Ukrainian Urbicide. Spurred by its journalistic spirit, Arquitectura Viva presents recent events and society's reactions to the war being waged on Ukraine through a semi-monographic issue that takes stock of its impact beyond the strictly architectur

Luis Fernández-Galiano   This issue has had three consecutive presentations, and none in the end, because this text barely explains a process. After the optimism of January, looking up in awe to imagine the James Webb telescope deploying in space, the gaze had to be brought

Luis Fernández-Galiano   The crisis of Ukraine reproduces the sleepwalking carnival of the political elites that did not manage to prevent the outbreak of the Great War. Barbara Tuchman published in 1962 a masterly account of the 31 days that led to tragedy in 1914, The Guns

Luis Fernández-Galiano   The devastation of Ukrainian cities like Kharkov, also seen in the dramatic sieges of Kiev or Mariupol, brings to mind the Balkan urbicides or the later destructions of Grozny in Chechnya or Aleppo in Syria. The tanks of February

Luis Fernández-Galiano   The tragic development of the war, with the urban destruction, the flood of refugees, and the nuclear threats, brings up alternative pasts that may have prevented the drama.

During the siege of Kyiv, eyes have fallen upon a recondite corner of its outskirts: Babyn Yar, a reminder of the worst deeds that humankind is capable of, has suffered collateral damage in the rain of Russian missiles, and a miraculously unscathed b

Manuel Herz   Ukraine   In the place that witnessed one of the most ruthless massacres of Jews, now again the scene of bellic insanity, a small house of prayer remembers the dead and calls for reconciliation.

Manuel Herz   Germany   In the absence of a clearly defined typological tradition in relation to synagogues, the project connects with Jewish hermeneutics to exalt the written word as an ornamental element.

Vladimir Belogolovsky   The paralysis of Ukraine on account of the war has an echo in Russia itself, thanks to the sanctions interrupting its urban and cultural boom.

Jean-Louis Cohen   A recent journey through the principal cities of the country was a stocktaking of Ukraine’s rich heritage, now under threat of Russian bombardments.

Slavoj Žižek   Ucrania es ahora el escenario de la interminable lucha entre las grandes potencias por afianzar el control en sus esferas de influencia.

Luis Fernández-Galiano   The memoirs of Ai Weiwei are an extraordinary political and artistic document. His 1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows incorporate the biographical journey of his father, the great poet Ai Qing (1910-1995), into his own; and throw light on the creative pr

Alejandro Bernabeu   Vancouver is on territory that is hard to get to. That part of British Columbia is one of North America’s roughest regions. The city lies in the Fraser River delta, protected by Vancouver Island, the Strait of Georgia, and the abrupt Pacific coast. F

Abel Fernández   From the time that Sigfried Giedion established his generational theory of Modernity – that major bang on the table that was determined to be a tabula rasa – the idea of heritage was ready to put in an appearance. As the discourse of Modernity over t

David Escudero   At one of the last tributes to Frank Lloyd Wright in Italy, he was asked about the country’s modern architecture and he replied: “But does modern architecture exist in Italy?” Fulvio Irace gave a satisfactory retort in 1996 with the first edition of

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Arquitectura Viva came into being when the Berlin Wall still stood, and in the three long decades since, it has given testimony of the seismic upheavals that the geopolitical architecture of the planet has suffered. From the first project of the Jewi

Luis Fernández-Galiano   The first victim of wars is usually truth; in the Balkans, the first casualty has been memory. Physical and genetic genocide goes with urban and cultural genocide; the extermination of populations and mass deportations happen in simultaneity with the

Luis Fernández-Galiano   11-S coincided with the opening of Berlin’s Jewish Museum, linking two historical tragedies that show the fragility of human domestication.

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Wars destroy individual lives and collective symbols in equal parts. In the conflict that is closing in on the Near East, the terrible threat of urban bombings is cynically softened with the promise to respect the despot’s monuments, but the victims

Luis Fernández-Galiano   The Chicago skyline with the tower designed by Calatrava; opposite, Shanghai with the ‘opener’ skyscraper by KPF and, below, a view of the Burj Dubai, which will be the world’s tallest building, in progress. The 20th century ended

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Terror is a serious game. As much in the ‘mutually assured destruction’ of the Cold War as in the asymmetrical conflicts of the past two decades, fear has been the board on which the pieces of the political game have moved. Agents and victims at the

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Crimea is not critical; Ukraine is. On its territory we shall witness a struggle that will shape the future of Russia and of Europe. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia suffered a catastrophic decade of demographic, economic,

The house has traditionally been a promising ecosystem for young architects. Straight out of university, inexperienced and with not much to show for on their agendas, ‘newby’ professionals look for work wherever they can, and renovations of the homes

P + S Estudio de Arquitectura   Spain   The renovation of a modest apartment that dates back to 1850 pursues maximum flexibility in order to fit in a wide-ranging program, in the process trying to make the most of its good orientations.

Hanghar   Spain   The dwelling refrains from adopting a pre-set layout, instead organizing itself in four isotropic rooms, which are spatially and visually connected by large centered openings...

Pachón–Paredes   Spain   The revamp of a flat in a tower built in the 1950s eliminated the outmoded original partitioning, in favor of an undefined cruciform space that lends itself to multiple options. The main space is unobstructed, whereas each of the rooms with specific

BURR   Spain   A former industrial warehouse within a block courtyard is now the home and atelier of a photographer, and to guarantee maximum comfort it underwent a painstaking refurbishment...

TAKK Architecture   Spain   A reduced budget warranted rethinking the residence as a succession of concentric spaces that harness passive strategies to bring consumption of energy down to a minimum. Instead of the usual arrangement of rooms and hallways, the layout follows a th

NOMOS Architects   Spain   An automobile repair shop surrounded by a ramp becomes a home where a sequence of parallel walls makes hallways unnecessary and is conducive to the crossing of paths. Both energy saving and natural lighting determined the construction solutions appli

Studio Animal   Spain   The house for a trap music singer is a concatenation of sets that amount to a spatial translation of this subgenre of hip hop, and reflects the eclectic personality of its occupant...

Ruizesquiroz Arquitectos   Spain   In the scheme to convert a former car-engine repair facility into a place to live and work in, the actual forms of the existing structure were used to define the different spaces required...

Iván Bravo   Chile   The house sits in a clear stretch between trees. It is built over posts that separate it almost a meter from the ground, allowing the flow of streams that run towards a lagoon in front of the main facade. Its triangular geometry, in this wilderness,

Miller & Maranta   Switzerland   When we speak of the Swiss Guard, what comes to mind are the Michelangelesque uniforms of the Vatican regiment, not so much the agonizing lion that Bertel Thorvaldsen designed to be sculpted in Lucerne to honor the Helvetian soldiers massacred defend

unparelld’arquitectes   Spain   If the French Impressionists immortalized refined petite bourgeoisie luncheons on the grass, many Spaniards followed suit with a more folksy flavor. The Catalan artists Ramón Casas and Santiago Rusiñol painted merry get-togethers with food and frolic

Authors Outraged

Like the Oscar and like the Nobel, the Pritzker is not simply a prize: it is an encrypted emblem and the reading of it is biographical, sociological, and political all at once. Who receives it, and why, are equal in importance. The case of Francis Ké

Along with the 6,800 Russian professionals who signed a call for peace quickly censored by Putin’s government, architects, artists, and designers from everywhere join hands in expressing their disapproval of armed conflict and their solidarity with U

On view through 22 May at the Fundacion Juan March in Madrid is a retrospective of Bruno Munari (Milan, 1907-1998), the first ever to be presented in Spain and so far the most complete exhibition ever held, outside Italy, on this multidisciplinary ar

The young Anni Fleichsmann in 1922 received a Christmas card illustrated with a reproduction of Giotto’s Flight into Egypt. It was from Josef Albers, eleven years her senior. Thus began the most famous romance of Bauhaus lore, and a twin journey that

Borrowing entirely from the New York and Venice collections, the Guggenheim Museum of Bilbao will until 21 August be hosting an “ardent celebration” of the vast pictorial work of Jean Dubuffet. Devoted to his family’s wine wholesale business after a

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Three decades ago the library of Sarajevo, disemboweled by shells, was the symbol of Balkanic urbicide, as documented in the 1993 article reproduced on page 24 of this Arquitectura Viva issue. Now it is a bridge outside Kyiv – blasted by the Ukrainia