Articles by Valentina Díaz

The Shark House is located on the outskirts of Mexico City, in a neighborhood characterized by self-construction, exposed concrete block, and gradual growth, which has generated a landscape of irregular and constantly changing volumes. Instead of contradicting this condition, the project embraces it as a starting point, reinterpreting the irregularity through a volumetric composition that gives the impression of volumes built in different stages.

Architect Clara Crous and her partner Carles acquired the last available plot on one of the streets in Vilamacolum, a small village in the Alt Empordà. It is a triangular lot, in direct contact with the agricultural landscape that has historically defined the territory and also Carles’ biography, which is deeply connected to the countryside.

The Muro nursery school, in Mallorca, is located on elevated ground within a transitional area between the urban fabric and agricultural fields. In its immediate surroundings, landmarks of the landscape and collective life can be identified, such as an old marés stone windmill, the stands of the football field, and the built urban skyline. From its position, the site offers wide views of the area and its main references, including the Church of Sant Joan Baptista and the Convent of Santa Anna.

This project is born as a retreat space, conceived from introspection. A personal and private spa in the mountains of Tapalpa, where the architecture deliberately renounces the idea of a façade: there is no gesture towards the outside, no frontal composition. The building seeks not to be seen, but to be inhabited.

The 2026 Pritzker Price Award has been awarded this year to the Chilean architect of Croatian descent, Smiljan Radić Clarke. Born in Santiago, Chile, in 1965, his practice evokes a geography of extremes, shaped by the tectonic tension between the staggering weight of the Andes and the seismic instability of the territory. After graduating from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile and pursuing further studies in aesthetics in Venice, Smiljan Radić Clarke established his base in Santiago. From there, he has developed one of the most singular visions in contemporary architecture. His work privileges the intensity of the moment through a fragile architecture. Within it, the building operates as a temporary and tactile refuge that places the spectator in a state of aesthetic uncertainty, oscillating between ancestral ruin and avant-garde artefact.

The 2026 Pritzker Price Award has been awarded this year to the Chilean architect of Croatian descent, Smiljan Radić Clarke. Born in Santiago, Chile, in 1965, his practice evokes a geography of extremes, shaped by the tectonic tension between the staggering weight of the Andes and the seismic instability of the territory. After graduating from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile and pursuing further studies in aesthetics in Venice, Smiljan Radić Clarke established his base in Santiago. From there, he has developed one of the most singular visions in contemporary architecture. His work privileges the intensity of the moment through a fragile architecture. Within it, the building operates as a temporary and tactile refuge that places the spectator in a state of aesthetic uncertainty, oscillating between ancestral ruin and avant-garde artefact.

In the first months of 2020, the coronavirus pandemic evolved from a localized infectious disease into a chronic global emergency. The bizarre took over human existence, and everyday life was transported into a state of magical realism. In One Hundred Years of Solitude, Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez describes how the town of Macondo was subject to strange phenomena, such as the overnight proliferation of rabbits that paved public spaces with small animals, or the sudden fall of leaves carpeting the streets in green within hours. During the pandemic, these strange phenomena were not far from human reality: animals reclaimed urban spaces during mandatory quarantines, and streets transformed into vibrant communal areas filled with greenery and public life in a short period of time.

The Dormis Donata form the connecting axis of KUSKA, a rural complex located at 3,100 meters above sea level in the agricultural landscape of the Sacred Valley of the Incas. Nestled between mountains and terraces, they offer a context in which architecture engages in dialogue with memory, topography, and the cyclical rhythms of the environment. Designed to bridge two modes of habitation—permanent and temporary—they serve a key role as an intermediate space between the private core (next to the Home) and the communal core (next to the Quincho).