Madrid, Spain
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One of Madrid’s most enduring architectural symbols, the Puerta de Alcalá was completed in 1778 to monitor the road to the nearby town Alcalá de Henares. Located in the Plaza de la Independencia, on what was once an active livestock route, the gate is made of granite and a local stone known as colmenar. -
The bustle of Gran Viá, one of Madrid’s central arteries in what could just as easily be 4 AM as 4 PM, lives up to its name as “The Grand Road.” Architectural tourists won’t want to miss Gran Viá’s stately Edificio Metrópolis, Edificio Grassy, or the Edificio Telefónica, which were erected in the first half of the last century. -
Teatros del Canal, by Francisco Javier Sáenz de Oiza, is Madrid’s latest world-class music conservatory. -
The Ojalá Awareness Club, designed by Jaque, is among the hippest restaurants in the city. -
Rafael Moneo’s extension of the Prado, sits as nicely next to the neoclassical original as the gothic Monasterio de Jeronimos next door. -
Café Comercial has provided Madrid’s intellectuals with underground tertulias, poetry readings, and chance encounters since the Spanish Civil War. -
The CaixaForum by Herzog + de Meuron is a cultural center in the city’s historic museum triangle. p.242 -
For classic Madrid kitsch and foreign imports, Victimas de Celuloide is the sure-thing stop-off for anyone looking to add something unusual to their home décor. -
A European classic since its inception, the Vespa, and plenty of scooters like it, provides the perfect solution to modern Madrid’s lack of parking. -
An equestrian statue of King Phillip III presides over Madrid’s central square, Plaza Mayor. -
For over a century, Madrileños have been frequenting La Ardosa for a regional dose of the Spanish staples: a nice glass of wine and tapas. -
Cured ham hocks dangle from the ceiling of Museo del Jamón, celebrating Spain’s famed Serrano ham culture.
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Madrid, Spain
Architect and designer Andrés Jaque takes us on a tour of pre-modern Madrid, highlighting the spaces where progressive design is breaking the mold.
Day of the Living Wall
Why limit our oxygen-releasing flora friends to the indoors when you can flank them on buildings of all proportions, thanks to the highly-skilled hands of a botanist?
Brick by Brick
Born as a horse stable, the Brick Weave House in Chicago is all about transportation and transparency.
P.I.G.S.
P.I.G.S. is the first solo exhibition in Spain by Paris-based artist Claire Fontaine, whose work revolves around the exploration of the political, economic and social context and on how it influences contemporary society. In a world mediated by the rationale of the market and consumerism, Claire Fontaine co-opts art practices as a method for collective activity, a way of reflecting on how such notions predicate the construction of our lives as individuals and as citizens.
The Claire Fontaine exhibition at the MUSAC is the opening installment in the new Sala 1 project, a space set aside for the presentation of site-specific projects made by artists with well established trajectories but who have not yet garnered much visibility in Spain.
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