Luis Fernández-Galiano   War damage leaves resilient ruins. We use the term ‘urbicide’ to refer to the deliberate destruction of cities to wreck the physical resources and the morale of the opponent, but contemporary metropolises seldom perish. Many ancient cities were unabl

Headed by Winy Maas, Jacob van Rijs, and Nathalie de Vries, the Rotterdam-based firm MVRDV has since 1993 pursued a highly daring kind of architecture, radically festive and well distanced from conventionalisms, that has not run out of steam through

MVRDV   China   Surrounding a spherical auditorium, the main reading area presents a tapestry of curving bookshelves that cascade in terraces from the ceiling all the way down to the floor.

MVRDV   South Korea   Consisting of two buildings, one harboring a nightclub and the other an indoor theme park, the project is part of a whole leisure complex next to the country’s main airport.

MVRDV   Poland   Right at the intersection of two major urban axes rises this iconic tower of mixed uses that include offices, hotel accommodation, a restaurant, and retail spaces within the plinth.

MVRDV   Netherlands   The renovation of MVRDV’s offices pursues spatial continuity between the five arched segments that form the complex, and creates spaces for the firm’s 150 employees to interact in.

Richard Ingersoll   The theme of the kaleidoscopic Biennale d’Arte of 2019, curated by Ralph Rugoff, was denouncement of the contemporary political situation.

Kosme de Barañano   Eight years after a mix of financial and management problems forced it to close down, the artistic sanctuary of Eduardo Chillida in Hernani reopens.

Luis Fernández-Galiano   If a horizontal Babel exists, it has to be the City of Mexico. The biblical Tower of Babel was for a long time the emblem of the cupiditas aedificandi; and architects chose representations of its construction as symbols of their determination to surp

Chillida Leku

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Le Corbusier continues to pass from lights to shadows. In 2015, the 50th anniversary of his death coincided with the publication of three books written by François Chaslin, Xavier de Jarcy, and Marc Perelman that examined his links to the Vichy regim

Oliver Wainwright   One thing that’s always been true in New York,” says Dan Doctoroff, “is that if you build it, they will come.” He is referring to Hudson Yards, the $25 billion, 28-acre, mega-project that he had a critical hand in originating while he was deputy mayo

Diller Scofidio + Renfro   United States   Inspirado en el Fun Palace de Cedric Price, el centro para artistas ‘The Shed’ responde a las exigencias de flexibilidad espacial mediante su gran cubierta de ETFE telescópica.

Heatherwick Studio   United States   The commission involved designing a public centerpiece for Hudson Yards, a new 11-hectare development on Manhattan’s west side being constructed above a huge rail yard. To create something memorable, the studio decided to build a structure that visit

Fuertes-Penedo arquitectos   Spain   The renovation of this dwelling in Miraflores, a small locality in Muros (A Coruña), was first and foremost based on utmost respect for the place. This necessitated paying close attention to realities like the scale of the house’s surroundings, to pr

Valerio Olgiati   United States   Creating a virtual world through the poetic use of materials was Valerio Olgiati’s intention in designing this store in the design district of the city of Miami for the French high-end fashion brand Céline. Such virtuality has to do with the manipula

The legacy of an artist frequently becomes a source of conflict. Sometimes because the wishes of the deceased do not coincide with those of the inheritors; other times because the legatees quarrel for possession of artworks or for the right to decide

On view through 7 July at the Prado Museum is a rare exhibition on Alberto Giacometti. Rare because the Prado does not usually host modern art, and because the 20 pieces (18 sculptures and 2 oil paintings) are not set up in the rooms meant for tempor

From the great greenhouses of the 19th century to the ‘climatops’ proposed by Richard Buckminster Fuller in the mid-20th century, taming nature to reproduce it in artificial environments has been one of the major impulses of modernity. So has it been

The idea that architecture is a form of nature has become a maxim that the firm Junya Ishigami + Associates faithfully follows in its work, an oeuvre now enriched by the Botanical Garden Art Biotop: Water Garden in Tochigi, Japan. The singularity of

With works like the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet behind it, the firm Snøhetta, based mainly in Oslo, has triumphed in the international competition for the privilege of building the Shanghai Grand Opera House, in conjunction with the Chinese s

The firm of Massimiliano Fuksas and Doriana Mandrelli Fuksas has been selected to construct the new International Congress Center in Jerusalem, which is envisioned to be the largest building of its kind in the entire Middle East. Characterized by urb

Headed by Jeanne Gang (one of this year’s 100 most influential people in the world, according to Time magazine), Studio Gang – in collaboration with three other architecture and engineering companies – has won the competition to carry out the renovat

Though the author of a single building, Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s influence on architecture has not waned since he lived in the 18th century. Now, ahead of next year’s celebration of the Italian artist’s third centenary, the National Library of Sp

There are ‘fox artists’ and there are ‘hedgehog artists.’ The former go about leapfrogging, they know many things; the latter know one big thing, limiting themselves to a single discovery which they devote their entire careers to. To this second cate

Overshadowed greatly by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, the work of Fernand Léger has been rather condemned to the background, but a major exhibition on view through 15 September at the Valencia Institute of Modern Art (IVAM) – in coproduction with

Norman Foster   I received news of Ieoh Ming Pei’s passing yesterday with great sadness. For me, he was an inspiration and a true master of monumental modernism. He was deeply influenced by the great architects of the early 20th century – particularly Gropius and Br