Friday 27 September 2013

Tuesday 17 September 2013

ARCHITECTURAL FOCUS: TRANSITIONS



Nature is presented to us like a huge and continuous outer space, the place inhabited by primitive man. Dwelling the cave or tree, it means only the temporary appropriation of a previous infrastructure that exist apart from any function, scale or representation of the human being. As man builds his own structure, the origin of architecture as artifice, begins also a story of transitions between the living space and the outside: The architecture should be conceived as a set of clearly defined intermediate places. The interspace provides the common ground where conflicting polarities can be twin phenomena


Aldo van Eyck, Architectural Design 12, Vol. XXXII, 1962 December.

In this sense, transitions result an interesting topic for their great capacity for synthesis between antagonistic categories: natural-artificial / indoor-outdoor / free-programmed / walk-wander / property-dominion / housing-producing ...

Some transitions categories and study cases:

-Porosity: “Tokio housing”, Hiroshi Kuno, 2006.
-Connected interspaces: “casa Guzmán”, Alejandro de la Sota, 1972.
-Telescopic Nesting: “House N”, Oita, Sou Fujimoto, 2008.
-Nettings: “Santander Dwellings”, Alejandro de la Sota, 1967.
-Extreme natures: drawings by Junya Ishigami, 2008.
-Freaks & Mutations: City in Sky, Mu Wei; Sam Cho; Yu Hui, Wuhan (China), 2013. 

URBAN PLANNING: THE GEOGRAPHY OF FOOD.



City as edible infraestructure.

“So the food situation is totally mad. The mindset seemed to be that cities are for people to live and work in and the countryside is for growing food. However, things are changing fast, […] planners and architects are starting to accord for food systems the same priority as transport or housing”.
                   
John  Thackara, “Low Entropy Urbanism”, MEGACITIES,
010 Publishers, Rotterdam, 2010

Keywords: food culture, food production, urban agriculture, urban design, water collection, research and educational programs, resources management, citizen initiatives, social cohesion, entertainment, creative business, healthy cooking, etc.


The development of all these urban strategies, designed through cartographies and geographical, urban, climatic, ecological or social maps, will lead to a new edible city concept: the geography of food.

STAVANGER



Stavanger is the third largest urban zone and metropolitan area in Norway. Today the oil business is a key industry in the Stavanger region and the city is widely referred to as the Oil Capital of Norway. Stavanger East is currently undergoing an extensive urban transformation: nearly 600daa old industrial sites are gradually turning its status from being the city backyard to becoming a valuable resource supporting the urban growth and extension of the City of Stavanger. The east part of Stavanger which was one of the selected projects in the Ministry of Environment initiative generated a series of projects done in a collaborative partnership between the property owners which was manifested early in 2000 as a non-profit company called Urban Sjøfront.


The company has generated a progressive collaborative partnership between private and public sector, producing constructive and result oriented processes for how to realize the structural transformation of a run down district. Such development takes time and experiences frequently changes physically, judicially and mentally through new challenges and developed guidelines. These tendencies are similar processes found in other cities both nationally and internationally. Complex issues related to such urban transformations requires exchange of knowledge and experiences as a foundation for further strategies to be developed, processes and projects organized and methods to be used.

SUBJECT



Now we know each calorie we eat needs ten for the process of production, processing, transport and food management. In many cities around the world, “Food Systems” start having the same consideration as transportation, housing or even the environment, in urban development matters: food and cities give shape one to another. The workshop presents an approach on food systems planning as contemporary urban development tool, by studying the special case of the Norwegian city of Stavanger.

COURSE STARTS!!!



Welcome!

On 2013 September 14 it began a new course of Architectural Design at ESAYT, UCJC, Madrid (Spain). Attached link to our Facebook group, stay tuned!

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Esayt_Proyectos-MADC/258247497541542