In the arena between traditionalism and imported architecture, Gong Dong had the wisdom to find virtue in the middle way, and by combining his local training with a fruitful sojourn in America he has managed to tie contemporary ideas and forms to ete

In the arena between traditionalism and the imported architecture spreading all over China, Gong Dong (Beijing, 1972) had the wisdom to find virtue in the middle way, balancing his local training with a fruitful sojourn in America. The ideas and form

Vector Architects   China   Protected by concrete shading panels, thirty-six classrooms are raised along the plot’s perimeter to free up the ground level, at the landscaped center of which begins a chain of ramps for vertical circulation. From an elevated running track encircli

Vector Architects   China   Una sucesión de verandas, umbrales, atrios al aire libre y estanques, rematada en una iridiscente torre de pavés, imbrica los distintos usos e invita a los huéspedes a explorar estancias de escala y materialidad cambiantes... La oferta de alojamiento

Vector Architects   China   With a certain air of the industrial vestiges that can be found in the region, the spa is organized in two ‘towers’ interconnected by footbridges, which separate the served from the servant spaces. The ritual of bathing is marked by an ascending sequ

Oliver Wainwright   Anabelle Selldorf is carrying out the revamp of the iconic work of Venturi and Scott Brown.

Luis Martínez   A movie that has just premiered in Venice to much applause tells the fictional life story of an architect who flees from a devastated Europe after World War II…

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Distanced from any kind of essentialism, both the Greek scholar David Hernández de la Fuente and the journalist Pedro García Cuartango explore Spain’s mythical roots from the lenses of history and the territory. Although both pay homage to the pionee

Justo Isasi   My first design course at the Madrid School must have been Rafael Echaide’s last year as department deputy head. In the lack of architecture books, I had only managed to get hold of Pevsner’s Outline of European Architecture and Giedion’s Space, Time

Alberto Ballesteros   Football is a modern religion with its liturgies, symbols, and preachers. Also temples. Among Spaniards, Santiago Bernabéu Stadium is almost a cathedral, if not by seniority or seating capacity then thanks to its history: sports-wise, having hosted t

Eduardo Prieto   From hand to eye, from eye to hand, and either way to architecture. This is the route proposed by Duccio Malagamba in a highly personal but also celebratory book that passes not only through hands and eyes, but also through two time periods: before a

Juan Francisco Fuentes   Although art critic Luis Gil Fillol was not a lover of the United States, in an article written in 1926 he attested to the 'indelible' impression that New York leaves on seeing it for the first time. That same year, to the painter José Moreno Villa i

We are living in interesting times, and the vanishing into thin air of previously solid certainties applies also to architecture. The situation of architects proliferating and in precarious employment conditions, of competition systems dying out, and

Mestres Wåge Arquitectes, Mendoza Partida, BAX studio   Norway   The Kunstsilo Art Gallery has opened in what was a grain silo raised in the 1930s, in the Norwegian city of Kristiansand. The transformation of the huge agricultural facility built with reinforced concrete to harbor a collection of over 5,500 Nordic

Prokš Přikryl architekti   Czech Republic   Standing on the banks of the Chrudimka River, the Automatic Mills of the city of Pardubice, a work of the Czech architect Josef Gočár, were built in 1909. A grain silo was added in 1924. The mills ran uninterruptedly for over a century, until 2013, a

Assemble, BC Architects & Studies   France   Le Magasin Électrique is part of a complex previously used for the construction and maintenance of trains, built in the mid-19th century, and now harboring the Luma Arles art center. The revamp begin in 2013 and gave rise to the Frank Gehry-designed

Studio Moto   Belgium   Modular is good. Two paired holiday dwellings and a shared small studio are fitted together in a prefabricated orthogonal grid that allows a straightforward layout and leaves the door open to possible reconfigurations in the future. Situated within a

Beatriz Ramo – STAR strategies + architecture, Bernd Upmeyer – BOARD Bureau of Architecture Research and Design   Netherlands   The Cabonon is a fully equipped apartment with a floor area of just 6.89 square meters, including an infrared sauna and a whirlpool bath. Its inside dimension are: height 3 meters, width 1.97, length 3.6. A large window overlooks the city. The Cabano

Ecosistema urbano   United States   Extreme heat is not only endangering the habitat of an infinite number of species, but also altering the very way we use our cities, a problem which disproportionally affects low-income communities. In the spirit of working toward a solution, a modul

The stadium. Stages and figures

Football clubs renew their T-shirts in a seasonal mutation that leads to ever more sophisticated technology for textiles and patterns, supposedly for the greater comfort of players but in essence involving minimal changes with the sole purpose of mak

The fifteenth Alvar Aalto Medal has been awarded to Belgian architect Marie-José Van Hee. Her output covers a wide range of projects, from private houses to public spaces and cultural buildings. Van Hee’s works beautifully emphasise respect for archi

Tras casi treinta años de trámites burocráticos, falta de fondos, un terremoto e incluso la sombra alargada de la camorra, la línea 1 del metro de Nápoles abrió en 1993 conectando con modernos apeaderos las colinas y el borde del casco. En sus sucesi

In the year 1965 the port authority of the state of Oregon’s leading city commissioned the local practice ZGF Architects to draw up a masterplan for the expansion of its flight terminal, which is a strategic point in connecting with Alaska up north a

Ever since 1953 the scene of the derbies that tend to paralyze the city, the Stadio Olimpico will soon cease to be the home of Rome’s two rival sports clubs. Coinciding with its centenary, what is nicknamed I Giallorossi shall be leaving the house to

Populous, Oualalou + Choi   Morocco   In the Moroccan town of El Mansouria, 38 kilometers north of Casablanca, the 115,000-capacity Grand Stade Hassan II will be one of the largest football stadiums in the world and one of the new ones built for the World Cup of 2030, to be hosted jointl

“A modern architect should know how to design anything, from an object to the streets of the city, because everything is connected.” Such was the vital outlook of Gae Aulenti, an indefatigable precursor whose buildings, installations, and furniture p

While Aulenti was busy with the Musée d’Orsay, across the Seine Ieoh Ming Pei was building another of Mitterrand’s Grand Travaux: the pyramid of the Louvre, which anointed him on a world scale. The Cantonese who emigrated to America, however, was the

Just like Saarinen and Pei, Paul Rudolph was part of that second batch of modern architects that defined the image of the United States in the course of the second half of the 20th century. But contrary to the organic sensuality of the Finnish-born m

José Manuel Sánchez Ron   Allow me to introduce myself, not as I am known but as what, when all is said and done, I am, we are. I am the offspring of a star, a beneficiary of the Sun, a brother of the Moon, a neighbor of Venus and Mars, and above all an improbable offshoot of