The idea of combining the terms ‘archive’ and ‘avant-garde’ holds within itself a contradiction. The fusion of these two concepts may seem paradoxical at first glance, as an archive is created to safeguard the documentary legacy of the past, while th
Laguna was a textile and yarn factory built in the 1920s in Mexico City’s Doctores neighborhood. Carried out by the local firm Productora (Carlos Bedoya, Víctor Jaime, Wonne Ickx, Abel Perles), the project returns the manufacturing facility to its or
The new headquarters of Factory International, organizer of the Manchester International Festival (MIF), has been completed. A work of OMA / Ellen van Loon, it responds to an eclectic environment – amid industrial brick constructions, towers, housing
These facilities outside Paris, devoted to creation, research, and education in the arts, feature auditoriums, exhibition spaces, and workshops, plus offices and a restaurant. The building deconstructs the ‘black box’ concept. The main auditorium at
Zaha Hadid Architects has won the international competition to build a cultural district by the harbor in Sanya, a city on the southern tip of Hainan Island, in China. A central axis connects the new district to the existing urban fabric, and divides
This project for the design of a didactic public space was presented in a competition to rescue the natural water system of Chapultepec Forest, a green lung for the City with rivers, tributaries, and basins that compose an almost endemic landscape...
In a resort located on the shore of the Yellow Sea, a modest venue for exhibitions is designed to become a place where residents can socialize and interact with one another. With its solid envelope composed of faceted modules of concrete, interrupted
The firm MAD Architects, headed by Ma Yansong, has unveiled its design for a cultural center in Anji, located in southeast China’s Zhejiang Province and known as the country’s bamboo and white tea city. The 149,000-square-meter complex features a the
An old bunker from World War II acts as the foundation for a new maritime management hub. While a steel frame surrounds and heightens the primary construction, the bunker will be used as an exhibition space with its roof reinvented as an internal cou
The facade is formed by small windows interrupted by larger openings that frame the most important sites of Karlskrona. The mosaic facade relates to the multiple architectural styles in the city and showcases the evolution of its naval past…
Villerupt is a small municipality in the Alzette Valley, in France’s Lorraine region, close to the Luxembourg border. It is historically linked to the exploitation of iron ore, in the mining of which many Italians worked. Almost all the industrial fa
The Chinese architecture and design practice Wutopia Lab has raised this copper-clad cultural center in Shanghai’s Pudong district as a venue for exhibitions, conferences, and other events. The original vaulted construction, from which the project to
The Maruhon Makiart Terrace – Ishinomaki Cultural Center seeks to express the recovery of Ishinomaki, a city in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan, that was much damaged by the earthquake and tsunami that hit the country in 2011. The different programs – audit
The different floors are visually and spatially connected by a series of large central voids. These spaces not only hierarchize and relate the different programs, but also ensure that light and air reach even the levels below ground...
Combining curved and rectilinear forms, the complex is divided into five concrete blocks separated by gardens themed around the four seasons and connected by raised semi-outdoor corridors. Oriented inward, the project draws inspiration from the nearb
A sinuous roof that merges with the lush vegetation of the historic Városliget crowns an exhibition center devoted to the rich musical tradition – cultivated and popular – of the Magyar country. The undulating disk of the roof, perforated in an irreg
Located on O'Connell Street, in the heart of the southern Irish city of Limerick, the International Rugby Experience building is respectfully inserted amid historical constructions. Reaching a maximum height close to 34 meters and a total area of 2,1
In Jinxing, in China’s Hebei Province, the French architect Aurelien Chen led the CSCEC’s design team tasked with turning a canteen of coal mine workers into a multipurpose cultural facility. The project adapted the construction to accommodate new us
The Atatürk Cultural Center first opened in Istanbul in 1969 as the Palace of Culture, following a project drawn up by Hayati Tabanlıoğlu (1927-1994). Located on the edge of Taksim Square, the building partly burned down two years after its inaugura
As part of a larger urban plan, the 'Bovenbouwwerkplaats' project turns a 1905 building where large elements of trains were manufactured into a cultural center for the Dutch city of Utrecht. The refurbishment of the warehouse involved preserving and
Like a built palimpsest, a long volume enclosed with imprinted glass is suspended between existing buildings. Behind the facade, different spaces for art open up to life and social interaction, weaving a mesh of connections with the surroundings...
In the heart of Madrid, the Ateneo comprises three buildings: Prado 19, Prado 21, and Santa Catalina 10. Together they form a BIC (Asset of Cultural Interest), in the Monuments category. A work of Enrique Fort and Luis de Landecho, with Arturo Mélida
The project is located in the industrial zone of Little Haiti, a Miami neighborhood which has undergone major transformation in recent years. Oolite Arts is an oganization founded three decades ago by Ellie Schneiderman. It provides the city’s visual
In spite of the exceptional reception the public has always given him, Santiago Calatrava’s L’Àgora is regarded with suspicion by critics. Not only because of the visual populism the construction flaunts, but also, and above all, because this skeleto
Caixaforum Valencia
The architect Frank Gehry will unveil his latest blockbuster building—a soaring twisting geometric tower covered with 11,000 stainless steel panels—at Luma Arles this summer, the 27-acre cultural campus in the southern French town of Arles spearheade
Located at Hudson Yards in New York, very close to Thomas Heatherwick’s The Vessel (see Arquitectura Viva 213), rises The Shed, another major hybrid of architecture and sculpture, this time by Diller Scofidio + Renfro. While the theme of the ludic mo
The firm Mecanoo, based in Delft but also working from London and New York, has completed a cultural complex in the Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung. The National Center for the Arts is a huge complex that attests as much to Taiwan’s economic power as to
The Tokyo firm founded and headed by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, SANAA, recently opened the City of Culture of Tsuruoka, a small city on the northwest coast of Japan’s Honshu Island. Located close to an old samurai school, it is surrounded by g
The firm Kengo Kuma Associates has within the grounds of the Portland Japanese Gardens, opened in 1967, inaugurated a Cultural Village composed of four buildings of modest scale with tiered green roofs recalling pagodas. The design, which presents a
Time is the thread of this essay by Emilio Tuñón which traces the historical footprint of the Royal Palace, explains the concept of the new museum, and remembers his partner Luis Mansilla.
The results of the competition for the chance to refurbish the main shed of the old Clesa dairy factory, built in the year 1961 by the master Alejandro de la Sota in Madrid’s Fuencarral-El Pardo district, were announced on 27 November 2015. Promoted
It would not be an exaggeration to classify the architectures of the world in accordance with the manner in which they relate with nature. Some dominate it, as does western architecture; others engage in dialogue with it, as does Asian architecture.
The Argentina-based team M2R – Carlos Nahuel Recabarren, Manuel Alberto Martínez Catalán, and Franco Morero – was announced the winner of an international competition organized by UNESCO and the Afghan Ministry of Information and Culture to bui
Working in historical environments can be a poisoned gift. Since the year 2007, when he won the major competition for the extension of the Asturias Museum of Fine Arts in Oviedo, the Pamplona-based Francisco Mangado has had to deal with problems of e
In the local imagination, the modernization of Azerbaijan and its opening to the West is associated with three milestones: in 1996, after independence, the TV tower of Baku, an icon 310 meters tall, was completed; in 2001, the Azerbaijani abandoned t
Salpicado de bloques residenciales a medio habitar y paralizado por la crisis, el ensanche de Móstoles tiene un nuevo y singular vecino: el centro de servicios sociales construido por el estudio madrileño Dosmasuno (Ignacio Borrego, Néstor Montenegro
Acaba de presentarse el edificio que Renzo Piano construirá para la Fundación Botín en la bahía santanderina, un centro dedicado al arte y la cultura que será, una vez inaugurado en 2014, la primera obra del genovés en España. El Centro de Arte Botín
En pleno centro de Ceuta y lindante con el Paseo del Revellín (que toma su nombre de una de las fortificaciones de la ciudad), un nuevo complejo cultural, blanco y lacónico, diseñado por Álvaro Siza, brilla ya bajo el sol africano. Situado en una ext
Situado frente a la ría de El Burgo, cerca de La Coruña, el edificio de la fábrica Cros —antigua manufactura de tostado de piritas para la producción de ácido sulfúrico construida en los años 1940— será rehabilitado para acoger un auditorio, una bibl
El vallisoletano Primitivo González ha sido el adjudicatario del concurso para la rehabilitación del antiguo depósito del locomotoras de la Estación Campo Grande de la capital castellana y su dotación con nuevos usos culturales: una ‘casa del ciudada
Fundado en Rotterdam y con oficina en Madrid, el estudio fündc (fün design consultancy) —de los madrileños César García-Guerra, Paz Martín y Juanjo Unceta— ha finalizado la construcción de la nueva plaza Padre Vallet y la ampliación y rehabilitación
El estudio madrileño Cano Lasso ha resultado ganador del concurso para un centro cultural y la ordenación urbana de su entorno, en el núcleo de Nuestra Señora de Jesús, en Ibiza. Concebido como un volumen de formas orgánicas, la propuesta dialoga for
¿Se trata de una gran casa o de un pequeño pueblo? El estudio madrileño ZooCo ha jugado con este equívoco en su propuesta ganadora para el Centro Municipal de las Artes de Verín, en Orense. Inspirándose en la volumetría azarosa de las manzanas típica
Fruto de la colaboración entre cuatro estudios de Ljubljana —Bevk Perovic, OFIS, Sadar Vuga y Dekleva Gregoric—, el nuevo Centro Cultural de Tecnologías Espaciales Europeas (KSEVT) en la localidad eslovena de Vitnaje está formado por una serie de ani
El MUCAB es un nuevo centro cultural y de servicios para la localidad murciana de Blanca, diseñado por el estudio de Martín Lejarraga. Situado frente al río Segura, el MUCAB actuará como un nuevo núcleo urbano que potenciará la actividad en sus riber
Javier Sánchez Aisha Ballesteros
Ciudad de México 2023
Arquine - 124 Pages
Julio de la Fuente Natalia Gutiérrez Rehabilitación y restauración del Ateneo Científico, Literario y Artístico de Madrid. 2016-2022
Bilbao 2001
Museo Guggenheim Bilbao - 391 Pages
