Manifesto Beatriz

MANIFESTO RE-READING STORIES OF HOUSES

Beatriz Burrueco G贸mez

01-02

FIRST VIDEO_What is “Re-reading stories of houses”?

03-16

SECOND VIDEO_Presentation of interests

17-18

COLLAGES OF THE CULTURE_House in Corrubedo and House in Lège

19-20

ELECTION OF A NEUROLOGICAL DISORDER

21-26

DATA SEARCH. Information about the disorder

27-48

MICROARCHITECTURE DEVELOPEMENT_Evolution from the firs steps until the last models

49-50

FINAL PRESENTATION OF MICROARCHITECTURE

51-56

FIRST DRAWINGS OF PROPOSAL_Traslation from microarchitecture to House in Lège.

57-66

TECHNICAL DRAWINGS OF PROPOSAL

67-68

MANIFESTO

69-70

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Stories of Houses Stories of houses feature examples of dwellings from which we can all learn - both the clients during their contemplation about building a house, and the architects to understand and evaluate the life of the clients.

How can an architect design a house for his older sister who has just become a widow? What can an architect offer when his client, who is confined to a wheelchair, asks for a complex design that will become his world? And when art lovers offer total freedom for the design of their house? How is one to explain that the neighbours once shot at the house of the architect who now has acclaimed international prestige?

This series of articles tries to give answers to questions concerning intimacies and origins of important international houses.

We where ask to make a video about our interests in architecture referring to some houses of this stories. In this video I talk about three houses I like the most which are House in Lège, by Anne Lacaton and Jean Philippe Vassal; House in Baiao, by Eduardo Souto de Moura; The House of the Rain, by Juan Navarro Baldeweg. We had to show also something about personality and ourselves. That’s why appears my little squirrel that has always been with me since I started university and has totally influenced my point of view about life.

Video speech:

[Hello everyone I’m going to tell you the three houses I like the most from re-reading “stories of houses”.

The fist house I’m going to talk about is House in Lège, by Anne Lacaton and Jean Philippe Vassal. When you see this house the first thing you think is “why there are trees inside the house?”

Personally I think this is a big example of house respecting the nature and not to destroy it but mixing and developing together. The big point of this house is the importance of the nature, how it can condition us not in a bad way as always happens but helping us to live better.

The second house its House in Baiao, by Eduardo Souto de Moura. I am interested in this because of the relationship between the site and the house. This house is made using the ruins in the hill of Baiao and this fact makes the house more valuable. With this I want to point out that not always is necessary to build new houses in order to achieve a wonderful construction. We can take advantage of the buildings or places that are now abandoned and transform into a better place.

Finally The third house is The House of the Rain, by Juan Navarro Baldeweg. That house seems to me like a magical house which you cant appreciate entirely if you don’t go and stay inside.

This is to me an example of a house that the importance is not the house but the emotions you feel inside. Maybe If you don’t know anything of the house you would say that is ugly and simply but when you know it, its simplicity makes greatness. To me is a house of feelings and removing other decorative elements that are not interesting, the only element is you, the environment and the house that connect you both.]

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Fragments taken from “Stories of Houses” House in Lège Architects Anne Lacaton and Jean Philippe Vassal were asked by a brother and sister to build for them a holiday house on land they owned on the Atlantic coast of France.

A key condition of their request was that the project should respect as much as possible the 46 trees – some up to 30 metres in height and over 80 years old – that grew on the site. The result was a dream come true; the dream that every child has, and keeps, of having a house in the trees.

House in baiao The Portuguese architect, Eduardo Souto de Moura, received a commission for a small house from a couple with two children, which would be built by the river, Duoro, set in the Baião hills. The client wished the house to have the character of a shelter used for weekends and requested that the existing ruins on the site would be the starting point for the project.

The House of the Rain Returning from America, where he had spent five years researching art and architecture in the Institute of Technology Massachusetts (MIT), Juan Navarro Baldeweg received his first commission from his brother to design a weekend house in the hills of the Cantabria. The house is a manifestation of his conceptual investigations in America but, yet like a box of resonance, it needed an inhabitant to listen to it.

House in Corrubedo An author of prestigious architecture in Europe, Asia and America, the British architect, David Chipperfield decided in 1996 to design his family holiday house in a small fishing village in the North of Spain. It was in Corrubedo, the same place the legendary Spanish architects Manuel Gallego and Alejandro de la Sota used to spend their vacations. It was a place in front of the wild sea and unique dunes that represented a complete contrast to their hectic urban life in London.

Presentation Video In order to make the groups of work in class, we have to know very well each other. It is important to have common interest to be more comfortable and easily agree one another. We made a new video, this time presenting ourselves. It was a version two of the previous one because the aim was the same: "Explain the election of three houses we most like about Re-reading Stories of Houses" In this video I tried not only to express my interest but also to make the beholder feel the same passions as me. I explain I love nature because of my origins and my personal experience.

The first seconds of the video is completely silence. No words are needed to attract the beholder attention. Serene face, a bit angry, is what makes the beholder uncomfortable. I am sending a message and it is that you can never judge a person from outside by a 2 minutes video because I could be lying or not. The fact that the serene face and the first words I say makes others to feel uncomfortable is perfect to make them curious about what they are going to see.

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Then I jump into the deep of my personality. How my mind works and how I believe in what I am doing and I am not afraid of failing. I took the camera and went to the country house I used to live until I moved to a ridiculous flat. I recorded the route I used to do when I was a child and I did exactly what used to do. I collected dead snails, I ate sitting on the floor, I played with ground and water and I touched everything.

Something children always do is to explore, touch and feel everything they see. That attitude is what I look for in a group. People who explore and try to see the world from a child eyes that try to look for answer every time. Children are not afraid of what we are going to discover, even if they discover nothing. That is why I did not care about reproducing child attitude in the video, people could laugh or love it.

Finally I turn back into the reality and it is true that you cannot know other person by watching a short video but you can get an idea of who could this person be and if you would like to know him or her deeply. That is why I finish the video with "who cares?" and a friendly smile for those who share the same interest and want to work with me.

The landscape The site - located in Lège, west of Bordeaux - was one of the last in an area facing the Arcachon Bay Nature Reserve still not built upon. Sloping down harshly to the bay, the landscape consisted of 15 metre dunes covered with pine trees, shrubs and mimosa with views to the Island of Birds.

Despite their youth, the brother and sister (only 23 and 25 years old, respectively) had already learned to appreciate the beauty and the fragility of the land. Both were conscious of the harm that the neighbours had caused when building their own houses.

All had cut trees and disturbed the landscape of dunes by moving earth, hollowing foundations and raising breezeblock walls.

It was through their father, an artist and a teacher of plastic arts at the Bordeaux school of architecture, how the siblings met Lacaton and Vassal. They spoke to the two architects about the beauty of that site - a site where the whole family used to picnic during the summer months; a site where they, as children, used to make huts between the trees.

It was also during this first conversation that they voiced their concern as to how to build a house without destroying the charm of the plot, bearing in mind that some of the shrubs on the site were over 3 metres high thus prevented any view over the bay.

Furthermore, local planning regulations required that their building had to be at least 4 metres from the neighbours and 15 metres from the shoreline - all of which meant that the house should be located just behind the crest of the dune.

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Adding instead of replacing Lacaton and Vassal began their response by the analysis of the situation that led them to a solution where they imagined a house in amongst the trees; a house that would be floating above the ground.

Faced with such an unconventional project, the clients nonetheless decided to have faith in the architects and to begin construction. As soon as they climbed onto the newly built platform, they realised that it was the right choice: from the 210 square metre concrete slab floor, one could enjoy a stunning view over the bay.

In order not to spoil the dunes, the foundations consisted of twelve micro-piles rammed eight to ten metres into the ground. On top of them, a galvanised steel structure was assembled on piles of variable height - depending on the slope of the ground - which allowed for a passage underneath the house. The insulation both underneath and on the sides of the house was protected from the seaside environment by a layer of corrugated aluminium sheeting. Since the corrugation laid perpendicular to the bay, the aluminium sheeting echoed the glitter of the water and illuminated the space beneath the house, creating an artificial sky.

Another consequence from the strict respect for the existing vegetation, was that six pine trees perforated the house. To enable the trees to move with the wind, while at the same time keeping the house completely rainproof, a rubber collar fastened the trunks to skylights. These skylights were Plexiglas plates tied to the roof of the house by elastic belts that allowed them to slide following the movements of the trees. The result was that the trees can almost be mistaken for the structure, appearing like symbolic pillars of the house.

By building a house around the trees and allowing the trees to live within the house, architecture and landscape come together.

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Between nature and the artifice A ruin can be understood as the edge between architecture and nature. In other words, the moment when a construction ceases to be architecture and becomes nature. The work of Souto de Moura shows an interest in this dialectic between nature and artifice. A dialectic where the building site changes into a tool, it becomes a mental and an intellectual exercise in itself.

This sensitivity towards the site goes hand in hand with the belief in simplicity as a means to transmit thoughts. Following the words of the poet, Eugenio de Andrade, "... only the exact word is of public interest...", Souto de Moura believes that the tools used by the architects to write - with materials such as stone, iron and glass, as well as their joints, which are of no less importance - have as their final goal to create an anonymous and serene work in relation to time. In other words, to become poetry and to arose feelings.

Architecture of high complexity based on its contextual textures is, however, a consequence of this simplicity in the use of materials and its joints. It was inherent in the profound integration with the site, of camouflaging new spaces with nature, of fusing borders, underlining characteristics and expressing judgements of all the surrounding elements.

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The ruin becomes important when understanding it as a division which defines the limits, as a fundamental element of spatial definition and of obtaining a concept of time. It maintains a dialogue with the context where it is placed. It is an architecture that is not forced, a silence where nature is seen as architecture and culture as nature.

The ruin Wall House 1990 - 1993 Responding to the wishes of the client, the ruin of the old farm which was attached to a retaining wall became interpreted as a kind of a bridge between internal culture (of the inhabitant) and an external reality (of time). The work began with the demolition of the retaining wall of big granite stone blocks, a traditional material of North Portugal. This was followed by the movement of earth, shaping a "negative" of the house in the ground and the old ruins began to take the form of a sort of a closed garden that served as a entrance hall for the house. This was a second building which consisted of a concrete box which was supported by the ruin and inserted into the earth. In this way, the ruin served as a joint between the past and the new rectangle house which, because of being partly set into the earth, was 'blind' on its side walls except the front facade which opened towards the river, Douro. From the interior, next to a fire-place built of stones from the old retaining wall, one could enjoy a view to the far away valley of Cerdeira through the glass facade.

The simple programme of the house is laid out in one level under a grass roof which forms part of the topography of the place. Being faithful to the concept of the ruin ceasing to be architecture and becoming nature, the house is camouflaged by the landscape in such a way that it is not the trees' foliage which acts as a second skin but the landscape itself.

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The materialisation of the investigations Juan Navarro Baldeweg's brother wanted to enjoy family vacations in Alto de Hermosa in LiĂŠrganes. He had land which opened up to the green valley to the west, from where one could template the sea in the distance to the north. This project description would give the architect an opportunity to materialise his investigations from his broad conceptual education. Before becoming an architect, Juan had studied engraving at the School of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid. This made him consider himself as much a painter as an architect. After finishing his PhD studies at the School of Architecture in Madrid in 1970, he left for MIT in Boston, USA. In 1977, he returned to the same School of Architecture in Madrid as a Professor of Design.

During his academic journey, Navarro Baldeweg reflected on and analysed certain essential forces in Nature - light, gravity, horizon, equilibrium, structures and the hand - which were realised in his different installations, paintings and later, architecture. The Slide from the exhibition Light and metals in Sala Vinçon in Barcelona in 1976 was, for instance, a game of equilibrium and instability, suspended in the air and ceasing the notion of time and space. Investigating further the field of perception, the installation boxes, Five Units of Light from 1974, construct and give shape to the trace of light in a natural environment. Applying this research, Baldeweg moved between sculpture, painting and architecture and aspired to experiencing space and the environment through relationships with human feeling and thinking.

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The House of Rain The House of Rain (1978-1982) draws its name from the climatic conditions that surround it. The stratification of building materials - stone, glass and zink - creates the impression that the rain transforms the house; dressing it, changing its textures and colours, resounding in it. This idea was already present in an installation in 1979, which formed part of the project. It was a small model made in copper of a house with a pitched roof and big gutters over which a coil sprayed fine rain. Appearing as if the water “combed� the house, the eye of the spectator sensed a relationship between the form, space and the different textures of the water left behind.

The design of the house acquired a U- shape with its two arms gently open as a gesture to embrace the valley. The link with the landscape was reinforced by separating the structure that holds the house from its enclosing walls, thus allowing a line of windows to run along the facades with the vision uninterrupted towards the horizon. Using architectural references, like interior perspectives by architect Baillie Scott (1865-1945) where windows were placed at eye level, Navarro Baldeweg also showed a commitment to functionalism and the poetics of space.

Tracing the road that surrounds the house, the visitor finds an entrance characterised by two blind and slightly curved walls. Instantly, the absence of a reference drawing out the horizon produces a certain feeling of oppression and makes the eye move and look for limits. At this point, the project anticipated that one would see three glass boxes, which were intended to organise and display overcoats, books and tableware, respectively. The glass boxes acted as mediators between the inhabitant and nature. Their slightly fan-shape layout composed the space and guided the visitor in his study of time to reach the infinite space by the horizon that was framed by a pergola situated in the garden. It was here that the eye could finally rest and contemplate the line of the horizon. But at moment of rain, this line would dissolve again and give way to a soft sound from the roof.

Through enlarging the scale of the first house in copper to make it into full scale architecture, Baldeweg introduced the notion of the client; his perception of entering a space and organising his belongings and memories within the landscape. Although the glass boxes were never built, the architect offered the possibility to fuse the daily life with the furniture, architecture and landscape. He imagined a house which acted as a resonant box. As he himself explained to us; "the instrument and the music are not the same thing. Nobody makes a musical instrument with the object itself. The experience of the architecture is like listening to music." When resounding, architecture encourages us to establish an agreement between the physical and the sensual. As such, the House of Rain is only fully perceived when inhabited.

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2

Group members

Beatriz Burrueco Gómez María Juan Prats Irem Baș

Andreas Leonidou

Collages of the culture Bea’s collage

We had already made the groups and this is the first step we have to do together.

Andreas Leonidou and Maria Juan Prats are the members of the group and we have similar interest so it was easy to decide two houses we like the most and study the culture.

Both House in Corrubedo and House in Lège are conected to the site. You can feel yourself in contact with nature by living in those houses.

Andreas’ collage Maria’s collage

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Corrubedo and Lège Houses Bea’s collage

We all read the story about each house and we tried to make a photomontage in order to get the essence of each house and what culture make it important and valuing.

Finally we chose together the best collages that better represent the culture.

Andreas’ collage and mine where the chosen ones and we presented them to the rest of the class.

Maria’s collage

Andreas’ collage

What is MS? Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an unpredictable, often disabling disease of the central nervous system that disrupts the flow of information within the brain, and between the brain and body.

Living with MS Most people with MS have a relapsing-remitting course, with new symptoms (relapse) that develop over days or weeks and usually improve partially or completely, followed by a quiet period (remission) that can last months or even years. Small increases in body temperature can temporarily worsen signs and symptoms of MS, but that type of event isn't a relapse.

About 70% of people with relapsing-remitting MS eventually develop a steady progression of symptoms, with or without periods of remission (secondary-progressive MS). The worsening symptoms usually include problems with gait. The rate of progression varies greatly among people with secondary-progressive MS. Some people with MS experience a gradual onset and steady progression of signs and symptoms with no relapses (primary-progressive MS).

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Group 2: We had to choose a house and a neurological disorder. It is important first to define the selected disorder and what problems would have the patient with the existing house.

We needed a data searching.

Problems with the height of the bars that doesn't work for a person with a wheelchair.

Mobility problems with the chair, unable to climb the stairs.

In this kind of steps does not fit a wheelchair, even, a wheel chair to catch her up. Prevents access to the house.

Data search

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Once we have selected “House in Lége”, it is time to start the project. One of the most important parts is looking for information. We should know as much as we can on what we want to work about. In this step we bacame experts of Multiple Sclerosis. With the information we already had about House in Lège and the data we found, we where prepared for project. The aim is to achieve a therapeutic architecture if it is possible.

MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS

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At this point, what information about Multiple sclerosis is useful in order to develop our project?

Of course, we wanted to know everything about this problem, how people face MS and how they live. There where lot of questions to answer and we search for amounts of information. We collected all kind of data and we made charts with the information together.

Multiple sclerosis, or MS, is a long-lasting disease that can affect your brain, spinal cord, and the optic nerves in your eyes. It can cause problems with vision, balance, muscle control, and other basic body functions.

The effects are often different for everyone who has the disease. Some people have mild symptoms and don’t need treatment. Others will have trouble getting around and doing daily tasks.

MS happens when your immune system attacks a fatty material called myelin, which wraps around your nerve fibers to protect them. Without this outer shell, your nerves become damaged. Scar tissue may form.

The damage means your brain can’t send signals through your body correctly. Your nerves also don’t work as they should to help you move and feel. As a result, you may have symptoms like: Trouble walking, feeling tired, muscle weakness or spasms, blurred or double vision, numbness and tingling, etc.

The first symptoms often start between ages 20 and 40. Most people with MS have attacks, also called relapses, when the condition gets noticeably worse. They’re usually followed by times of recovery when symptoms improve. For other people, the disease continues to get worse over time.

In recent years, scientists have found many new treatments that can often help prevent relapses and slow the disease’s effects.

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MICROARCHITECTURE DEVELOPEMENT

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“A room so little, so little that there is only space for one person�

In order to develop our project, we needed to learn the good aspect of the disorder. The point was to be aware of what you gain and take advantage of it. Remember that the point is to achieve a therapeutic architecture so we must know what they have and what they need. The key is not to look at patient as "poor people" but brave and fighter ones.

First sketches This microarchitecture had to reproduce the neurological disorder. As architecture students, the first we did was start sketching in our notebook. Of course, nobody uses the first sketches but they have their importance. We began looking for a suit that had its function. Each part of the suit would reproduce a symptom of the illness. So you could not see well and would have walking difficulty and heaviness on the body. We realized that it would be just a suit that reproduces the symptoms and also was too general that did not represent Multiple Sclerosis; it could be some other illness too.

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Technical drawins Looking for something characteristic of MS, we found that there are some periods when the patient is health and then they fall down again in MS. So we thought about a mechanism for the suit that first you are ill when you put it on and then you recover your health while time pass through. This mechanism consists on having weights that fall through a path while walking. But we still where maintaining the same idea as sketches about reproducing the symptoms. That is not microarchitecture. That is just a suit with handicaps. And also we where doing nothing as architects, a law student could do this, too. We were outside of the project.

That was the moment I started to learn. I needed to do this wrong to notice how to do it well. First of all we thought about involve with the project by measuring our body exhaustively in order to design a microarchitecture that perfectly fits our body. That would be really a room just for one person. Just for ONE person: Irem BaČ™

15,4 16,9

7,1

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90 90,4

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We learned the importance of detail and to be demanding with our project, the importance of asking more and going beyond the comfort zone. We had never measure a body so exhaustive. The most exciting was that we had to do it in order to be accurate. So we throw away what we had done and we started again from a new perspective...

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Delicate, that is the adjective for describing our project. Body became in the most important step we had to do, how to define the whole body surface.

We used Irem not as a person but as an object to study. We measured her skin, as it was a geographical map. There was no modesty on measuring every detail of her body. We still did not know how would be the microarchitecture but we known that we would need those measurements as we had to build a second-skin architecture.

Body

Measurements

Skin Curves Precision

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New perspective

During the process of measuring, we were also thinking in how should be our microarchitecture. It could not be a torture machine, it should reproduce the neurological disorder but in a good way. We should dignify Multiple Sclerosis. How to make the disorder something common about people do not feel bad.

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We learn a lot from Javier Sanchez Merina who guided us from the beginning until the final drawing. One thing I learn from him is the way of considering thing with an open mind. "What if everybody had Multiple Sclerosis?", he said. At this moment my mind started thinking. Then MS would not be estrange and nobody would feel bad about it. How could life be like?

My mind started to work. MS is a neurological disorder that prevents you to move properly. The thing is that being MS person, you have the muscles and enough force to move but you cannot because something is happening in your mind. Then, our microarchitecture must be like that. We had to find a neurological problem that prevents you to move although you have the tools for doing it. The first idea was to have some delicate strings that would break if you move. Those strings should me very important for the person to create this psychological game that force you not wanting to move, but we did not find how could this be done. Then we turned back to the body but with the idea of create a wonder in mind that makes the person appreciate the microarchitecture.

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Irem Baș’ body

Body was the key. There is nothing a person appreciates more than hurt itself. What about making the microarchitecture part of the body? We talked about that before, second-skin architecture?

Body measurements Why triangles?

How to measure a body? It is such a complex structure... So we took pictures to work with them and re-drawing her body. Once we have her body in computer the best way to measure it is with triangles because we would have perfectly defined her so as Enric Miralles did with croissant.

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That would be the pattern for the most valuing second-skin in the world.

First models

Would be paper the perfect material that makes you afraid of breaking it?

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Definitely we needed a material that was extremely delicate and beautiful to make you love it and we tried with different ones but the final result was the best one. As it is a second-skin, Irem should be naked in the final presentation; she could not wear anything else. That increases the wish of not breaking the second-skin.

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Finally we found the perfect material. It was similar golden Japanese paper. We where looking for it in shops and we did not found Japanese paper but we found a better one. We just had to cut the triangles and sew them with golden string to make it valuing and increase the fragility.

Microarchitecture construction

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Final presentation

After the presentation Now what?

This page is made in white because that is how we were after the microarchitecture presentation.

How to get the essence of microarchitecture and translate it into the house? I understand what we had to do but I did not know how.

We had to take this

from this

Then appeared the most important conversations in the group. We were discussing together a way of improve the existing house using microarchitecture concept of not braking things. We thought about using very delicate walls and doors. Also we talked about being aware of your movements not to break.

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Drawings about the proposal

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A walk under the house?

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Time in seconds

Story about the house House in Lège Peter and Anna are two siblings that used to go to their house in Lege to pass their holiday time. The two brothers could enjoy the scenery, nature and tranquillity that offered this natural area. Unfortunately, they couldn't go anymore. One day, the sister woke up and she felt the left part of her body paralyzed. She was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

They had to live together and it was a tough work to help her sister so that he had to be with her all time at home.

Then she thought they couldn't continue like that. She missed House in Lège which was really important for her as they enjoyed it when they were young and had lovely memories.

For her, the house was the best option for rehabilitation and feel comfortable without thinking about her illness. She wanted to live alone in House in Lege without help and learning how to move her body again.

The disorder has grown to become one with the house, the trees, the lake, the nature.

Everything adapted with one another and now she lives in a healthy everyday life environment.

We studied the problematic of the house. This house it is known by the trees that are inside.

The problem I found is that those trees is doing nothing there. Our project should solve this by giving them an importance. Trees must be part of the daily life in house; trees must interact with people living there.

Being aware of movements and interact with trees That was what gave us to create living architecture with trees. Architecture that moves and grows so you have to be aware of changes at home. The project was especially for MS people because doors and wall would change so you must control it as you control your body. House would be like a therapeutic treatment because it force you to have control of every movement. Living there you develop an extra skill of controlling so it would be helpful for Multiple Sclerosis. Furthermore, that proposal would take in account the client interest and ours that is the contact with nature and living in the middle of the forest.

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House in Lège

In this drawing we can see how vegetation can help in architecture. We use vegetation as an ordinary material in construction.

We use local plants as ferns or creeper for thermal insulation, waterproof insulation or to solve the problem of rain sound.

The relationship with MS is that you have to be aware that everything is changing because nature is alive and growing. We take advantadge of those changes in nature to solve technical problems in House in Lège and to improve the existing house.

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Final technical drawings

In contact with nature 63

Our project consists on growing architecture. Plants and trees will be part of the existing house and will give an extra value. Roof will collect water and keep wet the ground of interior plants.

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Being aware of changes

Manifesto A project to build Can you imagine life as a continuous worrying of handing? Do you believe that all things you do are supposed to be checked by an expert? If you expect the others to value your work I am afraid that you will never do what really makes you happy.

I have been always doing what it was supposed to be correct until the last few years. A sequence of events changed my mind and I am not a "good girl" anymore. Something I learned is that life is unfair even for those that strictly enforce laws. What's more, for this people is further unfair.

This year started to me as a new face: "I will do only what I am happy with". As a result, I take seriously everything I do because every little work has to be worth so as the time I spend doing it. If it is not worth, I won't do.

Once you know my position, you can understand lot of things about my project. The first day of class was a mess for everybody because we had to choose what kind of project we wanted to work on.

I didn't want to choose any because I had heard bad comments from all of them but finally I ended up at "Re-reading stories of houses 3". At this point, I have to say that I don't understand Projects as a subject at school with a teacher that ask you to do the homework but as an interchange of knowledge and an opportunity to learn architecture from others in order to create a final project. So the first day, a man I didn't know started talking to us, explaining strange things I hadn't heard before about architecture and disease and trying to hook us with his speech. Nobody seemed to be interested on what he was saying but suddenly he said something that switch on my mind. I didn't care about him, either the classroom; I just wanted to know how to solve this problem because I needed. This guy made me to own the problem. "Is therapeutic architecture possible?"

It started as a real challenge. It is a new concept and I had to demonstrate that is possible to help others with architecture. I started from the more familiar topic to me: the nature. We did groups of people based on our interest and I guess we where a good group. Nevertheless, I have had lot of problems to answer the question. It is difficult to develop a project with people who do not believe that we could find a therapeutic architecture. I had first to convince people that we where learning architecture in order to encourage them to work and believe on what they where doing. Then we had to deal with a neurological disorder that is Multiple Sclerosis. I did not know what it was and I have learned lot of things about that. Not only what the symptoms are but also how you live like and I think that I can understand somehow their mental disorder in a way I could never know even reading thousands of books. The microarchitecture about MS was an important experience in my life I would never forget. It was not only important because of the fact that I learned thing about MS, It also was important because was like a new door opening, a new way of understanding things and learn.

What I felt was that I was maturing in an architectural way.

Finally we had to make the last big step that was translate the microarchitecture into a proposal for the house. On this step we had lot of problems at first. As I said before, is difficult to work with people that do not trust on the project. How could we find a therapeutic architecture applying what we had learned? The key was in the beginning of the project: nature. After spend some weeks looking for something complex, the answer was easier than we thought. Transform "House in Lège" into a living architecture is the result of an ambitious project that has been always asking more and more from us.

67

People who do not trust Projects at University of Alicante seem to be different from other Universities. There are some people that criticize teaching there because is not real working world and we do not learn anything useful.

This people say that in other Universities learn how to design a building, to construct them, to sell them and present their project. "How to be competent" they say. As I am concerned, designing is not reproducing what other architects have done and construction is not drawing plans and sections. What I am trying to say is that is not so bad projects in Alicante, we also learn how to sell our project and what is more, we really learn how to design and project from personal experience what is more interesting than learning by heart Le Corbusier's biography or all famous building's name. I am not worried about these skills other people say I am not learning because once I start working I learn them, what I will not learn is what we do in Projects at University of Alicante. "Your projects are utopian or abstracts", they say. And my answer is: Travel to the moon was once a utopian.

Beatriz Burrueco G贸mez

Bibliography http://www.lacatonvassal.com/index.php?idp=21 http://storiesofhouses.blogspot.com.es/ http://www.esclerosismultiple.com/ http://www.actar.com/index.php https://homenajeaenricmiralles.wordpress.com/2013/07/19/1991-como-acotar-un-croissant/ http://japanese-tea-ceremony.net/ http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2096.html