Books 

Theoretical Anxiety and Design Strategies in the Work of Eight Contemporary Architects
MIT Press, May 2004
Spanish edition, Actar

The internationally acclaimed architect Rafael Moneo is known to be a courageous architect. His major works include the Houston Museum of Fine Art, Davis Art Museum at Wellesley College, the Stockholm Museum of Modern Art and Architecture, and the Potzdammer Platz Hotel in Berlin. Now Moneo will be known as a daring critic as well. In this book, he looks at eight of his contemporaries--all architects of international stature--and discusses the theoretical positions, technical innovations, and design contributions of each. Moneo's discussion of these eight architects--James Stirling, Robert Venturi, Aldo Rossi, Peter Eisenman, Álvaro Siza, Frank Gehry, Rem Koolhaas, and the partnership of Jacques Herzog and Pierre De Meuron--has the colloquial, engaging tone of a series of lectures on modern architecture by a master architect; the reader hears not the dispassionate theorizing of an academic, but Moneo's own deeply held convictions as he considers the work of his contemporaries. More than 500 illustrations accompany the text.

Discussing each of the eight architects in turn, Moneo first gives an introductory profile, emphasizing intentions, theoretical concerns, and construction procedures. He then turns to the work, offering detailed critical analyses of the works he considers to be crucial for an informed understanding of this architect's work. The many images he uses to illustrate his points resemble the rapid-fire flash of slides in a lecture, but Moneo's perspective is unique among lecturers. These profiles are not what Moneo calls the "tacit treatises" that can be found on the shelves of a university library, but lively encounters of architectural equals.

La solitudine degli edifici ed altri scritti
Vol. 2: Sugli architetti e il loro lavoro
Allemande, 2004

Direttore per molti anni della più famosa scuola di architettura negli Stati Uniti (la Graduate School of Design di Harvard), Rafael Moneo ha vinto nel 1996 il premio Pritzker per l’architettura. Appartiene a una generazione di architetti che ha fatto dell’impegno intellettuale una parte essenziale del proprio lavoro, affiancando l’insegnamento al progetto, la scrittura alla costruzione. Moneo non aveva mai raccolto sinora i propri scritti, che vengono quindi pubblicati per la prima volta insieme, suddivisi in due volumi. Il primo tomo, ora ristampato, tratta in particolare i temi della tipologia, dell’insegnamento, delle opere nel loro rapporto con il tempo e del ruolo della tecnica. Il secondo, una novità assoluta, discute il metodo di lavoro e le opere degli architetti contemporanei: da Aldo Rossi a Ieoh Ming Pei, da Peter Eisenman a Frank Gehry, a Robert Venturi. I testi provengono in origine da riviste internazionali, miscellanee, atti di convegni, relazioni e prolusioni di difficile reperibilità e pubblicati in lingue diverse.

Carme Pinos: An Architecture of Overlay
by Ana Maria Torres, Rafael Moneo, Carme Pinos
Monacelli Press, April 2004

The work of Catalan architect Carmé Pinós is known for a close relationship with its immediate environment. Her sculptural forms—sinuous lines and walls, teetering planes, inviting arches and containers—are derived from a poetic use of materials and from the history and patterns of human presence on the site. Pinós architecture of overlay is evident in her design process; her unique models and drawings are complex compositions that reinforce the multifaceted quality of her design. This monograph, the first comprehensive English-language publication of the architect's work, presents extensive visual documentation of twenty-five built and unbuilt works from 1991, the year she founded her own firm, to the present.

Pinós is particularly noted for her large-scale architecture-landscape projects, including her most significant current project, the JVC Cultural & Business Center fair area, part of a major project in Guadalajara, Mexico. Amongst other designs are the pedestrian bridge, Petrer, Alicante; Dunar Park, Matalascañas, Huelva; the Juan Aparicio and Punta Prima water-fronts, Torrevieja, Alicante; and lanscape improvements and recreational center, Caldas de Reis, Galicia. Pinós also specializes in sports facilities and schools: sports center and swimming pool, Mont-Sartoux, Côte d'Azur; soccer stadium, Seville; and high school, Mollerusa, Lérida.

Rafael Moneo: The Freedom of the Architect: The Raoul Wallenberg Lecture
Brian Carter, editor, Univ of Michigan Architecture, July 2003

In The Freedom of the Architect, Pritzker Prize-winning architect Rafael Moneo speaks on form, language and history, broadly, and as represented in examples of his own work. He elaborates on how architects today have disassociated their work from the environment, creating autonomous landmarks with little relationship to their surroundings and how the architect as individual challenges the role of history in the built environment. Moneo's reflections on his own work include: The City Hall of Murcia, Spain, The Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the Kursaal Auditorium in San Sebastian, Spain, and the acclaimed Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral in Los Angeles. Spanish born, Madrid-based Moneo's work unites tradition and innovation. He has developed an extensive body of work as an architectural critic and theoretician and his writing has appeared in Oppositions and Lotus. He is a committed educator, having chaired the Harvard Graduate School of Design and lectured internationally. Essay by Rafael Moneo.

Rafael Moneo. Diseñador.
Juli Capella
texts by Rafael Moneo and Juli Capella
Santa & Cole, editors. 2003

Este maestro de la arquitectura contemporánea accede a mostrar el lado menos conocido, menos estudiado y, quizás, menos valorado de su actividad profesional. Gracias al empeño de Juli Capella, los diseños de Moneo se revelan como sujetos con vida propia, que reivindican el protagonismo que merecen.

El Carmen: Rodriguez-Acosta
Text: Rafael Moneo
Photographs: Francisco Fernández
2001, Fundación Rodríguez-Acosta, Granada

Grand Hyatt Berlin
Rafael Moneo, Hannes Wettstein
photographs by Helene Binet
Birkhaüser Verlag, 2000

Rafael Moneo, the world-famous Spanish architect (born in 1937), has just completed his hotel building in Berlin's Potsdamer Platz. The building is a striking combination of Mediterranean flair and classical austerity enhanced by the Swiss designer, Hannes Wettstein's attractive interior design and furnishings. An ambitious art program comprising contemporary works provides the finishing touches, making the building itself a successful work of art. Similar to Birkhauser's publications on the building of the Fondation Beyeler by Renzo Piano, and Zaha Hadid's LF one, this monograph documents the whole development of the construction of the hotel using previously unpublished sketches, plans, photographs and texts.

Cruz/Ortiz
Princeton Architectural Press, 1996

Introductions by Rafael Moneo

Cruz/Ortiz contains a complete chronology of their buildings and projects and an introduction by Rafael Moneo. The monograph documents the team's impressive work through numerous photographs and drawings, accompanied by project descriptions and commentary.

Carlos Jimenez: Buildings
(Architecture at Rice)
Princeton Architectural Press, 1996

This is the first monograph published in the United States on Carlos Jimenez, whose work has been linked to the new wave of Spanish architects as well as to Latin American architects such as Luis Barragán. The book includes an introduction by Rafael Moneo, an essay by historian Stephen Fox, and a postscript by Lars Lerup, as well as complete project documentation.

The Solitude of Buildings.
Kenzo Tange Lecture, Harvard University Graduate School of Design, March 9, 1985.

Reprinted in: A+U, August 1989. Published in German in the exhibition catalogue Rafael Moneo. Bauen für die Stadt, Viena, Akademie der Bildenden Künste, April 1993, in Swedish in the exhibition catalogue "Rafael Moneo. Byggnsader och Projekt. 1973-1993", Stockholm, October 1993. 

Articles by Rafael Moneo