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Monday, December 30, 2013
Saturday, December 7, 2013
In an article I wrote a few years ago on Barcelona's Media-TIC building, for Mark Magazine #25, I concluded my optimistic text by asking: "Will its ETFE pillow system work successfully and eventually make its way onto curtain-wall façades of office buildings the world over? Only time will tell." Well, the answer to my question is published in an op-ed piece titled "Smart City 2023" in today's El País. It turns out that the pillow...
Thursday, November 28, 2013
"I don’t know whether we should be designating heritage buildings." -Frank O. GehryWhy is preserving old buildings only ever a question of heritage? Shouldn't we be maintaining and re-using whatever buildings can be salvaged for environmental reasons at this point? It is known that construction is one of the biggest causes of human CO2 emissions, up there with industry, agriculture, and transportation. There is also growing alarm about sand depletion,...
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
image courtesy Wikipedia Barcelona's La Vanguardia newspaper reported three days ago that the Agbar Tower, an office building designed by Jean Nouvel and completed in 2005, is to be converted into a luxury hotel. The news should come as no surprise. Architecture has been responding better to the demands of tourists than those of workers or dwellers for some time now.La Torre Agbar was specifically designed as the headquarters of the...
Monday, November 18, 2013
A recent video illustrating "the final stages of Gaudí's masterpiece" represents, we are led to believe, La Sagrada Familia completed. However, the temple is shown incomplete in this video. Where is the plaza across from the Glory façade and the main entrance steps that, according to Gaudí's design, span over carrer de Mallorca? The plaza and entrance steps require, moreover, the expropriation and demolition of several buildings that...
Sunday, October 27, 2013
Screen capture of BBC reportMr. Koolhaas, you designed a daring and ambitious building for CCTV, China's state-controlled television broadcaster. But it is from this building that supposed "confessions" by imprisoned Chinese journalists are being broadcast these days. What do you make of that? Would you say your design is performing as well as initially hoped (and hyped)? Are you still optimistic that the "chain of interdependence" built into CCTV's...
Saturday, October 26, 2013
[versión en castellano sigue a continuación]"Attention. Liberty and Fraternity streets are closed due to road improvements. Temporary detour via Danger Street." That's exactly what the sign says. Good to know. Problem is we're looking for Progress street (carrer del Progrés, see map below), and if Liberty has been shut and we are obliged to take Danger street, then that requires crossing Venus street, and we'd rather not upset the goddess...
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