I find the affair of the penthouse that Mrs. Ayuso had bought by a public company to be serious, and I would like to read the suitability and opportunity reports that considered that public money should be invested precisely in this property. It is true that Planifica Madrid can buy and sell properties, but this does not exempt it from explaining what the public interest of the operation is. Did they consider buying other cheaper spaces? Did they publicly announce that a process of acquiring spaces to study the market was opening? Why, precisely, a penthouse? Why an apartment in a residential building, where the rest of the neighbors will surely be affected by complex security measures? Should an acquisition of such a high amount be approved by a board of directors? Did no one question this absurdity? Moreover, since the purchase has come to light in the media without anyone having been held accountable, he says that the profits from the sale will be allocated to those affected by the fires. That is, if there are profits, of course. Because it could perfectly happen that no buyer matches the price. Spain is a country that minimizes these episodes with all sorts of parodies and jokes, but how many schools are waiting for a similar investment to get out of the provisionality of the barracks and, instead, no one buys them apartments in residential neighborhoods to teach classes in decent conditions?Apparently, someone had a whim for a penthouse with a view, and this gives me an opportunity to talk about a very sensitive aspect of architecture, which is the possibility of framing the landscape. The general plan limits heights in Barcelona, which is why a flat on the sixteenth floor objectively offers the best panorama of the city. On the other hand, in Manhattan, a flat on the thirtieth floor can have mediocre views compared to those from the fiftieth. In Brooklyn, however, the few flats that rise above the twelfth floor are better than those in Manhattan, because they allow the gaze to extend over the blocks of houses between party walls, interspersed with leafy trees of the same height. And in the background, right in the back plane, you can see the skyline of Manhattan, without mountains or any other backdrop. At night, all these urban landscapes twinkle, and the penthouse residents become aware of the thousands of homes at their feet.In summer, cities empty of residents who seek, precisely, a change of scenery. And second homes, hotels, or campsites are chosen to see, exactly, the opposite. The most desired are sea views or high windows over hills, which allow one to see various depths of landscape and all the registers of colors: mown fields of yellow, light green riverine trees, and blackish wild forests. The rural world is full of built structures well integrated into geographical accidents. The location of villages on top of hills, or the placement of the church at the highest point, with a bell tower that stands out above any roof, seems logical. These environments are pleasing because they are understood at first glance: their geometry is perfectly explained by the rules of geographical implantation.

Today's Barcelona was born from a boom-boom. Hiroshima my loveThe demolition of the walls in the 19th century. Without a nuclear explosion, there is no love. As a Barcelonian said in 1854: Barcelona explodes and we fall in love… with a new Barcelona. Without the first great explosion, there wouldn't be the other two major upheavals: the War-Dictatorship, which is the transition from a free city to an occupied one. And the final explosion: the Olympic atomic dog, Cobi. A grand finale that leads us to the Barcelona of today, ripped open and with pieces damaged by the city's skin. And the umbilical cord?

This week, new ads have appeared for entire villages for sale at five hundred thousand euros. I confess: I'm one of those people who spends time looking at these ads, driven by a kind of fascination, a dream, and awe all at once. "Should we sell our apartment and move there?" I often ask my family, knowing I'm suggesting the impossible.

The older I get, the less I understand cities. Not because they've ceased to fascinate me, but because I find it increasingly difficult to believe certain narratives. The contemporary world is immersed in urban debates that seem disconnected from reality: parameters, densities, land use, residual values… And I walk through my neighborhood and I'm only interested in the gardens, the smells, the morning mists, the squares, and the sunny terraces where I can have a coffee and read a book.

After the end of the school year, a group of European NGOs has published its annual report, Clean Cities, on child accessibility in different European cities.

My son's vision of Barcelona is much more radical than mine. The city no longer appeals to him, and he doesn't feel as connected to it. When we go downtown, he experiences it as too touristy. The overcrowding stresses him out, and having to constantly be on the lookout for crime repels him. In fact, he would prefer to live outside the city, in a more relaxed environment.

City and Madrid will face each other this Tuesday at the Etihad Stadium (9pm) in a match that will correspond to the play-off Champions League knockout stages. Madrid have always qualified for the last 16 in their previous group stages. City, meanwhile, will be looking to play in another round of 16 since the 2013-14 season.

Manchester City and Real Madrid showed their urgency in a round of 32 match in which, a priori, neither of the two teams should have been involved. Neither the English nor the Madrid side did their homework well in the qualifying round and that now forces them to play a two-legged tie in which the Whites got a great haul in their visit to the Etihad (2-3). Pep Guardiola's team was leading on the scoreboard ten minutes from the end, but two errors in the final stages allowed the Whites to take the victory to Madrid, where the return leg will be played.