Arquitectura Viva 208 - Sedes Singulares. Piano, Foster, Hertzog & de Meuron

With the advent of modernity, the architecture of institutional and corporate headquarters became as optimistic as it was self-absorbed, whether scaled for cities or conceived as suburban utopias. Nowadays such projects are perhaps more sensitive to the historical and material contexts of the surroundings, and three such approaches are featured in this issue: the Palace of Justice in Paris by Renzo Piano, the Bloomberg headquarters in London by Norman Foster, and the Feltrinelli Foundation in Milan by Herzog & de Meuron. Through close readings of these works by three architecture critics, we gain insight into what makes these buildings great architecture.