Cosentino Group and the Foundation for Contemporary Architecture have collaborated to present and launch a new global guide to contemporary architecture, under the pseudonym C-Guide. This digital tool was created with the primary objective of promoting awareness and recognition of current architectural excellence across the globe, and particularly beyond the academic world.

C-Guide facilitates the connection between the digital environment and real-life architecture of a city via a website and mobile app, which encourage users to visit the selected works, while also aiding their understanding of them. C-Guide aims to raise awareness of the importance of cities, their public spaces, and architecture to the life of each citizen.

The official presentation of C-Guide took place at Cosentino City London, the company’s Clerkenwell-based showroom and exhibition space.  The event included a short panel discussion around the theme of ‘Bringing Contemporary Architecture to Society’.  The panellists included Tom Dyckhoff, the British writer, broadcaster and historian on architecture, design and cities with Rafael de la Hoz and Jorge Martin Gacia from the Foundation of Contemporary Architecture.  Representing the Cosentino Group, was Santiago Alfonso, Vice President of Communication and Marketing.  The event was hosted by the journalist and writer, Anatxu Zabalbeascoa.

C-Guide can be found here:

Web: https://c.guide/ – App (Apple and Android): C-Guide

Given its contemporary subject matter, C-Guide only includes works built from 1979 onwards, providing a perspective of 40 years that helps to reflect on global architecture as a whole. The works included in the guide are chosen by a scientific committee from the Foundation of Contemporary Architecture, who take into account three categories of interest:

1. Global-local tension: projects with two opposing views that look to reinforce the local specificities of each city and/or that are more inclined towards representing the world’s spatial homogenisation.
2. Symbolic function: projects that generate collective participative processes, spaces that symbolise the emergence of geographical identities and/or places that have generated a special relevance in the collective imagination because of their appearance in cinema or the media.
3. Public space: works that play an urban role – in particular those that become a meeting or exchange point in the city and/or that play a crucial role in our understanding of today’s cities.

The projects included in C-Guide are classified into three categories:

C: Very good architecture. Don’t miss this site if you are in the area

CC: Excellent architecture. A must-see site if you are in the city

CCC: Outstanding architecture. Don’t miss this site no matter where you are

Each project in the guide features its own image gallery (some also include plans or drawings of the design process) and a file that includes a description of the work, the designer, year of construction, location, category (C, CC, CCC), how easily you can visit it (if you can visit it, if it’s visible from the street, scheduled visits or unavailable for visits) and tags (that help you understand them and which are put forward by the C-Guide committee as well as by the users themselves). The platform offers users the ability to perform a quick search, taking into account the same parameters included in the file for each project.

Users and C-Guide

Following an interdisciplinary approach, C-Guide fosters a wide public debate on how the spaces in our cities are built today. This is achieved in two complementary ways: touring the digital map via the website, or touring the real city using the mobile app. While using the app, the user can also contribute to the development of the guide and to the experience of other users, while developing their own personal guide based on their interests and search parameters. Each work incorporates a conversation space where they can add thoughts or useful information, assign or create new tags for the sites and suggest new sites to the guide’s scientific committee.

C-Guide in phases

The guide continues to grow in phases, adding new cities in each one. In 2019, C-Guide launched the first phase with sites in London and Los Angeles, and will be expanded in the coming months to include Barcelona, Paris and Sydney.

Cosentino Group and the Foundation of Contemporary Architecture

C-Guide strengthens the close relationship and collaboration that the Cosentino Group and the Foundation of Contemporary Architecture have maintained for years to develop joint activities that foster the promotion and recognition of contemporary architecture and bring it closer to society.