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Josep Lluis Sert: The Latest Architecture and News

45 Years of Architecture Model Photography in Spain

12:00 - 16 April, 2017
45 Years of Architecture Model Photography in Spain, International Design Competition for the José Batlle y Ordóñez Monument in Montevideo (Uruguay), 1959. Architect: Roberto Puig Álvarez. Sculptor: Jorge Oteiza. Image © Photographic Library of the Spanish Cultural Heritage Institute, Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport. Oteiza Museum Archives
International Design Competition for the José Batlle y Ordóñez Monument in Montevideo (Uruguay), 1959. Architect: Roberto Puig Álvarez. Sculptor: Jorge Oteiza. Image © Photographic Library of the Spanish Cultural Heritage Institute, Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport. Oteiza Museum Archives

138 images, 14 albums, 20 magazines, 13 original models and one projection are part of Modeling for the Camera: Photography of architectural models in Spain, 1925-1970, the current exhibition of the ICO Museum in Madrid, curated by Iñaki Bergera, PhD of Architecture from the University of Navarra.

The exhibition is tied to the book of the same name that was published in 2016, edited by La Fábrica and the Ministry of Public Works (Spain). In times when 3D visualization software has popularized, accelerated and perfected the rendering industry, both materials choose to value the legacy of architectural model photography in the 20th century.

Club Táchira, Caracas (Venezuela), 1956. Architects: Eduardo Torroja Miret and José Fructoso Vivas Vivas. Image © Modern construction archives- Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, Alberto Sartoris. © García Moya Preliminary design outdoor gazebo for music band. National Prize of Architecture, 1962. Architect: Juan Daniel Fullaondo Errazu. Image © Paco Gómez Archive / Foto Colectania Foundation Headquarters of JORBA Laboratories, Madrid, 1965. Architect: Miguel Fisac ​​Serna. Image © C. Jiménez. Fisac ​​Foundation Torres Blancas, Madrid, 1969. Architect: Francisco Javier Sáenz de Oiza. Image © Collection Architectural College of Catalonia Historical Archives. Photography: L. Jiménez + 15

Josep Lluís Sert's Martin Luther King Jr School: A Never-Loved Building That Never Stood a Chance

08:30 - 8 June, 2015
Josep Lluís Sert's Martin Luther King Jr School: A Never-Loved Building That Never Stood a Chance, Cover of MAS Context 25-26 / Legacy. Image © Tom Harris / Hedrich Blessing
Cover of MAS Context 25-26 / Legacy. Image © Tom Harris / Hedrich Blessing

In architecture circles, it's a sadly familiar trope: a postwar modernist building by a celebrated architect is slated for demolition, and the only people to come to its defense are not the local community, but the architects and critics who can see past the weathered concrete to the ideals within. But despite this familiarity, it's rare to find a critic with first-hand experience as the user of the building in question, and rarer still for them to have experienced it with the unprejudiced eyes of a child. Such is the case with Alexandra Lange, who went to kindergarten at Josep Lluís Sert's Martin Luther King Jr School in Cambridge. In this article from MAS Context, originally titled "Never-Loved Buildings Rarely Stand a Chance: Josep Lluís Sert in Cambridge" and featuring photographs by Lee Dykxhoorn, Lange recounts her experiences of the school and laments its destruction. The latest issue of MAS Context focuses on the theme of "Legacy" - from the legacy we have inherited from our predecessors to the legacy we are leaving for the future.

It’s a detail too perfect, better suited to a novel. Architecture critic goes to kindergarten at modernist school. Years later, she returns to the city of her birth and discovers the school again, surrounded by construction hoardings, on the brink of destruction. Can she save it? Except that was me, and I was too late.

Classroom clerestory expression along Putnam Avenue, Cambridge, 2013. Image © Lee Dykxhoorn Classrooms open on exterior play space, Cambridge, 2013. Image © Lee Dykxhoorn Play area behind the school with entry ramp, Cambridge, 2013. Image © Lee Dykxhoorn Classrooms open on exterior play space, Cambridge, 2013. Image © Lee Dykxhoorn + 20

Proposed Demolition of Josep Lluis Sert's King School Cambridge

15:00 - 13 August, 2012
Courtesy of Max Moore
Courtesy of Max Moore

At a time when sustainability is high on the agenda and construction costs continue to soar, many Cambridge residents are questioning a proposal to demolish a sound and respected school building to replace it with a new school one that will strive to be a “green facility”. The Martin Luther King Elementary School (1968-1971) was designed by Catalan architect Josep Lluis Sert (Sert, Jackson and Associate). As it stands today, the school compliments the many other buildings in Cambridge that Sert worked on while also teaching at Harvard University, including the Peabody Terrace Graduate Housing complex just across the street.

Read on to find out what the community is doing to save the building from demolition and why it can prove to be a more sustainable option for the city.

Architecture City Guide: Barcelona

10:00 - 20 July, 2011
Courtesy of Flickr CC License / SlapBcn. Used under <a href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/'>Creative Commons</a>
Courtesy of Flickr CC License / SlapBcn. Used under Creative Commons

This week, with the help of our readers, our Architecture City Guide is headed to Barcelona. We recently featured an engaging video where Wiel Arets half jokingly said Barcelona is fantastic but boring. He continued to say as soon as Sagrada Família is finished Barcelona is done; there is nothing left to do there (10:50). Arets can say what he wants about Barcelona supposedly being boring, but our city guide doesn’t reflect this. Barcelona is filled with fantastically expressive architecture that springs from its proud Catalan culture. It was impossible to feature all our readers suggestions in the first go around, and we did not even come close to including some of the most iconic building such as Casa Milà. Thus we are looking to add to our list of 24 in the near future. Further more there are so many fabulous buildings on the drawing board or under construction, i.e. the projects in the @22 district, we’ll most likely be updating this city guide for quite awhile, regardless of Sagrada Família’s completion.

Take a look at our list with the knowledge it is far complete and add to it in the comment section below.

The Architecture City Guide: Barcelona list and corresponding map after the break.

Architecture City Guide: Boston

12:55 - 23 February, 2011

For this week the Architecture City Guide series headed to the city of Boston including neighboring Cambridge just across the Charles River Basin. This area has an overwhelmingly large amount of modern architecture in a small radius, and our list reflects just that. What buildings do you want to see added to our Boston list, share them with us in the comment section below.

The Architecture City Guide: Boston list and corresponding map after the break!