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Review: Inaki Abalos & Juan Herreros: A New Naturalism

This piece brought about the thought of balance. How do we balance between the need for urbanization and our responsibilities to the environment in which we build. It is delicate and more often than not, is unachievable in the current social climates sadly. While dissolution of boundaries between nature and the built environment are wonderful thoughts they aren’t necessarily feasible, instead they would become what so much in our culture is – lip service to a cause. In essence, blurring the lines would become nothing more than another aesthetic which is aimed to be achieved without actually contemplating whether not we should be building there or not, let alone what the long term impacts might be. Rather than blurring the lines and migrating architecture into natural environments, I would say that instead we should focus on being more mindful of when to build and when not to since not every environment needs human hands meddling in its beauty.

Author Background

Iñaki Ábalos (1956–2015) and Juan Herreros (b. 1958) are Spanish architects and theorists, co-founders of Ábalos & Herreros in Madrid. Their practice combined experimental design with critical writing, often addressing the intersections of landscape, infrastructure, and technology. A New Naturalism emerged at a time when ecological thinking was beginning to enter architectural discourse more forcefully. Their work has been published widely in European journals and exhibitions, and Herreros later continued these themes in his independent practice and teaching. Their context in late 20th-century Spain — balancing modernization with environmental sensitivity — deeply shaped their perspective.