Fernando Marquez Cecilia & Richard Levene.
Text by RIBA announcing the 2014 International Fellowships of the RIBA.
Fernando Marquez Cecilia + Richard Levene. It is hard to imagine the world of architectural publishing without the dependable series that El Croquis has become in the past decades since its inauguration in 1982 and over 167 editions. Particularly in today’s world of vanity publishing, in which almost anything can – and unfortunately does – get published and circulated, it is refreshing that the small team run by Márquez and Levene continues to maintain the exceptional quality of their highly selective publications.
They publish the work of not only internationally established architects but of promising younger practitioners whose work exhibits a theoretical grounding even if they have built very little. Their particular gift for tracking down and supporting these architects in the formative years of their careers not only helps these young professionals in establishing their reputation, but at the same time has created retrospectively an international Who’s Who of the architecture of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
These are consistent and high quality productions. Márquez and Levene take care in the selection of texts to explain the work of the architect; the explanation of the concepts behind each project; exhaustive interviews with their subjects; the set of clear and beautiful drawings; and the sequence of invariably excellent. All this scholarship (way beyond journalism) is complemented by not over-styled photographs by Hisao Suzuki who has been working as an integral part of the El Croquis team for many years.
Further to their activities as editors and publishers, in 1999 Márquez and Levene inaugurated the El Croquis Architecture Gallery that exhibits, in model form, the most significant construction projects in Spain. As architects Fernando and Richard designed their own offices and exhibition centre in Madrid.
For their generosity, dedication and the excellence with which they the disseminate the cultural values that promote a broader understanding of the role that excellence in architecture plays in our society, Marquez and Levene are worthy recipients of RIBA International Fellowship.
