"The Frustration Became a Design Brief": Why an Architect Left 20 Years of Practice to Map the World

Karl van Es spent twenty years practicing architecture before leaving to address a common travel constraint: limited resources to travel like a professional. Mainstream travel tools often fail to surface the buildings that matter to the architectural community. Åvontuurawas created as an independent publisher of illustrated architecture guides made by an architect for architects. The latest release, Madrid, maps seventy significant buildings and aims to connect architectural interest with practical travel logistics. Architects frequently travel with specific intentions, yet they struggle to find definitive lists and clear location context, leading to regret over missed essential works. The guides are designed as physical tools that identify buildings, name architects, and provide enough context to understand each site.

"Karl van Es spent twenty years as a practicing architect before walking away to solve a problem every architect faces: the resources to travel like a professional simply do not exist. Mainstream guidebooks and travel apps rarely highlight the buildings that truly matter to the architectural community. Åvontuurawas born from that frustration - an independent publisher of illustrated architecture guides created by an architect, for architects. Its latest release, Madrid, maps 70 of the city's most significant buildings, representing a mission to bridge the gap between architectural interest and travel logistics."

"Every architect knows the feeling: arriving in a new city without a clear priority of what to see. Hours are spent searching online, yet a definitive list or understanding of each building's location relative to the others remains elusive. The result is often a lingering regret over missing essential works. The issue is not a lack of travel; architects travel constantly and with a specific purpose. They plan trips around buildings the way others plan them around restaurants."

"The vision for Åvontuura was simple: a beautifully designed, illustrated map of a city's most significant architecture. It needed to be a physical tool-something to hold-that identified every building, named every architect, and provided enough context to understand the site. It had to be a resource made with the same care and intention as the buildings themselves. "The frustration had become a design brief. I knew exactly what the product should be and I knew the audience intimately, because I was one of them.""

"Since such a resource did not exist, van Es stopped waiting for others to create it. Leaving professional practice was not a sudden decision, but rather the accumulation of every trip taken and every building missed. Frustration became a design brief, turning personal travel gaps into a mapped, illustrated guide intended to help architects plan with clarity and purpose."

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