Luis Fernández-Galiano   With this issue AV/Arquitectura Viva celebrates its thirtieth anniversary. Since 1985 we have published over 400 issues and some two dozen books, organized congresses, exhibitions, and competitions, and been present in about a hundred countries, brin

Luis Fernández-Galiano   In the current crisis of architecture, the Beaux-Arts system of elements could be used for a skeptical and lyrical reconstruction of the discipline on the basis of its fundamentals.

Óscar Miguel Ares, Daniel Fernández-Carracedo   Under the umbrella of Swedish social democracy, the British Ralph Erskine was a pioneer in environmental design and participatory processes.

Peter Buchanan   Denys Lasdun, whose centenary is this year, turned his obsession for bold forms and precise construction into an ethical manifesto that is still valid today.

Eduardo Prieto   Fortunato Depero was one of the leaders of Italian futurism, but is considered a ‘minor master.’ Crouching in the shadow of Marinetti Balla or Boccioni, scoffed at for his link to fascism, Depero’s fate has been that of the part of the Italian avant-

Tim Coleridge   Recently launched conceptual designs for 360-meter-tall bamboo skyscrapers from a team of Paul Runaghan of Farrells and Jim Fleming of Buro Happold offer an exciting new use of a traditional material hailed as a ‘green steel.’ However, a simplistic r

Atelier Sacha Cotture   Philippines   Located in the Metropolitan Manila municipality of Parañaque, in one of its many low-density ‘villages’, this dwelling adopts the traditional courtyard-house type inherited from the centuries when the Philippines was a Spanish colony. Based on this

VTN Architects   Vietnam   Located in Kontum City, in the central part of Vietnam, this building within a hotel complex functions as a cafeteria for tourists and as a banquet hall for wedding receptions. It consists of two elements. The main building is designed as a simple re

Wei Sun / HWCD   China   This teahouse is located in the heart of Shiqiao Garden, one of the most beautiful places in the historic city of Yangzhou. The floating pavilion sits on a lake, with its irregular bays placed around a small open courtyard. Designed to suggest the at

Gabriel Lester   United Kingdom   Sponsored by Creative Foundation, a non-profit organization, the latest Folkestone Triennial included a selection of public art installations that went up on emblematic spots of the town during the two months the event lasted. One of them was the bam

Feldman y Quiñones   Colombia   This childhood center in Villa Rica (Colombia) is equipped with spaces for education and recreation, and provides food and health services to 200 newly born, 300 children, and 100 pregnant mothers. Financed mainly with funds from international cooper

Take note of this, architects, especially in the West: Xi Jinping does not like buildings with “weird” shapes. He stated this bluntly – and when a president of the People’s Republic of China says something bluntly, it has got to be taken seriously –

Sustainability needs rigor: this was the premise of the World SB14 congress held in Barcelona on 28, 29, and 30 October. Organized by Green Building Council España, the event brought together a good number of national and international institutions b

A ceremony was held in Mies van der Rohe’s mythical building for the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago to announce the winners of the inaugural Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize (MCHAP), an important award that the IIT will from now on be givi

Este año, que ha sido el del centenario de la I Guerra Mundial, termina con la inauguración de dos monumentos conmemorativos de aquella tragedia. El primero, del artista Paul Cummings, es una instalación que desborda, rodeándola, la barbacana de la T

The architect of Irish background David Mackay died at 81 in Barcelona, the city he settled in for good in 1958, after going through various countries and languages which, on hindsight, shaped his cosmopolitan character. His long and fertile career i

The French landscape architect Michel Corajoud, known for a long and influential professional career complemented by dedication to the École Nationale Supérieure du Paysage of Versailles, which he co-founded in 1977, died in Paris at age 77. Trained

Following in the wake of other leading Spanish architects, Antonio Ortiz and Antonio Cruz have received the Gold Medal awarded by Spain’s National Association of Architecture Institutes (CSCAE). Since they set up practice in 1970 in Seville to shortl

Given in the preceding editions to Lluís Clotet, Carlos Ferrater, and Oriol Bohigas, Spain’s National Award for Architecture this year goes to Juan Navarro Baldeweg. Born in 1939 in Santander, the architect, artist, and chair professor has around the

Luis Fernández-Galiano   In an unusual speech, Chinese President Xi Jinping condemned weird architecture, and many in the West listened in agreement. However, his call for pleasant art (“sunshine in a blue sky and a breeze in spring”), socialist and patriotic, has also spark