TC 175 Monograph Chronicles Two Decades of Moneo Brock’s Global Practice

The international architecture firm Moneo Brock, founded in New York in 1993 by Belén Moneo and Jeff Brock and based in Madrid since 2002, is the subject of the latest issue of TC Cuadernos. TC 175, published in September 2026, dedicates 320 pages to the studio’s built work between 2007 and 2026, spanning projects across Spain, Mexico, Colombia, and the Dominican Republic.

The monograph covers a broad typological range: urban infrastructures, educational facilities, leisure spaces, domestic architecture, and object design. Three critical essays frame the firm’s trajectory, each focusing on a different dimension of their practice.

Key facts
| Aspect | Detail |
|——–|——–|
| Firm | Moneo Brock (founded 1993, New York; Madrid since 2002) |
| Publication | TC Cuadernos 175, 320 pages |
| Project scope | Built works 2007–2026 in Spain, Mexico, Colombia, Dominican Republic |
| Essayists | Stan Allen, Manuel Blanco, Marisa Santamaría |

Three critical perspectives on the work

Stan Allen’s essay examines the firm’s commitment to public space and the collective dimension of architecture. He highlights how each building engages with the ground it stands on and the surrounding environment, positioning the work within a broader discourse on urban responsibility.

Manuel Blanco surveys Moneo Brock’s trajectory through the Vitruvian triad of utilitas, firmitas, and venustas—utility, firmness, and beauty—adding a fourth condition: sustainability. Blanco argues that environmental performance has become a defining thread of the practice, woven into projects from early schemes to recent completions.

Marisa Santamaría addresses the studio’s object design and the cultural space _2B. Founded as a natural extension of the office, _2B has functioned for over a decade as a laboratory for cross-disciplinary exchange, hosting exhibitions, talks, and collaborations that blur the line between architecture and other creative fields.

Materiality, light, and landscape as design drivers

The architecture of Moneo Brock is distinguished by a sustained attention to materiality, light, and landscape. Recurring elements include lattices, coral stone walls, translucent glass block, and exposed concrete. These materials structure space and mediate between interior and exterior, between the built and the natural.

The firm’s buildings sit firmly on the ground and work with local climate conditions—from the sharp light of Mallorca to the Caribbean tropical breeze. The result is an architecture that reconciles formal abstraction with sensory richness and a strong public vocation.

Global reach with regional specificity

Projects featured in the monograph span four countries, each responding to distinct climatic, cultural, and programmatic contexts. In Mexico, the firm has completed urban infrastructure and educational spaces; in Colombia and the Dominican Republic, leisure and residential projects; in Spain, a range of work from domestic architecture to public facilities.

This geographic spread reflects the firm’s ability to adapt its material and spatial strategies without losing coherence. The publication provides documentation of each project, including drawings and photographs that illustrate how the office translates conceptual principles into built form.

Why this matters for practitioners

For architects and students following contemporary practice, this monograph offers a consolidated view of a firm that has maintained a consistent design philosophy while working across typologies and continents. The essays provide critical framing that situates the work within broader debates about public space, sustainability, and the role of craft in architecture.

The inclusion of object design and the _2B cultural space also demonstrates how architectural offices can extend their practice beyond building design, engaging with smaller-scale interventions and cultural programming as complementary lines of inquiry.

Source: ArchDaily, “TC 175- Moneo Brock,” https://www.archdaily.com/1185807/tc-175-moneo-brock

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