tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71968227763232091282012-01-24T01:06:55.913+01:00David Cohnnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1031100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-36154318659709573622012-01-24T10:02:00.002+01:002012-01-24T01:06:55.924+01:00

Reading List 1 Marta Fernández Maeso  La Tabacalera: dos años más de experimento El País, Jan. 21, 2012 On the experimental, community-run, horizontally-organized cultural center in the 18th-century tobacco factory, now entering a renewed 2 year convenio from the Ministry of Culture. Another manifestation of Madrid's 15-M Movement. The spirit of Spanish Anarchism rekindled? The planned

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-90767309898844293882012-01-21T09:07:00.018+01:002012-01-21T09:07:00.029+01:00

Beinahe Nichts With a Twist I've just posted this 2008 article that appeared in architektur.aktuell on the Burgo Tower in Porto by Eduardo Souto de Moura. "While Álvaro Siza's local buildings portray him as the gentlemanly master of effects of reflected light and playful spatial distortion, Souto de Moura reaffirms himself with this tower as a reclusive perfectionist, establishing an island

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-67372014781105135632012-01-19T17:42:00.002+01:002012-01-19T17:51:46.695+01:00

Exhibitions OMA/Progress  Through 19 February Barbican Art Gallery London Though open since October, this major retrospective has attracted the attention of Architectural Record only now; their review is here. And The New York Times? Michael Kimmelman is kool to the old favs of Ouroussoff and Muschamp, and his last post was on parking lots. But Rowan Moore reviewed the

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-76477106358041901462012-01-18T21:49:00.001+01:002012-01-18T21:51:29.578+01:00

Reading List Josep M. Rovira, Editor Enric Miralles 1972 - 2000 Fundación Caja de Arquitectos Barcelona, 2011 In Spanish. 400 pages One of the first critical reviews of the work of Enric Miralles, edited and with a lengthy introduction by Josep M  Rovira, Professor of Architectural History at the Barcelona School of Architecture (ETSAB UPC). Includes essays by Oriol Bohigas, Enric Granell,

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-44122034204047826982012-01-13T20:33:00.002+01:002012-01-15T13:31:45.403+01:00

BD Online has published an update on the plans to demolish Alison and Peter Smithson's Robin Hood Gardens (opened in 1972) and replace it with new housing: Robin Hood Gardens poised for demolition (January 10, 2012; free registration required). Top, the project in 2005. Photo by John Arundel from Wikipedia, used with permission. Below, rendering of the new proposal published in BD, presumably

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-59464894126646682432012-01-11T23:42:00.009+01:002012-01-12T01:15:50.629+01:00

US Trends Christopher B. Leinberger claims in a New York Times opinion piece published last November that American sprawl, the continuous expansion of low-density suburban development out into the countryside, is finally showing signs of collapse (The Death of the Fringe Suburb, Nov. 26, 2011). The choice to  move back to urban centers by two generations of the middle and upper classes, together

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-44978944534175784932012-01-09T22:51:00.002+01:002012-01-15T13:42:57.633+01:00

More data on the effect of the crisis on the profession, collected by the Architects' Union (Sindicato de Arquitectos) and reported today in the Barcelona newspaper La Vanguardia: 4,000 Spanish architects have left the country to work abroad, 7.5% of the professionl. Many are recent graduates "who can't find anything here (in Spain), and are highly valued for their excellent preparation and

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-1099138335088650882012-01-08T23:09:00.001+01:002012-01-15T13:30:24.410+01:00

Reading List The second part of Anthony Vidler's series on postwar architectural theory, Troubles in Theory: Picturesque Postmodernism, appears in the January Architectural Review. Here Vidler brilliantly uncovers the connections between the anti-Corbusian picturesque town planning championed by The Architectural Review's editors after the Second World War and Venturi's Complexity and

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-38757080594982881292012-01-08T22:57:00.002+01:002012-01-15T13:43:25.569+01:00

The Architectural Review asked me to send in a Your Views column in response to Luis Fernandez-Galiano's article on the challenges facing Spain's younger architects in the crisis. It appears in the January issue, and you can find it on the web here. One of the alarming facts I mention is the report that HALF of ALL Madrid's architecture studios have closed due to the crisis. This statement, by

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-57379249855378880292012-01-03T01:53:00.006+01:002012-01-15T14:01:20.945+01:00

Snapshots from a recent trip. What I'm often trying to do is capture an urban mood or space. The Gothic Quarter Near the flower stalls on the Ramblas Almost New Year's Eve Plaza Catalunya I made some daytime shots too..... On the lower slopes of Collserola I zoomed in on the photo above and found the building pretty amazing, much more so than you would think from guidebook

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-54704281327757211442012-01-03T00:40:00.000+01:002012-01-03T00:40:58.282+01:00

New brief The New York Times' new architecture critic Michael Kimmelman came to Madrid last month to review the Madrid Rio Park along the Manzanares River. Up to now he's been covering social issues more than formal ones, and with a strong local focus. This article is no exception: he sets up the example of Madrid against the difficulties of doing large-scale urban work in New York.  "The park

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-32739552915190467812011-12-23T13:22:00.000+01:002011-12-23T13:22:19.108+01:00

Aleksandar Hemon Quote Aleksandar Hemon, "Mapping Home"   The New Yorker, Dec 5, 2011. p. 40 - 49 "In the Sarajevo I knew, you possessed a personal infrastructure: your kafama [café], your barber, your butcher; the landmarks of your life (the spot where you fell and broke your arm playing soccer, the corner where you waited to meet the first of the many loves of your life, the bench where you

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-65842499493029511502011-12-16T22:47:00.000+01:002011-12-16T22:47:33.812+01:00

Rowing Center by J.M. Sánchez García. © Roland Halbe Britain's The Architectural Review also dedicates its December issue to emerging architects, and this year six Spanish firms make the cut out of a total of 16 prizes (many of the remaining prizes went to Japanese firms). The magazine also turned to Luis Fernández-Galiano for a first-hand look at the tough situation young architects face in

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-28169967377915886452011-12-16T21:29:00.003+01:002012-01-15T13:44:11.036+01:00

News brief Foster & Partners has won a limited competition to build a high speed train station in Ourense, a provincial capital in Galicia, located in northwest Spain. The adjudication is one of the last made by the Ministry of Development under the Socialist government in Madrid, and is likely to be reviewed by the incoming government. While the Socialist Mayor of Ourense supports the project,

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-69115231091076513692011-12-12T23:46:00.017+01:002012-01-21T17:57:08.175+01:00

News brief Emilio Ambasz returns as the subject of a show at Madrid's Reina Sofía Museum of Contemporary Art (Emilio Ambasz. Inventions: architecture and design, through Jan. 16th). I am sure Ambasz is charming, and he did have his moment in the 1970's at the Museum of Modern Art. He's even built something outside Seville (photo above). But frankly, I'd forgotten all about him. The Reina's

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-82422511923959492902011-12-11T23:25:00.000+01:002011-12-11T23:25:44.177+01:00

Could it have been anyone else? My selection for Architect of the Year in the Ladies and Gentlemen section of the December Gentleman (Spanish edition) is Eduardo Souto de Moura, winner of this year's Pritzker Prize. (Sorry, no web version available). "...en la última década ha encontrado su propia voz, caracterizada por rotondas formas geométricas y una contención formal que envuelve sus obras

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-39025248836729586952011-12-10T21:45:00.002+01:002011-12-21T20:35:42.588+01:00

In this month's Design Vanguard issue of Architectural Record (a US publication, by the way, for those who may confuse it with the British Architectural Review), I write on the Madrid architect Iñaqui Carnicero. See the article here. "Despite Carnicero's declarations of formal modesty, his work is by no means without a strong architectonic character. Though he has returned to the basic

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-12838429088551578622011-11-30T19:55:00.002+01:002012-01-15T14:03:16.929+01:00

© Melchor Sarasketa My latest backdated story, Portrait of Old Madrid, Summer 1989, long in the writing and intended as part of a book on my adapted city that I later thought better about completing, was an exercise of immersion as a newcomer to Spain, taking the idea of Paolo Portoghesi's genius loci as a literary strategy.  The photographs were taken by Melchor Sarasketa as part of the

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-36685426042008012122011-11-01T18:47:00.008+01:002012-01-15T13:42:31.735+01:00

Articles for readers in both Spanish and English appear this week: The Architectural Review publishes my pundit piece (they asked for something "pithy") on the effect of the crisis on Spanish architecture (The Death of the Icon, it's alarmingly called; love the Brit's apocalyptic journalistic headline craft), and a review of the show on Jean Prouvé in Madrid, which appeared in the cultural

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-34242941920265563682011-10-20T21:03:00.003+02:002011-12-20T12:22:12.336+01:00

News brief Another private project perks up the gloomy panorama in Spanish architecture. This time it's a museum designed by Rafael Moneo for the University of Navarra in Pamplona, which is owned and operated by the Opus Dei. Situated between the university campus and the edge of the city, the project will begin construction next month. Among other collections, the museum will house a major

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-23218295103025169162011-10-20T20:18:00.001+02:002012-01-15T14:21:21.053+01:00

News Brief Last month, Renzo Piano presented the design of his first work in Spain, the Botín Art Center in Santander. The project is sponsored by Emilio Botín, President of the Santander Bank, Spain's largest. The glass and ceramic-clad structure will project into the Santander Bay, and is scheduled to open in 2015. It will include 2500 m2 (25000 sf) of galleries and a wing dedicated to

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-24917622572706219882011-10-16T23:21:00.014+02:002012-01-15T14:25:11.125+01:00

Kenneth Frampton and Anthony VIdler (currently Dean of Architecture at Cooper Union in New York) have published two fascinating glimpses into the 1960s English background that led to the highpoint of New York architecture and theory in the 1970s and 80s, a story in which they themselves played major roles. In a Columbia architecture school publication, Frampton recalls his early years as

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-37943943669227951102011-10-08T21:48:00.000+02:002011-10-08T21:48:04.264+02:00

One of the interesting things to emerge about this site is that it is read as much in Spain as in the US, Britain or elsewhere.*  To make this a bridge with two-way traffic, now and then I will single out to Spanish readers some of the most interesting things I come across from outside Spain. The first of these is a brief profile in the Design blog of The New York Times on the Los Angeles

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-16158693748673942392011-10-05T22:36:00.003+02:002011-12-20T12:27:18.753+01:00

For The Architectural Review's relaunch issue ("not a cosmetic redesign," according to the editors, "but a considered and comprehensive editorial relaunch, intended to offer critical thinking for critical times"), and joining the likes of Anthony Vidler, Joseph Rykwert, Jonathan Glancey (The Guardian), William J. Curtis, Peter Buchanan, Peter Cook, Farshid Moussavi and Peter Blundell Jones, I

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-60178795885812975032011-09-08T14:32:00.000+02:002011-09-08T14:32:18.610+02:00

Luis Fernández-Galiano and Norman Foster get together again this fall to bring a show on Jean Prouvé to the Ivory Press Gallery in Madrid. From the web page on the show: "From the originality of his earlier furniture to the sophistication of his later constructive systems, the oeuvre of the French genius is an example of committed engagement with prefabrication and industrialisation, and also

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-13327143565799300402011-09-04T14:55:00.003+02:002012-01-15T13:45:23.398+01:00

Babelia, the weekly cultural supplement of the Spanish newspaper El País, has published an article in which I use the interesting urban strategy of the Rafal High School, by the Grupo Aranea, to point out the overlooked crisis in urban planning that has accompanied the crisis in high-stakes architectural follies (link). While young architects are taking another look at Brutalism, they are also

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0Rafal, Spain38.1040219 -0.849972299999990437.8831659 -1.0124987999999904 38.3248779 -0.6874457999999903tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-44965661829278299642011-08-28T19:09:00.001+02:002012-01-15T14:02:33.943+01:00

From time to time I publish long out-of-print articles on back-dated pages of this blog. The latest is my 1993 critical-historic look at New York's McGraw-Hill Building by Raymond Hood (1931). Here are a couple of quotes: "The skyscraper rising out of the lower buildings of the city, like a stationary turbine in the prevailing winds (on gusty days, the building's steel skeleton groans and

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-84391720942543134512011-08-28T19:00:00.003+02:002012-01-15T14:22:30.952+01:00

Luis Fernández Galiano has organized a series of lectures this fall at the Juan March Foundation by Norman Foster, Rem Koolhaas, Herzog + De Meuron and Sejima + Nishizawa. The title is "Protagonistas de la arquitectura del siglo XXI" or "Protagonists of 21st Century Architecture" and the dates are October 18, 20, 25 and 27th. Entry is free. More information: Juan March Foundation

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-88514169588828905762011-08-05T11:38:00.001+02:002012-01-15T14:23:12.404+01:00

News brief: Jørn Utzon's 1971 Can Lis house in Mallorca will open this fall as a study center dedicated to the architect, reports SCALAE. It is operated by the Utzon Foundation, based in Denmark. Utzon's second home on the island, Can Feliz (1991-94) remains in the hands of the Utzon family. For more on the story, the house and how to apply for a residency: Danish Arts: News and Danish Arts:

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-59937619215537869142011-08-04T14:53:00.001+02:002011-08-07T12:12:45.766+02:00

News brief Two outdoor stages for the Papal visit to Madrid in mid-August ("World Youth Day") are designed by Madrid architect Ignacio Vicens. Vicens has designed all the outdoor stages for papal visits to Spain since 1982. Vicens is also the designer of 200 temporary confessionals, inspired in sails, that are being set up in the Retiro Park. Meanwhile, on August 2nd, police dislodged the

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-51240928584084505502011-07-25T12:05:00.001+02:002011-08-04T19:22:42.954+02:00

El País published an interview yesterday with Eduardo Souto de Moura, including some interesting comments on the relation of his work to Siza's. Here are some excerpts: "When I was studying, the school in Oporto was highly politicized. Those were the years of sociology. And we worked to change the substandard workers' housing, called islands, that were located in the yards of bourgeois houses.

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-77873700988242473372011-07-16T21:37:00.000+02:002011-07-16T21:37:09.547+02:00

Update on the FAD Prizes, whose finalists were announced in my May 14th blog entry: The top architecture prize was given ex aequo to Mansilla + Tuñón's Atrio Hotel in medieval Cáceres, and to a pair of houses by Portuguese architect Ricardo Bak Gordon in Lisbon (photo above), as reported in El País on July 15th. Iñaki Ábalos' renovation of the Tàpies Foundation in Barcelona won the prize for

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-72180732406819517972011-07-13T18:01:00.002+02:002011-07-13T18:02:56.499+02:00

One of the more interesting projects in Madrid's excellent public housing program of the last decade is the subject of my latest article. It appears in Oris, a handsome Zagreb-based journal, together with an interview with Rafael Moneo, a report on Eisenman's City of Culture in Santiago de Compostela, and Housing for the Elderly by Francisco and Manuel Aires Mateus, among other features. The

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-23041480645551520132011-07-11T21:31:00.003+02:002011-10-16T23:43:34.607+02:00

In September 2009 I reported in Architectural Record on the court case to halt construction of the new central library for the University of Seville, designed by Zaha Hadid. After a local court ruled against the project, the case made its way to Spain's highest court, the Tribunal Supremo, which handed down its unappealable decision late last month: Hadid's project, partially completed at a cost

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-25441413493328452222011-07-09T20:46:00.003+02:002011-07-11T21:40:52.757+02:00

Here's a scoop from the Architectural Record web page: art critic Michael Kimmelman will be the new chief  architecture critic at The New York Times starting in the fall. Nicolai Ouroussoff is moving on to a book project, a history of architecture over the past 100 years (source). It's common in the US to appoint non-architects as newspaper critics, but Kimmelman has some solid experience

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-21914105907302432532011-07-06T17:52:00.009+02:002012-01-14T15:13:02.158+01:00

The July issue of Architectural Record is dedicated to new museum buildings. In addition to my article on the Archaeological Museum by Francisco Mangado that appears on the cover, the magazine's web page features two additional museums in Spain that I presented to the editors, both recognized in the XI Biennial of Spanish Architecture and Urbanism, as reported in my blog entry of April 19th. The

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-52998842071094536742011-07-02T19:44:00.005+02:002011-07-03T12:56:47.572+02:00

 The cover story in this month's Architectural Record is my report on Francisco Mangado's Archaeological Museum of Álava in Vitoria, Spain. Like his other projects, the Archaeological Museum exemplifies Mangado’s identification with the Modern movement that many Spanish architects have maintained with great vitality over the last few decades. In all of his work Mangado upholds the ideals of

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain42.84948199999999 -2.671350200000006242.604576499999986 -2.894163200000006 43.09438749999999 -2.4485372000000063tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-2193416562770447362011-05-14T11:40:00.001+02:002011-05-14T11:46:41.345+02:00

The calender spins round and round and years spin by, and now the finalists for the 2011 FAD Awards have been announced. For the full list see the PDF prepared by Arquinfad. Benedetta Tagliabue headed the jury. Winners will be announced in the fall. The finalists in the category of architecture: A residence for seniors by the Aires Mateus brothers in Alcácer do Sal, Portugal. Photo © Fernando

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-67583961290080562932011-04-19T22:03:00.001+02:002011-04-19T22:06:03.910+02:00

The awards of the XI Biennial of Spanish Architecture and Urbanism were announced early this month. The event is organized by the central government's housing office, architects' professional associations and other sponsors. A jury headed by the architects Félix Arranz and Joaquín Sabaté chose 40 finalists and prize winners in several categories from among 734 entries, over twice the number of

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-65939957728553995142011-04-17T13:25:00.003+02:002011-04-25T11:16:43.508+02:00

A landmark show, still on view through May 15: América Fría: Geometric Abstraction in Latin America (1934–1973) at the Juan March Foundation in Madrid. Art over four decades from Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Mexico and Cuba, and artists such as Joaquín Torres-García, who founded the Asociation of Constructivist Art in Montevideo in 1935; the Madí Group in Buenos Aires, founded in 1946

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-5130214936556933442011-04-03T21:13:00.001+02:002011-04-03T21:18:27.600+02:00

My article on a house in the small Portuguese city of Leiria by the architects Manuel and Francisco Aires Mateus is the cover story in this month's Record Houses 2011, Architectural Record's annual special issue on the single-family house, which publishes six projects from around the world chosen from 250 candidates. The full text and a portfolio of photos are found here. ... the perfect

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-64575908404538147442011-04-02T19:12:00.004+02:002011-04-02T19:24:59.532+02:00

Color in Spanish architecture is the theme of a long article I've written for the latest issue of the Russian biannual journal Speech. It is a theme particularly apt to Spain, for some reason – the most radical experiments anywhere in the use of color in the past six or seven years can be found here. We cover the spectrum, from well-known works by Nouvel, Miralles + Tagliabue and Hadid to

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-43180356368687046532011-03-29T21:35:00.003+02:002011-04-03T21:16:37.382+02:00

My news story and analysis on Eduardo Souto de Moura, recipient of the 2011 Pritzker Prize, Why Souto de Moura Won the Pritzker, appears today in the news section of the Architectural Record web page. For background on Souto de Moura, here are three articles I've written on his work over the years: Beinah Nichtes With a Twist /Almost Nothing with a Twist Torre Burgo, Porto, Portugal

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-304738224750875162011-03-26T13:10:00.000+01:002011-03-26T13:10:53.506+01:00

I write on Antón García-Abril's Truffle House, the latest of his experiments in heavy construction, in the March issue of the Viennese journal architektur.aktuell. This small guesthouse on the coast of Galicia is an unreinforced concrete structure, poured in a single day using hay bales and unconsolidated earth as formwork. García-Abril has taught at Cornell and Harvard as well as in Madrid; he

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-31000541587564941462011-03-05T14:53:00.003+01:002011-03-26T12:27:11.388+01:00

Two recent articles in Bauwelt and Speech feature a nursery by Alejandro Muñoz Miranda near Granada where colored glass plays a central role. The issue of the Russian jounral Speech is dedicated to the theme of color in architecture, and Bauwelt to the theme of kindergartens. From the Speech text: Contemporary architecture has returned to two of the most radical formal preoccupations of the

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-89047210139262963242011-03-03T21:22:00.002+01:002012-01-15T13:46:45.524+01:00

In a post on January 4th I discussed the court case on Santiago Calatrava's unrealized project for a waterside opera in Palma de Mallorca, where I wrote: News is still scarce, but ... Santiago Calatrava's ... 1.2 million euro fee for the design of an opera in Palma de Mallorca in 2007 has raised the suspicions of Judge José Castro... The judge is investigating the regional President at the time,

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-28026828265591124632011-03-01T21:12:00.004+01:002011-03-02T11:46:07.929+01:00

The March issue of Gentleman, now on the newsstands in Spain, has a major feature on upcoming projects by Jean Nouvel. The Louvre in Abu Dhabi (left) and the National Museum in Qatar are his most interesting designs to date, and probably the best two projects to come out of the Emirates' building boom. Special thanks to Gentleman Editor Alessandro Ryker and Director Fernando Rimblas for the

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-24271548501541545562011-02-07T12:24:00.005+01:002011-02-07T12:41:29.461+01:00

Tomorrow, Tuesday February 8, I will give a talk as part of the Workshop on Architecture and Communications organized by the VII Ibero-American Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism. The talk will cover the different approaches to architectural criticism and publishing in the United States and Europe, and my own approach to criticism. In Spanish. Taller 1. Arquitectura y Comunicación VII Bienal

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-36189382696624336652011-01-30T16:39:00.004+01:002011-02-08T14:05:27.458+01:00

On the newstands in Spain: in the February issue of Arquitectura y Diseño, I publish an article on six Spanish wineries. In addition to the well-known Chivite Winery in Navarra by Rafael Moneo and Richard Rogers' Protos Winery in Peñafiel, it includes RCR's underground Bell-lloc Winery in Girona (left), Paredes + Pedrososa's Bodegas Real near Valdepeñas (below) and Madridejos + Sancho's Bodegas

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-62470194005999530242011-01-17T13:13:00.004+01:002012-01-15T13:34:57.193+01:00

In the latest issue of Bauwelt I report on the Alicante-based Aranea Group's high school in the town of Rafal, Alicante.The young architects challenge the mediocrity of current urban development in the region with a project that turns its back on its surroundings to develop a rich matrix of indoor/outdoor spaces around its central courtyard, an urban scene in miniature. The project combines

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-65532218067449601282011-01-09T17:49:00.007+01:002011-01-21T20:52:13.652+01:00

As the first completed section of Peter Eisenman's long-awaited City of Culture in Santiago de Compostela is set for its official inauguration on January 11th, journalists are looking around for someone to blame for its cost overruns, delays and uncertain future. Besides the project's original political backers, headed by ex-regional President Manuel Fraga of the conservative Popular Party,

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-12079183409440843412011-01-04T15:29:00.011+01:002012-01-15T13:47:56.681+01:00

Note: For an update on this entry, see 03.03.11 post. After a number of ongoing investigations into major political corruption scandals related to the Spanish building boom, a well-known architect has been indicted as a suspected participant in one case. News is still scarce, but the suspect is Santiago Calatrava, whose 1.2 million euro fee for the design of an opera in Palma de Mallorca in

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-7536405723231232992010-12-17T19:51:00.002+01:002010-12-17T19:58:11.544+01:00

The Niemeyer Cultural Center speeds towards completion in the northern port city of Avilés, in Asturias. To celebrate Niemeyer's 103rd birthday last Wednesday (December 15th), the Center inaugurated its dome, made of concrete sprayed over an inflated membrane of PVC. The dome will house exhibition spaces. Other elements include an auditorium, a multi-use building with a cinema, classrooms and

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-22226224406105345642010-12-09T13:53:00.003+01:002011-12-10T21:52:19.751+01:00

In Architectural Record's Design Vanguard issue this December I write about Patricia Meneses and Iván Juárez, two architects from Mexico who began their careers together in Barcelona. See the story here, and an overview of the issue here. Juárez is now back in Mexico teaching and working, and Meneses has a growing practice in Barcelona. Iván Juárez & Patricia Meneses Architectural Record,

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-83963581131033518322010-12-07T13:56:00.034+01:002011-03-27T14:26:07.158+02:00

If you want to see whom I've nominated architect of the year in Gentleman's roundup of great Ladies and Gentleman, rush to the newsstands (in Spain only) and buy the December issue. Hint: he collects cars. Runners-up were Zaha (who is everywhere at the moment), Peter (doing big things in Santiago de Compostela) and Benedetta (who designed the prize-winning Spanish Pavilion at the Shanghai Expo).

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-38833653417955930742010-11-18T11:32:00.003+01:002012-01-15T13:48:33.688+01:00

Documents Arquitectura Viva has published some of the debates of the International Congress Architectue: More for Less organized last June in Pamplona by the Foundation Architecture and Society (see my post from June 20th). The book publishes "interviews conducted by five prominent critics with the participants, which cover a broad generational and geographic spectrum, offering a kaleidoscopic

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-73083102897645351112010-11-15T18:22:00.002+01:002010-11-15T18:25:05.511+01:00

The legendary columnist of El País (who is by no means an architectural philistine), has this to say about the consecration of Gaudi's nearly-completed Sagrada Familia by the Pope on his recent visit to Spain: One of the worst nightmares imaginable would be to dream that all of Barcelona had been designed entirely by Gaudí.... Fortunately he only built a few significant buildings and for this

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-54012974320756669632010-11-11T20:09:00.004+01:002010-11-11T20:29:28.068+01:00

Works on Paper, Models & Sculpture. A rare show on a fascinating figure in Mexican art and architecture at the Caja Negra Gallery in Madrid through January 7, 2011. Goeritz was born in Danzig (today Gdansk) in 1915 and grew up in Berlin, where he studied art, philosophy and art history. He escaped from Germany during the War, traveling through Morocco (1941), Granada (1945) and Santilla del Mar,

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-38389301870508954902010-11-06T12:32:00.020+01:002010-11-07T10:24:31.317+01:00

Two of my articles have come out in glossy Spanish magazines this past week. The first focuses on Francisco (Patxi) Mangado's Centro Hípico in Ultzama, built for his daughter, a champion horseback rider, and for the retreats and seminars organized by his Architecture and Society Foundation. The article appears in the weekend color supplement Fuera de Serie of the business newspaper Expansión (no

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-42620684403756002062010-10-21T13:56:00.010+02:002010-11-17T17:42:11.789+01:00

My story on Gunnar Birkert's Latvian National Library ran in the news section of Architectural Record's web page this week, and appears in the October issue. Mr. Birkerts is 85, and this may well be his most original and compelling design yet. It is set for completion in time for Riga's date as European Cultural Capital in 2014. A Decades-Old Project Finally Gets Built Architectural Record,

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-65297559330361491732010-10-20T11:15:00.014+02:002011-04-26T11:03:30.664+02:00

As I announced in July, the winners of the annual FAD Awards were presented this month in Barcelona. The Architecture Prize went to the Grupo Aranea (Francisco Leiva and Marta García) for their High School in Rafal, Alicante (featured in a photo in my July post). José María Sánchez received a Special Mention for his Sports Center in Guijo de Granadilla, Cáceres, a project I have published

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-28701567742021684032010-10-05T18:20:00.011+02:002011-03-27T14:29:52.356+02:00

Norman Foster and Luis Fernández-Galiano have organized a show in Madrid titled "Bucky Fuller & Spaceship Earth" that includes a full-size replica of the Dymaxion Car -- only three prototypes of the original vehicle were made in 1933-34. The show is at Ivory Press & Books, a bookstore and publisher housed in a space designed by Foster and run by his wife, Elena Ochoa. They've also edited a

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-15786046901843532912010-09-09T10:33:00.006+02:002012-01-15T13:36:43.737+01:00

Record Interiors, Architectural Record's September issue dedicated to interior design, features my cover story on the Crusch Alba loft in Barcelona's Gothic Quarter by Swiss architect Gus Wüstemann. The full text is on Record's web page. Swiss architect Gus Wüstemann defines his design approach as “program-free architecture,” in which “everything that contaminates the space with a program

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-69966642817948386292010-08-21T16:34:00.011+02:002010-09-09T10:56:16.130+02:00

Today I renew my collaboration with the cultural supplement Babelia of the Spanish daily El País. The story is a report on the latest public housing in the new Madrid district of Vallecas. The development has given a new generation of Madrid architects the opportunity to build, many for the first time. Mid-decade trends (when the projects were first awarded in competition) are seen in a new,

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-33146169756781606882010-08-01T19:04:00.008+02:002011-01-12T20:44:35.708+01:00

David Cohn The Panoramic Eye Llotja Theater and Convention Center, Lleida (Lérida), Spain. Mecanoo Architects, Delft. architektur.aktuell 34, 2010-07-08, July 2010. Table of contents    Order issue Mecanoo's design for Lleida is frequently compared to the auditorium built in 1966 by Van der Broek and Bakema at the Delft Technical University. But by setting the Llotja building on a paved plaza

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-89958763005901598972010-07-26T13:02:00.018+02:002010-07-27T14:07:36.928+02:00

In the latest issue of the bi-annual Russian journal Speech, dedicated to the theme of sustainable design and the future, I interview Iñaki Ábalos on his latest projects with current partner Renata Sentkiewicz and former partner Juan Herreros, and on his teaching and experiences in sustainable design. Photo, left: Project Porte de la Chapelle Tower, Paris. Courtesy of Ábalos + Sentkiewicz.I also

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-18906458834511034762010-07-26T12:51:00.008+02:002010-08-01T19:02:11.252+02:00

Arquitectura Viva reports the death of José Antonio Corrales, 88, one of the pioneers of postwar Modernism in Spain (in Spanish). I was lucky enough to interview him a couple of years ago in his Madrid studio in Bretón de los Hereros, where he was still working at his vertical drafting table with a parallelogram, full of energy and ideas.Years ago Manuel Gallego took me to see Corrales' School

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-18086653501722785842010-07-23T17:50:00.005+02:002010-07-27T14:37:25.004+02:00

Barcelona's annual FAD Awards, promoted by the Foment de les Arts Decoratives Association, aka Arquinfad, have announced their finalists, with winners to be presented in the fall. Here's the list of nine finalists in the category of architecture:Luis Rojo + Begoña Fernández-Shaw, public housing, Ciudad RealMVRDV + Blanca Lleó, for their second public housing block in Sanchinarro, Madrid Grupo

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-30426938660303292062010-07-08T12:35:00.004+02:002012-01-15T13:49:36.234+01:00

DOCOMOMO Public Places and New Programs La Arqueria - Nuevos Ministerios Paseo de la Castellana, 67 Tues. - Sat. 10-2, 5-9 Sundays, h0lidays, 10-2 Through September 5 The public buildings of the Modern Movement (1925-1965) are the subject of the latest DOCOMOMO show at Madrid's public architecture exhibition space, La Arquería. DOCOMOMO Ibérico is the official register of the modern buildings of

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-82076274061660802752010-06-30T13:22:00.008+02:002012-01-15T13:50:48.945+01:00

This June Madrid was the site for the European edition of the Solar Decathlon, a competition between teams from 17 universities to design and build the best-performing solar house (consuming only solar energy). The houses were erected in a new park on the banks of the Manzanares River. The event was sponsored by the Polytechnic University of Madrid with the support of Spain's Ministry of Housing

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-44031541600653350282010-06-20T20:37:00.006+02:002012-01-15T13:50:13.125+01:00

The debate on the post-crisis future of architecture was given an official forum in the Congress Mas por Menos (More for Less) held in Pamplona this month. The occasion has served as an excuse for some journalists in the Spanish national press to join the campaign, launched several years ago by William J. Curtis, against the excesses of architecture over the past decade -- as usual, kicking the

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-30676800146768286912010-06-02T18:46:00.007+02:002011-01-12T20:42:40.712+01:00

My article on the Mediapro Tower in Barcelona by Carlos Ferrater, Xavier Marti and Patrick Genard is featured in the May issue of architektur.akteull. If we take a look at recent New York projects that return to the theme of the glass and steel building -Herzog and de Meuron's Bond Street condos, Jean Nouvel's Mercer Street apartments, or Richard Meier's Perry Street towers, among others-

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-67261982074313221032010-05-15T17:08:00.019+02:002010-05-15T18:17:50.567+02:00

An exhibition in Madrid looks back on the late avant-garde:Desvíos de la derivaReina Sofía Museum of Contemporary ArtMay 4 – August 23, 2010Curators: Lisette Lagnado and María BerríosFrom the Museum's web page: The different Brazilian and Chilean architectural concepts that form the subject of this exhibition share a humanist, visionary basis in their way of approaching the relationship between

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-78599849395760400162010-04-28T20:51:00.013+02:002011-01-12T20:49:32.834+01:00

The April issue of architektur.akteull features my article on the BTEK Technology Center outside Bilbao by ACXT Architects, with Gonzalo Carro as Project Architect. It is the showcase for a high-tech business park, with exhibition spaces open to school visits and the general public. ACXT is the architectural division of the Spanish engineering giant IDOM. The building is buried under its

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-84444161258261219302010-04-21T19:44:00.012+02:002011-04-15T14:03:58.011+02:00

Estudio Entresitio's subsidized rental housing tower in the Vallecas Ensanche of Madrid is the subject of my latest article in Bauwelt: Wider den postmodernen Städtebau (Against Postmodern Urbanism), in Bauwelt 15.10, April 16, 2010, pages 26 - 31. The tower was built by the Municipal Housing Authority of Madrid, and is probably the best of some 40 public housing projects completed

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-87189945394535869792010-04-09T21:14:00.011+02:002010-05-02T17:58:11.476+02:00

The latest issue of AV Monografías, dedicated to new museums, includes my article on 12 museum projects from around the world.Iconos reticentes: los proyectos que vienen / Upcoming Projects: The Reluctant IconTexts in Spanish and English.AV Monografías 139, 2009, pages 24 - 33.Like their proposal for the IVAM of Valencia and the New Museum in New York, the project is a Zen exercise in absent

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-5850040304643305602010-04-06T09:38:00.005+02:002012-01-15T13:38:54.730+01:00

Next Tuesday, April 13th I will give the talk Manic Surges in Modern Capitalism: Architecture as Accomplice, Symptom and Response. The talk is part of the Symposium Crisis and Cultural Change: XXIII Seminar on Anglo-North American Thought. It is sponsored by the Department of English Literature of the Complutense University of Madrid. The talk is in English. It will be followed by a debate

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-73209423141417205462010-04-03T16:33:00.013+02:002012-01-15T13:51:54.775+01:00

The Spanish newspaper El País published a brief account on April 1st of the lamentable state of Toyo Ito's Relaxation Park in Torrevieja, Alicante (in Spanish). The project, for a series of three shell-like pavilions for mud spa therapies beside Torrevieja's shore-front lagoon, was featured in the 2006 On-Site show on Spanish architecture at New York's Museum of Modern Art. It is being

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-36631498429382156642010-04-01T12:24:00.009+02:002010-05-15T18:16:55.899+02:00

A show at the always-interesting Center for Contemporary Culture of Barcelona (CCCB): Atopia: Arte and City in the 21st Century (through May 24th). The hook: Director Josep Ramoneda's introduction:With the exhaustion of Post Modern options and the failure of attempts to prolong the dogmatism of the avant-garde through the sterile substitution of ideological processes for art, art in the first

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-51306805376049861362010-03-23T18:43:00.007+01:002010-03-23T20:12:17.963+01:00

The Ministry of Housing, which oversees the state's architecture programs here in Spain, has awarded the National Architecture Prize to Barcelona architect Carlos Ferrater this year.Ferrater is author of the House for a Photographer II, a Record Houses feature last year. I also wrote on his Catalunya Convention Center in Barcelona in the June 2002 issue of Architectural Record (pages 114 - 119).

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-23157083416788215402010-03-18T12:43:00.007+01:002012-01-15T13:52:40.158+01:00

A selection of architecture shows on view this spring: Los Ángeles de Julius Shulman Sala de Exposiciones Canal de Isabel II Santa Engracia, 125 Through May 16th. La conquista de la esbeltez Celebrating Felix Candela's centenary. Centro Conde Duque Sala Bóvedas Calle Conde Duque, 11. Through April 18th. Additional photos and information on the AV webpage (in Spanish). Los brillantes 50 Spanish

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-64508680169130383032010-02-17T18:08:00.010+01:002011-01-12T20:55:58.250+01:00

My article on Jordi Badia´s Museum Can Framis in the District 22@ of Barcelona appeared in the January - February isssue of architektur.aktuell. In the Rough architektur.aktuell 358 - 359, 2010-01-02, January - February 2010, pages 76 - 89. Table of contents    Order issue The building offers a curious variation on Barcelona's preoccupation with urban form, as it preserves, as if in amber, a

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-72058298629056137722010-02-07T18:10:00.014+01:002010-02-17T18:32:33.998+01:00

The Madrid studio of Francisco Burgos and Ginés Garrido has won a competition to rehabilitate the banks of the Tajo River and connect the area to the historic city. The project includes a riverfront walk, pedestrian bridges and a cable tramway that will descend 50 meters from the city to the riverbank. The firm was one of six finalists in a n international competition. Source: El País, February

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-46984017014383840562010-01-20T18:53:00.011+01:002010-02-17T18:22:37.206+01:00

The 4th issue of the Russian bi-annual journal Speech, dedicated to the theme of materiality, has just been published. It includes my interview with Fernando Menis (Using what's at hand, pages 220 - 240) and my article Over Carthaginian Stones, on the Museum of the Roman Theater in Cartagena by Rafael Moneo (pages 138 - 152).Also included in the issue is Estudio Entresitio's Health Clinic in San

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-48463819643037681682009-12-30T19:46:00.017+01:002010-04-02T13:19:35.835+02:00

For the record, two of my more dispersed articles this fall appeared in the following publications: Photo © Lluís Casals I served on the Jury this year for the IV Edition of the Enor Architecture Prizes, organized by the Enor Elevator Group of Vigo, in the northwestern region of Galicia, and open to works in Spain and Portugal. I wrote a lengthy review of the winning projects and the

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-83276942984114952672009-12-08T12:40:00.017+01:002011-01-12T21:01:14.448+01:00

For the past five or six years I've been proud to introduce a number of young Spanish architects in Architectural Record's annual Design Vanguard issue, which features architects of promise from around the world. This year we present the work of José María Sánchez García (Architectural Record, December 2009, pages 84 - 87). His best-known design to date is a center for the development of rural

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-5011175208222696162009-11-15T18:04:00.009+01:002011-01-12T21:08:53.419+01:00

My latest feature is on the Santa Mónica Church in Rivas-Vaciamadrid by Ignacio Vicens and José Antono Ramos, in architektur.akteull, November 2009, pages 46 - 57. I found things to like about the project and criticisms too -- particularly it's hostile relation to the neighborhood. Most spectacular, of course, is the multi-lit apse: "With its eruption of light behind the altar, trumpeted in

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-47040342405885864052009-11-12T13:44:00.008+01:002010-04-02T13:57:21.655+02:00

The young Granadine architect Alejandro Muñoz Miranda (1974) debuts with two buildings whose interwoven interior spaces are inspired in the geometric patterns of Islamic tilework. We feature his Granada Business Confederation Building and his Uion Headquarters Building in the latest issue of Bauwelt (German only): Ein Häus für Gewerkschaften, ein Häus für Unternehmer Bauwelt 42.09, November 6,

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-33280320628294113782009-10-25T13:56:00.009+01:002010-01-20T18:53:01.742+01:00

One of the aims of this platform is to present selected news items on Spanish architecture that are not usually picked up in English-language media.Here's the first:The architect and editor Ricardo Lampreave has just published, in Spanish and English, a facsimile edition of Alexander Ródchenko and Varvara Stepánova's Soviet Aviation. The book was originally published in English in 1939 for the

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-37471861270496130272009-10-15T18:31:00.010+02:002011-01-12T21:32:11.382+01:00

Continuing a regular collaboration with the Viennese magazine architektur.aktuell, in this month's issue I contribute a feature on Dominque Perrault's Olympic Tennis Center in Madrid: The Magic Box, architektur.aktuell, October, 2009, pages 54 - 65. "When seen from inside the vast open spaces of the stadiums, as their movement gradually exposes the infinite blue of Spain's summer sky, the roofs'

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-23001698937276665712009-10-03T17:22:00.014+02:002010-01-03T14:42:50.439+01:00

The cover story of Architectural Record's September interiors issue features my report on the Museum of Design and Fashion in Lisbon by architects Ricardo Carvalho and Joana Vilhena. See the web version here. The Museun is installed in a former bank building in the heart of the Baixa Pombalina. (Photo by DC).

Newsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-16094067156950056002009-10-02T17:30:00.007+02:002011-01-07T11:12:02.173+01:00

My story on the Lighthouse Museum in Cascais, Portugal by Francisco and Manuel Aires Mateus has just been published in Bauwelt 37.09 (October 2, p. 34-39). From the text: "This tension between past and present has been brilliantly addressed by a number of Portuguese architects on different occasions – think for example of the Pousada of Santa Maria do Bouro, where the ruinous state of the

Newsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-30357303155689318042008-11-01T19:04:00.003+01:002012-01-20T21:21:34.172+01:00

Eduardo Souto de Moura Burgo Tower, Porto architektur.aktuell (Vienna), November 2008, pages 58 - 69© 1998 David Cohn & architektur.aktuell All rights reserved While it might seem that little new could be wrung from the well-worn theme of the minimalist Miesian skyscraper, in his Burgo office tower in Portugal's northern city of Porto, Eduardo Souto de Moura gives the formula a surprising

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-41010848314066117292001-01-01T14:22:00.092+01:002012-01-15T13:55:47.563+01:00

Arquitectura Viva 76, January - February 2001Pages 17 - 23 (Spanish), 110 - 111 (English), cover.© Arquitectura Viva, David Cohn. All rights reserved. The current wave of European incursions into New York, with major new building projects announced by Renzo Piano, Jean Nouvel, Rem Koolhaas, Herzog and de Meuron and others, is the culmination of a courtship that first began in 1978 with a book,

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-55112652030943838932000-09-01T20:11:00.018+02:002012-01-15T13:56:13.394+01:00

Court houses, Porto, Portugal, by Eduardo Souto de Moura © David Cohn, Bauwelt, 2000. All rights reserved. The site of Eduardo Souto de Moura's latest work, a luxury housing development in Porto, Portugal, is a typical example of the disconcerting juxtapositions and hidden surprises of the landscape around the city, the product of haphazard and seemingly zoneless growth.  The site was originally

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-67193558008469594201998-11-01T19:41:00.041+01:002012-01-15T13:56:36.828+01:00

Pousada de Santa María do Bouro  by Eduardo Souto de Moura © David Cohn, Architectural Record, Bauwelt. All rights reserved. The Pousadas or Inns of Portugal, a chain of state-owned luxury hotels, are one country's answer to an enviable but difficult problem: what to do with a surplus of obsolete medieval castles, Renaissance palaces, Baroque monasteries and the like. Twenty-two pousadas in

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-77494072225771375241997-10-15T11:39:00.028+02:002012-01-15T13:57:02.254+01:00

Published in Deutsche Bauzeitung, December 1997, pages 22 - 23. © Deutsche Bauzeitung, David Cohn 1997. All rights reserved. October 15, 1997, press opening of the Guggenheim Bilbao. A spontaneous "installation piece" appears on the entry plaza: flowers strewn on the pavement before a black-draped Basque flag, surrounded by crime-scene tape and a pair of guards, marking the spot where

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-44010708655960593681994-07-30T19:34:00.020+02:002012-01-15T13:57:30.020+01:00

Interview with John Hejduk El País, July 30, 1994, Babelia, Number 145, page 15. ©  David Cohn, El País 1994. All rights reserved. New York architect John Hejduk speaks in parables around his subject, awkwardly, inarticulate, defensively combative and boastful, stumbling over words with the blunted accent of his native Bronx. Trying to express the motivating passions of his work, his only

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-11846421287415755921994-05-13T14:31:00.007+02:002011-05-03T16:56:14.386+02:00

Álvaro Siza Galician Center for Contemporary Art Centro Gallego de Arte Contemporáneo Santiago de Compostela, Spain Published in: Bauwelt 19, May 13, 1994, pages 1038 - 1045 and cover. © Bauwelt, David Cohn 1994. All rights reserved. Alvaro Siza's Centro Gallego de Arte Contemporáneo, completed last September, is the best of a number of works of architecture commissioned by the regional

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196822776323209128.post-4566482511682175431993-10-01T17:24:00.092+01:002012-01-15T13:57:49.528+01:00

db - Deutsche Bauzeitung, October 1993, pages 129 - 132. © Deutsche Bauzeitung, David Cohn 1993. All rights reserved. Chicago and New York are the protagonists of two radically different visions of the skyscraper.  In classic histories such as Leonardo Benevolo's Modern Architecture, which define architecture in terms of the "modern project" and industrial rationalization, Chicago figures as

David Cohnnoreply@blogger.com0