Architects Josep Lluís Mateo, Miquel Lacasta Codorniu, Emiliano López and Juan García Millán were present at the event. Juan García Millán is an editor at Ediciones Asimétricas.
“La viga is a combative book that speaks with uncommon freedom and sincerity that can sometimes verge on rudeness. Massad applies this sincerity in his well thought-out and ethical approach to issues he finds both interesting and worrisome. In my view, the book’s main goal is to use criticism as an instrument for change”, said Millán.
Miquel Lacasta, a professor who teaches the Final Degree Project at the ESARQ School of Architecture, and Emiliano Lopez both highlighted the need for a book like La viga, which they believe is what is called for in these turbulent times when people do not generally tend read past the headlines. “I think it’s more than a book of criticism”, said Lacasta. “It’s also a (sometimes thinly) veiled book of theory. It takes a good look at architecture in this time of conflict. It’s a clear, necessary, forceful book precisely because it pushes the limits. Writing criticism like this means blazing trails and starting discussions.”
Emiliano López highlighted the critical character of Massad’s texts: “At a time when the rectilinear world is suddenly at an impasse and nobody really goes beyond the purely superficial, we could paraphrase the words of Italo Calvino and say that Fredy reminds us of the irreplaceable ‘inveterate fault-finder’”.
Architect Josep Lluís Mateo placed special emphasis on Massad’s writing style: “Fredy Massad certainly swims against the current and he seems to love it. One of the great achievements of the book is that these articles on architecture provide a final perspective on topics that are no longer of current interest. When Fredy is confronted with disjointed discourse and mixed messages, he tries to make some sense of them. But beware of his writing style because when he lashes out, his criticism tends to be spot on and richly deserved. The structure of his writing is also interesting, especially the way he brings his articles to a close: it’s always somewhere between synthesis and a slap in the face.”
Fredy Massad describes himself as an architect by training and a critic by feigning. He studied at the Universidad de Buenos Aires, the city where he was born, and has been working and reflecting on contemporary architecture at btbW/Architecture since 1996. He combines his work as an architecture critic in the ABC cultural supplement with lecturing on theory and criticism at the UIC Barcelona’s ESARQ School of Architecture.
