One of the first events of a Venice Architect Biennale is the announcement of the Golden Lion for an entire career. This year, by honoring a master like Paulo Mendes da Rocha (see AV Monographs 161), it cannot be said that Aravena has not played safe

César Azcárate, IDOM   Spain   Popularly known as “the Cathedral,” the old stadium of the Athletic Club of Bilbao dated back to 1913, and was one of Spain’s oldest. In 2004 the City Council began to plan its replacement with a more modern facility with greater capacity, located pr

Popular imagination tends to make fun of ‘weird’ buildings, but also often ends up fascinated with them. In the case of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art expansion by the American office of Snøhetta, it’s not clear if the mockery will turn into

The inauguration of the fifteenth Venice Architecture Biennale, curated by the Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena, took place last 28 May. It was no simple matter to surf in the wake of the previous edition – not in vain dubbed ‘Koolhaas’s Biennale’

The title, ‘Unfinished,’ and its subject, the profession in the wake of the crisis, seemed to signal yet another critical or even masochistic look at the situation in which Spanish architecture has been immersed. Fortunately this has not been the cas

‘Change of Climate’ is the motto of the fourth international congress organized by the Fundación Arquitectura y Sociedad for 29 and 30 June, in Pamplona. The previous congresses focused on austerity, solidarity, and the necessary as tools with which

A version of Herman Hertzberger’s structuralism? An accidental encounter between a villa by Mies van der Rohe and another by Peter Eisenman (as Reinier de Graaf puts it, partner of the ever surreal Rem Koolhaas)? Or a lavish expenditure of a hundred

“The work is dedicated to our people, to all those who have taught us so much, to my masters: master mason, master painter, master carpenter, and master builder; we owe it to them.” These words of Solano Benítez sum up the spirit of the installation

Luis Fernández-Galiano   The architectures of childhood bring us back to the childhood of architecture. If building for children, spaces are shaped with an essential vocabulary of materials, forms and colors; if the works go up in precarious environments, the discipline of e

Antoine Picon   One of the direct consequences of the proliferation of chips and sensors is a massive accumulation of data relating to the city and how it functions. Mobile phones alone supply large quantities of information about, for example, their owners’ locatio

Kosme de Barañano   In his controversial texts Oteiza ventures to offer keys to the history of art and to his own oeuvre. In his 1991 ‘Book of Plagiarism’ Oteiza responded to accusations of plagiary through a series of verbal and visual rebuffs in which he compared his

Antonio Bonet Correa   Children’s toys have interested scholars of contemporary art for some time now. Curiosity about the theme is universal. As regards Spain, we remember the exhibitions curated by Carlos Pérez, ‘Infancia y arte moderno’ (Valencia, 1998) and ‘Los juguete

Luis Fernández-Galiano   It is not sure that one’s life explains one’s work, but there is no doubt that a biography throws light on the context surrounding a creative career. Cases in point are two new books, on Frank Gehry and Rafael Moneo, which give us a better understand

OFIS Architects   Belarus   The powerful image of the stadium can be attributed to its terse textile skin and its slightly bulbous geometry, perforated here and there by eyes shaped like ameba. During the day, the eyes open up to the surrounding views, and when night falls they

Jesús San Vicente   The oldest stadium known about was the one at Olympia, venue of the first Olympic Games of history, held in the year 776 BC. In Rome, the most important one was the Coliseum (or Flavian Amphitheater), where gladiators were torn apart by beasts. In 80

Herzog & de Meuron   France   As in a classical temple, a curtain of columns on a plinth rises on the plain of Bordeaux. But unlike ancient temples, this stadium turns its podium into a very emphatic stairway, and the result is a blurring of the lines between interior and exterio

Juana Salcedo, Giancarlo Mazzanti   The multipurpose nature of these facilities enhances their social dimension: Marinilla Park is a street, a garden, and an educational building; and Pinch Center is a playground and urban lookout. Projects like Timayui Social Garden or Pies Descalzos

Selgascano   Kenya   One problem with cooperation projects in underdeveloped areas is that design strategies – and also the social and ideological premises that determine them – tend to seem strange to the communities which the buildings are ultimately supposed to serve.

Susan Rodríguez, Frank Lupo, Randy Antonia Lott   Zambia   The academy was built in a rural village located more than a hundred kilometers from Lusaka, Zambia’s largest city, with the express purpose of making life more comfortable for a dispersed population that before the construction of the building was f

Pezo von Ellrichshausen   Chile   The bold form of this house attempts to articulate the contradictions of the topography of the place. Hemmed in between a steeply sloping hillside and a forest of eucalyptus trees, the house unfolds in two levels. Conceived as a dogmatic piano nobile