Azkuna Zentroa-Alhóndiga Bilbao

This guide to Azkuna Zentroa in Bilbao starts in 2002, with wrecking crews already tearing into a century-old wine warehouse while the city argued for two years over what should replace it. It follows how French designer Philippe Starck, arriving in 2004 having never set foot in Bilbao, chose to save the brick shell and fill it with forty-three columns, no two alike, each dressed by Italian set designer Lorenzo Baraldi. Starck gave Baraldi just one line to build from, about hiding, falling in love and spying behind columns, and Baraldi spent months chasing down artisans across Europe to dress each pillar in its own skin.