Broaden your architectural knowledge

The dilemma between New York and Venice is as old as civilization itself. It involves weighing whether the burden of the past is greater than the potential of the future... a crossroads at which many cities throughout history have found themselves.

Venice led cultural, artistic, and architectural progress during the Renaissance.

New York became a symbol of prosperity, capitalism, and the archetype of the modern city in the early 20th century.

Both cities, in their respective eras, reached the pinnacle of prosperity and innovation.

However, nothing lasts forever, and both cities saw their status questioned due to global conflicts, political tensions, and economic downturns.

Today, Venice has turned into a museum city, while New York, for the time being, strives to avoid that fate and continues to reinvent itself.

Discover what Venice might look like today if it had remained at the forefront of progress, with projects by Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, or Kahn. Or how New York plans to remain the skyscraper capital.

Imagine you have been dreaming about visiting a particular building. You finally manage to save up, organize the trip, you're excited… and when you finally get there, you find it... odd, different, "disguised".

This is what often happens when artists decide to perform interventions on iconic buildings. Buildings that are works of art in themselves.

Why does architecture often become a canvas for other forms of artistic expression? That is the question we explore in this article.

Do you know which are some of the buildings which artists intervened on most?

Or what have been the largest interventions made on architectural structures?

We invite you to review some of them, reflect on this issue, and share your opinion.

From the pyramids of Egypt to the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, pushing the limits of vertical construction has always fascinated people.

However, progress in this area was very limited until the early 20th century due to a very simple issue, the impracticality of having to climb up and down dozens of stairs.

The arrival of the elevator changed everything.

Something as common to us these days as the elevator was the catalyst for skyscraper architecture in the early 20th century, and a key piece in the evolution of the modern city as we know it today.

Discover the key moments in the evolution of the elevator and some of the first buildings to install them.

Putting this development into perspective is something amazing that opens the door to another of those sleep-stealing questions: What might cities look like in a few generations if we invent "another elevator"?

The idea that an architectural project starts with a blank piece of paper is a myth.

The blank paper does exists, but so does all the knowledge and experiences of the architect holding the pencil.

An key aspect of an architect's training is studying previous works, and the more the better.

Architects travel to see buildings firsthand, we draw the structures in front of us to better understand them, we observe how materials behave and age...

All this with the goal of incorporating centuries of practice and experimentation into our toolkit, so that, with a bit of luck, we can learn from those who once stood in our place.

When it comes time to face that blank paper, we make use of all this learning, and naturally incorporate parts of it into our designs, but where do we draw the line between inspiration and plagiarism?

The answer to this question can be as complex as architecture itself, but we invite you to review some of the projects that have raised this question throughout history so that you can form your own opinion.

Do you know who Iwan Iwanoff was? His life was undoubtedly as fascinating as his architecture.

He was born in Builgaria in 1919, studied in Germany, and immigrated as a refugee to Australia in 1950, where he developed his career as an architect.

His architecture is unique. He is considered a reference in the brutalist movement, but unlike the more well-known brutalist works, which tend to be large-scale governmental or institutional buildings, his work consists almost exclusively of single-family homes.

Imagine a brutalist house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Now you are starting to get an image of what Iwanoff houses feel like

His use of materials beyond their conventional purpose and his ability to maximize the simplest construction techniques are, in my opinion, some of his most admirable traits.

If fate had led Iwanoff to immigrate to the United States, he would undoubtedly be a recognized icon of modern architecture. However, fate took him to Australia, a remote country at that time, where his work didn't have the same reach.

Still, his career was prolific, leaving a legacy of over 20 unique houses that are definitely worth exploring and studying.

Architecture has existed as long as civilization itself. However, schools of architecture are relatively modern institutions.

How did one become an architect before it became something that could be studied?

Some of the most important "architects" who helped lay the foundations of the discipline would not be considered architects by today's standards.

Lacking formal education surely limited them in many aspects, but it also gave them the freedom to create without boundaries.

The professionalization of architecture introduced a series of standardizations, improved safety and processes, but has something also been lost along the way?

Studying the life and work of these non-traditional architects can be a way to see what architecture might be like without the constraints imposed by the modern world.

Architecture is expensive, there's no denying it.

A painter can paint a picture without being asked to do so. A musician can compose a song for the sheer pleasure of composing. But an architect rarely can build without a client being involved.

The relationship between architects and clients is not always easy, often the interests of one conflicts with the artistic vision of the other. But once in a while, a great architect meets a great client, their visions align, the client trusts, the budget is there... and unique projects emerge.

Although many of the masterpieces of architecture bear the client's name, it is usually the architect who is remembered.

How much do you know about Pierre and Eugénie Savoye?, Pere and Roser Milà?, Edgar Kaufmann?, The Christian Community of Ibaraki Kasugaoka?... The list is endless.

Without them, Le Corbusier could not have created the Villa Savoye, Gaudí his famous Casa Milà, Frank Lloyd Wright the Fallingwater, Richard Neutra the Kaufmann House, or Tadao Ando the Church of the Light.

This series of articles is dedicated to getting to know those visionary clients, thanks to whom architecture can continue to explore new boundaries.