Publicación de Proyecto de Fin de Carrera: Revista ADA Architecture Design Art

25 VOLUME SEVEN ISSUE TWENTYFIFTH 2014

ISSN 1997-7891 Price Rs. 700

Resonating Spaces Contemporary Notion Of Homes Distinctive Thesis

Chief Editor Maria Aslam-Hyder Managing Editor Sana Aslam Sub Editor Faryal Sethi Editorial Assistant Vanessa Daniels News Correspondent Taif Ahmed International Correspondents Anahi Alviso: Mexico Azhar: UK Ingolf Schulze: Germany Jinisha Jain: India Sarah del Fabro: Italy Sadek Chaieb: Tunisia Guido Cimadomo: Spain Administration Faiza Shiekh Circulation & Distribution Shanawaz Khan Founder & Publisher Maria Aslam-Hyder Art & Design lubnasajjad4@gmail.com Typography/Art Direction Lubna Sajjad Production Printed by: AAS Packages Published by: ARCHWORKS Head Office: 21-D, Suite 302, 10th Street off Khayaban-e-Shamsheer, Phase V, DHA Karachi 75600.

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As compared to the earlier times education was now more focused on the abilities and techniques required to facilitate the production processes. An efficient education system with a defined curriculum, taught in time-bound packages, with grading and testing to assess employability of students was developed. Such an approach lends itself to a systematic break-up of education into modules, to be taught in a given time, students tested and evaluated and thus graded like industrial goods to be used according to the demand of the customer. Holistic education of the Renaissance was replaced with a specialized, short term, education. Knowledge was split into useful and profits generating sciences and the not so useful arts; ‘age of specialization’ was born. Among the many, a small number who could afford longer periods of education went onto further specialize and lead the developments in science.

Art fell by the way side. What use was art, philosophy, history (history was now used only for glorification of nations and was reinvented many a time to justify and even create ancestry, or to This is a continuous opin-ed on the subject of imparting education in art and architecture in the country

claim superiority)? All arts were reduced to being useful only to the extent they served the “Nation”.

Painting, music, drama and above all architecture that most propagandist of arts, were pressed

Text | Ar. Pervaiz Vandal

Art & Architecture Education Part II

Education Fragmented - age of specialization

Pervaiz Vandal the renowned architect from Lahore, Pakistan; has been for more than 40 years in education, architectural design, planning and implementation of architectural engineering and infrastructure projects. He is first and foremost famous in the academia and has initiated many architectural programs, questioned the parameters of syllabi and has taught in many institutes.

He is a prolific writer on education and its methodologies. Vandal has also authored The Raj, Lahore and Bhai Ram Singh.

Architect of many projects, of which colleges and schools in the traditional regional vocabulary of Lahore are palimpsest to his architectural philosophy.

Pervaiz Vandal is the Founder of THAAP, an annual portal of art and architectural discourse and publication from Lahore.

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into service to glorify and justify jingoism. Art had little value, it could not be mass produced and

It is however evident that art, ability to ponder and deliberate over beauty, and to take time to enjoy

profits were uncertain. It was neglected or at best thought only as a play-activity for the rich;

it, is a uniquely human endeavor, and it springs from the creative impulse that only they seem to

it was reduced to making portraitures and busts of the rich pretending to be Roman men and

possess. The further process of being able to create objects of beauty which may or may not be of

women; architecture became simple reproduction of the styles of the classical past. This was in

any consumptive or ritualistic use comes from firstly, the observation of nature and its unknowable

essence the cause of the ‘battle of styles’ of the 19th/20th Century where debates on architecture

forces and second the need to communicate with nature and to placate the unknown. During

were devoted to the appropriateness of the style of architecture chosen for a particular building.

the Renaissance there was a shift of focus from gods to humans and arts began to widen their

Architects adopted a particular style be it ‘Italian Renaissance’, ‘French Gothic’ or ‘English

audience with the human being in center. In the present day the audience must encompass all the

Medieval’ according to their predilections or the whims of the clients. For the ordinary citizen

society, the advantaged and the disadvantaged.

quality of art and art education ceased to have much relevance.

Every art has a technical side in which persons can be trained using the processes developed for science education. The qualitative side, the esthetic side, the question of beauty is the aspect that cannot

Art Education

be “taught’ under the same processes; however the integrity of sciences and arts has to be rediscovered.

Education managers in the different countries attempted to bring the culture of fragmented education to the teaching of arts also. Value, cost, benefit, specialization, course-time etc., became the key words. The success of science and engineering in the 18th to 19th centuries, forced architects and artists to rethink their professional education into ‘scientific’ mold at the expense of the ‘artistic’. The bias to learn from science culminated in the declaration by Sullivan that ‘Form follows Function’, or Corbusier that ‘A house is a machine to live in’. In the field of arts, specialization was introduced and painting, sculpture, music, dance etc put up walls behind which they insisted on being different identities. Recruitment and promotions policies for teachers fostered greater number of departments, and specialized degrees from the West became the symbol of quality; however the basic question for art teachers, viz how to facilitate idea-generation among art students was pushed to the back.

This was understandable at the time when specialization was key to economic development but today’s sciences and societies, speaking globally, are moving toward integration and convergence of knowledge where multi-disciplinary approaches are the key to success. Art and architecture education in Pakistan has to recapture the holistic approach in keeping with the context of the 21st Century to contribute to the society as a whole and benefit all the people.

Art and the Unknown or where do Ideas Come From?

creativity can and should be fostered among all students, scientists and artists.

‘Human appreciation of art is innate and not socially constructed… [and]… the origin of speech and the human mind are shown to have emerged simultaneously as the bifurcation from percept to concept.’ Human Mind is that element, part, substance or process that reasons, thinks, feels, wills, perceives, judges etc. Thereby humans developed the ability to move from concrete perceptbased-thought to abstract concept-based-thought. Researches in cognition, its psychology and philosophy, show that the mind has the ability to pull together different strands of knowledge in an integrative process to make a bouquet out of a variety of flowers. This is also called the Neural Networks. Cognition processes the information received from the five senses (seeing, hearing, touching, smelling and tasting) with the addition of reading books which is a summary of other people’s experience. To facilitate the mind it is imperative that a person have the widest possible experiences of all segments of the society but then to help the integrative process it is necessary to verbalize the Cognition, recollect and form a value judgment. Verbalizing and writing the thoughts in the mind, clarifies and sharpens them and this can be called ‘reading the mind’. In the correlation of language and mind this is a very important process and helps the mind to further vault to higher concepts and understanding through self-analyses and self-criticism.

Discounting the earlier concepts of divine facilitation in the creation of beauty a little introspection reveals that Cognition (Experience) and its Verbalization (writing about it) are the two keys to

- The source eludes.

education. In short:

In a discussion on art education the key question is that of the source of inspiration. Since the

•

In wholesome human knowledge there is a UNITY of Arts and Sciences.

•

An educated mind works with discipline and rigor and also has the ability to soar with

intuition and the flight of imagination.

•

The objective of all teaching institutions should be to produce such educated minds with

programs that discipline the body and free the soul.

Aatey hai Ghaib se ye mazameen khial mein

•

All arts and intuitions spring from the human mind and respond to its values of esthetics.

Ghalib, sareer-e-khama nawai-sarosh hai

•

A well-rounded education, with multi-discipline universities providing the ambience and

facilities, enhances the Quality of Life for all.

Greeks, people, and even more, the artists, have said that inspiration, ideas, come from the Unknown. Shelley the philosopher among the Romantics said that the artist (poet) has to be attuned to the waves of divinity that are in the air to pluck ideas. Mirza Ghalib says the same and goes a step further to claim that the angels speak to him through his pen:

2014

All scientific discoveries and breakthroughs also result from that flash of ‘idea’, the artistic insight;

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Future of Art Education in the context of a University

its values. It is understood that once the

teaching institution it must be the basis of all work from the initial design to the final theses. Every

process is mastered it becomes a life-long ever-

assignment or project in the subject of Architectural Design will incorporate these elements at the

It so happens that we, all those who have participated in Thaap functions, have a particular

improving exercise. Three fields are identified

simple to the complex level so that these issues become an integral part of the student’s (future

background of arts and architecture. Therefore, under the overall strategy of integration of

and specific suggestions are made:

architect) thinking.

Teaching of History

Teaching of Technologies

The primary purpose of study of history is

Technologies will be taught in correlation with the complexity of the design that students are

to understand ourselves and our culture;

doing and not in isolation. Thus for example air conditioning/ structure/ public health will not be

where have we come from and whither are

taught in the abstract but in direct relation to the design at hand and therefore at different levels

we going? Instead of starting from prehistoric

of complexity. Fundamental information regarding material, their behavior and availability and

time and come to present we find it is more

suitability will be taught as in science-mode.

knowledge we are best equipped to start with the field that we know best i.e. art education.

Thaap is a forum where we hope to invite teachers of arts and architecture to discuss, discover and formulate principles in the context of an overall system of education that promotes creativity among students. We start with art education not because we want to commit the same mistake of fragmentation by not including scientists etc. but because this is our entry point; we have worked with artists and architects and we know them best. As we move along the integrationist process our circle could grow to include other disciplines as well and that will make us richer and wiser. The strategy must remain of developing a vision of integrated education.

understandable if we start with study of our In Pakistan it is almost a cliché to say that school education needs to be drastically reformed. It is fragmented and rote based. The reality is that the majority of university intake comes through channels wherein students are weak in languages, with little general knowledge and only aware of narrow segments of disciplines that they might have studied. Students coming from the ‘English-medium’ schools have an advantage of better facilities and more of them pass the entry requirements especially in the arts departments. This is another fact of our fragmented and class ridden society and for the present we cannot impact it.

present state, its glory or predicament, and then work backwards in time and trace the historic evolution. This could apply to our person or our styles of architecture (or the absence of any coherent style), urban growth and in fact any phenomenon. Thus we can get rid of European Centric Bias in scholarship and we focus on our own present and its evolution from the

With these difficulties in mind we must redouble our efforts to delineate the way where we can contribute. In Lahore there are a number of institutions teaching arts and architecture and faculty from all of them have attended Thaap meetings. We can make further efforts to invite the entire

past. There is no limit how far in the past we can go and in the process study other cultures wherever it widens our horizons.

faculty to join us in our deliberation. We have had highly rewarding talks by members of the faculty

During my World Bank days I annoyed a subject specialist on Education by advocating a change in the methodologies that were being implemented. “Why do you want to reinvent the wheel?” he fumed, “We have tried and tested this in schools in US and it works. Why don’t you just use the same?” My answer was; that is precisely the problem; we are trying to fit wheels invented by west on our cart forgetting that our carts are not the same. ‘We are happy to learn from your wheel’ I said, ‘but we have to develop a design that suits our particular cart’ – and that is precisely the objective of THAAP. With windows opening toward all directions, West, East, North, South, and a willingness to learn from all, we have to look at our own particularities to set our house in order.

We are focusing on Art and Architecture Education, as a start; for we are equipped to contribute to

and we must continue these. The Thaap conference has further given depth to the deliberations and we can count upon a yet wider circle to join us.

Conclusion:

Teaching of Architecture Design

To set the ball rolling, the following ideas are presented for the structure of an integrated arts institution. Similar ideas could be developed for other fields such as social sciences and other

Art Education should be firmly dedicated to

sciences with an integrationist approach.

holistic thinking about its conceptual basis.

The question of form, shape & design, thus

Almost all institutions in Lahore and Karachi have widened their departments of art and

architecture, must flow from the mind of the

architecture by bringing related disciplines within the fold. The trend is clearly visible and we are all

architect always addressing the issues of

moving forward. Our discussion will further clarify the path and the overall strategy. See attached

tradition, function, energy efficiency, climate

chart.

control, structural stability and any other factor

the cultural values in this region and our immediate audience are the teachers of the subjects. This audience will widen to include other scientific disciplines. Together, old and young, we propose to learn from each other and develop a consensus on our objectives and methods and coordinate and cooperate in the implementation so that we can refine them further. As we achieve success in one particular field the process can be expanded and extended; hence evolving a continuous and an unending endeavor.

that impinges on his concepts of the solutions It is suggested that there be a Faculty of Arts, Architecture and Culture within the context of a multi-

to the problem. The foremost point that all

disciplinary university, which will have as many fields of arts as resources allow. This would be a

architects must learn is the cultural context of

growing process. All departments within the Faculty will be multi-disciplinary and interdisciplinary

the society, site and space that they operate

research, rather than linear, will lead to higher degrees. The first year (Foundation Year) will be

in and that buildings are not located or built in

common for the whole faculty in which emphasis would be on developing the ability to use the five

vacuum. The question of tradition, functional

senses (observation) with a wide reading list, i.e. to develop Cognition. Also students would be

appropriateness, cultural relevance, energy

required to verbalize experiences in written form for self-evaluation and self-criticism. The objective

efficiency, comfort and climate control must

is to make students conscious of their mind, to intelligently communicate with it and thus to refine

be an integral part of all designs – in the

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Distinctive Thesis 2013

Karachi University | Indus Valley School Of Art & Architecture | Malaga University, Spain ADA features its annual showcasing of works of distinctive students, from universities of Pakistan.

This is an ongoing venture which will be carried forward in the next issue.

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Distinctive Thesis 2013

Architecture DISTINCTIVE THESIS AT MALAGA UNIVERSITY 2013 R. Barrios Pérez*, G. Cimadomo*, Ciro de la Torre Fragoso*, S. García Bujalance*, Alberto García Marín*, Luis Machuca Santa Cruz**, Ana Rojo Montijano* Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura, Universidad de Malaga * The authors were member of the Thesis Committee during the year 2013 ** President of the Thesis Committee

The School of Architecture at the University of Malaga is one of the

obtained with trial and comparison of all the projects presented.

youngest in Spain, founded in a moment when the European Higher

For this reason, also if there is always the possibility to develop a

Education Area (EHEA) transformed the academical programs of

free-theme, the same School offers each year some fixed-themes,

University degrees, and also a pivotal point for Architectural practice in

related with the city of Malaga, that let compare and discuss different

Spain, being both of them great opportunities to challenge new ways of

approaches to the same problems.

Whatever the result, it is just another pedagogical tool in the learning

based during the last sixty years on the real estate development. All

process, the last “guided” step that will introduce them in the

these factors made possible to its young faculty to develop a critic and

professional arena, charged with their ambitions and willingness,

innovative model, based on a methodology that is now generating the first

but also with the necessary baggage to manage themselves in

graduates and their thesis.

any situation. Accompanying this text we offer some of the most interesting projects developed during the last year by outstanding

The reduced size of the School, with a total of around 400 students, lets a great integration between students, faculty and staff, fostering a crossing methodology used in different courses, which are led to have a great interaction among them. Students learn to work on the same project at

Institute: Malaga Uniiversity, SPAIN Thesis idea: A yacht club in the new dock of the Port of Malaga Synopsis: ‘’ Where the city looks at herself ... ‘’

A yacht club in the new dock of the Port of Malaga. An area in the open sea, on a platform arising from the emergence of two

teaching. The location of the School also make it special, as the South coast of Spain experimented the contradictions of an economic model

Name: ALBERTO MONTIEL LOZANO

students, now architects, coming from the University of Malaga.

huge maritime infrastructures (the old dock of Levante and the new dock of Levante). These infrastructures create a place with unique features .

profile. The final scope of the School is to offer the student not only the necessary tools related with the practice of architecture, but also the ones related with the “to know how” and “to know how to be”, of great

the correct treatment of these spaces: terraces,

between land and water.

balconies, swimming pools, sports facilities, leisure and relax, events etc.

anchored to the idea of place, to take full

PLACE

advantage of environment conditions and

Incorporation of vernacular references. A

FLEXIBILITY

location. Main keys are organized into three

mediterranean area, where the sun and the

To combine the public use of a space for the

groups:

shadows are very representative and where the

city, with the reserved use of a yacht club.

use of filters and protections are crucial to get

This club needs a large covered uses (pool,

pleasant spaces.

restaurant, lounge and hangar) that are located

SYSTEM

in frontline. They are in direct relation to the

To define a limit to configure the main front and to anchor the intervention suturing the two huge

Equally important are the “interspaces”,

shipside and they have the best views. These

maritime infrastructures .

outdoor-indoor, in a zone where the good

large uses generate the linear element and

climate allows the life outdoor. And even

create its most significant image.

relevance for his personal development and the one of the community.

During the five years of the studies, students receive several inputs that

large hangar as part that solves the transition

The design process has been very much

different scales, from the territorial one to the building detail, offering the possibility to develop their interests and define their own professional

Alberto Montiel Lozano

The building is configured by a large tray that

in a contemporary yacht club where the

makes the transition to the linear element, a

diversification of activities is very important for

through research, analytical, reflexive, synthetic and purpose-oriented processes, offer different design methodologies which are considered

Alberto Montiel Lozano

as important as the same knowledge. The Thesis (Proyecto Fin de Carrera or PFC in Spanish) is the final exercise that complete the learning process, where the student has to test his own knowledge with the design of a project that has to be developed in a responsible manner, according with his ability and academic training. The public presentation of this work is hence a meeting-point, a moment for professors and students to meet and exchange impressions through conversation, graphical works, and the defense and discussion method. The defense of the project is public, with the simultaneous presence of all the professors, alumni and different members of the school, as we all understand that learning is

2014

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Distinctive Thesis 2013

Architecture

Name: Aránzazu Caravantes García

Name: Danial Navas Institute: Malaga Uniiversity, SPAIN Thesis idea: Integrated urban regeneration. The case of Carranque neighbourhood in Malaga.

Institute: Malaga Uniiversity, SPAIN Thesis idea: Nautical Club Synopsis: The sea is a key part within Málaga´s origin and

Synopsis:

development. Málaga is a city by the sea, its

The project lay out a reflexion about the city

port was determining for its historical evolution.

growing models that we inherit, in a momentum

During the last years, the port has been

when the uncontrolled models of contemporary

improved in order to make it an open space

cities is being put into question.

with free-time and tourist activities. However, Due to the project’s magnitude, we must start

the ground given to work with, the Morro’s Platform, appears like an abandoned area. The main target is to build a Nautical Club, so it

Danial Navas

studying the European political context to Aránzazu Caravantes García

analyze the multiple dimension of the urban of the neighbours, through neighbourhood

regeneration.

becomes another piece in the itinerary, adding a new public space in the city, and empowering

This concept of ‘INTEGRATED URBAN

it as a meeting point for three kinds of activities:

REGENERATION’ aims to optimise, preserve or revalue all the existing urban capital (social,

The project is meant like a process with the

negotiation processes. It is, therefore, NOT

following working procedure:

INVENT ANYTHING, but simply to exploit the synergies that already exist in the

•

Reality analysis of the neighbourhood: past

neighbourhood, in order to ensure the success of

and present

the intervention.

Public recreational activities at the new port

built environment, heritage, etc.) in contrast to

developed by the citizens; the touristic one,

other forms of intervention in which, amongst

To evaluate existing needs is believed

all this urban capital, only the value of the land

essential to develop a preliminary project to

•

is prioritised and conserved, by traumatically

establish the basis for a PARTICIPATORY

This last part, when the project has a deeper

demolishing and replacing the rest of the whole

URBAN REGENERATION STRATEGY in the

development, seeks a restored building better

urban capital and — most lamentably —of the

neighbourhood of Carranque. This preliminary

adapted to the inhabitants needs, that regulates

social capital.

project is based on the experiences of

better the energy consumption and also better

neighbours, as users who are true connoisseurs

expressed in the building’s elevations the

developed by passengers who arrive at the Maritime Terminal; and the social nauticalsporting one of the club itself, developed by the club members.

Residential intervention strategies

In order to follow this strategy, a fragmentation

This does not mean that in certain ‘regeneration’

of the neighbourhood’s history, its current needs

residents’ preferences throughout its life.

of facilities in five pieces is proposed. These

operations it may be not necessary for

and the potential of the neighbourhood. I.e.

The project is proposed to accommodate

some specific buildings to be demolished

contemplate the life of a place.

the social multiplicity that exists in the

pieces are set following a spiral shapes, so as to the perimeter seems to be absorbed towards a virtual central point offering a panoramic view of the dock. Moreover, the pieces turn

neighbourhood. So, from the original typologies,

and replaced, or that on other occasions

Aránzazu Caravantes García

(‘brownfields’, derelict, abandoned areas or

•

Neighbourhood intervention strategies

with the adhesion of prefabricated elements of

areas in decline) it may be best to turn to

A master plan that brings together the proposals

quick construction will allow the configuration

complete renewal.

for intervention in the neighbourhood in a global

of a CUSTOMIZED TYPOLOGY and adapted to

level (swelling, mobility and equipment) is

different LIFESTYLES.

inviting users to approach the dock’s back area, recovering like this a space that faces to the

rooms. From this base, high pieces emerge,

In this project, the landscape is taken into

TOLEDO DECLARATION. COUNCIL OF THE

city and recognising its remarkable landmarks

whose light structure allows to obtain wide

account thanks to a walls and garden walls

EUROPEAN UNION. JUNE 2010.

and the sea.

open terraced living-rooms to develop the

architecture. The combination of terraces,

most public facilities: the social one, such as

ramps and stairramps, level’s changes, slopes,

To formalise this idea, the excavation and

restaurant or library. The idea is fulfilled with

fences and vegetation allow the three subjects

construction of a half-buried base is proposed.

a new area that the project hands over to the

(tourists, citizens and club members) to develop

This will be the building support and will

city: a public garden on the base, where big

their activities without losing their respective

contain the club members’ most private

courtyards with outdoor pitches of the club are

privacy and to create those paths that bring

facilities: the sporting and nautical facilities,

located.

them closer to the sea.

established, based on the MODUS OPERANDI

Danial Navas

such as swuimming-pools, gym or dressing2014

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Distinctive Thesis 2013

Architecture

Name: María Antonia García Alcántara

Name: Francisco Torcello Gómez Institute: Malaga Uniiversity, SPAIN

Institute: Malaga Uniiversity, SPAIN Thesis idea: Yacht Club - Pier -Dissolution And Limit

Synopsis: Guadalhorce river mouth is characterised by

the same time a privileged position that creates

The top sheet serves as an overlook, and also

new sights, not only to the sea, but also to the

protects the interior spaces. Its structure is made

city.

up of precast concrete elements, transmitting a heavier character, as infrastructure.

Different strategies are explained as follows: The bottom sheet is the element which serves as DISSOLUTION

a support of indoor spaces.

One of the aims of the project is the dissolution

the large diversity of birds and plants species that inhabit its park, making this place unique.

The project is located in the limit between

Synopsis:

of the borderline between the sea and the city.

SKINS

To explain this project, a brief introduction about

The straight line is broken by different openings

Skins that protect and climatise the living spaces

the importance that ports have nowadays,

entering into the land. Water takes on an

are lighter.

is essential. How should they look like, the

architectural and landscape value, humanising

Malaga and the river mouth. This place is

relationships port-city, the activities that could be

the surrounding and looking for a link between

The project aims to reflect the integration in the

isolated from the city, deteriorated and lacking

carried out there, are some of the questions that

architecture, city and landscape.

surrounding studying the relationships among

of quality public spaces, leading to a complete

will be exposed later on.

with the sea, to humanise the place and to find

Throughout the history, ports have been

An artificial topography is created by different

the link between architecture and landscape.

basically used for loading/unloading people or

kind of vegetation as a cushion between the

goods, but this concept is currently changing.

pier and the city. It also articulates the transition

The need of the population to move around is

between private and public spaces.

loss of identity.

The site presents itself disturbed by its past.

It is a residue that is fed by the memory of the previous activity. It is such Gilles Clement’s

the water, the dock and the city, to dilute the limit VEGETAL CUSHION

getting higher, and this make us think about

definition of the Third Landscape, which we can

ports as a way to connect different places, but

PIER

find in his “Manifeste du Tiers-Paysage”.

also as an invitation to know the city. In other

The pier is defined as a transition element city-

words, the welcome door to the city.

sea, which articulates and dilutes the limit within

The vegetation from the park extends beyond

Francisco Torcello Gómez

the water.

Since the approval of the Special Plan of the Port

the limit, reaching the location, growing around

and the projects involved, new public areas have

the historical traces and making them to

María Antonia García Alcántara

been created.

reappear.

The zone of action is presented as an undefined

The aim of the project is to allow the flora to

limit between the city and the sea. It is an

grow in order to recover those traces and,

intermediate space between the old and the

hence, the lost identity of the area.

new dock. This artificial place is the result or the ‘intentional residue’ of the infrastructures developed. It is a colonisable space, very

Once they are recovered, they will be

interesting from an urban point of view, having at

highlighted and restored in the site. The

María Antonia García Alcántara

remainders of the former industrial containers will be transformed in “containers of activity”.

Then they will be joined together with a reinforced concrete sheet, which bends

Francisco Torcello Gómez

and hosts the walk of visitors around the interpretation centre. Consequently, this

they find, and experience a variety of feelings, which characterise the centre. These guide them

procedure provides a spacious public area.

to the upper level, where the visit is concluded with a view of the river mouth from the observation deck.

Inside, the light reminds the historical traces mentioned above. The project is conceived as

In summary, the project explores the opportunity to recover the lost identity, which is present in the

a tour. Visitors enter through the first trace that

project and in its implementation, complying with the needs of the site, the city and the citizens.

2014

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Distinctive Thesis 2013

Architecture

Name: Teófilo Garcia Ruiz de Mier Institute: Malaga Uniiversity, SPAIN Thesis idea: Interpretation and investigation center on the mouth of the river Guadalhorce, Malaga (Spain) Synopsis: The natural park of the mouth of the river Gualdalhorce is a river delta situated only seven kilometers from the city center of Malaga.

Teófilo Garcia Ruiz de Mier

The history of this delta, where the first township of the city was founded, experienced a lot of different steps along its history. For a long period of time the delta was used as a farming area. Later, in the beginning of the 1950s it became a quarry where gravel could be dug out and used for the new buildings that were constructed at the Costa del Sol during the 60s and 70s. Due to this quarry, some gaps that over the years have become a lagoon ecosystem, loomed up. In 1989 it was protected by the local government and it has turned into a

Teófilo Garcia Ruiz de Mier

preferential place for bird sighting. Furthermore

as the way to enter the park. This entrance

coexistence between visitors and investigators

it is getting more and more important because

is a cognitive way to appreciate the park and

is a great opportunity to inspire both visitors

of the proximity to the city and the possibility to

therefore protects it.

and investigators to contribute to the exposition.

become a tourist attraction.

At the same time it makes the exposition The building is defined by concrete frames,

change as quickly as the park because of the

Because of the cultural, patrimonial and

which are only disrupted by a wood bulk that

vivid, integrated investigation. The investigators

natural value, it has been suggested to

peeps through them. This bulk crosses along

work facilitates the public understanding and

design a building that could combine an

the spillway and it is hold by the breakwater

information. The coincidence of investigation

interpretation and an investigation center. This

where it rises with a tower leaning up to the

and visitors reaches its top in the tower that

building should support different functions like

park. This wood bulk allegorically flees out of

is equipped with a camera obscure where the

administration, investigation, interpretation and

the concrete frames and approaches the park

investigators can show the visitors details that

disclosure of the park.

for popping in, accessing and interpreting it.

are difficult to see from the footpath in the park but easy to discover from the top.

However the interpretation has turned out to

In addition, the building with its bridge allows

be the most important function defining even

to control the access to the park and that

All in all, the architectural planning of the

the shape of the building. The geometry of the

way it opens a door that connects the park

building expresses an investigation about how

building emphasizes the connection between

and the city. Of course this way it is used by

the architecture can support the process of

the city and the park, and the building serves

the visitors and the investigators as well. The

understanding and interpretation.

2014

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