This Yearbook first appeared in 1993 in the form of a book. From 1994 on, it has come as a double issue of AV magazine. My articles were also printed, simultaneously, in the Yearbook of the newspaper El País (until its publication ceased last year),
The autumn of the West could be dusk or dawn. The depth of the crisis has bred an atmosphere of melancholic resignation, but the resulting austerity bears a promise of emotional rebirth. With everyone now an expert in the ‘dismal science,’ economic i
A specter haunts the world: the rebellion of the middle classes. In the latest episode, the cities of Brazil and Turkey have been the scene of an uprising against political and economic elites by young people summoned through social networks and prov
We cry out for transparency while clamoring for privacy. The blurred lines between public and private, however, make it hard to address these opposed demands. On the one hand, political conflict has invaded the personal lives of elected and appointed
For nationalisms, history can be either vitamin or vaccine: vitamin when a mythical past is made up to exalt the excellence of a people, vaccine when the flimsy consistency of these tales is placed under examination. Although we thought that national
Méndez Álvaro, an industrial area that is developing quickly in the south of Madrid, is the location chosen for the construction of the new headquarters of the Spanish multinational company Repsol. The new business campus consists of four buildings t
The building on Abelias street belongs to the first construction phase of a larger complex consisting of two buildings located on either side of the A-2 highway, to the northeast of Madrid. The compound spreads from one plot to another in a natu
The new building goes up on a narrow plot (32 meters of facade) on Gala Placidia square, facing a tree-lined and pedestrian space by Vía Augusta. The design focusses on three basic aspects: visibility, convertibility and communicability.
Located in the industrial area of San Cristóbal, next to the Vegueta, the historic quarter of Las Palmas, the new City of Justice is the result of a competition held in 2004. The brief described the intention of gathering all the different courts of
The competition for the construction of Logroño’s new Transportation Hub was called in 2006, a scheme comprised within a larger urban plan to bury the railway tracks as they go through the capital of La Rioja, and that also includes the construction
Torn down since the end of the 19th century in order to let the city grow, the walls surrounding Palma de Mallorca have preserved to this day a few stretches – those located closer to the sea, towards which the city could not extend further. The fift
Located up high at a vantage point and by a bend in the Duero River, the Plaza Mayor (main square) of Almazán is a clear example of ‘Castilian plaza’ in a historic center with a great landscape value. The Plaza Mayor is one of the town’s main heritag
Barcelona’s Mercat Fira de Bellcaire, popularly known as Mercat dels Encants Vells, is one of the oldest markets in Europe (some references date its origin back to the 14th century). Though in the past it was organized informally outdoors on the stre
The site’s complexity – with a fragment of the Andalusian medieval Ceuta –, the compressed character of the current city, and the marked topography encouraged to think of a unifying proposal that could make both aspects coexist. With this integrating
In an agricultural area in the region of La Noguera, Lleida, the cultural center of the Dolmen of Seró harbors multipurpose spaces, taking up the site of two abandoned vegetable gardens by the town square. In 2007 an irrigation pipeline was being bui
The Born Market was built in 1876 by the Barcelona architect Josep Fontserè (1829-1897), and functioned as the central market of the city up until 1971. In 1998 an architectural competition to build the Provincial Library inside it was called. Durin
In an old pottery center in Triana, a Sevillian neighborhood, the project includes a space for exhibitions, an interpretation center – with a deeply rooted ceramic tradition – and areas for the activities of the Cerámica Santa Ana factory. The orig
Located on the plains of the upper part of the Mandeo River basin, in the Galician municipality of Curtis – some 40 kilometers from A Coruña –, the new Ethnographic Center has a double role: an educational one, with courses and workshops; and an info
Across the Platerías facade of the Santiago de Compostela Cathedral, and nestled in the shadow of the Berenguela Tower, stands the new Museum of Pilgrimages. A part of it is incorporated into the stone facade of the Banco de España building, erected
Casa Mediterráneo is a public consortium, promoted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the AECI (Spanish Agency for International Cooperation), with the collaboration of the Valencian government and the city councils of Alicante and Benidorm. The
The scheme was determined from the outset by a double requirement: to maintain an existing building and to increase its area to adapt to the teaching and research needs of the university’s Cellular Biology and Genetics departments. Built at the begin
The project for the new municipal school of Berriozar – situated six kilometers from Pamplona – takes as point of departure the importance of architecture in teaching, taking inspiration from Louis Kahn’s words: “Schools began with a man under a tree
Located in Vereda de los Estudiantes, a neighborhood in the southern part of Leganés, this kindergarten is a place for play and for learning amid large urban blocks. The scheme resorts to elementary geometrical figures; the c
This new junior school and high school was built after a public competition for the design and construction of a school for 690 students of ages 3 to 16. This varied age range determined the project design as much as other aspects like the sloping pl
Located to the southwest of the Baix Llobregat county, in the province of Barcelona, Begues is a large municipality of wooded landscape that covers most of the Garraf Massif. It is very close to the capital, so its population has increased significan
The project won a national and open competition for the construction of 245 social housing units in El Porvenir, one of Seville’s most famous historic quarters, a high-value area located by María Luisa Park and close to Plaza de España. The proposal,
Located in Coslada, a quickly developing municipality close to Madrid, the building’s design is based on the variety of uses it combines: offices, residential, retail, public spaces at street level, public spaces on the upper floors and underground p
Between the interior of the island and the coast – only nine kilometers apart –, Sa Pobla is located north of the island of Mallorca, between the Tramontana mountain range, the Pla and Alcúdia bay. With a population of almost 13.000, the municipality
On the same plot where the Vallès School of Architecture goes up, the project won a competition in which three challenges were posed: to provide accommodation for architecture students, to achieve the Minergie Swiss energy certification (staying belo
Peter Zumthor The Basel architect Peter Zumthor received the Gold Medal that, since 1848, the RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) awards in recognition of the professional career of professionals which have had a meaningful influence, direct
David Chipperfield The Imperial House of Japan and the Japan Art Association have every year since 1989 been awarding the Praemium Imperiale, endowed with 15 million Yen (132,000 euros), to five artists in different categories. The 2013 awardees were
Toyo Ito It often happens that excelling disciples end up receiving the same prizes as their masters. This this was case of the Pritzkers of Souto de Moura and Siza for instance. It is uncommon though to see the masters pick up the award later than t
Thom Mayne Architect Thom Mayne won the 2013 AIA Gold Medal, the most important award granted by the American Institute of Architects, and which annually commends the work of professionals with a lasting influence on the theory and practice of archit
Alberto Campo Baeza Born in Valladolid, Alberto Campo Baeza picked up the Tessenow Gold Medal in Hamburg. Created in 1963 as a tribute to the German architect Heinrich Tessenow (1867-1950), the medal commends the oeuvre of architects with a sober an
Eduardo Souto de Moura The Wolf Foundation, a non-profit institution based in Israel, presents its awards since 1978 in five categories – Agriculture, Chemistry, Mathematics, Medicine and Physics. In the Arts, the prize rotates around four discipline
Thomas Beeby The Richard H. Driehaus Prize, an annual award endowed with $200,000 and granted since 2003 by the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, went in 2013 to Thomas Beeby. Born in 1941 in Oak Park (Illinois), Beeby was part of the Chicago Seve
Castillo de Astley The Stirling Prize, given every year by the RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) to the best buildings by British architects in the European Union, went to Witherford Watson Mann for the refurbishment of Astley Castle in Wa
Harpa Building The Harpa Concert Hall in Reykjavik, by the Danish studio Henning Larsen Architects with the artist Olafur Eliasson and the local studio Batteríid won the 2013 Mies van der Rohe Award. The biennial award, endowed with 60,000 euros, ack
15 Works Awarded The 12th edition of the BEAU (Spanish Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism) chose to commend a group category of fifteen works, divided into five categories. The first one – reconversion projects – included the Cineteca in Matadero
Rijksmuseum Promoted by the Spanish Architecture Forum of the CSCAE (Spanish Council of Architectural Institutes), the awards for international Spanish architecture were presented by the Prince of Asturias in a ceremony held at Madrid’s Sen
Seró Barrow / Sever do Vouga School Toni Gironès, for his Cultural Center in the Megalithic Dolmen of Seró in Artesa de Segre (Lleida), and the Portuguese Pedro Domingos, for the School in Sever do Vouga (Portugal), shared the FAD Award for Architect
1921 - 2013 The ‘grand dame of architecture criticism,’ Huxtable was perhaps the best example of this category of critics that is so scarce in Europe, but that are prominent figures in the US: that of intellectuals that, in the wake of Lewis Mumford,
1926 - 2013 While working at the office of ‘devastated regions’ of Córdoba, the recent graduate Francisco Coello de Portugal felt his religious calling and decided to join the Dominican order. He was aware that the transition from civil to religious
1919 - 2013 Working with Wright at Taliesin West, the Turin architect Paolo Soleri discovered two things: that he found the Arizona desert fascinating, and that he did not share his master’s passion for automobiles. These two discoveries were a lifel
1926 -2013 Raised in Budapest, Korab (birthname Boldizsár) is one of the pioneers of modern architectural photography. His work, comparable to that of masters like Ezra Stoller, clearly reflects his architectural training, initiated in Hungary but in
1932 - 2013 Though he never raised a building, the photographer and editor Yukio Futagawa was one of key figures of modern architecture in Japan. He was born in 1932 in Osaka, where he studied architecture and took an interest in vernacular construct
1923 - 2013 After completing his high-school studies in 1942, Ulrich Conrads was sent to the trenches, where we was wounded several times and fought until Germany’s surrender. After the war he completed his training at the Marburg Institute of Art Hi
1925 - 2013 Henning Larsen passed away in Copenhagen a few weeks after receiving the Mies van der Rohe Award for the Harpa Concert Hall in Reykjavik. A graduate of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, trained under another illustrious Dane, Jørn Ut
1923 - 2013 Born in Naples, Clorindo Testa moved to Buenos Aires when he was only one year old. Although he maintained his ties with Italy, he always considered himself Argentinian; in fact, his relationship with the capital was so tight that some ev
1919 - 2013 Born at the end of the Mexican Revolution, and fated to become a lawyer, Pedro Ramírez Vázquez decided to study architecture persuaded by Carlos Pellicer, who talked to him about the city as a space for interaction. Ramírez Vázquez, one o
1931 - 2013 The Chilean architect and critic Christian De Groote studied at the Pontificia Universidad Católica, and thanks to a Fulbright scholarship he completed his training at the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1959. Back in Chile, and imbue
1934 - 2013 One of the most prestigious critics of Latin American architecture, Roberto Segre was born in Milan in 1934, but his family moved to Buenos Aires in 1939, escaping Mussolini’s dictatorship. Though Segre studied architecture in Buenos Aire
1926 - 2013 Javier Carvajal Ferrer was born in Barcelona on the same year, 1926, that Antoni Gaudí died. Carvajal studied architecture during the dull early years of Franco’s rule, and already then forged his firm commitment to modernity, as expresse
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