How can we overcome the gap between designers and writers?
Barcelona-based publisher ACTAR explores the shifting boundaries across the fields of art, architecture, photography and design, generating projects through independent research as well as in collaboration with external authors.
ACTAR’s books are based on overcoming the current gap between the producers of works—artistic, architectural, photographic, graphical or industrial—and those who describe them.
Previous books have involved collaborations with architects including OMA / Rem Koolhaas, Foreign Office Architects, Toyo Ito, MVRDV, UN Studio, Massimiliano Fuksas, Diller + Scofidio, and Kazuyo Sejima / SANAA.
Our exhibition celebrated the publishing history of ACTAR as the company marked the launch of ACTAR New York. The ACTAR New York office is committed to pursuing connections to the current architecture and design scene in North America, and collaborated with various authors and institutions, including Farshid Moussavi and Eve Blau of the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Reinhold Martin and Kazys Varnelis of the Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, authors Sanford Kwinter and Beatriz Colomina, and architects Reiser + Umemoto and Aranda / Lasch.
The ACTAR New York exhibition, led by Michael Kubo, an architect and editor who had previously worked in Barcelona and Rotterdam, was organized in collaboration with Base Design, a leader in creative direction and brand identity development, with offices in New