Luis Fernández-Galiano   Europe renews itself. Deeply conscious of its age, the old continent tries to rejuvenate with the assimilation of abundant demographic transfusions, the refurbishment of its urban fabric and the regeneration of its sclerotic institutions. This econom

Francisco Torres   Spain   Close to Córdoba’s fortress, just a few blocks away from the Mosque, the Martyr’s cemetery conceals beneath it the remains of a rich complex of halls that presumably integrated the baths of the Arab fortress. Discovered in 1903, the site was dug out

AH Alonso & Hernández   Spain   Of barely two thousand inhabitants, Fitero is one of the most visited towns of Navarre. Its greatest touristic attraction is the Cistercien monastery of Santa María la Real, whose construction started in the 12th century. Among the auxiliary spaces w

Jabornegg & Pálffy Architects   Austria   Aside from the atrocities of the Nazi regime, the city of Vienna witnessed in the 15th century a wave of anti-Semitism that ended with the Jewish quarter in 1420 and also with one of the greatest synagogues in Europe. After using the stones of its wa

Martínez Lapeña & Elías Torres   Spain   In the renovation of this house whose main facade looks onto the street San Doménech de Call, in the very heart of Barcelona’s Gothic quarter, bridges serve to connect the past, the present and the future. Ever since its construction – which dates ba

Italo Rota   Italy   The center of Peruggia rises above an amalgam of built remains that date back to the first settlers of Umbria. The Etruscans and Romans also left their trace in this conglomerate of stone that bears witness to a history characterized by conflict. Roc

João Luís Carrilho da Graça   Portugal   Built up on a rock, overlooking the Tagus river and the city of Lisbon, the Palace of Belem is a complex of gardens, terraces, fountains and pavilions that have gradually extended around the original building: a convent built in the 16th century and

Daniel Gómez-Valcárcel   Spain   The walls of this building (whose construction started in 1641 and which served as comedy house and inn at the beginning of the 17th century, to become a town hall in the 19th century), bear witness to a wounded memory: the pathologies shown shortly

John Pawson   United Kingdom   Better known in past times for its agriculture and stockbreeding, Essex is a region to the northwest of London that due to its landscape and the increasing price of housing in the capital is now becoming the place of residence of many artists and fre

Álvaro Siza   Belgium   In the horizontal and rectilinear landscape of the polders, the farms establish the only elements of reference in a predictable territory marked by the regular geometry of the roads and the sewage canals. To the west of Belgium, and searching precise

Belgium   The mining complex of Grand-Hornu, in the Belgian region of Wallonia, forms part of that vast geography of coalmining the extends from the German basins of the Emscher and the Ruhr to Lille and Tourcoing in France. Its origin dates back to 1783 and i

Jean Nouvel   France   The Cognac-Jaycouple amassed an immense fortune in the business of large department stores and in the French capital they raised some memorable buildings such as La Samaritaine, which stands today on the shore of the Seine River, by Pont Neuf. Like m

Jan Störmer   Germany   Perhaps due precisely to its success, the port of Hamburg has taken its time to start reusing its installations for new purposes unrelated to sea transport activities. But the transfer of the large container terminals to the southern shore of the Elb

Renzo Piano Building Workshop   Italy   The old sugar refinery of Eridania is the largest building in an industrial area close to the historic center of Parma currently in process of reconversion. The refinery took up a series of buildings – of different size and structural characteristics

Neutelings Riedijk Architects   Belgium   Up until the seventies, the Arenberg Institute housed the Department of Chemistry of the University of Leuven. After years of gradual deterioration, at the end of the nineties the complex was leased by the University to the Stuk Arts Center, which wa

Brückner & Brückner Architekten   Germany   An artificial canal of the river Main structures the area of the old fluvial port of of Würzburg, a university campus to the south of Germany surrounded by vineyards. Immerse in a process of renovation that follows the line of recovery of industrial

Mansilla + Tuñón   Spain   Very close to Atocha station, the old El Águila brewery is a reflection of the recent past of Arganzuela, today a residential district in the south of Madrid that was once characterized by its industrial fabric. The construction of its main buildings

De Architectengroep   Netherlands   The conversion of an old grain silo into an architectural studio has been an invasion in phases, a floor by floor conquest. As so many other port buildings from the beginnings of the 20th century, the Westerdokhuis was a grain shed that, after fallin

Lanoire & Courrian   France   Within the plan to contain its sprawling suburbs, Bordeaux has started a program of urban renovation that, on the one hand, aims at recovering traditional neighborhoods such as Saint Jean Belcier, Bordeaux Nord and La Bastide, and on the other, at re

Lacaton & Vassal   France   Before the completion of the Centre Georges Pompidou in 1974, the Contemporary Arts Museum was in the Palais de Tokyo, a large building raised on the banks of the river Seine on occasion of the 1937 World Fair. Once the collections had been moved, di

HRTB | Arkitekter   Norway   With its shores occupied by all sorts of sheds and factories, the river Aker has been at the same time witness and also the driving force behind the industrial development that has taken place in Oslo from the 18th century. Since these constructions

Mark Leonard   The European Union’s obsession with legislation is usually taken as a sign of weakness – a foil to the pyrotechnic might of the US military machine. But take a closer look: the bureaucrats in Brussels have been busy creating a new political space tha

This identity project was conceived by the Dutch architect and the branch of his office devoted to theoretical projects for their discussion during the work sessions organized by the president of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, centered on the