What should a college magazine for architects be like? What should support it? What should such a publication contain? It’s not any easy question for the competitors for the new Quaderns to answer.
I was trying to remember the first time I personally knew about Quaderns and I realized that I used it as support for one of my research projects in the past.
- The stages of Mateo and Gausa, although different, made invaluable contributions during the 1980s and 1990s. Seen from outside, they meant the existence of a publication with an editorial content rarely exceeded by the Architecture of COAM accompanied by an almost impeccable production. If you add to this its 2 issues in 4 languages – 2 and 2 (French, Spanish, Catalan and English) the universe that the publication represented was really exceptional.
- The stage of Ivan Bercedo-Jorge Mestre was a period of quiet graphic refinement in a period that was perhaps over stimulated.
- The stage of Lluis Ortega / Ramón Faura at the beginning of the first decade of the 21st century has been undervalued as far as its contributions in layout, printing and research. With content that in many cases was ahead of its time it wasn’t a coincidence that this was the period that they received the Jean Tschumi prize (2005).
- Later on the number of yearly issues was reduced and three languages appeared in the same copy. In its latest period, also brilliant, but nevertheless, due to overly dense content, an excess of erudition and a lack of connection with the younger generation, Quaderns has become blurred and unfocused and this isn’t good in such intensive times.
Quaderns should prepare itself for a stage that can only be described as uncertain. Quaderns was brilliant in the past. Will it be in the future?
José Juan Barba.
