Architect Josep Lluís Mateo (Barcelona, ​​1949) achieved one of the first major international milestones in the mid-1990s with a new headquarters for the German central bank in Chemnitz. The competition was a challenge, and Mateo prevailed with a truly ambitious project. After discovering the fossilized trees in the city's Paleontology Museum, Mateo conceived the building, located in the Park of the Victims of Fascism—home to a centuries-old forest—as "a petrified tree," as can be seen in the exhibition Mateo presented at the College of Architects of Catalonia's historical archive. The tree metaphor allowed Mateo to resolve the building's relationship with its surroundings and also with Germany's turbulent history. The most striking detail is that the main façade is made of alabaster, which freezes in cold weather, and glass. This allows natural light to enter, and at night it transforms the building into an urban lantern. "The building is, at the same time, something organic and geometric," says Mateo. The exhibition is titled Open work The curators are Maria Figueras and Cristina Marcos, from the Acto studio, along with Mateo's own studio. As for the title, it refers to how Mateo approaches his work "as an open work, to be discovered in each case," as he himself says.