Proposal for exhibition in Valencia 2012

ASUNTO: EXPOSICIÓN ITINERANTE “ON STAGE!”, ETS ARQUITECTURA DE VALENCIA FECHA INAUGURACIÓN: 18 MAYO 2012 MEMORIA VALORADA

1. INTRODUCCIÓN Durante el curso 2010-2011, la profesora Barbara Zibell1 de Facultad de Arquitectura de Leibniz Universität en Hanover estableció contacto con Eva M. Álvarez Isidro,2 a partir de la vinculación de ambas al grupo de investigación GDUS (Gender, Diveristy and Urban Sustainability3). A raíz de este contacto, Eva Álvarez fue invitada como Gastprofessur (profesora invitada) para impartir la asignatura optativa Raumwissenschaftlichen Gender Studies in Architektur, Freiraum / Landschaft und Planung (en inglés) en la Facultad de Arquitectura de Hanover.

Esa asignatura además sirvió de primer paso para la preparación de una exposición sobre una manera distinta de abordar el trabajo profesional y su resultado sobre el entorno construido. Dicha exposición se inauguró el 29 de marzo de 2011 en el Colegio de Arquitectos de la ciudad4.Los objetivos de la exposición están más detallados en el anexo de esta memoria y existe un cd sobre su contenido. Cabe destacar que tanto el diseño de la exposición como la producción y montaje de ésta fue realizada, íntegramente, por los alumnos y sus profesores, con una pequeña ayuda del Colegio de Arquitectos.

La exposición recogió el trabajo realizado en despachos de arquitectura o arquitectura del paisaje, alemanes y extranjeros y de distinto volumen de facturación; además, dicho trabajo se realizó colectivamente, entre hombres y mujeres, pero en muchos de estos despachos las mujeres ocuparon puestos de dirección. Se trató también de ver si el entendimiento de la actividad laboral como un campo más amplio que el estrictamente profesional tuvo intersecciones o repercusiones con el trabajo realizado (y de qué tipo). Esta aproximación se incorporó en el concepto timeline.

Entre los objetivos de la exposición se incluía su itineraria. Después de ser exhibida en el Colegio de Arquitectos de Hanover, se expuso en la Escuela de arquitectura de dicha ciudad, contando con la presencia (por invitación) de la arquitecta india Sheila Sriprakash en octubre de 2011.

1

Barbara Zibell, Prof. Dr. sc. techn. ETH Dipl.-Ing. Urban and Regional Planning, Bauass. Urbanism Leibniz University of Hanover, Faculty for Architecture and Landscape Sciences, Institute for History and Theory in Architecture and Planning, Department for Planning and the Sociology of Architecture, Herrenhäuser Straße 8, D 30419 Hannover, Fon +49 (0)511 762 32 70 oder - 57 91 / Fax +49 (0)511 762 32 71, eMail: b.zibell@igt-arch.uni-hannover.de URL: www.igt-arch.uni-hannover.de 2 3 4

Eva Álvarez, arquitecta, profesora asociada del departamento de Proyectos arquitectónicos (T1) de la UPV http://www.rali.boku.ac.at/gdus.html

http://www.aknds.de/aktuell1.html?&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=2020&tx_ttnews[backPid]=127&cHash=06b1489f70 http://wissenschaftwww.idw-online.de/en/event34564

EVA M .ÁLVAREZ ISIDRO

ealvarez@pra.upv.es

febrero, 2012

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Esta exposición tiene previsto su apertura en Valencia en mayo 2012 (inauguración el día 18 de mayo de 2012); también tiene comprometida su visita a Viena y Helsinki (sin fecha).

Dicha itinerancia se proyectó de un modo particular: el conjunto de paneles debería aumentarse con los nuevos paneles producidos en cada ciudad, de manera que amplíe el espectro de despachos de arquitectura y arquitectura del paisaje que plantean su trabajo de una manera diferente. Tiene por tanto el objetivo de contribuir a la difusión de dichos aspectos.

2. EXPOSICIÓN ON STAGE! EN VALENCIA La próxima parada de la exposición es Valencia. Para ampliar la visión mostrada por la exposición es necesario organizar un Taller que investigue sobre las arquitectas que se han mostrado favorables a la colaboración y produzcan los nuevos paneles (en inglés).

Consideramos que en un taller intensivo de 40 h, con un máximo de diez estudiantes, es posible realizar todo el material necesario. Dicho taller se procurará que sea convalidable por 2 créditos de libre elección. El resultado docente del llevado a cabo en Hanover fue excelente y confiamos en el acierto pedagógico de proyectar, realizar y ver producido algo decidido por los alumnos.

3. ARQUITECTAS QUE ACTUALMENTE HAN OFRECIDO SU COLABORACIÓN A LOS ESTUDIANTES Cristina Alonso, arquitecta municipal de Meliana, Valencia Inés Novella, arquitecta, Colectivo Sostre, Valencia Marilda Azulay, arquitecta, Valencia Ana Garrido, arquitecta, Valencia Lola Domenech, arquitecta, Barcelona Lizete Rubano, arquitecta, Sao Paulo, Brasil Ines Moisset, arquitecta, Rosario, Argentina

EVA M .ÁLVAREZ ISIDRO

ealvarez@pra.upv.es

febrero, 2012

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4. AVANCE DE PRESUPUESTO (SIN IVA)

PANEL RÍGIDO (Y ADHESIV0) 98X66 cm IMPRESIÓN A COLOR SOBRE PAPEL FOTOGRÁFICO 100x70 cm TOTAL 1 TRASLADO EXPOSICIÓN DESDE HANOVER A VALENCIA TOTAL 2 VIAJE DE BARBARA ZIBELL A VALENCIA DESDE HANOVER (IDA Y VUELTA) ESTANCIA HOTEL BARBARA ZIBELL HONORARIOS CONFERENCIA TOTAL 3 HOSTAL ESTUDIANTES (3) HANNOVER TOTAL 4 OTROS GASTOS

NUMBER UNITS

UNITARY PRICE Euros

TOTAL Euros

10

34.11

340.11

10

50.55

505.50 845.61

1

300.00

300.00 300.00

1

350.00

350.00

3 NOCHES

70.00

210.00

1

400.00

400.00 960.00

3X3

20.00

180.00 180.00 200.00

200.00

TOTAL

2485.61

Valencia, 21 febrero 2012

Eva M. Álvarez Isidro

EVA M .ÁLVAREZ ISIDRO

ealvarez@pra.upv.es

febrero, 2012

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ANEXO: MEMORIA PARA LA EXPOSICIÓN EN HANNOVER EN MARZO 2011 EXHIBITION TITLE IN SZENE SETZEN! ON STAGE! WOMEN AND MEN IN (LANDSCAPE) ARCHITECTURE AND PLANNING IN LOW SAXONY REGION MEMORY5 1. THE NEED OF AN EXHIBITION One reason for organizing this exhibition is concerned that different exhibition on women’s work as architects may obscure existing sexism patterns without rendering up clear new equitable ones.

Up to where we are informed, exhibitions often show that women architects are able to do “good” architecture -as men do- or even try to show that women are also able to belong to the Star System in architecture often sawn as a middle-high class men’s club.6 On the contrary, we guess that in the majority of Star System architect’s offices, women are the staff main part although not always in relevant positions7 and that the majority of the actual produced and famous architectural works are already produced by women.

On the other side, we want to point that architects usually do several things not only buildings or landscape or planning; some of them also teach, theorize, write, paint, design furniture… We propose to reveal the intersectional relation among topics as we think a global vision is needed to understand professional affairs.

And finally, we want to discuss the social relevance of taking care of domestic affairs, because we experience when one is involved in taking care of persons (children, elderly) the vision of architectural procedures is more pragmatic, more equitable and more sustainable. The first time the term “sustainable” was employed was in 1987 UN report “Our common future” by Ms. Brundtland8 where she described “sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own need”. That is to say sustainability is closely related to the needs of different generations –present and future- very clearly expressed when you take care of children, for example.

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In this memory, we follow the index of Memphis master plan report by Denise Scott Brown 6 Here we follow the 1989 brilliant essay by Ms. Denise Scott Brown “Sexism and Star System in Architecture” published by AA Publications. See: SCOTT BROWN, DENISE, Having words, Architectural Association Publications, London, 2009 7

See the 2003 RIBA report “Why do women leave architecture?” http://www.aibc.ca/pram/pdf/riba_why.pdf 8

See http://www.un-documents.net/wced-ocf.htm

EVA M .ÁLVAREZ ISIDRO

ealvarez@pra.upv.es

febrero, 2012

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So, we conclude our speech, pointing the need of an equitable, intersectional and sustainable designing our common environment.

2. ELEMENTS AND ISSUES OF THE EXHIBITION We propose the exhibition to show the work of a group of offices where women are able to play a relevant role. We will try to find common topics and common points of view, if possible.

We also want to involve student’s academic work in this approach because we are interested in relating academic life to city region reality and discussions.

This context advises us in working on offices which develop their activity in Low Saxony region and that are affordable to be visited and known by the students.

And as issues of the exhibition, we propose the questions that students already have asked: - Which is the work structure within the office?

- Which is the kind of projects they are interested in?

- Team philosophy - Why did they create their own office?

And we could sum to those ones: - What is their idea of sustainable designing?

- Which is their idea of equitable designing?

- What other professional activities they are involved in?

- What other non professional activities they are involved in?

- Can they combine work and domestic affairs?

- Do they think that combining work gives them a different approach to designing work?

And of course, we expect that the collecting information process will provide us different questions. We also expect a choral approach to the question where students, faculty and offices staff will discuss critically the vision we have on designing production and the position women and men occupy in this context.

3. MISSIONS, GOALS, OPPORTUNITIES AND PROBLEMS, OPTIONS AND ISSUES OF THE EXHIBITION We propose as mission for this exhibition to show a slightly though substantially different reality visualized in the designing work produced in these offices.

Achievement of this mission entails changing our way to look at the social implications all of our work has in creating value and educating in values.

We consider this mission is able to be attained by achieving the following goals in analysis: - To identify the office work structure

EVA M .Ă LVAREZ ISIDRO

ealvarez@pra.upv.es

febrero, 2012

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- To identify the list of office work activities linked to staff work division - To identify the balance between paid and no paid activities - To identify a space-time line sequence of activities along a day, a week or a month.

- To express the intellectual aims of the group.

- To identify the intellectual intersections produced among different activities.

- To identify the sustainable aspects of their work - To identify the equitable aspects of their work Goals in communication (interface): - To elaborate a graphic code to express the main detected variables (logos) - To analyse the office work according to the detected variables (diagrams) - To analyse some of the office work production according to the detected variables (plans) - To show a great number of photographs on everyday life (album) Main opportunities lie in the human fact: the direct confidence of the people working in these offices and the notable experience they accumulate in different fields, ages and visions. Other opportunity is the students look at a problem they have still not experienced and they live in a different context than the offices one.

And probably, main problem could be not having a common theoretical background to afford, in an easy way, the conclusions of the analysis. It is possible to get a dispersed result.

Finally, students and faculty should be able to select different conceptual options (including graphic ones) to best communicate the mission or aim of the exhibition. These conceptual and graphic options should be decided according to the issues or questions that the process of collecting information could put in clear.

4. DESIGNING RECOMMENDATIONS We encourage students and office staff to show their work in their human context understanding that the professional practise is part of a whole where other activities take place and that all of them interact.

We also encourage them to show the differences they could find in the produced objects (buildings, plans, books, etc) according to a different values scale.

We expect to show all these aspects in a very legible graphic way to try to awake the public conscience that a different way of understanding equitability is possible.

5. IMPLEMENTATION PRIORITIES The main implementation priority is the designing project of the exhibition: getting the goals, both in analysis and graphic communication, and traducing the information into clear items or variables.

The second priorities are producing the graphic image of the exhibition and produce the panels of the exhibition. We expect to produce 20 panels (maximum 70x100 cm), two for each office.

EVA M .Ă LVAREZ ISIDRO

ealvarez@pra.upv.es

febrero, 2012

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The third priority is producing the exhibition catalogue 50-60 pages (max. 100) according to the initial graphic image and contents. Also, posters and flyers.

It could be interesting to produce an on-line exhibition to amplify the echo of the reflexion and work.

6. ANNEXES LIST OF ARCHITECTS TO STUDY

EVA M .Ă LVAREZ ISIDRO

ealvarez@pra.upv.es

febrero, 2012

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