Luis Fernández-Galiano   Spain exports architects, but also architecture. In the crisis, the media have turned the spotlight on the youth exodus: thousands of architects with a good polytechnical training who have sought in other European countries, in Latin America, the Gul

David Cohn   The economic crisis has been a catalyst for the international projection of emerging Spanish architects, who are seeking new work opportunities in Europe.

Calderon-Folch Arquitectes   France   The multipurpose center is composed of two parts: a restored agricultural shed, and an enlargement clad in wood that in volumetric composition echoes the other. 

Van Belle & Medina   Belgium   Unlike the majority of industrial buildings, this logistics center has a heavy facade – raised with a double surface of reinforced concrete – and a representational character.

Carlos Arroyo Arquitectos   Belgium   The building addresses its surroundings with a volume contour evoking the pitched roofs of traditional houses and a colorful envelope conceived like a work of ‘op-art’.

Casanova + Hernández architects   Netherlands   Organized by a sequence of functional concentric rings, this new block of apartment units provides an alternative land occupation model in an urban context characterized by low density.

Gutiérrez-de la Fuente Arquitectos, TallerDE2 Arquitectos   Germany   Designed as an urban acupuncture strategy, this children’s daycare center is organized in several bands whose functions are distinguished by material and color.

Carmen Izquierdo Arkitektkontor   Sweden   Rising across a Romanesque cathedral and appropriating two houses erected in the 17th century, the building engages in dialogue with its surroundings through an open and faceted volumetry.

Enrique Krahe, MEK Architects, Murado & Elvira   Norway   The MySpace residence for students is the result of the winning proposal of the Europan 9 competition. Drawn up as a sort of catalyzer of the relationships among students, its program combines spaces that demand great privacy with others that wish to

Ecosistema urbano   Norway   The redevelopment of the main square of the Norwegian city of Hamar was conceived more as a process of civic participation than as an architectural project.

Laura Martínez de Guereñu   It was no easy matter. A recognition of Le Corbusier’s work that was as late in coming required the MoMA to offer something more than a mere exhibition on a grand scale. Curated by Jean-Louis Cohen and Barry Bergdoll, ‘Le Corbusier: An Atlas of Moder

Jorge Sainz   The question poses a whole moral dilemma: “Can a war criminal be a great artist?” Léon Krier says yes: that Albert Speer was guilty of the Nazi horror, and was also a magnificent architect. To demonstrate that he was a magnificent architect, Krier pu

Luis Fernández-Galiano   When Rafael Moneo received the Gold Medal for Spanish Architecture in 2006, he asked that the accompanying publication present only his work outside Spain. It has taken seven years for the book to come out, a delay that has made it possible to includ

Abel Fernández   A fragment suffices to conjure the whole. The loose end instantly brings up the image of the moment, and everything falls in place. ‘Loose Ends’ is precisely the title under which Carlos Martí Arís has gathered various writings in a book. The work in

Pilar Parcerisas   The re-edition of Simón Marchán’s book culminates an essay that has become a contemporary classic of art and aesthetics of the 20th century. First out in 1972, revised for a second edition in 1974 and a third in 1986, in which a ‘postmodern epilogue’

José María Ezquiaga   The value of the book lies mainly in how it considers the dwelling an essential component of the city, and in how it proposes a reading of the city from the angle of its residential fabrics. It is a mature, synthetic reflection that compiles the best

Alberto Pieltain   This book presents lessons given in an Architecture and Hospital Administration master course, but is not the usual compilation of historical data on a building type. On the contrary, it gives final form to reflections matured in the author’s twenty

Ensamble Studio   Mexico   In Aztec culture, the Dovela – stone of air or sun – is a basalt monolith that is offered to divinity, and sometimes placed in a complex with a topography of terraces. It addresses the four elements, and with its powerful symbolism expresses the inta

Franz Graf, Giulia Marino   The Cité du Lignon renovation fulfills the new energetic and economic demands while also addressing the heritage requirements. 

María Mallo   Biomimicry imitates nature to solve human problems. Before the surge of parametric design and digital fabrication, architecture sought inspiration from nature, and it did so in different ways: through the study of specific natural forms, by reproduci

In 2009 the Swabian studio Wittfoht Architekten won the international competition for the extension of the William Rappard Center in Geneva. Located across from Lake Leman, the building, which has just been inaugurated, addresses its environment by o

The Dutch office Mecanoo has recently presented an alternative proposal to generate electricity through wind: the EWICON (standing for ‘electrostratic wind energy converter’). The first prototype has been installed in front of the faculty of Electri

Everyone knows that it is difficult to integrate wind energy production systems in buildings, so the proposal by the Swedish studio Belatchew Architecture Lab – though still within the realm of science fiction – is impressive. They propose a skyscrap

An important problem in low-cost housing projects developed in rural environments is how these blend with their surroundings, and in this sense the construction system plays a crucial role. In the case of modestly sized dwellings, choosing load-beari

The most unique characteristic of this residential complex comprising twelve social housing units in La Alberca de la Záncara (Cuenca) is its low-cost – but very efficient – building system. These dwellings combine concrete blocks forming three-meter

The Catalan architect Toni Gironés, for his interpretation center at the megalithic dolmen of Seró in Artesa de Segre (Lérida), and the Portuguese Pedro Domingos, for the Primary and Secondary School in Sever do Bouga (Portugal), were declared the jo

Employees of BBVA have moved into two of the six long bays – corresponding to phase one of the operation – that form the Spanish multinational’s new headquarters. Under construction since 2010, the building rises north of the main axis of Madrid grow

Andrés Jaque   On 5 June, after five years of intense public controversy, the City Hall of Oslo authorized the construction of Lambda, the project drawn up by Herreros Arquitectos for the new Munch Museum, Norway’s leading emblem and a must-stop in the art circuit.