The whole country has come to resemble a zebra.
Identical black-and-white stripes are increasingly adorning the suburbs of Spain's megacities. These zebra blocks, twin buildings from Bilbao to Malaga, spark heated debates: architects call them 'fast food real estate,' while developers take pride in them, pointing to high demand.
From Vigo to Almeria, through Zaragoza, Valencia, or Pamplona - the Spanish urban landscape increasingly follows the same pattern: buildings with black-and-white stripes, identical balconies, and ventilated facades that spring up everywhere, regardless of climate, context, or city. Given the serious housing problem in Spain, this standardized construction is rapidly developing.
The so-called 'zebra blocks' are a phenomenon that has transitioned from invisibility to a viral trend thanks to the Instagram account @bloque_cebra, created by a group of young architects who have documented over a thousand examples across Spain.
'It comes from the feeling that we are fed up, that the zebra is spreading, imposing itself, and becoming normal,' explain the creators of the account, who prefer to remain anonymous to avoid personal criticism. With two million views per month, their project has achieved an unprecedented result: it has brought the discussion about architectural quality beyond the professional circle into public opinion. They even devised a 'zebrometer' to measure the degree of zebraness of each building.
This term defines not an architectural style per se, but rather a standardized direction of construction, where decisions are more aligned with criteria of economic efficiency than creative reflection. The formula is simple: dark stripes of tinted windows and anthracite-colored balcony finishes alternate with light stripes of ventilated facades. The result: cloned buildings that can be seen anywhere - from the Pyrenees to the Canary Islands.
Critics argue that 'zebra' blocks represent the culmination of a model in which architecture has been reduced to a level of bureaucratic formality. 'It's like fast food real estate,' summarizes the group @bloque_cebra. 'Developers who build according to a system recorded in an Excel spreadsheet, where everything is reduced to efficiency, and the architect's work is pushed to the background.'
Bilbao architect Iñigo Berasategi from the BeAr studio wrote a scathing article about this phenomenon in the magazine Patio, where he speaks of a 'plague,' a 'cacophony of chiaroscuro,' and 'a world that does not embrace the noble values of society.' Berasategi criticizes the fact that these buildings are constructed 'with their backs to the street, without a vision for the neighborhood,' with interiors where 'floors imitate wood, countertops are marble, and plastic doors are pine.'
The Garellano operation in Bilbao has become a textbook example. The original project by the prestigious London studio of Richard Rogers was simplified to banality by the 'adaptations' of the city council. The result: a skyline transformed by zebra towers, which local architects describe as 'traumatic and dystopian.'
Criticism is directed in various directions: at developers who seek maximum profit by replicating wholesale projects; at city councils that prioritize the rationalization of processes; at an unstable profession where many architects are forced to choose between creating 'zebras' and being unemployed. Jorge Lopez Conde, an architect and expert on the neo-European Bauhaus, warns: 'This is a Spanish and unique phenomenon that has a huge impact on the environment. These are buildings that are not adapted to the climate and are not connected to it, nor are they built from materials from the surrounding environment.'
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