Multiple multitudes took the stage during a convulsive year: hopeful multitudes, with the huge Women’s Day demonstrations in March, in the wake of the #MeToo movement and the Gay Pride parades; identitarian multitudes of national exaltation, which s
The selfish giant of Oscar Wilde’s popular short story closed his garden to the children, and with them the spring went away. The technological titans of our days control ever more exclusive domains, but their reckless behavior can bring winter to th
The title of the poem by Rubén Darío, ‘The Optimist’s Greeting,’ is a good way to introduce two recent works by prominent ‘new optimists’: Enlightenment Now, the latest book of the media-savvy Harvard professor Steven Pinker, explains the thesis that
Is the city the key to our times? So think both the British theoretical physicist Geoffrey West, who proposes replacing the current term Anthropocene with the more geographic Urbanocene, and the American economist Richard Florida, for whom our greate
The yellow vests have made visible those who were invisible. The France of the peripheries has rallied in the very heart of Paris, and the political surge of populations left out by globalization has been met with as much surprise as the Brexit refer
The Santa Elvira sugar refinery was, since the early 20th century until its closing in 1992, one of the key economic motors of the city. The site where the old factory building was located was the place designated for the construction of the new Conv
The Sant Antoni Market, completed in 1882 according to the project by the architect Antoni Rovira i Trias and the engineer Josep Maria Cornet i Mas, is one of the most emblematic public buildings in Barcelona’s Ensanche. Since its construction, the s
The project sets out to refurbish the Sant Julià de Ramis castle, a military fortress raised at the end of the 19th century, and that is located in the town of the same name, close to Girona. The ensemble was closed down in 1970, and was gradually ab
At the end of the 19th century, the textile industry of the town of Callús flourished and developed along the Cardener River, which became the center of activity. As a consequence, both the small castle of Godmar and the church of Sant Sadurní fell g
A work of Enric Batlle, Joan Roig, and Iván Sánchez, the track called the Camino de las Guixeres is part of a larger project for the Igualada Green Ring, the objective of which is to generate a series of footpaths and bicycle lanes around the city’s
Globalization also affects urban planning by imposing on it too a loss of the contextual and social values that are transferred to plans and buildings. In this way, the spaces let go of their referential qualities, traditions, landscapes or memory to
The partial intervention at the Centro San Francisco Javier is part of a larger master plan, developed in several phases with the purpose of remodelling and updating this psychogeriatric center on the outskirts of Pamplona. The complex, built in the
The Granada Metro construction works, which began in 2007, involved building a single rail line crossing the city, connecting it with several towns in the metropolitan area and linking many of its key activity hubs and sites. This infrastructure cove
Three starting points: understanding the historic value of Lleialtat Santsenca (1928), an old working class cooperative in the Sants neighborhood; knowing to the detail the building’s (physical) state to maintain as much as possible; and being sensit
Fernández-Abascal + Muruzabal, Alonso / Barrientos and Pesquera Ulargui arquitectos have carried out an overhaul of the Church of the Main Seminary of the Pontifical University of Comillas (Cantabria). Construction of the seminary began in 1881 and
Working from offices in Alicante, Elche, and Albacete, the firm COR Asociados Arquitectos – headed by Miguel Rodenas and Jesús Olivares – has turned one of the oldest buildings of the University of Alicante into a home for its natural collections. Wi
For almost five decades now, the agricultural machinery repais company Gon-Gar has been located in the compact urban area of Benisanet, a town in Catalonia’s Ribera d’Ebre county. The Catalan firm Nua arquitectures – Ferran Tiñena, Arnau Tiñena, and
The Lycée Français has two centers in the city: the main campus in Pedralbes and another one for preschool in the Bonanova neighborhood. The renovation of the preschool building – which had undergone several alterations over the years, resulting in t
The neighborhood of Arcosur is the first residential expansion towards the south of Zaragoza. The building is located on one of the structuring axes of the area, and it is the first public facility completed there, so these two aspects together give
The construction of the Es Puig d’en Valls center started out with the design of a metallic structure to cover two existing outdoor sports grounds in this town near Santa Eulària des Riu, on the east side of the island of Ibiza. During this first con
In the year 2011, Tarragona was chosen as the host city for the 18th edition of the Mediterranean Games. Located in the new olympic ring west of the city, the Palau d’Esports Catalunya – with capacity for 5.000 spectators – was one of the main venues
The building for the Research Institute of the Santa Creu i Sant Pau Hospital concentrates the research activity of this foundation, previously scattered throughout the hospital complex. The proposal is located on the northeast end of the ensemble de
Villa Urania is a small residence from the late 19th century – home of the astronomer Josep Comas i Solà (1868-1937) –, the last example of the garden-city of El Farró in the Sarrià-Sant Gervasi district. The redensification of the neighborhood left
In 2016 the architecture studio elii won the competition to transform a building of the Save the Children Foundation – located in the San Diego quarter of Vallecas, in Madrid – into a childcare center. The proposal is based on the addition of a new
The refurbishment of the Intelhorce (Industrias Textiles del Guadalhorce) complex pursues transforming the place into a new logistic center for the company Mayoral Moda Infantil. The old building is recovered preserving its spectacular interior space
The dwellings are located in Realejo, an old Jewish ‘arrabal’ (a group of houses outside the city center) and one of the most emblematic quarters of Granada. This area, at the foot of the Alhambra, has a steep topography, and some of its urban blocks
Located in the Madrid neighborhood of Adelfas, in the southern edge of the Retiro district, close to the stations of Atocha and Méndez Álvaro, the construction of the project was commissioned after a competition called by Acciona Inmobiliaria. The re
The building goes up in the neighborhood of Bolueta, by the Nervión River, on a plot previously occupied by several constructions related to the steel industry. In 2005 a project was launched to regenerate the area with the construction of seven larg
This residential development is located close to the transportation hub of Les Glòries – currently under construction and set to become a space for people, as well as a large green lung for the city of Barcelona. Coll-Leclerc’s project proposes an in
Kenneth Frampton Kenneth Frampton (London, 1930) was in May awarded the Golden Lion of the 16th Venice Architecture Biennale. In the words of the exhibition curators, Grafton Architects, the British historian and architect represents the “humanistic
Christian de Portzamparc The career of the ‘child prodigy’ of architecture in the 1980s, Christian de Portzamparc, who picked up the Pritzker Prize in 1994 (he was just 50, and the first French laureate), has been irregular. For this reason, the awar
The Hyatt Foundation awarded the Pritzker Prize 2018 to Balkrishna Doshi, master and teacher of several generations of Indian architects, aside from link between modernity in Europe and modernity in India. Born in Pune in 1927 and trained with Le Cor
James Stewart Polshek The American Institute of Architects (AIA) gave its Gold Medal to James Stewart Polshek, whose career the jury described as a combination of “design excellence, effective collaboration and rigorous research work in concert to cr
Denise Scott Brown Denise Scott Brown has won the Soane Medal, awarded annually by the Sir John Soane Museum to “architects who have made a major contribution to their field, through their built work, through education, history and theory,” and who h
Bloomberg Headquarters, London Awarded every year by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), the Stirling Prize distinguishes the best works built by British architects or studios in the European Union. In 2018 the award went to the Bloombe
Elisa Valero Since its creation in 2007, the Swiss Architectural Award promoted by the Swiss Architectural Foundation with the Accademia di architettura of Mendrisio has become one of the most important architecture prizes, distinguishing emerging pr
Alberto Campo Baeza In 2018, the internationally acclaimed architect Alberto Campo Baeza was conceded the Piranesi Prix de Rome Career Achievement Award, joining the ranks of previous laureates like Eduardo Souto de Moura in 2017, José Ignacio Linaza
Manuel Gallego Manuel Gallego Jorreto, born in Carballiño (Ourense), in 1936, has received the Spanish National Architecture Award promoted by the Ministry of Public Works, a distinction it bestows annually to “pay a tribute of admiration to an archi
Edificio E, University of Piura The Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize is given biennally by the College of Architecture of the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) to acknowledge the best buildings raised in the Americas. The jury of the 2018 MCHAP –
Teopanzolco Cultural Center With the objective of rebalancing the gravity center of architectural production – tilted towards Europe and Asia –, the REDBAAL (Latin American network of architecture biennials) created in 2016 the Oscar Niemeyer Prize,
Formentera Housing The FAD Award 2018 in the Architecture category selected the project Life Reusing Posidonia in Sant Ferran (Formentera), by Carles Oliver, Antonio Martín, Joaquín Moyá, Alfonso Reina, and Maria Antònia Garcías. The jury, presided b
1929-2018 Neave Brown, pioneer of modern social housing in the United Kingdom, passed away, at 88, on 9 January 2018. Born from a British father in Utica (New York) in 1929, Brown emigrated soon to the United Kingdom. He studied at London’s Architect
1947-2018 Born in Northampton, England, on 12 December 1947, William Allen Alsop – Will Alsop – passed away on 12 May 2018. Trained in London at the Architectural Association, Alsop showed signs of his creative talent early on when, at just 23, he ca
1938-2018 The architect Paul Andreu passed away on 11 October. He was a great specialist in infrastructures and directed one of the largest French studios, and with greater international presence. Trained at the École Polytechnique, where he graduate
1925-2018 Robert Venturi, one of the most influential architectural theorists of the second half of the 20th century, died in his home city of Philadelphia, aged 93. He graduated from Princeton University and spent three years under a grant at the Am
1932-2018 Perhaps one of the last great French intellectuals, Paul Virilio died on 10 September at the age of 86. Strongly influenced by the destruction his home region of Brittany suffered after the Normandy landings (“war was my university,” he sai
1910-2018 The Italian art critic, painter, and philosopher Gillo Dorfles passed away on 2 March in Milan, at the extroardinary age of 107 years. A medical school graduate, Dorfles was committed from a very young age with the avant-garde currents of h
1922-2018 The artist, designer, and philosopher of technique Tomás Maldonado died in Milan on 26 November, shortly after the passing of his wife, Inge Feltrinelli. He was 96 years old, an almost patriarchal age that attested to his status as mythica
1938-2018 The sociologist Mario Gaviria passed away in Zaragoza on 7 April, about to turn 80. He was a social activist and pioneer of urban sociology in our country. Gaviria studied Law in Zaragoza and Economy and Sociology in France and the UK. When
1944-2018 On 14 May, at 74 years of age, Antoni Ubach i Nuet passed away in Barcelona. The architect and founder, together with his inseparable partner Miquel Espinet, of Espinet / Ubach Arquitectes, graduated from the Barcelona School of Architectur
1950-2018 On 24 August, after a long illness, Antonio González Cordón, one of the key figures of contemporary Sevillian architecture, died in his home city. He graduated from the Seville School of Architecture (ETSAS) in 1975, and completed his PhD i
1942-2018 Born in Elche on 23 October 1942, Vicente Verdú passed away in Madrid on 21 August. Verdú was a journalist, a poet, and a painter, and was fascinated by architecture. Doctor is Social Sciences by the Sorbonne, he made rigor compatible with
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