On Thursday 27 September, Fredy Massad, a lecturer in Architecture Theory and Criticism at the UIC Barcelona School of Architecture, presented his essay “Crítica de Choque” [Shock Criticism] at the Jordi Capell Architects’ Cooperative. The book, published by Qut Ediciones, had been released the year before in Argentina, in a version co-published by Bisman Ediciones and the University of Palermo. 

The essay, which stems from the author’s own conviction that the role of architecture criticism must be defended, examines what has happened in the field of architecture over the past ten years. “We need to break the widespread and conformist taboo that criticism should be abolished or, at the very least, silenced because it interferes with too many interests in a time exacerbated by the predominance of paternalistic attitudes and over-simplified approaches”, explains Massad. 

In addition to teaching, Fredy Massad is also an architecture critic for numerous domestic and international publications, and since 2013 has directed the architecture blog for the newspaper ABC, entitled “La viga en el ojo” [The beam in the eye]. In 2015, Fredy Massad published an essay of the same name in the blog, which included some forty-odd articles written between 2008 and 2015.

Last Thursday’s presentation ceremony was organised by the Jordi Capell Cooperative and the Association of Architects of Catalonia (COAC) and featured architect Josep Lluís Mateo; the director of La Virreina, Valentín Roma; and architect and the COAC spokesperson for Culture, Josep Ferrando. During the event, Fredy Massad asserted that “these are difficult times for architecture criticism, and only a radical change in the ground rules can save it. The increased personal ambition of the generation of starchitects placed critics at their service. Motivated by self-interest, critics became covert publicists and character modellers, and by doing so undermined the credibility of their work”, concluded Massad.