Luis Fernández-Galiano   Five centuries ago, Thomas More situated his Utopia on an imaginary island; fifty years ago, César Manrique built his on a real island. Lanzarote got its name from the Genoan navigator Lancelotto Malocello, linking itself to Arthurian legends through

Luis Fernández-Galiano   The war warning of European elites has feet of clay. Robert Kagan coined in 2003 a metaphor that stuck: “On major international questions today, Americans are from Mars and Europeans are from Venus.” This was the opening line of his Of Paradise and P

Luis Fernández-Galiano   The exquisite exhibition of Renzo Piano in London’s Royal Academy was more oriented towards the cognoscente than the layperson. Architects already familiar with the work of the Genoa master enjoyed the sober presentation of sixteen essential building

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Son of a modest builder, the works of which he visited since he was a child, Renzo Piano grew up fascinated by the magic of building as well as the magic of making ships in the port. Educated by construction and the docks, he decided to study archite

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Do you know who wrote this? On 7 August 2021, Renzo Piano sends me a picture of the laconic interior of his refuge in the Alps, another of the bucolic view from his window, and a third of a yellowish press cutting with lots of underlines. Can it be a

Luis Fernández-Galiano   The complete oeuvre of Renzo Piano is clustered in a magic island. He has often dreamed of sailing the seas in search of Atlantis, but while that day comes he has gathered more than a hundred of his works on an island that we celebrate here borrowing

Luis Fernández-Galiano   These two histories of history give narratives an influence on architecture, so we could perhaps call them operative historiographies. The book by Crison and Williams, which calls for a reencounter between architectural history and art history, claim

Luis Fernández-Galiano   If the launch of the artificial satellite Sputnik on 4 October 1957 set off the space race between the Soviet Union and the United States, that of the generative artificial intelligence DeepSeek’s R1 model on 27 January 2025 sparked the cyberspace ra

Luis Fernández-Galiano   appeasement  The imperial presidency of Trump was inaugurated with a sequence of executive orders orchestrated like coups de théâtre, signed off with the bold strokes of a hyperbolic signature and exposed in performances worthy of an art biennia

Luis Fernández-Galiano   The only surreal work by Le Corbusier is not by him. As the monumental monograph by the Aachen University professor Wim van den Bergh shows, the very famous image of the grass-floored terrace with Paris’s Arc de Triomphe rising behind a wall where a

Luis Fernández-Galiano   The AV/Arquitectura Viva project turns 40 in 2025, and this is a good time to look back on our DNA. What was initially called Monografías de Arquitectura y Vivienda was a quarterly magazine edited by a public housing company, and of the four issues p

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Under the impact of climate change and the acid rain of political polarization, architecture needs resistant redoubts in which to take shelter to prepare for the disorder that is coming. This selection of Spanish buildings documents a series of preci

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Valencia’s ‘dana’ and Trump’s triumph set the coordinates of the year in Spain and the world. Just a week apart, the catastrophic flash floods of Tuesday 29 October and the landslide presidential election of Tuesday 5 November marked an inflection po

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Two publishers of the Penguin Group and another of the Planeta – the latter with two titles – compete in bringing art closer to the general public. For this they use different literary tools and take distinct approaches, but all four books reviewed h

Luis Fernández-Galiano   The art market is a good example of the conspicuous consumption theorized by Thorstein Veblen in The Theory of the Leisure Class, and two recent texts by outsiders document the extremes of ostentation, fraud, and opacity reached in our time. Orlando

Luis Fernández-Galiano   The historian Pedro García Martín culminates his tetralogy on images at the same time that Annie Leibovitz’s portraits of the King and Queen of Spain are on display, and this happy autumnal coincidence triggers commentary on depictions of power. In S

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Figuration and abstraction have been opposite poles of a debate which in the field of architecture has often been confused with the tension between tradition and modernity. In fact, the postmodern movement of the 1980s reclaimed the figurative, espec

Luis Fernández-Galiano   These two very large books document monumental buildings. The Complete Works of Herzog & de Meuron, by Gerhard Mack, released its fifth volume (presenting projects completed between 2002 and 2004) two years after the publication of the sixth (which I

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Blinded by the war flashes in Ukraine and the Middle East, we fail to see the agony of Sudan. The outcome of the conflict in Ukraine is very important for Europeans, and uncertain due to cracks in the support of the country in the East of the contine

Luis Fernández-Galiano   This fifth monograph on Herzog & de Meuron can only be presented with a zoom into the small to try out a synthesis, and with a flashback to the remote to look for an origin. The small are two stools: the X-Hocker developed for a house in Switzerland

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Basel, for many, is pharmaceutical industry and finance; for others, museums and the art market; and for not a few, the city of Herzog & de Meuron, the gold standard of architecture, and it is good to retrace the journey that has led them to wield su

Luis Fernández-Galiano   The Republican Donald Trump returns to the White House – which he occupied from 2017 to 2021 – after defeating the Democrat aspirant Kamala Harris in extremely neck-and-neck presidential elections that have laid bare the ideological division of the

Luis Fernández-Galiano   If the images of cars dragged by the flood waters along a street in the municipality of Sedaví are the best picture of the violence of nature in its catastrophic reply to the artificial environment, that of volunteers crowded together along a footbri

Luis Fernández-Galiano   In their latest books, both Vishaan Chakrabarti and Albert Pope propose new models for the city. But whereas the Calcutta-born New Yorker defends a pragmatic utopia that inserts ecological architectures into the existing urb, the Rice professor advoc

Luis Fernández-Galiano   The DANA of Valencia has violently struck the territory and the consciences. On one hand, it reminds us of our failure in the moderation of climate change, which is making meteorological catastrophes more frequent and intense; on the other, it faces

Luis Fernández-Galiano   On the mythical path of Goethe, Peter Sloterdijk tries out a theory of color. We have dealt with the German thinker time and again in Arquitectura Viva since 2003, examining his texts on ‘atmoterrorism,’ human domestication, and the rejection of mode

Luis Fernández-Galiano   In the year of the dragon, Benedetta Tagliabue completes three decades of work under the name EMBT. Twenty-five years since the premature disappearance of Enric Miralles, his initials and his spirit remain present in the activity of a studio that has

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

Luis Fernández-Galiano   We need more dwellings, and we need better cities. Housing is the field where the main contemporary challenges converge, from youth precarity or mass tourism to uncontrolled immigration or climate change, problems all of them that – beyond requiring

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Ernest Hemingway published The Sun Also Rises in 1926, a novel that would become paradigmatic of the Lost Generation. In it, a group of characters travel from Paris to Madrid with an obligatory stopover at the Sanfermines in Pamplona, described in de

Luis Fernández-Galiano   First published in French, Le labyrinthe des égarés: L’Occident et ses adversaires (2023) and La défaite de l’Occident (2024) appear simultaneously in Spanish and present opposite versions of the decline of the West. Although both the Lebanese-born F

Luis Fernández-Galiano   The architect of Cordovan roots was an exponent of Spanish modernity, and for his centenary we reproduce the speech delivered at the Academy to celebrate his posthumous Gold Medal…

Luis Fernández-Galiano   As Pier Paolo Tamburelli says in his introduction, the monumental Entwurff of Fischer von Erlach is not architectural history, but historical architecture. The Italian professor and architect, whose books On Bramante and his Grundkurs at TU Wien were

Luis Fernández-Galiano   With the attempt to assassinate him, Trump steps up from history to myth. More than thirty years ago we gave him space in these pages, in line with the publication of The Art of the Deal, part memoir and part property developer’s manual, and his arri

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Marco Bellocchio released China Is Near in 1967, a satire of bourgeois decadence which mixed Catholic morals, electoral opportunism, and Maoist revolutionary dreams. The ironic proximity of China referred to its ideological influence on the young rad

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Las bicicletas y las casas son para el verano. Los números de casas se publican coincidiendo con la buena estación, porque solo el clima benévolo es compatible con el disfrute cabal de la vivienda unifamiliar. La promesa de felicidad incorporada en l

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Every generation rewrites history. And ours, under the intellectual and emotional impact of the decline of the West, builds narratives of a shared past with more shadows than lights. Josephine Quinn, archaeologist and Professor of Ancient History at

Luis Fernández-Galiano   The convulsive world of the last decade has been marked by environmental awareness. Felipe VI has had to face serious domestic crises in an unstable international environment, but nothing has been as significant during his first ten years as head of

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Our continent has gone to the polls at a critical time, and architecture cannot be indifferent to the great dilemmas of the moment, for its own future is essentially tied to climate change, to the protagonism of existing constructions, and to demogra

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Críticas y crónicas

Various authors   Madrid  2023  
Instituto de España   - 252 Pages 

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 

C Magazine, edited by Cosentino and Arquitectura Viva, celebrated its first ten years with an event held on 20 November at COAM. After a dialogue in which Santiago Alfonso, VP Strategic Communication of Cosentino, and Luis Fernández-Galiano, director

Fuensanta Nieto & Enrique Sobejano, in dialogue with Luis Fernández-Galiano, presented our double monograph devoted to their practice on 7 March at Fundación Arquia. Experimentation and dialogue are the central axes of Nieto Sobejano’s creative proce

Luis Fernández-Galiano received the Award for Values of Spanish Architecture on 29 February at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid. He upheld architecture and architects in an acceptance speech that can be viewed in the video of the ceremony, an

Luis Fernández-Galiano gave the inaugural lecture, speaking on the healthy city, at the 32nd National Psychiatric Updating Course held in Vitoria from 28 February to 1 March. Here is the interview he gave in line with the event, as published in the n

Luis Fernández-Galiano has been distinguished with the Award for Values of Spanish Architecture, one of a series of accolades which the association Foro España Cívica gives to individuals with proven excellence in their respective areas of knowledge

Andrés Trapiello   Stores in 50 Spanish provinces are used to paint a graphic and literary portrait of an urban landscape of traditional charm that deserves to be saved from oblivion.

This photographic and literary journey through shops of the fifty Spanish provinces recovers the languages of popular architecture in the signs and facades of old establishments, and travels along the country’s sidewalks in search of ‘the common beau

The AV/Arquitectura Viva project celebrates in 2024 its fortieth year, and the magazine has wanted to mark the occasion with a special issue that reproduces the last lesson Luis Fernández-Galiano gave at the Madrid School of Architecture before his r

Eduardo Prieto   A species in extinction, a fragile koala still existing even though the ecosystems it thrived in no longer do, architecture criticism has for a while now been facing the question of how to die. Some part of it will take leave of us discreetly, bequea

Six years after the opening of his foundation in Madrid, on 26 September Norman Foster headed a public launch of the Norman Foster Institute, an educational center that will draw from his indefatigable anticipation of the future to focus on cities an

On 13 September Rafael Moneo presented AV Monographs 250, devoted to his oeuvre, in the course of a relaxed conversation with Luis Fernández-Galiano, after which a number of guests put in a word. Unlike in other encounters in which he has looked back

Over the course of a fruitful career as critic of the newspaper El País and visible head of the magazines AV and Arquitectura Viva, Luis Fernández-Galiano has written on architecture and many other things. A rich sampling of his articles has now been

Set to open on 29 April, the exhibition ‘Parque del Drago, 1998-2023: 25 years around the thousand-year-old dragon tree,’ curated by Fernando Menis, will be presented by Luis Fernández-Galiano at the Visitor Center of Dragon Tree Park, in the Tenerif

Titled 'The Spanish language, mixing, and interculturalism,' the 9th Spanish Language International Congress in Cádiz took place from 27 to 30 March 2023. Organized every three years by the Cervantes Institute and the Royal Spanish Academy in collabo

In the interview, held at the Norman Foster Foundation, Luis Fernández-Galiano explains his relationship with Norman Foster, how his innovative design has changed the world of architecture, and how they worked together for the Norman Foster Foundatio

In line with the opening of the new Arquia headquarters at Tutor 16 in Madrid, a forum was held there on 30 November, titled ‘Sharing Experience,’ in which prominent architecture figures, with Luis Fernández-Galiano as moderator, voiced their reflect

On these covers, the rough strokes of nine female painters illustrate the intellectual and social mutations that have marked recent times. The transformation is the theme of ‘Debates,’ the latest addition to the book series – published by Arquitectur

On 10 October, with King Felipe VI presiding, the Royal Academies of the Institute of Spain (IdeE) commenced the 2022/2023 course with a ceremony held at the San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts, It fell upon Luis Fernández-Galiano, a full-fledged

The new head of the United Kingdom is an advocate of traditional architecture and has promoted it in his estates in Cornwall through a development, Poundbury, with Léon Krier as principal advisor. During his time as Prince of Wales he wrote texts in

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

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

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

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