A sculptural pavilion that continues the rugged terrain of the surrounding area endeavors to become part of the network of public facilities that enlivens a coastal resort. Open on all sides, the undulating ground floor is sheltered by a framework su
Commissioned by the Rio de Janeiro City Hall, the design for the library called Biblioteca dos Saberes, encompassing an area of 40,000 m², has been revealed. It is inspired by trees native to the region and by the cultural and historical context of t
A former monastery dating back to 1937 located in the Belgian city of Leuven, which served as a school for decades, has been transformed into a cultural center dedicated to the poet Paul van Ostaijen. The renovation of this heritage site, which was i
Houston has inaugurated the first Ismaili Center in the United States and the seventh in the world. The complex is part of the international network of institutions promoted by Karim al-Hussaini, Aga Khan IV (1936–2025), creator of a prestigious trie
Formerly a factory and later a civic center for people with disabilities, the building has now been transformed into a multifunctional space. The project centers on self-recycling, and up to 95% of its original elements have been reused or repurposed
The Shanghai firm of Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu has turned an old chemical-research facility in the Chinese city of Dalian into a cultural and commercial complex named The Yard, using six buildings that used to house offices, warehouses, and workers’
This cultural facility in the urban center of Carbajosa de la Sagrada, a municipality in Salamanca province, is located at Plaza de la Constitución, very close to the Church of the Assumption. It is a new building that uses the best features of its s
The construction of this new facility in La Bouëxière, in France’s Brittany region, presents the opportunnity to reconsolidate and restructure the zone, creating a large sport and culture center that integrates existing amenities and reconnects the c
The refurbishment of Zarautz Palace, which was in a ruinous state, constitutes another stage of its history. While preserving the heritage value of its walls, the project turns it into a new cultural facility for Getaria. The design worked out by Vau
The Sueli Pontes ecomuseum of the Orla Piratininga park is located on the shores of the Piratininga lagoon in Niterói, near the bay of Rio de Janeiro. The project, a collaboration between the Dutch firm KAAN Architecten and the local studios UrbSP an
Located in the heart of San Javier, the 31,949-square-meter Almansa Park is the result of an idea competition organized with the Murcia Institute of Architects (COAMU). The project carried out by Emac Arquitectura – Miguel Martínez Castillejo and Pau
The old City Hall of Fonsagrada, erected in 1845 and in disuse since 2015, has been turned by the Galician practice Firm Arquitectura —Daniel Gómez Magide and Adrián López Rancaño— into a museum for works of the cartoonist Fraguas, known as Forges, t
Built in the 13th century, the listed ensemble of the Reales Atarazanas (Royal Shipyards) is in a privileged spot in the center of Seville: the Arenal quarter, halfway between the Guadalquivir and the monumental complex of the Cathedral, between the
This complex devoted to the culture and historical heritage of the Ewé ethnic group is located in the city of Notsé, 80 kilometers from Lomé, the capital of Togo, in West Africa. Every first week of September since 1956, Ewé pilgrims have gathered in
In the vibrant Molenbeek district, an art space linked to a laboratory for computer-aided manufacturing has been renovated with the idea of opening up to the city and bringing in the public. The state-of-the-art facilities of the workshops are preced
The design for this 50-meter-tall cultural hub with a cone shape took into account how the sun changes course during the year. Located in China’s northeastern city of Yantai, the Sun Tower was conceived as a giant sundial composed of two connected la
An abandoned complex comprising two houses and three warehouses – where rice was once sold and stored – has been converted into an art center for the Japanese city of Ota, in Gunma Prefecture. Exhibition galleries, studios, and workshops are inserted
The Spanish firm Selgascano has won the competition to build a cultural center in Beijing that will redefine the cityscape of Beijing’s Xicheng district. At ground level, a grand public exhibition space with transparent facades invites the community
The firm Zaha Hadid Architects has been announced as the designers, in collaboration with the engineers of Buro Happold, of a research facility named in honor of the 15th-century poet Alisher Navoi and to go up in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan.
An international competition held in 2008 was won by the Barcelona firms Mendoza Partida and BAX, thanks to a scheme that transformed a building of great historical value into a cultural facility while reactivating the banks of the river Ljubljanica
The Royal Shipyards of Seville are the city’s most impressive civil construction. They are located in a privileged spot: in the Arenal neighborhood, midway between the river and the monumental site of the Cathedral, the Archive of the Indies, and the
Wrapped with a corrugated skin of punched aluminum, Daminghu 100 in Jinan is the result of transforming an old office and hotel building into a culture and arts center. Located on the south shore of DaMing Lake, it blends into the natural and histori
The firm 3XN has won the invitation-only competition to build an art center in the South Korean city of Chungnam. The scheme draws inspiration from the movement of an orchestra conductor’s baton and from the arc that a ballet dancer’s pointed toe mak
In spite of the exceptional reception the public has always given him, Santiago Calatrava’s L’Àgora is regarded with suspicion by critics. Not only because of the visual populism the construction flaunts, but also, and above all, because this skeleto
Caixaforum Valencia
The architect Frank Gehry will unveil his latest blockbuster building—a soaring twisting geometric tower covered with 11,000 stainless steel panels—at Luma Arles this summer, the 27-acre cultural campus in the southern French town of Arles spearheade
Located at Hudson Yards in New York, very close to Thomas Heatherwick’s The Vessel (see Arquitectura Viva 213), rises The Shed, another major hybrid of architecture and sculpture, this time by Diller Scofidio + Renfro. While the theme of the ludic mo
The firm Mecanoo, based in Delft but also working from London and New York, has completed a cultural complex in the Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung. The National Center for the Arts is a huge complex that attests as much to Taiwan’s economic power as to
The Tokyo firm founded and headed by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, SANAA, recently opened the City of Culture of Tsuruoka, a small city on the northwest coast of Japan’s Honshu Island. Located close to an old samurai school, it is surrounded by g
The firm Kengo Kuma Associates has within the grounds of the Portland Japanese Gardens, opened in 1967, inaugurated a Cultural Village composed of four buildings of modest scale with tiered green roofs recalling pagodas. The design, which presents a
Time is the thread of this essay by Emilio Tuñón which traces the historical footprint of the Royal Palace, explains the concept of the new museum, and remembers his partner Luis Mansilla.
The results of the competition for the chance to refurbish the main shed of the old Clesa dairy factory, built in the year 1961 by the master Alejandro de la Sota in Madrid’s Fuencarral-El Pardo district, were announced on 27 November 2015. Promoted
It would not be an exaggeration to classify the architectures of the world in accordance with the manner in which they relate with nature. Some dominate it, as does western architecture; others engage in dialogue with it, as does Asian architecture.
The Argentina-based team M2R – Carlos Nahuel Recabarren, Manuel Alberto Martínez Catalán, and Franco Morero – was announced the winner of an international competition organized by UNESCO and the Afghan Ministry of Information and Culture to bui
Working in historical environments can be a poisoned gift. Since the year 2007, when he won the major competition for the extension of the Asturias Museum of Fine Arts in Oviedo, the Pamplona-based Francisco Mangado has had to deal with problems of e
In the local imagination, the modernization of Azerbaijan and its opening to the West is associated with three milestones: in 1996, after independence, the TV tower of Baku, an icon 310 meters tall, was completed; in 2001, the Azerbaijani abandoned t
Salpicado de bloques residenciales a medio habitar y paralizado por la crisis, el ensanche de Móstoles tiene un nuevo y singular vecino: el centro de servicios sociales construido por el estudio madrileño Dosmasuno (Ignacio Borrego, Néstor Montenegro
Acaba de presentarse el edificio que Renzo Piano construirá para la Fundación Botín en la bahía santanderina, un centro dedicado al arte y la cultura que será, una vez inaugurado en 2014, la primera obra del genovés en España. El Centro de Arte Botín
En pleno centro de Ceuta y lindante con el Paseo del Revellín (que toma su nombre de una de las fortificaciones de la ciudad), un nuevo complejo cultural, blanco y lacónico, diseñado por Álvaro Siza, brilla ya bajo el sol africano. Situado en una ext
Situado frente a la ría de El Burgo, cerca de La Coruña, el edificio de la fábrica Cros —antigua manufactura de tostado de piritas para la producción de ácido sulfúrico construida en los años 1940— será rehabilitado para acoger un auditorio, una bibl
El vallisoletano Primitivo González ha sido el adjudicatario del concurso para la rehabilitación del antiguo depósito del locomotoras de la Estación Campo Grande de la capital castellana y su dotación con nuevos usos culturales: una ‘casa del ciudada
Fundado en Rotterdam y con oficina en Madrid, el estudio fündc (fün design consultancy) —de los madrileños César García-Guerra, Paz Martín y Juanjo Unceta— ha finalizado la construcción de la nueva plaza Padre Vallet y la ampliación y rehabilitación
El estudio madrileño Cano Lasso ha resultado ganador del concurso para un centro cultural y la ordenación urbana de su entorno, en el núcleo de Nuestra Señora de Jesús, en Ibiza. Concebido como un volumen de formas orgánicas, la propuesta dialoga for
¿Se trata de una gran casa o de un pequeño pueblo? El estudio madrileño ZooCo ha jugado con este equívoco en su propuesta ganadora para el Centro Municipal de las Artes de Verín, en Orense. Inspirándose en la volumetría azarosa de las manzanas típica
Fruto de la colaboración entre cuatro estudios de Ljubljana —Bevk Perovic, OFIS, Sadar Vuga y Dekleva Gregoric—, el nuevo Centro Cultural de Tecnologías Espaciales Europeas (KSEVT) en la localidad eslovena de Vitnaje está formado por una serie de ani
El MUCAB es un nuevo centro cultural y de servicios para la localidad murciana de Blanca, diseñado por el estudio de Martín Lejarraga. Situado frente al río Segura, el MUCAB actuará como un nuevo núcleo urbano que potenciará la actividad en sus riber
Javier Sánchez Aisha Ballesteros
Ciudad de México 2023
Arquine - 124 Pages
Julio de la Fuente Natalia Gutiérrez Rehabilitación y restauración del Ateneo Científico, Literario y Artístico de Madrid. 2016-2022
Bilbao 2001
Museo Guggenheim Bilbao - 391 Pages
