THE
INSTIGATOR
Art & Culture magazine
NEWS
PHOTO / Casa Barragán by Luis Barragán / photo © courtesy of Vitra
LUIS BARRAGÁN
MASTER OF COLOURS
MEXICO
THE ART OF LIGHT
Luis Barragán’s work has influenced contemporary architects both visually and conceptually. One of his most well-known designs, completed in 1948 in Mexico City, is Casa Barragán, which stands apart from the dominant narratives of modern architecture.
The other significant buildings are the Casa Gilardi (1975) in Ciudad, the Cuadra San Cristóbal (1969), in Atizapán of Zaragoza, and the Casa Prieto López (1951), in Pedregal.
Sylvain Marcoux travelled around Mexico and revisited Barragán’s work.
The houses are far from being nostalgic or decorative; they propose an alternative modernity rooted in introspection. Barragán’s efficiency, transparency, and technological expression were in favour of silence, colour, and emotional intensity.
Barragán rejects functionalist dogma and imposes a different, higher law: pure emotion. Throughout his work, light does more than merely illuminate - it elevates, envelops, and slides through, only to cast an even deeper spell. Colour rises to the status of a supreme language. Silence becomes a lived-in luxury. Drawn from Mexico’s vernacular soul - convents steeped in quiet contemplation, haciendas bathed in golden light - his vision is transformed through contact with Europe, stirred by the secret grace of Ferdinand Bac’s magical garden, Les Colombières (Côte d’Azur, France), completed in 1927.
From this encounter emerges an exceptional, though marginal architecture, where every space becomes a sanctuary, every hue a statement, and every shadow an act of refinement. A timeless modernity, shaped by a single, absolute imperative: BEAUTY.
Barragán was raised, with grace, to the ranks of the world’s greatest architectural signatures, which is Mexicanidad, the quality of being traditional and having great pride in Mexican culture and identity.
Read Sylvain Marcoux’s article, published shortly in THE INSTIGATOR.
Luis Barragán
Mexico City (Mexico)
PHOTO / Guggenheim Abu Dhabi by Frank Gehry / photo © courtesy of the Department of Culture and Tourism of Abu Dhabi
FRANK GHERY
GUGGENHEIM ABU DHABI
ABU DHABI
GUGGENHEIM ABU DHABI
The Department of Culture and Tourism of Abu Dhabi (DCT) has recently announced the long-awaited opening date of Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, designed by late Pritzker Prize-winning architect Frank Gehry (86). The museum stands on the tip of a peninsula on Saadiyat Island, surrounded by water on three sides, and will open on 11 December 2026.
It will be the newest and largest addition to Saadiyat Island's fast-filling cultural hub, joining Jean Nouvel's Louvre Abu Dhabi, Norman Foster’s Zayed National Museum, and the Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi, as well as the TeamLab Phenomena Abu Dhabi.
Ten cones rise from the base of the Guggenheim, nine wrapped in stainless steel mesh and a tenth, a taller one, finished in onyx and glass, climbing up to 88 metres.
The cones were drawn on the ancient wind towers found throughout the region's traditional architecture that provide a massive and passive cooling system to the interior.
The museum spans 11,600 square metres of interior space, housing 30 galleries for modern and contemporary art from all around the world, that has been assembled since 2009. The galleries, connected by a central atrium, will be organised by different themes such as Abstractions, Popular Culture, Land, Language and Storytelling.
“The museum is shaped by the Emirate's long-held conviction that culture is the most enduring bridge between people and architecture for a forward-looking society.” His Excellency Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, Chairman of the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi
Dr Mariët Westermann, Director and CEO of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, described the collection as “uniquely local and global at the same time. It will be a source of wonder, a hub of connection, and a place for people from the UAE and the world.”
Guggenheim Abu Dhabi spans 80,000 square metres in total, making it the largest museum in the Guggenheim's international collection, overtaking New York, Bilbao and Venice.
“Guggenheim Abu Dhabi” / Frank Gehry
Abu Dhabi (UAE)
VIDEO / Tom Dixon in his studio / Video © courtesy of Tom Dixon Studio
TOM DIXON
CHOICE
TOM DIXON STUDIO
LONDON
TOM DIXON STUDIO
For the first time in nine years, one of the biggest international fairs in the world of lighting, Euroluce, presented Tom Dixon’s new lamp collection CHOICE.
Following last year's installation, where Dixon unveiled TWENTY at Palazzo Serbelloni, this year, the designer is back with his extraordinary new collection that reflects the theme CHOICE.
Dixon says: "This year we want even More. Much, Much, More. More colours, design variations, and unexpected combinations from floor lamps and chandeliers, to table tops and textiles give our design aficionados a deeper, wider palette of opportunity to help build perfect interiors.
More flexibility in where we can illuminate and how we design. That's why we call this year CHOICE. The essential skill in the construction of special spaces requires judicial choices. We worked and worked to open up the collection to this unexpectedly vast series of possibilities."
The collection includes the new PUFF pendants and chandeliers, PORTABLES lights inspired by the iconic MELT, BELL and STONE designs and CONE, along with our best-selling upholstery pieces FAT and WINGBACK, available in hundreds of colours and textiles.
"After 3 years of continuous uncertainty, volatility and economic hardship brought by Covid, we're going back to our original roots, focusing on creativity, innovation, and... CHOICE. Our idea behind our new campaign is to give the market a glimpse of light and inspire the world to play and be creative again." said Hans GS Hoegstedt, Tom Dixon's CEO.
The Choice is
always yours
"You have to really believe not only in yourself; you have to believe that the world
is actually worth your sacrifices." Zaha Hadid
PHOTO / "Diogene" by Renzo Piano / Photo © courtesy of Vitra
RENZO PIANO
DIOGENE
GERMANY
DIOGENE
Diogene is sometimes a Greek philosopher, other times a minimalist, single-occupancy living unit that functions in total autonomy as a self-contained system in the middle of Germany.
Following the collaboration with Vitra chairman Rolf Fehlbaum, Italian architect Renzo Piano, during Art Basel 2013, launched a barely 7-square-meter nano house unit on the Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein (Germany).
Diogene – it is a luxury of austerity.
The name Diogene is no accident either. Greek philosopher Diogene of Sinope, who slept in a ceramic jar, using a simple lifestyle to criticise social values and institutions of what he saw as a corrupt society, made simplicity a way of thinking about the world.
Renzo Piano, who is well-known for his iconic architectural works including the Fondation Beyeler (Basel, Switzerland), Centre Pompidou and the Tribunal de Justice (Paris, France), and the Musée Paul Klee (Bern, Switzerland), could have designed an airport, a tower, or another showstopping museum for his next project, yet, he created a tiny house that reveals his most intimate project.
Diogene isn’t a house - Diogene is constructed philosophy.
“Diogene” / Renzo Piano
Vitra Campus
Weil am Rhein (Germany)
PHOTO / (below) "Faro Santander Museum" by David Chipperfield / Photo © courtesy of David Chipperfield Studio
PHOTO / (above) "Pritzker Prize" David Chipperfield / Photo © courtesy of David Chipperfield Studio
DAVID
CHIPPERFIELD
FARO SANTANDER MUSEUM
SANTANDER
SPAIN
PRITZKER PRIZE WINNER TAKES OVER THE SANTANDER SEAFRONT
The British and Spanish offices of David Chipperfield Architects have overhauled a bank on the Santander seafront in Spain to create an art museum. The museum is set to open on 8 September 2026, and the Faro Santander museum will occupy the 10-storey Pereda Building – the former headquarters of the bank Santander.
PRITZKER PRIZE
A few years back, British architect David Chipperfield was named the winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize.
Chipperfield’s reaction was very modest. "Determination and commitment can compensate for a talent," he said. "Quite often, this is a discussion I have with my wife. I don't believe I'm that talented as an architect, probably just more persevering."
He explained that, despite completing numerous award-winning buildings all around the world, he still suffers from imposter syndrome, claiming that he feels like "a sham" compared to some of his contemporaries like Frank Gehry, Álvaro Siza, or Renzo Piano, who respectively won the award in 1989, 1992 and 1998 – as a winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize.
He is the fifth British architect to win architecture's most prestigious award following James Stirling in 1981, Norman Foster in 1999, Zaha Hadid in 2004 and Richard Rogers in 2007.
“I would have failed without Zaha,” he adds it. “I'm a good catalyst; I think I am a good provoker; I am a good strategist.”
Chipperfield studied with Hadid at the AA - Architecture Association in London, and she helped him pass the course.
"Zaha, until her last days, reminded me that if it hadn't been for her, I would have failed and that she got me my diploma," he recalled. Chipperfield went on to work at both Foster and Rogers' studios before establishing his own practice in the mid-1980s, despite not being taken by the high-tech style that was being pioneered in their offices.
"I wasn't particularly interested in high-tech, funnily enough," he said. "Although I had the opportunity to go to Paris and see the Centre Pompidou during construction with Richard Rogers, I thought that was just the sexiest building I'd ever seen."
“Faro Santander Museum” / David Chipperfield
Puerto de Santander (Spain)
PHOTO / Portrait of Ross Lovegrove / Photo © courtesy of Ross Lovegrove Studio
ROSS LOVEGROVE
AI OR NOT AI?
LONDON
ROSS LOVEGROVE STUDIO
We asked old friend, visionary designer Ross Lovegrove:
AI or not AI?
“Some of my old friends and design colleagues often reach out to me expressing concerns about the works and projects generated with AI-generated text-to-image. In a recent round table discussion organised by Neil Leach of Digital Futures World, I would like to share with you some brief thoughts” Ross stated.
“I have personally always engaged with the latest technologies throughout my career, and this AI age to me feels very much like early computational modelling or 3Dprinting when 20 years ago I was one of the very first using those to experiment and create new aesthetics against concerns of the more conservative and analogue creatives. At the moment I’m not too concerned about showing new AI visuals among my real pieces as it shows how contemporary and forward-thinking my approach has kind of always been. It’s true that now everyone can use AI and make beautiful imagery but not everyone has a background story to justify it or give it a provenance. This is a substantial difference and no matter how you work with the technology, it’s important to stay within the realm of subjects that you are genuinely passionate about. In my case: transportation, architecture, space travelling, science, biology, nature, design and art. Therefore, I find it quite exciting to be able to imagine and explore new territories with such a level of visual complexity and relatively fast resolution.”
AISALONE
Where Art, technology and furniture design can intertwine, breathing new creative life. After coming back from Milan, Lovegrove has been immersing himself in AI models to visualise in different ways. He took organic forms into the city, celebrating the boundless potential of fluid morphologies.
Concepts generated with SDXLBeta
PHOTOS / Ross Lovegrove designs / Photos © courtesy of Ross Lovegrove Studio
PHOTOS / AI-generated cars / Photos © cortesy of Moss & Fog Studio
CARS
BY AI
ZAHA HADID
RENZO PIANO
NORMAN FOSTER
FRANK GEHRY
AI GENERATED CARS
Is it design, architecture, or technology?
Some of the most famous architects in the world have left lasting impressions and significant impacts on our cities that will be remembered for generations to come.
Many people asked the question before: “what if…? What if our most revered architects designed vehicles?”
Using Midjourney as a tool, the design team at Moss & Fog came up with surreal, rendering fictional images of AI-generated car designs adopting the distinct signature styles and embodying trademark aesthetics of Zaha Hadid, Renzo Piano, Norman Foster, and Frank Gehry.
Alluding to the monumental signature forms of Zaha Hadid, a futuristic car took shape from a series of modular steel panels configured in abstracted layers. Meanwhile, a sleek, modernist, and high-tech hybrid encapsulates the qualities of Norman Foster’s structural works, parked against a lavish stately home backdrop.
AI-generated cars by architects: Zaha Hadid / Renzo Piano / Norman Foster / Frank Gehry
CAPITA SPRING TOWER
Located at the heart of Singapore's financial district, Danish Architecture studio BIG and the Italian firm Carlo Ratti Associati have completed a 280-metre-tall skyscraper, the CapitaSpring Tower, offering visitors a "seamless transition between the garden and the city".
"CapitaSpring Tower is like a vision of a future in which city and countryside, culture and nature can coexist, and urban landscapes can expand unrestricted into the vertical dimension," said BIG's founder Bjarke Ingels.
CAPITA
SPRING TOWER
STUDIO BIG
SINGAPORE
PHOTO / Capita Spring Tower / Photos © Courtesy of Studio Big
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