Material Stories. Lina Ghotmeh has lived an itinerant life between East and West, going from the Beirut of her birth and education to the Paris where she set up a practice characterized by an inevitable international profile but also a sensitivity to

Luis Fernández-Galiano   In the cold Berlin morning, the tractors on the avenue leading to Brandenburg Gate line up with the discipline of an invading army. Norman Mailer wrote The Armies of the Night moved by the 1967 March on the Pentagon, and today’s armies of dawn that h

The caravan is the country of Lina Ghotmeh. Like the Leo Africanus portrayed by his compatriot Amin Maalouf, the Lebanese-born France-based architect has lived an itinerant life between East and West, going from the Beirut of her birth to the Paris o

Lina Ghotmeh   Estonia   In the country’s cultural capital, an ethnograhic center founded in 1909 moves into a long container that aspires to be a symbol of national prosperity in the wake of regained independence. The project questioned the competition rules and called for

Lina Ghotmeh   Lebanon   Lording over the rooftops of the Lebanese capital is a residential tower, a stony presence which is a high-rise interpretation of the city’s complex history and chaotic allure. An unscathed survivor of the devastating explosion that befell the nearby

Lina Ghotmeh   France   This facility in Louviers, Normandy, accommodates 260 crafters of artisanal bags, small leather goods, and equestrian items like saddles and harnesses for the luxury brand Hermès. The project of the Lebanese-French architect Lina Ghotmeh is based on

Lina Ghotmeh   United Kingdom   Open to the public from 9 June to 29 October is the temporary pavilion of the popular Serpentine Gallery in Kensington Gardens, London. For this summer the commission went to the Paris-based architect Lina Ghotmeh (Beirut, 1980), who designed a round

Esperanza Guillén   The Bank of Spain has through an exhibition honored the architect who built its main office, a fine Madrid example of turn-of-the-century academicism…

Javier García-Gutiérrez Mosteiro   Madrid celebrates the 150th birth anniversary of the architect who built many of the projects that gave the city its image as a modern metropolis.

Iñaki Bergera   At Museo ICO, the architects and photographers Ana Amado and Andrés Patiño present the Franco regime’s exemplary adventure of rural colonies.

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Liberal institutions, says Francis Fukuyama, act as the canaries in the coal mine, and warn about the threat of an authoritarian assault. John Gray is more pessimistic, believing that liberal civilization based on tolerance is history, because the st

Eduardo Mangada   In the ruined Milan of the postwar, a distinguished group of architects committed itself in both theory and practice to the city’s physical and symbolic reconstruction. The likes of Gio Ponti, Luigi Moretti, Ernest Nathan Rogers, and Ignazio Gardella

Eduardo Prieto   “It is at the same time a monograph on the architectural, urbanistic and landscape work of Philippe Rahm, a manifesto for a climatic architecture to face global warming, and a theoretical and practical treatise on the art of building atmospheres.” Su

Luis Fernández-Galiano   At the mention of The Fountainhead, many will automatically think of the King Vidor movie; others, perhaps most people, will associate it with Gary Cooper; but neither the director nor the leading actor deserves as much recognition as the writer and

Architects are taught to materialize what springs up from blank paper, but the challenge we face nowadays is not so much to build, as to build on the already built. In light of the visual thinking that comes with the craft, combined with the training

KWK Promes   Czech Republic   In Ostrava, capital of the Czech region of Moravia-Silesia, the Polish firm founded by Robert Konieczny, KWK Promes, was entrusted to transform a slaughterhouse that was in a state of ruin into an art gallery. In the superposition of layers showing t

petrjanda/brainwork   Czech Republic   In the context of a major operation intended to reinvigorate the riverside promenades, new uses have been introduced into former ice-storage vaults situated at piers on both banks. A catalog of modular solutions creates bars, workshops, and galleries

Atelier-r   Czech Republic   The Czech studio Atelier-r, headed by Miroslav Pospíšil, has refurbished Helfštýn Castle. It is located in Týn nad Bečvou, a municipality in the Olomouc Region of the eastern part of the Czech Republic. Helfštýn dates back to the 14th century and t

Ripoll Tizón Estudio de Arquitectura   Spain   With breathtaking views of the bay of Palma, this terraced house is located in the upper part of the plot, adapting to the sloping topography of the land through different levels. Three courtyards are introduced in the facade as transitional spaces b

TEST, Guillermo Santomà   Spain   From tapestry to wall. In essence, this was the Copernican turn Semper took with his principle of cladding, whereby structure gave up its protagonism in architecture in favor of Bekleidung: though humans learned to use durable materials, he held that

Kauh arquitectos   Spain   This landscape intervention by the Granada-based firm KAUH – Vincent Morales Garoffolo and Juan Antonio Sánchez Muñoz – reclaims the unique heritage site of La Hoya for the city of Almería. La Hoya is a gorge located on the edge of the historic quart

Nieto Sobejano

Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos   Spain   Since the day in September 1908 that a journalist working for La Veu de Catalunya gave the region a name which described its dramatic geography and topography, the Costa Brava – a rugged land of fisherfolk – has honed its image as a paradise by the s

Riken Yamamoto has been pronounced the 2024 Laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize. The Hyatt Foundation has recognized the Japanese architect in the new edition of the accolade, which has been given yearly since 1979 and comes with a US$100,000

LUO studio   China   Xiuwu County in Henan province, China, is known for producing medicinal herbs, in particular Rehmannia root. This is the context behind the exhibition hall of Houyanmen Village, in Huanfeng. Through on-site research on the techniques of processing Re

Tomás Villalón, Nicolás Norero, Leonardo Quinteros   Chile   This theater in Panguipulli, a small rural municipality in southern Chile, in the region of Los Ríos, rises on the shore of the glacial lake it takes its name from. On a concrete plinth containing dressing rooms and services, the volume is actually t

KAL A, ARREA    Slovenia   Outside Bohinjska Bistrica, the largest settlement in the Bohinj Valley, stands this school promoted by the local community to orient education towards a closer connection with nature. The fruit of a collaboration between the Slovenian firm ARREA and

Kengo Kuma, Taisei Design Planners Architects & Engineers   Japan   This wellness center doubles as a medical facility for staff of KaneKa, which specializes in environmental technology. The 625-square-meter building combines with green roofs that fold and touch ground, besides different systems developed by KaneKa,

Herzog & de Meuron   Qatar   Three intersecting spheres form and carve the building, breaking it up into two parts: one is like a full moon and other like a crescent moon wrapped around it. That is the art museum that Herzog & de Meuron designed for the art and culture insti

Barozzi Veiga, Tab Architects   Belgium   Barozzi Veiga – in collaboration with Tab Architects, Barbara Van Der Wee Architects, and Mosbach Paysagiste – has con the competition to renovate and enlarge the casino of Knokke-Heist, a municipality in the Belgian province of West Flanders. The ne

DIIR   Spain   DIIR, the Madrid practice of David Meana, Ignacio Navarro, Iñigo Palazón, and Ricardo Fernández, has transformed an old building with dormitories for teachers into the library of Los Molinos, a municipality of the Madrid metropolitan area, specifical

Ignacio Laguillo   Spain   The town of Fuentes is nestled in the Sevillian countryside, in the Guadalquivir valley. Settlements from different periods have left a rich cultural and monumental heritage, further enhanced by its landscape and agricultural history. Within the Prog

Óscar Miguel Ares   Spain   Up in the Torozos Mountains, in the comarca of Tierra de Campos, the small municipality of Valverde de Campos in Valladolid province has a population of slightly over a hundred. The surpluses produced by wind farms were invested in this building with

Ricardo Aroca   Ten people have perished in a conflagration which in a matter of minutes wrapped the facades of the fourteen-story building in the eastern Spanish city of Valencia. A combination of combustible facade materials, air chambers between the building’s sk