20,000 pounds sterling, and distinguishes the work of British architects in the European Union. For two years in a row the prize ha
Neues Museum, Berlín Presented every two years, the Mies van der Rohe Award for Contemporary Architecture prizes the quality of architectural production in Europe. In the 2011 edition the prize has gone to the restoration of the Neues Museum of Berli
130 Social Dwellings, Mieres The Architecture Award of the XI Spanish Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism has gone to the 131 social dwellings in Mieres (Asturias) by Zigzag, the studio of David Casino and Bernardo Angelini (see AV Monographs 147-
Paseo Marítimo de Benidorm The CSCAE (Spanish Association of Architecture Institutes) has presented the Spanish Architecture Award 2011 to the Benidorm Waterfront (Alicante), by architects Carlos Ferrater and Xavier Martí (see AV Monographs 141-142).
Atrio Hotel in Cáceres and Two Houses in Lisbon “A suggestive reinterpretation of the traditional spatial structure of the city houses gives the project great perceptive richness and allows establishing a simple and wise relationship with the climat
1929-2011 Historian and archaeologist specialized in Islamic art and architecture, Oleg Grabar was born in Strasbourg and studied in Paris and in Harvard. Son of André Grabar, expert in Byzantine culture, his own academic researches drew him in the 1
1925-2011 Born in Málaga – city to which his father, a chemist from Leipzig, moved for health reasons – Carlos Pfeifer moved with his family to Granada in 1932, and in 1952 he graduated from the Barcelona School of Architecture. From the beginning of
1949-2011 Deceased at the age of 62 in a light aircraft crash in Asturias with his business partner, the also architect Jacek Syropolski, the Polish Stefan Kurylowicz was one of the main protagonists of the radical change that Warsaw experienced afte
1945-2011 The career of the urbanist Juan Luis Dalda was forged at the schools of architecture of Madrid and Berlin, but his early affiliation to the PCE (Spanish communist party), which he would leave to focus his commitment on the improvement of we
1947-2011 Engineer and urbanist, Ramón Fernández Durán was above all an important theorist and activist in the field of social ecology and, in the last years, a referent of the anti-globalization currents. Since his participation in the anti-Franco m
1931-2011 Antonio Miró was born in Madrid, but studied architecture in Barcelona, graduating in 1958. He often collaborated with other architects, like Ricardo Bofill, Emilio Donato, Jaime Verdaguer, José Serrano-Suñer or Ramón Tort, aside from compl
1931-2011 Mexico’s most famous contemporary architect studied in the country’s National University, from which he graduated in 1952. After collaborating with José Villagrán, Legorreta established his studio in 1960 with Noé Castro and Carlos Vargas a
1921-2011 Alyocha Josic known as Alexis Josic, was born in Stari Becej, Yugoslavia (current Serbia). He studied in Belgrade, first painting at the National School of Fine Arts (founded by his father, Mladen Josic), and later architecture, graduating
1935-2011 Author of the unique wood and slate pavilion with which Hungary participated in the Universal Expo of Seville in 1992, Imre Makovecz trained as an architect in Budapest. His critical view of the Communist regime first and, after its demise
1949-2011 Ralph Lerner, former Dean of the schools of architecture of Princeton University (1989-2006) and of the University of Hong Kong (2006-2011), studied architecture at The Cooper Union and Harvard. After several years of training with Haus-Rüc
1928-2011 A pure rationalist, Eleuterio Población Knappe was born in Huelva and graduated from the Madrid School of Architecture. Among his first projects were the Watefront Promenade of Tenerife and the Savings Bank of Seville, although most of his
1913-2011 Faithful representative of the principles of the Modern Movement and admirer of Mies van der Rohe, the Argentinian Mario Roberto Álvarez became acquainted with the architecture of the avant-gardes in 1938 when, after graduating with Gold Me
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