London book shops

Quinto of Charing Cross (photo by Pfig in Flickr)

Once Mario Vargas Llosa wrote that he loved to walk around the area of the British Library because there were the most amazing little book shops there. It is true: small spaces full of books, perfectly ordered and classified and there is always a book lover sitting in his/her desk working and delighted to talk about books.

It is true too that Charing Cross Road is as well a book's paradise. Shipley, Henry Pordes Books (ask for Gino), Any Amount of Books (they have a good blog) and, very specially, Quinto (in the picture).

Downstairs Quinto it is extraordinary, of course if you do not suffer claustrophobia. There I discovered a book written by the person with whom I was going to dinner that very night: that was one of the biggest surprises ever, because the book was 20 years old and the author a bit more than 80. Please, do not miss the pleasure of diving in the most amazing ocean of old books when you are in London. By the way, down Charing Cross is Cecil Court where there are even more old book shops specialized in any subject: music, oriental religion...

Arquitecturas del Exilio Español

The Comité International des Critiques d´Architecture, CICA, has given the CICA Award 2008 to the book Arquitecturas Desplazadas, Arquitecturas del Exilio Español by Henry Vicente, at the UIA Congress in Turin, Italy.

The book is the catalog of an exhibition held on May 2007 in Madrid, with the support of the Spanish Gobernment, and is part of the PhD research of Vicente. Besides his, there are also texts of Lorenzo González Casas, Luisa Bulnes Álvarez, Fernando Álvarez Prozorovich, and Juan Ignacio del Cueto Ruiz-Funes.

In the round table in the MOPU exhibition it was suggested to include those exiles who were not architects but did teach architects. I included then, and I do now, those who coached or influenced me in Venezuela: Enrique Domingo Rosich, Máximo Jimenez Labrador, José María Almiñana, Manuel Perez Vila, Pedro Viloria, Pedro Grases, Enrique Martín de Villodres, Pedro Silbert and Luis Reus Díaz. The Jury of the CICA Awards 2008 had Joseph Rykwert as president.

Press Release 3 Winners List 30-06-08 - Upload a Document to Scribd

Read this document on Scribd: Press Release 3 Winners List 30-06-08