Implementing Advanced Knowledge
bits Extra Edition: Piso Piloto
1.1 10 Microstatements
Enric Batlle, LluĂs Jubert, Josep Ricart, Amadeu Santacana
10 Microstatements 1. Living on the edge It Is the theme, nothing else. Emergency housing and its urban structure. One theme with two conditions, living and limit. Living on the limit, away of any personal reasons. The economic crisis of the current economic systems have produced a critical runaway in terms of housing conditions and has forced many families to live on the limit. To live on the edge as a real territory of opportunity. The physical limit, as an area of great interest that is always placed in “between”, crossing several configurations that enrich that frontier space. One subject, two conditions and one place. The Barcelona negative. The outer donought. The other Barcelona. In the cities that surround it. In areas that includes in “between” spaces, open to be rethink and capable of generating new areas of opportunity.
Cover - Alba Alsina, Gemma Guitart, Arnau Sumalla, Torre Baró “Picturesc Catalog” Figure 1 - Andrea Branzi, Forest of Architecture, 2007 2
2. Do I need to mortgage my house and my car to have heart’s surgery? Mobility and housing have been seriously hit by the crisis . Real estate prices and fuel prices have been increased during recent years. Is our aim to join the two major problems of the crisis, put them together. Densify the union of these two conditions and therefore create a new city space and a new opportunity for urban space. Density generates activity, services, shops ... and creating a feedback between the different actors involved. We have to get a central engine based on this feedback around two major themes: housing and mobility, and from this point other subject will stretch finally into a new territory of opportunity.Only the names of the projects presented at Venice shows this merge of categories: Agronica (1995), Architecture-Agriculture
Figure 2 - Neil Armstrong,Universal Studios, Los Angeles, 20 de juliol de 1969.
3. “Verde que te quiero verde� Just in this boundary condition there are a third opportunity: what should be the role of nature in relation with the city. We crossed several fabrics to create a contemporary fabric that combines physically our schedules and daily activities. We need something that synchronizes our dynamic with the spaces we inhabit. Linking daily work structure, rush... with the social structure of leisure, walking, nature... At the same time, incorporate other layers that have nothing to do with the man himself, but going beyond the interests of big scale as global biological balance, biological diversity... Therefore, we have to connect our urban structures with other higher structures with biological character.
Figure 3 - Extension of Monaco, Xaveer De Geyter Architecten, 2002-2006. 4
4. “So we understand” Opportunism - behaviour in which you use every situation to try to get power or an advantage: - taking advantage of opportunities and circumstances in this way Opportune [1352; del ll. opportūnus, -a, -um, íd., der. de portus ‘port’, pròpiament, terme marítim aplicat a un vent que mena a bon port] happening at a time that is likely to produce success or is convenient: Take stern -Give the stern to the wind. -Navigating with the wind aft.
Figure 4 - Neil Armstrong,Universal Studios, Los Angeles, 20 de juliol de 1969.
5. Clear as water We have to see where the wind blows from. Detect the wind and take advantage of it. Take the wind direction. Be appropriate. Be pertinent. As Little Nicholas reads perfectly the chances, the site shortcut, the appropriate times, the vip and influential people, the invisible things, withe envelopes, facades, complex networks, relationships of trusses, the power of influences, the price of what cannot be seen ... in short, you must be the Little Nicholas of your chosen site. Like the Mini Vanilli, like Neil Armstrong, like Monica Lewinsky, like Richard Adams Locke, like Joan Fontcuberta, like Jordi Pujol, as Jimmy Jump...
Figure 5 - El Pequeño Nicolàs, Coronació de Felipe IV, Madrid, 19 de juny de 2014. 6
6. Man with X-ray eyes If we don’t translate this information into drawings nothing happens. In a large nebulous concepts and words that will stay away from the field of realization and possible proposals. We must urgently become all the words into lines. If you eat a salad, we draw lettuce and tomatoes, and next there will be oil and salt. Everything must be drawn. And, in addition, we all know that all information is fully controlled, previously by NASA and now by Google or “Caixabank”. They know everything we do, who is with us and at what time, what we bought and how often. We are totally controlled. But we have an advantage... They do not know how to draw plants.
Figure 6 - X-rays
7. Divorce It is clear that the best to go skiing is take off your boots, and the best to have a partner is when you leave him. In your case you are on a trio, and it is clear that after so many satisfactions and results, group should have a period of decompression. A step away. Divorce. If we go together we separate. Even just a couple of weeks.
Figure 7 - One week, 1920, Buster Keaton. 8
8. Individuality The power of individuality is undoubtable, allthough today has to be said slyly. Someone (many) preach about community as if individuality were the opposite situation. Big mistake. Both have the potential, if one should cancel each other we can ensure that we are not facing a case of real intelligence. We are going, at this stage, to make the best from our individuality without maintaining any level of communication with the rest of the human species.
Figure 8 - Cromosomatic distribution, BPeter W H Holland, H Anne F Booth, Elspeth A Bruford.
9. Chromosome Strategy This individuality should serve to sharpen, to radicalize, to purify the strategy of each project. To find the basic minimum information for each proposal. To find the essence. The genetic condition of each strategy.Taking away, removing things that create distractions, leaving only the basic layers of the proposal. Nothing else, only that.
Figure 9 - El Pequeño Nicolàs, Coronació de Felipe IV, Madrid, 19 de juny de 2014. 10
10. City toilet At this point of the project, we must be able to speak with the same intensity and the same capacity and strategic intentions about both, the city and their most intimate homes spaces such as bathrooms. And not just to see what are the criteria in each case, but also to see what are the relationships between them. See how a project is able to move from urban organization organizing more intimate individual. How to generate structures able to understand that the city is not a list of volumes but also a group of chained relationships and spaces that cross from some conditions to others.
Figure 10 - X-rays
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Manuel Gausa, IaaC Dean
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EDITORIAL TEAM Manuel Gausa, IaaC Dean Mathilde Marengo, Communication & Publication Jordi Vivaldi, IaaC bits Editorial Coordinator
ADVISORY BOARD: Areti Markopoulou, IaaC Academic Director Tomas Diez, Fab Lab Bcn Director Silvia Brandi, Academic Coordinator Ricardo Devesa, Advanced Theory Concepts Maite Bravo, Advanced Theory Concepts
DESIGN: Ramon Prat, ACTAR Editions
IAAC BIT FIELDS: 1. Theory for Advanced Knowledge 2. Advanced Cities and Territories 3. Advanced Architecture 4. Digital Design and Fabrication 5. Interactive Societies and Technologies 6. Self-Sufficient Lands
Nader Tehrani, Architect, Director MIT School Architecture, Boston Juan Herreros, Architect, Professor ETSAM, Madrid Neil Gershenfeld, Physic, Director CBA MIT, Boston Hanif Kara, Engineer, Director AKT, London Vicente Guallart, Architect, Chief City Arquitect of Barcelona Willy Muller, Director of Barcelona Regional Aaron Betsky, Architect & Art Critic, Director Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati Hugh Whitehead, Engineer, Director Foster+ Partners technology, London Nikos A. Salingaros, Professor at the University of Texas, San Antonio Salvador Rueda, Ecologist, Director Agencia Ecologia Urbana, Barcelona Artur Serra, Anthropologist, Director I2CAT, Barcelona
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