Luis Fernández-Galiano   While we discuss the price of electricity, the ghost of famine hovers over the world. It is energy we are talking about in both cases, but while exosomatic energy depends on social organization, endosomatic energy has biological boundaries. Alfred Lo

Luis Fernández-Galiano   The Swedish historian Johan Norberg devotes a chapter of his new book to ‘open minds,’ and this is precisely what Steven Pinker, whom he so admires, advocates in his own latest work, a vibrant defense of rational thinking which the eminent Canadian p

Luis Fernández-Galiano   The eruption of a volcano in the Canary Islands was the most dramatic image of a year of geopolitical mutations and pandemic recovery through vaccines.

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Luigi Pirandello premiered a century ago his most important play, Sei personaggi in cerca d’autore, a metatheatrical drama where six members of a family break into the rehearsals of Il giuoco delle parti, a comedy of the same author, and ask the dire

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Architecture is not so much ‘frozen music’ as ‘crystallized politics.’ While Goethe understood that it has a mathematical internal order, as music does, its origin and purpose link it to politics inextricably. Organizing the ‘polis’ requires social n

Luis Fernández-Galiano   From Hypatia to María Zambrano, the history of thought is glazed with eminent women. Two recent books deal with some of the 20th century’s most notable ones through narratives braiding the life and work of four. Wolfram Eilenberger, who applied the

Luis Fernández-Galiano   The historic swerve of 24 February supplied an iconic image four months later in Madrid. The Russian invasion of Ukraine caused a geopolitical commotion that has been labeled Zeitenwende, and the leaders participating in the NATO summit gathered arou

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Tadao Ando’s perfection is painful. His concrete constructions, austere and naked like luminous cells, attain such geometric and material precision as to hurt the senses with the cold cutting edge of their inhumane exactitude, and the excessive and e

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Climate is not the problem, lack of governance is. Fifteen years ago I published an article, ‘Celebration of the City,’ which started by stating: “Climate is the problem, the city the solu-tion.” One year later, the Lehman Brothers crisis ushered in

Luis Fernández-Galiano   The simultaneous release in 2021 of translations of books by Colin St John Wilson and Kenneth Frampton, both on dissident modernities, is reason to revise the architectural canons of the past century, and a coinciding volume by José Ignacio Linazasor

Luis Fernández-Galiano   We look to the East with fear, but the East also lies south. We have seen the chaos caused by Daesh in the Near East, but Jihadism has been destabilizing Sahel for a long time now; and we are shocked by the tragedy in Ukraine, but Russia is in Algeri

Luis Fernández-Galiano   The memoirs of Ai Weiwei are an extraordinary political and artistic document. His 1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows incorporate the biographical journey of his father, the great poet Ai Qing (1910-1995), into his own; and throw light on the creative pr

Luis Fernández-Galiano   The devastation of Ukrainian cities like Kharkov, also seen in the dramatic sieges of Kiev or Mariupol, brings to mind the Balkan urbicides or the later destructions of Grozny in Chechnya or Aleppo in Syria. The tanks of February

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Arquitectura Viva came into being when the Berlin Wall still stood, and in the three long decades since, it has given testimony of the seismic upheavals that the geopolitical architecture of the planet has suffered. From the first project of the Jewi

Luis Fernández-Galiano   This issue has had three consecutive presentations, and none in the end, because this text barely explains a process. After the optimism of January, looking up in awe to imagine the James Webb telescope deploying in space, the gaze had to be brought

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Three decades ago the library of Sarajevo, disemboweled by shells, was the symbol of Balkanic urbicide, as documented in the 1993 article reproduced on page 24 of this Arquitectura Viva issue. Now it is a bridge outside Kyiv – blasted by the Ukrainia

Luis Fernández-Galiano   To think up the future we have to imagine a different past. With the Ukraine war we have irreversibly entered a new world, but cannot help wondering about alternative events that might have prevented this fatal denouement. The reconstruction of histo

Luis Fernández-Galiano   The crisis of Ukraine reproduces the sleepwalking carnival of the political elites that did not manage to prevent the outbreak of the Great War. Barbara Tuchman published in 1962 a masterly account of the 31 days that led to tragedy in 1914, The Guns

Luis Fernández-Galiano   The passing of Ricardo Bofill on 14 January ends a journey of creativity and charisma. His death in the Barcelona of his 1939 birth, owing to a kidney cancer complicated by Covid-19, adds a fatal date to the architecture dictionaries and histories he

Luis Fernández-Galiano   If the 2020 Christmas gift were the vaccines, a year later science invites us on a journey to the origin of the universe. On 25 December 2021, the James Webb telescope started a journey that will take it 3.5 million kilometers from Earth, from where

Luis Fernández-Galiano   The Ukrainian crisis has to be tackled with perspective. This is precisely what Daniel Yergin does in The New Map, subtitled ‘Energy, Climate, and the Clash of Nations’ because the confrontation between nations is explained from the angle of its ener

Luis Fernández-Galiano   From snow to lava, in Spain this has been a year of extreme events. Nothing relates the Filomena storm with the eruption of Cumbre Vieja, but both scares happen when we try to recover from a historic pandemic that has halted the life of the planet. T

Luis Fernández-Galiano   In the cafés of fin-de-siècle Vienna brewed a hundred intellectual circles. Two recent books document the history of the Austrian School and the Vienna Circle, two illustrious representatives of a sparkling crucible of ideas whose expansive waves rea

Luis Fernández-Galiano   We usually think about classicism as a figurative language, but the work of Fabrizio Barozzi and Alberto Veiga shows how classicism and abstraction can reconcile. If the classic is not associated to columns and pediments but to consistency between th

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Humanity faces three tragic transits: the geopolitical transit, from the hegemony of the West to the struggle between the United States and China; the energy transit, from fossil fuels to renewable sources, to mitigate the impact of climate change; a

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Oriol Bohigas confiesa que ha vivido. El segundo volumen de sus memorias, que registra los acontecimientos de su juventud y primera madurez, ofrece un retrato colorista de la Barcelona de los años cincuenta y sesenta a través de un abigarrado collage

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Giancarlo Mazzanti takes play seriously, perhaps like no other architect since Aldo van Eyck. The Dutch built more than 700 playgrounds in Amsterdam over the course of 30 years, integrating those ludic and abstract spaces in the everyday life of a ci

Luis Fernández-Galiano   The term ‘meritocracy’ was coined in 1958 by the sociologist Michael Young in a book which already then presented the concept in a dark light, The Rise of Meritocracy, where he warned of the danger of creating a new caste based on education and talen

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Systemic discipline produces silent works through the exacting simplification of industry. In this way, estudioHerreros embraces a choral signature to underline the experimental objectivity of its method, which offers repeatable answers, perhaps echo

Luis Fernández-Galiano   One by one, houses can become imbued with the arrogant aura of the extraordinary. Associated, they acquire the fertile condition of what can inspire familiar or serial progeny. Beyond the urban or ecological critique of detached homes, the house is c

Luis Fernández-Galiano   The volcano of La Palma prompts to comment on the dramatic increase of devastating fires, which suggests the name Pyrocene for our time.

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Ramses II presides the hall of the Grand Egyptian Museum, a colossal structure nearing completion on the Giza Plateau. Designed in 2002 by Heneghan Peng, the construction of what will be the largest archaeological museum in the world devoted to a si

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Mi trabajo de editor me ha llevado a establecer vínculos estrechos con muchos de los más grandes arquitectos contemporáneos, pero no ha sido así en el caso de Santiago Calatrava. Pese a ser compatriotas y coetáneos, nuestra relación ha sido episódica

Luis Fernández-Galiano   The American Jason W. Moore and the Swedish Andreas Malm are part of what they call ‘radical academy,’ a group of Marxist writers who teach on both sides of the Atlantic. Capitalism in the Web of Life and Fossil Capital present complementary (and som

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Catastrophe, disaster, apocalypse: amid the existential fear instilled by climate change, pandemics, and artificial intelligence, a group of authors encourages us to contemplate the future of humanity with active optimism. The risks that threaten the

Luis Fernández-Galiano   The chaotic exit from Afghanistan is a cultural drama, as well as a geopolitical failure that questions the leadership of the United States.

Luis Fernández-Galiano   The work of Alberto Campo Baeza pursues purity. Striving to be soul without body, he expresses ideas through geometry and light, stripping the building of its material nature so that it levitates weightlessly, free from its earthly prison. Oblivious

Luis Fernández-Galiano   The contest between the United States and China traces the outlines of the second Cold War. Both Xi Jinping’s assertive expansionism and Joe Biden’s determined policy of containment paint an oft-repeated historical fresco, that of a power on the rise

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Hace veinticinco años, en julio de 1996, se celebró en Barcelona el XIX Congreso de la Unión Internacional de Arquitectos, que ante el desbordamiento de asistentes tuvo que celebrar alguna de sus sesiones al aire libre. Luis Fernández-Galiano redactó

Luis Fernández-Galiano   1984-2021

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Textos y dibujos

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Madrid  2020  
Ediciones Asimétricas   - 136 Pages 

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Las grandes esperanzas (1976-1984)

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Las grandes esperanzas (1985-1992)

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Madrid  2019  
Fundación Arquia    - 120 Pages 

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Madrid  2019  
Fundación Arquia    - 120 Pages 

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Madrid  2019   - 208 Pages 

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Madrid  2019   - 352 Pages 

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Madrid  2019   - 352 Pages 

Luis Fernández-Galiano Lisa Heschong   Tallinn  2018  
Eesti Kunstakadeemia   - 64 Pages 

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Años alejandrinos 1993-1999. A Chronicle of Architecture

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Años alejandrinos 2000-2006. A Chronicle of Architecture

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Madrid  2017  
Fundación Arquia    - 124 Pages 

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Madrid  2018  
Fundación Arquia    - 104 Pages 

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Madrid  2018  
Fundación Arquia    - 108 Pages 

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Madrid  2017   - 240 Pages 

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Madrid  2016   - 352 Pages 

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Madrid  2016  
Fundación Arquia    - 52 Pages 

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Madrid  2016  
Fundación Arquia    - 68 Pages 

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Madrid  2016  
Fundación Arquia    - 56 Pages 

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Madrid  2015  
Fundación Arquia    - 68 Pages 

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Madrid  2015  
Fundación Arquia    - 60 Pages 

The new ‘Debates’ series of books published by Arquitectura Viva is a testimony of the main themes that Luis Fernández-Galiano has addressed as critic of the newspaper El País and from his position at the helm of our magazines. From the sociopolitica

Arquitectura Viva and its director, Luis Fernández-Galiano, understand and regret the discomfort caused by the series Conversations. Filmed between 2013 and 2018, this documentary series of Fundación Arquia, now being streamed on Netflix, was left un

Emilio Tuñón   Running one of the most prestigious architecture firms in the world, David Chipperfield is particularly appreciated in Spain, not only by virtue of his beautifully balanced work but also because of the warmth that radiates from one who spends long pe

The second pandemic year began with the horror of seeing the United States Capitol invaded by a multitude rejecting the results of the presidential elections, and ends with a sixth viral wave caused by a more contagious new variant named Omicron. In

Luis Alemany   Imagine that Renzo Piano is a cell. The nucleus of his DNA would be an image of the shipyards of the city of Genoa; if the cell were Norman Foster, the helix would be the sequence of a science fiction cartoon strip; and if the cell were the duo Jacqu

As part of the proceedings of the UIA General Assembly in Rio de Janeiro, Barcelona has been announced the winner of the bid to host the World Congress of the International Union of Architects (UIA) and be UIA-UNESCO World Capital of Architecture in

On view through 29 April at the Ateneo de Madrid is a walk through the pictorial work of the architect Javier Sánchez Bellver (Madrid, 1951), organized on the occasion of the publication of the catalog La vida quieta (Lapislázuli, 2019), with a forew

Luis Fernández-Galiano was twice on a scholarship program of the Fundación Juan March – in Spain in 1976-1977 and abroad in 1966-1968 – but his first lecture at the foundation headquarters took place in 2010. In the course of a decade thereafter, he

Museo ICO   Curated by Luis Fernández-Galiano, the exhibition is a journey through the many works of Carme Pinós that follows a clear guiding thread: the importance of context and environments in the creation of architectural space. Prominent among them are the

Jacques Herzog For a young architect at the beginning of his career it is a challenging moment to see the widely admired work of established colleagues, often with a mixture of disdain and admiration. For my generation this moment was in the 1980s, a

Richard Ingersoll   In the past three decades, Luis Fernandez-Galiano, editor-in-chief of this magazine, has produced an exceptional treasure of texts on contemporary architecture. I know of no one in the field who is so thoroughly aware of facts and trends of the momen

Luis Fernández-Galiano gave a series of lectures over different years for the Friends of the Prado Museum Foundation: ‘Jerusalén y Babilonia en el siglo XX’ ‘Del Gabinete al Campus: las transformaciones de la sede del Museo del Prado’ ‘El clasicismo

Architectural Record   Cathleen McGuigan   President Biden ordered the revocation of the Executive Order, “Promoting Beautiful Federal Civic Architecture,” signed by former President Trump on December 18, 2020. The Trump order, mandating the preference for “traditional and classical architect

La Vanguardia   Fernando García   The ICO Museum in Madrid hosts a retrospective exhibition that the public can view through 9 May, presenting 80 projects by the architect Carme Pinós and the eight she carried out with Enric Miralles. In accordance with the theoretical and spatial ap

Curated by Luis Fernández-Galiano and on view from 10 February to 9 May, the exhibition is a journey through the many works of Carme Pinós that follows a clear guiding thread: the importance of context and environments in the creation of architectura

Eduardo Prieto   Sometimes criticism twirls around itself, as in going from judging buildings to questioning its tools, even its essence. When this happens, it is through cover-up, on the pretext of a conventional theme, or plain opportunity. The collection of texts

El Mundo   Luis Alemany   Calatayud, 1950. Arquitecto, catedrático y editor de las revistas Arquitectura Viva y AV. Las grandes esperanzas reúne sus escritos del periodo 1976-1992 en dos tomos: Fracturas y ficciones y Empeños sostenibles.  PREGUNTA. En 45 años de escribir sob

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Late in 2018 we published the two volumes of Alexandrine Years, which presented – in two languages, Spanish and English – a collection of articles that appeared in El País from 1993 to 2006: the first one, The Age of Spectacle, covered architecture d

As part of the Textos críticos series published by Ediciones Asimétricas, Luis Fernández-Galiano has gathered twenty articles that look at architecture and the city from an ecological perspective. The real estate bubble, the transformations in the la

In line with the 20th anniversary of the death of Enric Miralles on 3 July 2000, we reprint Luis Fernández-Galiano's tribute to the Catalan architect, published in AV Monografías 87-88.

Architecture is ideas and forms, but both crystallize through matter. While a building is prefigured in the immaterial geometries of the design, it takes shape in the physical world by means of materials and techniques. The intricate interplay of int

Richard Ingersoll   When does news become history? Considering the current threat of climate change, I often wonder if a historical vision will survive the 21st century; but if it does, those concerned with what happened in architecture during the last decade of the 20t

Casabella   Prima gli anni dell’ottimismo giustificato dalla crescita economica e dai successi ottenuti dalla Spagna dopo il 1992; poi quelli della crisi dopo la distruzione delle torri gemelle a New York (e sullo sfondo il 2008 e il fallimento della banca Lehma

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Se recogen aquí algunas reacciones críticas a Años alejandrinos, los dos volúmenes que reunían una buena parte de mis artículos en El País entre 1993 y 2006. La obra fue presentada por Norman Foster y Rafael Moneo el 19 de febrero en Ivorypress, y el

François Chaslin   Je suis enfin, depuis deux heures, en possession de ces kilos de réflexion que j’ai été chercher en autobus dans un dépôt UPS au fin fonds de ma triste banlieue (on y vend aussi des DVP, essentiellement pornographiques tant est grande, ici, la misère

Miguel Aguiló   The subtitle ‘A Chronicle of Architecture’ raises the question of why the author calls this compilation of writings a ‘chronicle’ instead of a ‘critique,’ given that his opinion is held in esteem within the profession worldwide. His academic trajecto

Isabelle Regnier   Pendant quatorze ans, de 1993 à 2006, Luis Fernández-Galiano a dirigé la rubrique architecture du quotidien espagnol El País. Architecte de formation, professeur à l’Université Polytechnique de Madrid et dans de nombreuses grandes écoles à travers le

Kenneth Frampton   Please excuse my very delayed response to your Alexandrine Years. I have been preoccupied of late in trying to finish, at long last, the ‘impossible’ expansion of Modern Architecture: A Critical History so as to shift the focus away from Europe and t

Bjarke Ingels (Copenhagen, 1974), founder of the firm BIG, has confirmed that he will be participating in the Architecture and Design Forum at the next Cevisama international ceramics fair, set for 3–7 February at Feria Valencia. Luis Fernández-Galia

Le Monde   Les chroniques architecturales écrites par Luis Fernandez-Galiano pour «El País», entre 1993 et 2006, tissent le récit passionnant d’une période de bouleversements intenses...

Casabella   Italian magazine Casabella (899-900) reviews The Age of Spectacle and Time of Uncertainty, in which Luis Fernández-Galiano compiles his articles on architecture published in El País from 1993 to 2006.

El País    Estrella de Diego   In Alexandrine Years, Luis Fernández-Galiano collects his articles on architecture published in El País from 1993 to 2006...

Foster + Partners   Spain   The British architect Norman Foster has with the Basque Luis María Uriarte won the competition to revamp Bilbao’s Museum of Fine Arts, which wanted 2,250 square meters of its current floorage renovated and at least 5,140 square meters added, and in a

Revista de libros   Miguel Aguiló   With the English subtitle “A Chronicle of Architecture,” the two volumes of Alexandrine Years collect the articles published by Luis Fernández-Galiano in El País...

Fahrenheit 451   Pablo Delgado   Luis Fernández-Galiano publishes a selection of his most important articles written between 1993 and 2006 on architecture...

Vaillo + Irigaray    Spain   The Navarre practice of Antonio Vaíllo and Juan Luis Irigaray has won the competition organized by Vigo's Duty-Free Zone Consortium for the construction of the World Car Center. The project comprises two new buildings and an intervention on an existi

Phase one of the competition to revamp Bilbao’s Museum of Fine Arts has ended with the shortlisting of Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos; Rafael Moneo; Foster + Partners with LM Uriarte Arkitektura; BIG with AZAB and Proskene; Snøhetta with Foraster Arquite

Invalidating the idea that the times we are living are unconducive to criticism, and heralding the discipline’s future, Luis Fernández-Galiano has published Alexandrine Years. The two-volume bilingual book compiles a good part of the weekly pages tha