The Blog of Architectural Education

Improving Teaching

2012-02-01T17:56:00.006+01:00

Since 2009, the MET (Messuring Effective Teaching) Project, is trying to make objective remarks on good teaching practices. That's the way more teachers can improve the way they do things later on. Improving, is what education is all about, and improving education is the most reflective iniciative ever (except designing, of course).

Education Affordability

2012-01-31T13:10:00.006+01:00

The best education system in the world is so, among other reasons, because the President, the first citizen and his wife, would not have been so if the did not have the grants and loans that allow everybody gets a chance.

The speech at University of Michigan is about the importance of an affordable educational system.

Presentation Skills

2012-01-24T09:14:00.007+01:00

Lectures are the most popular (used) means for presenting contents to students. The video is very good because its content is about the main subject education should have: attitudes.

Multiple ways of presentation (as UDL suggests) is the best way to improve communication in the classroom. Hope lectures improve a bit after this eyes opener video.

Stop SOPA

2012-01-18T08:52:00.001+01:00

21st Century's Ph.D

2012-01-13T10:14:00.005+01:00

Photo credit: katerha/Creative Commons

Academy can't remain unaltered if the world has changed, because Academy is in the world. Those of us that have spent nine years or more writing a doctoral dissertation of hundreds of pages and extremely deep subjects -and still are keen on learning- know it.

It is not that long dissertations were useful in the past. It is that their usefulness remained unnoticed then. New ways of researching have to be accepted. Traditional literary effectiveness has to be a requirement for Ph.D dissertations: if it does not impact the soul of the reader it should not be considered a valuable piece.

The link takes to an excellent discussion at Inside Higher Education on the subject. Follow it

Apoyemos a la Universidad Central de Venezuela

2011-12-06T09:25:00.007+01:00

No hay ninguna idea, por buena que sea, que justifique acabar con la universidad, porque en la universidad es donde más se respetan las ideas.

Investigación en Arquitectura Venezolana

2011-11-28T18:29:00.003+01:00

La investigación arquitectónica de calidad se abre camino en Venezuela. El vínculo lleva al sitio de la Trienal de Investigación de la Facultad de Arquitectura y Urbanismo de la Universidad Central de Venezuela, mi Alma Máter.

En documentos en PDF se puede acceder a las ponencias que tienen un nivel contrastable, aunque mejorable. La iniciativa tiene que continuar y recabar todos los apoyos posibles. El laboratorio que representa la ciudad de Caracas y el país entero ameritan el esfuerzo.

Universal Design for Learning

2011-11-25T11:32:00.005+01:00

UDL is design applied to meet true diversity in education as learning skills in each individual are as different as their fingerprints.

There are three main principles for this pedagogical strategy:

Present the students the subjects in multiple ways
Allow them to express themselves in multiple ways
Create multiple ways of engagement

In all cases, the students are at the centre of the experience. CAST is a nonprofits organization that has been working for more that 25 years now and it's doing its job very, very well. They have many free interactive tools for students and teachers. An example to be followed.

Student Engagement

2011-11-18T09:14:00.005+01:00

Information on student engagement. It is done by the NSSE Institute for Effective Educational Practice of USA. At the end of the brochure there are some web sites very useful. You can tailor your own report with the Report Builder to hit the subject you want to measure.

There is also a Spanish version of the Guide to Choosing a College: Questions to ask on your college visits. It is very useful to learn criteria on choosing your educational institution, in spite the Spanish there is even worse than the English in this blog, I am afraid.

¿Occupy Harvard?

2011-11-10T11:20:00.007+01:00

Economic students walked out a class at Harvard in solidarity with the Occupy Movement. It is normal that the students, who are going to live gloomy lives thanks to it, feel uneasy with the promotion of principles that have cause current global crisis. But that is not that clear.

The faculty chosen as a target was professor N. Gregory Mankiw, a New Keynesian economist that advised George Bush and has written some of the most important text books on the subject. University politics are always unpredictable. Not so long ago, Harvard Crimson celebrated the return of former president Larry Summers, previously fired for sexism, and one of the main responsible for laissez-faire fever. Now, a Keynesian gets the punch. In a previous post (The responsibility of Number One) I compared the reaction of the London School of Economics and Harvard in front of ethically controversial cases. It's in Spanish here.

In spite all the trouble this event may cause, it is encouraging that Harvard students think that "Harvard students will not do that anymore. We will use our education for good, and not for personal gain at the expense of millions." Here is the link to the news by the Universtity of Phoenix and here by Harvard Crimson.

Dibujo del bueno

2011-11-08T12:29:00.002+01:00

Federico Correa, catedrático emérito de la Escuela de arquitectura de Barcelona, y uno de los mejores dibujantes de la profesión, expone sus últimas obras. Sus dibujos son un prodigio de talento y gusto exquisito. Imperdible.

Say no to ACTA

2011-11-06T20:46:00.003+01:00

If you appreciate internet freedom, say no to ACTA.

Continuing Education Center

2011-11-06T11:27:00.003+01:00

Learning, advertising, business all together, mixed up with excellent results.

The McGraw-Hill site, Architectural Record, (yes, that magazine we all learned from at the university with the help of the long time no see "Goedex Sytem") has the Continuing Education Center that have tutorials on materials, building procedures and even architectural critique (with drawings!!!). All the "courses" are supported by Adobe slide presentation and are extremely informative.

It is a wonderful alternative to those visits of the firms representatives to the schools of design and architecture. Ah, and you can get a certificate after each course (if you take the test, of course). Check the videos too.

Joan Busquet Erasmus Prize

2011-11-04T11:27:00.004+01:00

Joan Busquet is a sort of undercover heroe. He is the prototype of the discrete architect (the opposite of the star architect). His works intends to convert our cities into liveable places that respect history and traditions and are uptodated at the same time.

The brief of the Erasmus Prize describes it very well. The link is the news in the Spanish newspaper El Pais.

Social Media at University

2011-10-28T11:44:00.005+02:00

As I said in the post before, reality is way ahead institutions at the moment. The outburst of social media is obliging universities to regulate its use in campus. Interestingly enough, the first reactions from students have been complaining about censorship.

The case of Sam Houston State University (SHSU) is eloquent. Certainly the “Occupy Wall Street” mood is behind the naïve street actions done by SHSU students reported in this article from The Chronicle of Higher Education. Freedom of Speech is mixed up with utter freedom of one side in the story, no doubt about it.

Nevertheless, it is interesting to read the manual of Social Media Policy and Procedures of SHSU draft (click here) because we all will be involved very soon in problems of that sort.

Reinventing Higher Education

2011-10-27T14:35:00.004+02:00

¿Is education going to be reinvented by institutions or by people? Facts, like Kahn Academy, show that the acceleration of current life is leaving behind even the best educational institutions. The article in this link gives an idea of the real dimension of the problem. Anyway, IE University is making a great effort that benefits all.

Learning Revolution at Harvard

2011-10-19T09:52:00.006+02:00

The only way to go ahead changes is improving learning.

Harvard, again, has taken the lead: transversal knowledge among the whole university, ICT, Mobile Learning, etc. It is not just a matter of having funds: those 40 million dollars could have been spent in so many fashionable items far away from pedagogy.

Mobile Learning

2011-10-19T09:13:00.005+02:00

Relating knowledge to everyday life is the clue for a long lasting education. Mobile technology give us that opportunity. Let's try it.

The Thinking of Thom Mayne

2011-10-15T08:12:00.011+02:00

Interesting lecture by architect Thom Mayne, at IAAC, Barcelona, yesterday. He talked about the “type of thinking” behind his works.

Through the lecture, he developed his point underlying certain “Non-Cartesian way of thinking” and also “thinking through things and not through words”. He illustrated his approach to thinking by celebrating things that are “always unique, never systematic”. In the case of the entrance to his extraordinary new building in China, the Giant Group Campus, the architect from Connecticut described it as “100% conceptual, completely useless, pure rhetorical”. Even, at a certain point, the 2005 Pritzker Prize resumed his whole life as a devotion to “not doing classical architecture”.

Ultimately, it sounded that Mayne, more than showing his way of thinking, showed the way he intensifies his beautiful forms by hiding the simple and extremely conventional way of thinking that lays behind his works. This slight contradiction, that does not devaluate a bit the immense quality of his work, is interesting for me, as I am working at the moment "How we think" by John Dewey in order to improve how we teach architecture. This contradiction just mentioned is assumed by Mayne himself: He emphasised that the “chassis” of his Cooper Union building in New York, was “incredibly simple”, and that this fact was completely hidden to the user through the concentration of the “encounters of different things” in its extremely sophisticated hall.

In the end, it seems that it is not “not putting the dot in the middle of the line” what warranties that Maine puts it in the proper place. It’s clear that it is his sculptural gift, which undoubtedly he has, what allows him to behave the way he does, not a especial way of thinking. But, wait a second… ¿Is not classical to hide simple structures under decoration?

The Architecture Film Festival of Rotterdam

2011-10-09T10:38:00.006+02:00

To connect architecture and cinema is always a feast. At Rotterdam, it's already taking place, maybe, the best of this mixture the AFFR.

From 6 to 9 October the LantarenVenster cinema in Rotterdam on Wilhelminapier is the epicentre of the 6th Architecture Film Festival Rotterdam (AFFR). For four whole days film and architecture devotees can indulge themselves with a programme packed with shorts and feature films, documentaries about glamour architects, debates, talk shows and excursions.

Wrong Things with Education

2011-10-08T11:39:00.003+02:00

"There are only two wrong things with the education system:

1) What we teach

2) How we teach it"

Roger Schank

Zenithal Light (Sonia Álvarez)

2011-10-07T14:22:00.007+02:00

Former student, Architec Sonia Álvarez, from R3 Arquitectura, has published on the Web this design done by her at our 2007 LAR Workshop at IE University. I agree with Sonia that this two weeks work is one of those works that resists the pass of time.

2007

ALUMNA: Sonia ÁLvarez

PROFESOR:
Dr. Arq. Miguel Jaime

DESCRIPCIÓN DEL EJERCICIO:
La definición más elemental de arquitectura siempre incluirá a la luz. Por su parte, la luz cenital es la relación entre la luz y el espacio más primaria, ya que naturalmente la luz (del sol, la luna, las estrellas) viene desde arriba. En el presente ejercicio se pide iluminar cenital y naturalmente un espacio de usos múltiples de 40,00 m X 12,00 m de planta y de 12,00m de alto, con su cara más corta orientada a norte. La altura libre resultante después de cubrirlo influirá directamente en la versatilidad del espacio, como es lógico.

Reflexive Organizations

2011-10-05T10:44:00.004+02:00

Organizations of any kind, social, educational, political, business, etc., tend to remain the same. They are all characterized by what Donald Schön called "dynamic conservatism". That is not a hundred per cent bad: it makes institutions and companies reliable. Nevertheless, at times of uncertainty and big changes, like today, the exageration of this tendency can be lethal.

Reflexive organizations, that means institutions able to understand and react in front of changing realities, is the solution. The "Knowledge Based Society" should be renamed as "Learning Based Society".

Maybe one of the best texts on reflexiveness and society is Schön's Beyond the Stable State, published in 1973.

A learning system… must be one in which dynamic conservatism operates at such a level and in such a way as to permit change of state without intolerable threat to the essential functions the system fulfils for the self. Our systems need to maintain their identity, and their ability to support the self-identity of those who belong to them, but they must at the same time be capable of transforming themselves. (Schon 1973: 57)

The link has a good and comprenhensive information on Schön's learning approach.

Reflexiveness and Artificial Intelligence

2011-10-03T20:43:00.003+02:00

The base of reflexive learning is on Dewey's work. Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) and machine learning could be a natural development if we take into account "How we Think", the marvellous book written by Dewey in 1910.

It is worth giving e-learning and AI a try in education. I already signed. The NYT article is extremely interesting.

Space, Time and Beauty at Piacenza

2011-09-20T12:06:00.004+02:00

A good way of reaching global scale in architecture and urban planning is by designing in one of the most beautiful towns in the world, Piacenza, Italy.

The universality embedded by definition in beauty assures that general interest will be automatically involved in all our reflexions. Cheers for the last week at OC International Workshop.

Learning in the Digital Age

2011-08-30T10:31:00.005+02:00

Picture taken from "Mutuas Palabras"

The question is not what is going to change in the digital age, the question is what has already changed and we have not noticed.

One of the most important changes are in education. We all have changed our approach to knowledge but universities and educational institutions. Maybe the best opportunity in the new world that is taking shape is to overcome a bit the mechanical way of thinking the industrial era imposed, being a bit more creative. The "Battery Model" (Shön) of learning is over. Welcome the Reflexive Mode of learning. This CHE's article is in the right direction.

Plot Against America

2011-08-03T11:05:00.004+02:00

An excellent reading for this summer: "The plot against America", by Philip Roth. It opens our imagination on what could have happened as well as what could happen in the future.

Dean's Opinions

2011-07-12T14:49:00.005+02:00

The variety of opinions of the deans of the schools of architecture invited in Segovia demonstrate that education is at a difficult crossroads. I wished someone had talked about learning and not just education.

Architectural Education Summit

2011-06-26T10:56:00.004+02:00

At IE University in Segovia is taking place an important conference on architectural education.

Organized by UCLA, all the deans are talking about the education of architecture. Will schools of architecture be able to rectify a situation they contributed to create? I doubt it.

How Designers Think

2011-06-09T09:48:00.007+02:00

How designers think? Wrong question: they think like everybody else. How designers think when they design is the correct one. I am afraid, the works of Cross, Rowe and Lawson answer the first question. Kant, Fiedler and Philippe Junod answer the right one which is much more complex, I'm afraid again.

Design Education Research

2011-05-01T19:35:00.005+02:00

Open publication - Free publishing - More design

The importance of Design Education Research for design educators is perfectly described by Erik Bohemia at the last paper of this interesting conference:

"it is imperative in these taxing times that design educators continue research their educational practices and the assumptions underpinning these practices. The reason for this is so that they will be able to respond to the changes described above with informed knowledge. This means that they will be able to (re)design curriculum in order to incorporate "desired" changes and/or to "preserve" elements that are deemed important to produce a relevant design education."

Social Web and Learning

2011-04-29T11:03:00.004+02:00

This is a good survey on the use of social media in the realm of education.

Pearson social media survey 2011

View more presentations from Pearson Learning Solutions

The Best Design (Business) Schools

2011-04-27T18:21:00.003+02:00

The list of the best Design Schools in the world by Business Week . It is today's world what we are talking about, so it is normal that the link between business and design is considered the ideal.

Design, Beauty and Fidelity

2011-04-24T10:58:00.006+02:00

At the Disseny Hub Barcelona, there is still (hurry up, it's ending soon) two wonderful exhibitions.

One of them is the Maria Brillas collection of dresses designed by couturier Pedro Rodriguez in the 1930-1980. Fortunately, the collection will remain at the Barcelona Textile Museum as it has been donated by its owners.

A look at the dress in the first picture is enough to get an idea of the artistry trapped in those amazing pieces. It was design in 1935. At first glance, it is just a lovely flounce dress, in nice colours it is true, but just that. Once you stare at it more closely, you realize that the shadows of the flounces are actually done in a different fabric. Those violet streeps under the flounces reinforce the “shadow effect”, whenever there is in fact shadow under them, and they create “shadow illusions” in the waist of the dress, when it fits the body to enhance Doña Maria’s beautiful figure. Brillas wore it, for the first time, 40 years after it was elaborated at the 80th anniversary of Rodriguez (second picture). That is fidelity.

The other exhibition is the Mediterranean Design Prizes. Interesting to see what our young designers think the image of the Med should be today and how they present it. The winner is a typographic project by an Italian designer done with natural products, like tomatoes, anchovies and so on. Don't miss it either.

Corrupción Inocente

2011-04-19T16:58:00.006+02:00

"Corrupción inocente" es la manera como el catedrático Antón Costas llama al comportamiento de los financieros actuales. Dice que su denominación no es exculpatoria, sino que los financieros no saben lo que hacen cuando dicen obedecer las leyes del mercado. Ellos, en realidad, creerían en algo que es absoluta metafísica, pero de verdad creen en ella.

Raymond Aron llamó "pseudorealidad" a la pirueta moral que hacían los comunistas -los bolcheviques- cuando llamaban socialista a la Unión Sovietica. John Gray reservó para Blair y sus compañeros del "trio de las Azores" el término "metir por la verdad" en su libro Misa Negra para describir ese tipo de comportamientos. Modestamente, con motivo de la película Ágora, de Alejandro Amenabar, cité esta especie de alienación que ve dogmatismo en la inveterada moral religiosa y no en la perversa religión laica actual de la economía y la política.

Sea lo que sea, nuestro presente está falto de realismo.

La crisis sigue siendo política, no económica

2011-04-14T10:49:00.010+02:00

El "Casino Capitalism" lo desataron los políticos: Reagan fue el que dio el pistoletazo de salida de la desregulación y Clinton, con su brazo económico Summers, la puntilla. Bush consagró la política del goteo (hay que dejar que los ricos ganen más para que sus fortunas permeen hacia abajo). Pero no hay que olvidar los respectivos congresos, los cientos de representantes del pueblo que discutieron, redactaron y aprobaron la rendición de la política a la especulación financiera. Ahora, en estos precisos momentos, la dimensión política de la situación creada enturbia incluso el juego limpio económico tal como lo expone Stiglitz en su artículo "Jugar con el planeta":

"En los últimos años hemos visto dos de los grandes riesgos, pero hemos hecho poco para controlarlos. Según algunas personas, la forma en que se manejó la última crisis puede haber aumentado el riesgo de un colapso financiero en el futuro.
Los bancos demasiado grandes para quebrar y los mercados en los que participan saben ahora que pueden esperar rescates si tienen problemas. Como resultado de este riesgo moral, esos bancos pueden pedir créditos en condiciones favorables, lo que les da una ventaja competitiva que no se basa en un rendimiento superior, sino en la fuerza política"

Faculty Salaries in USA

2011-04-12T14:42:00.002+02:00

USA has the best education: it pays better. Follow the link.

New Architectural Thinking: ¿When?

2011-04-07T14:47:00.010+02:00

The Institute for the New Economic Thinking is a good example of what we should be doing in architecture.

Looking for Today's Roosevelt

2011-04-04T11:53:00.009+02:00

If you are a politician and would dear to pronounce a speech like this today: please, launch yourself.

Franklin Roosevelt’s Address, October 1936

"We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace–business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering.
They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.
Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me–and I welcome their hatred."
The whole speech is in the link.

New Winds from the South

2011-03-30T08:13:00.004+02:00

From 8th to 10th of June in Frotaleza, Brazil this interesting conference on the young architecture of Latin America. Creativity in the near future is going to blow from that part of the world too. The link has more information

Responsabilidad de los Nº 1

2011-03-06T13:45:00.007+01:00

Es llamativa la diferencia entre Harvard y la London School of Economics a la hora de afrontar sus reponsabilidades como institución.

Al expresidente de Harvard, Larry Summers, expulsado por sexista ("diferencias innatas") y máximo responsable de la política de desregulación que ha llevado al desastre económico actual, le han devuelto su cátedra y le alaban sus brabuconadas. En la LSE, el director dimite para no perjudicar la imagen de la escuela con sus asesoramientos a Gadafi.

Mi idea de cómo las instituciones punteras deben afrontar éticamente la crisis que necesariamente contribuyeron a crear va más por lo que hacen los británicos: "I do beg your pardon". En el este link está la carta de renuncia de Sir Davies así como la reacción de la LSE a su implicación con el déspota libio. Por otro lado, tenemoa lo que sigue que es lo que dijo en su día Summers cuando se cargó el New Deal de Roosevelt (Ley Glass-Steagall) en 1999 cuando era Secretario del Tesoro de Clinton:

“ Hoy el Congreso ha votado a favor de actualizar las normas que rigen los servicios financieros desde la Gran Depresión y reemplazarlas con un sistema apto para el siglo XXI. Esta ley de dimensiones históricas ayudará a las empresas estadounidenses a competir mejor en la nueva economía”

El The Harvard Crimson recoge y celebra la vuelta de Summers con "ambos pies sobre el escritorio". Finalmente, este último link recoge de que va eso de montar las patas sobre la mesa: se trata de testosterona, de sentirse poderoso, de apostar "doble o nada" (con nuestro dinero, claro) ...

Architectural Pedagogy Conference

2011-02-21T18:08:00.005+01:00

Next week there is going to take place at Princeton this conference. It seems that architecture is so self-satisfied with its success in the era of money bubbles that ignores its responsibilities in what is happening.

A great contribution to overcome current crisis from the architectural world could be improving its pedagogy and therefor traditional teaching. What a pity.

Education and Innovation outside the Western World

2011-02-04T17:10:00.005+01:00

Rankings y Rankings

2010-12-13T09:17:00.006+01:00

Las páginas salmón de El País hablan de las deficiencias de los rankings que miden la calidad de las escuelas de negocio. Lo hacen en base a lo que ganan los alumnos cuando se gradúan.

Bien, puede que no sea el mejor criterio pero al menos se basa en datos sobre los alumnos.

Las universidades basan sus rankings en el número de premios noble que tienen sus profesores. Para los que no se han enterado: las universidades llevan más de un siglo formando profesionales, no sabios ni exclusivamente funcionarios.

¡Educación centrada en el alumno ya!

Bad Teaching Examples

2010-11-18T20:38:00.005+01:00

The link takes to an article with three videos about what you never ever should do when you teach.

Model I of Donald Schön scheme is profoundly illustrated here through three different cases.

The publication is Inside Higher Education.

Master de Arquitectura de Michigan Nº 1

2010-11-12T08:14:00.006+01:00

El Máster de arquitectura de Taubman College ha desbancado a la GSD de Harvard, y su decana, Monica Ponce de León está en la lista de las 25 personas que mejor enseñan y dirigen en USA.

La GSD no se ha dormido en los laureles y ya había contratado a Moshen Mostafavi, cabeza clara donde las haya, para enderezar el rumbo de la coleccíon de estrellas de Cambridge. Todo esta información proviene de Designinteligence, que habla de la "promesa por confirmar" que es la nueva IE School of Architecture.

Está claro que la competencia en el ámbito académico, como el dinamismo, se demuestra andando.

Arquitectura sostenible

2010-11-11T17:18:00.004+01:00

Antonio Lamela ha dicho en esta segunda Bienal que no hay arquitectura sostenible, sólo hay buena o mala arquitectura.

Buena arquitectura hubo en la Bienal, la de Lamela y la de Cesar Ruiz Larrea, quien atacó a la arquitectura de protesis y mostró su brillante rehabilitación del Instituto Nacional de Estadística en la Castellana de Madrid.

El proyecto de Richard Rogers para Bodegas Protos fue presentado por un subalterno del despacho de Barcelona que lo hizo con brillantez, debido a la ausencia del ponente programado. No hay mal que bien no venga. El proyecto, por cierto, es muy interesante y paisajísticamente impecable.

The Price of Globalization in Architecture

2010-11-09T10:06:00.006+01:00

Some new buildings of Barcelona that do not "construct the city" was the theme of the tertulia. Agbar, Auditori, Gas Natural, Dwellings by Clotet, etc. are isolated buildings that do not pay any attention at all to inmediate public space.

The thing is that those buildings "construct the Metropolis", which is the useful unity to participate in the global scale, as the last two posts of this blog sustain. The public space in the global scale is the media: newspapers, magazines, TV, etc.

Let's hope we have had enough Forums and this sort of mediatic buildings and get back to the kind of architecture that has elevated the quality of life of Barcelona and its citizens so much in the last two decades. Real, material and everyday architecture and luxurious public space is the only way talented people from around the world will come to live here and start new businesses.

Metropolitan and Global

2010-11-08T11:55:00.002+01:00

Barcelona's "Vision 2020" matches with this video of the London School of Economics. Competitiveness in 21st Century is going to be among metropolitan areas more than (or at the same time as) Nation States. As in the last post: it is going to be exciting the try.

Do it in Barcelona

2010-11-03T10:27:00.003+01:00

The new Metropolitan Strategic Plan has been presented yesterday. The Mayor, J. Hereu, said that it can be among the best global metropolises at the end of next decade. One perceives enough enthusiasm in the street to get there. It is going to be exciting.

Smart Power

2010-11-01T11:25:00.004+01:00

This 18' talk of ex-dean of Harvard Government School is cheering up. We need certain amount of optimism also to keep us going. The main message: yes we can do something.

Mercat de Mercats

2010-10-29T17:21:00.006+02:00

This last days the city centre of Barcelona became a huge market place, "El Mercat de Mercats", a truly market not a virtual one. Lots of food and natural products in the public space. No wonder, the word market and the word square means the same thing in peninsular Spanish as markets began in the main squares of cities like Barcelona. The text and the audio is in Catalan, the beautiful language of Catalunya that has literature and poetry of great quality.

Consumerism and Architectural Pedagogy

2010-10-19T19:07:00.004+02:00

Image from deviantART

To check how hyper-capitalism influenced architectural education in the UK in the middle of 20th century is a good idea, now that globalization is going to push even harder in that direction.

Personality, consumption and architectural pedagogy in the UK, 1958–1968

Alise Upitis (2008).

Architectural Research Quarterly, Volume 12,
Issue 3-4, December 2008 pp 325-335

http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?aid=4399504

Public Luxury in Barcelona

2010-10-16T14:57:00.005+02:00

Sometimes the simplest things are the most important. Bicing, the almost free service of bicycles in Barcelona is able to change the way citizens use the city. It is not intended to be an entretaintment: it is an alternative mean of public transportation.

Yesterday, at two in the morning, it was fantastic not to take a taxi or a night bus back home. As a friend said: that is a truly luxury.

Crisis in Slow Motion

2010-10-14T10:36:00.008+02:00

Crisis is not over, it does not matter what politicians keep on saying around the world. For example, banks are going to give the biggest bonus ever: after all, their executives made them win tons of money without big punishments from the government or the public. The news at The Guardian confirms this.

On the other hand, the bests universities have also their responsibilities in all this madness. Larry Summers is an example of the connexions between Academia, Wall Street and Government: the news at The Chronicle confirms this too.

Neither universities, nor great business schools, have given any explanation about their complicity, maybe because it is taking place right now, almost in slow motion.

The Architecture of Barcelona

2010-10-14T00:27:00.004+02:00

Great opportunity for visiting the new and good old buildings of Barcelona.

48HOPENHOUSE BCN is an event that takes place the whole weekend and there are several architectural visits. It is going to take place the 16th and 17th of October, so next weekend. See you there...

El manifiesto del Diablo

2010-10-06T12:23:00.006+02:00

En 1975, José Agustín Goytisolo escribía sobre arquitectura y urbanismo en términos perfectamente vigentes hoy en día. No es nada raro, ni un caso de premonición poética, que haberla haila.

Ya en 1972 el Club de Roma hablaba de la imposibilidad del crecimiento ilimitado. Al año siguiente la OPEP lo demotró. 30 años después la cosa va peor de lo previsto: vamos para 8.000 millones de personas en el mundo y el consumo de recursos y la contaminación se suman a la aceleración en la destrucción de la selva tropical.

No queda duda que con este panorama por delante, es proporcionado desear que por lo menos no se diga que no teníamos imaginación y sentido del humor.

2010 Ranking of Doctoral Programs in USA

2010-10-06T10:22:00.004+02:00

A very interesting tool that compares doctoral programs in USA has been launched by The Chronicle of Higher Education. It is extremely easy to compare how long does it take to get a doctoral degree in architecture at Columbia and compare it to Cornell or Harvard. The link takes strait ahead to the tool.

Mariscal at the Pedrera

2010-10-05T19:09:00.003+02:00

Mariscal is one of those artists that after his death everybody is going to say he was a genius. To have a taste of his talent visit the wonderful exhibition at the Barcelona's Pedrera, Caixa Catalunya. It is going to be opened until January.

Festa al Cel 2010

2010-10-03T16:51:00.004+02:00

Amaizing what technology can do when it is about killing other human beings! Well, it is true that the Airbus 380, at the same hight as the F18, it is remarkable too. All these are part of "Festa al Cel"

Lo bueno de Facebook

2010-10-01T19:32:00.006+02:00

Eric Schmidt, CEO de Google, predice que en el futuro los jóvenes de hoy "exigirán el derecho a cambiar sus nombres para escapar de su pasado en Internet". Supuestamente, como todos cambiamos de opinión con el tiempo y nos hacemos más templados (¡ a mi me ha sucedido lo contrario!), no resistiremos leer cómo pensábamos dentro de nada.

Yo creo lo contrario. Es bueno comprobar que no hemos tenido la verdad cojida con la mano nunca, ni antes ni ahora. Esto es bueno, y además es estupendo mesurar las cosas que les decimos a nuestros amigos ya que nos ayuda a mesurar lo que pensamos: no hay diferencia entre lenguaje y pensamiento.

Creo que las redes sociales mejoran a la sociedad y a los individuos. Lástima que sus inventores no crean en el potencial humano en el fondo como demuestra Schmidt. El artículo vale la pena. La entrevista también, del Wall Street Journal.

Mèrce Global

2010-09-30T10:20:00.004+02:00

Uno de los espectáculos más multitudinarios (1.4000.000 personas inundaron las calles de la Barcelona durante La Mèrce, según El País) fue el concierto de Abrar-ul-Hak, pakistaní que mezcla la música tradicional de su país con el pop. El contraste con esta maravilla de experiencia global lo dieron los supuestos anti-sistema a los tres dias en la Manifestación de la Huelga General. De todas maneras hay que ir acostumbrándose a estos contrastes: han llegado para quedarse.

Barcelona Beaches

2010-09-19T12:38:00.009+02:00

Simón Bolivar, Barcelona (foto by Rafael Mendez)

Oriol Bohigas, the chief architect of the urban transformation of Barcelona'92, disagreed on the idea of “fabricating” the beaches of Barcelona at the end of 1980’s.

The thing is that the sand of the beaches of Barcelona are naturally taking away by the sea some kilometres down the coast and deposited at the river Ebro’s Delta. To maintain the beaches as they are right now (well, as a matter of fact they have lost a lot of the sand already) the Municipality has spent this year 400 million €, 750.000 m3 of sand and lots of work. There is an article at El Pais, a video and a link to the Municipality that has information (in Spanish and English).

The effort is good business, anyway: the beaches of Barcelona are the most visited in Spain with 14.000.000 tourists. Just as Simón Bolivar once said, in a total different context, “If nature opposes us, let's fight against it and make it obey us”. By the way, Bolivar (his statue) is staring at the sea in the Barceloneta Beach.

Global Inspiration

2010-09-17T13:24:00.006+02:00

An excellent example of a delicate attention to the context while satisfying modern-global requirements is the new building of Pei for the Lombardy Region in Milan (under construction). It is undeniable the benefits of Pei's experience at the Hancock Tower (1976): the new complex is much better integrated to its immediate context.

It could not be a better heir of the Ponti's Pirelli (1958), which is the building where the Lombardy Region is right now, and it is the one that inspired Mitjans' Banco Atlantico (1969) in Barcelona. Certainly, a chain of global inspiration.

La lección magistral

2010-09-07T07:44:00.007+02:00

Lección de Anatomía, Rembrandt, 1632

Se supone que la renovación pedagógica en las universidades españolas empieza este curso, pero no parece que eso vaya a ser factible.

La apatía frente al cambio lleva a demonizar algunas prácticas docentes. Si bien es cierto que es un anacronismo basar toda la enseñanza exclusivamente en lecciones magistrales, tampoco hay que demonizar esta técnica educativa. En medicina, derecho, arquitectura el uso estratégico de la lección magistral es más que recomendable.

Los periódicos son los que más están discutiendo este tema al que permanecen ajenos la mayoría de los claustros de nuestras universidades. El link lleva a un artículo de El País. En él se explica, por ejemplo, como la lectio magister se justificaba cuando no había imprenta y el acceso a la información era escaso o nulo, o cuando había que ser fiel a a las sagradas escrituras en la enseñanza religiosa.

Art in the street

2010-08-23T08:29:00.006+02:00

The image is form La Vanguardia, and the rest of the album is worth watching

At the quarter of Gracia, in Barcelona, they decorate the streets in their anual celebration week. Modrian would have been delighted to walk down this instalation.

Revolución universitaria

2010-07-18T12:03:00.010+02:00

Ilustración de CollabrATEC de la Universidad de Texas

Estos son los cuatro puntos de la revolución educativa en marcha:

Educación centrada en el alumno
Educación para toda la vida
Educación por competencias
Aprendizaje colaborativo

A los académicos españoles esta revolución los está dejando atrás. Su supuesto blindaje laboral (son funcionarios) les genera cierta apatía natural frente a la exigencias de cambio. Pero este blindaje puede estar a punto de resquebrajarse .

En Inglaterra, donde ocurre todo primero, el gobierno de coalición ha tomado la delantera y está revolucionando sus universidades, que ya están entre las mejores del mundo y aplican el nuevo paradigma educativo desde hace años. Mr. Cable, el equivalente al ministro de economía, ha dicho que vienen tres cambios fundamentales:

Más universidades privadas
Que paguen los que puedan
Dejar quebrar a las universidades insolventes

Así como suena: las universidades con exceso de deuda tendrán que quebrar y sus alumnos serán rescatados por el estado. El gobierno calcula que caerán unas 20 universidades. The Guardian, ha publicado la noticia sobre el futuro de las universidades en UK. Mucho me temo que en España acabe haciendo lo mismo pero apremiados desde Bruselas y/o el FMI.

Public Space and Traditions

2010-07-13T10:39:00.009+02:00

Royal Tracks, Spain

The first thing that defines public space is its legal condition: it belongs to everyone.

In Spanish cities, since 1273, many of those spaces have to allow that flocks of transhumant pasturage pass through them. All this traffic is organized in the so called "Royal Tracks" (Cañadas reales). The one that crosses Segovia has 500 km long and starts in León and ends in Extremadura, close to Portugal.

The use of public space for this purpose, as an exercise of old rights, is the only way we urbanites realize this traditional lifestyle still exists. How many of our own urban traditions depend on the existence of public space? Probably the majority.

Do not miss the video: the sheep at the centre are at a standstill while the outside ring turns around.

Open City International Summer School

2010-07-09T17:29:00.007+02:00

In the birth town of Giorgio Armani, there is going to take place the Open City International Summer School of the Politecnico di Milano.

During three weeks, 6-23 September, this design workshop will gather together people from all over the world to work on public space, a specially important theme in the era of globalization. It will be a good occasion to test the validity of our five years old proposal of the Welfare Space.

Naive Realism

2010-06-05T15:06:00.013+02:00

Population density. Data from the G-Econ project, Yale University

There are innumerable recommendations for surviving current crisis. I propose naïve realism.

Think for a moment that there were 2 billion people in the world in 1940; that we are now 6 and will be 8 billions inhabitants in the world in 2050. Sum to it that our planet can not possibly feed that amount of “animal spirits” (Keynes). John Gray insists (see “Homo Rapiens and Mass Extintion”, 2002, in his last book Gray’s Anatomy, Allen Lane, 2009) that the “plague of peole” is not going to reach the “Era of Solitude” (Wilson), when humankind would be alone because all the rest of animals have been killed, nor the eradication of humankind (Lovelock): The future is going to be a combination of genocide, war, epidemic, natural destruction and the sort of generalized social collapsed that has taken place in post-Comunist Russia.

Just as we do everyday, that we live knowing that we are going to die, we have to choose what kind of life we want to lead in a world that is condemmeded to change radically and violently in the next future. I call it naïve realism, adapting slightly Keynes' “naïve optimism”. Gray puts it this way: "From a human point of view, this may be a discomfiting prospect; but at least it dispels the nightmare of an age of solitude".

What architects and artists should do in such a situation?. Well, maybe to preserve the aesthetic as a value, as some of them have always done: the harmony of the aesthetic experience is the only way humans experiment their subjective unity authentically. There is nothing more we can do, but we should not do either anything less.

Collaborative Education or Eco Buddhism?

2010-06-03T07:56:00.013+02:00

An image from Avatar, the film, taken from the Eco Buddhism Blog

The RAL (Reflexive Architecture Laboratory) is a design studio like any other but collaborative oriented. The result is that for the first time students start talking about ethics, tolerance, objectiveness in judgement, etc. Design itself has been even better than before at the RAL. It is incredible that this pedagogic technique has been ingnored for so long. The Chronicle ofHigher Education puts it this way:

Distributed and collaborative learning, with its emphasis on mindfulness, attunement to others, nonjudgmental interactions, acknowledgment of each person's unique contributions, and recognition of the importance of deep participation, can't help but foster critical thinking skills and greater empathic engagement. In that sense, collaborative learning transforms the classroom into a laboratory for empathic expression, which, in turn, enriches the educational process.

The article is by Jeremy Rifkin, the same author of The Empathic Civilization (this links to a good article extracted from the book) . I have no doubt about the effectiveness of collaborative applied to architectural education. In a wider political scope I am not so sure. John Gray, for example, thinks Rifkin's empathy becomes naive when it gets too green.

By the way, Rifkin says it was "Jane" Abercrombie at the University College London Hospitals who started this kind of education in 1950's. What about Vigotsky then?

El valor de la arquitectura

2010-05-31T08:22:00.007+02:00

La dificultad mayor que tiene la economía para dirigir el mundo es su incomprensión sobre la naturaleza humana. Todos sus gurús expresan su desconcierto acerca de la "human nature", como por ejemplo Alan Greenspan (ver post anterior).

La arquitectura conoce a la raza humana mejor que la economía. Ozenfant, que influyó mucho sobre Le Corbusier, hablaba del arte como la integración de las contradicciones internas del ser humano: las tres coordenadas las llamaba.

La autonomía de la arquitectura se refiere a esto. Por supuesto que es la más dependiente de las "artes mayores" ya que se hace con recursos ajenos al autor/a. Pero siempre se puede dar "liebre por gato" (Alejandro de la Sota) y después de satisfacer todos los requerimientos sociales, técnicos, etc. se integran todos en ellos en un todo armónico que nos habla de la riqueza subjetiva por encima de todo. La autonomía de la arquitectura tiene que ver con mantener lo estético como valor en la sociedad actual, una sociedad tan equivocada que tiene su mirada puesta en cada telediario en la Bolsa de Valores.

Teaching creativity

2010-05-14T18:40:00.012+02:00

A page from the manuscript “La speculazione edilizia” (‘Building Speculation’; 1957)

Creativity is a mystery. How to teach something that is a mystery? Business people have their idea, like in this Stanford's video. The Institute of Creativity and Educational Innovation, University of Valencia has a more artistic idea: it relates perception to action. The latter is closer to the atypical action that produces new perceptions which is art. By the way, art and business is the theme of Italo Calvino's novel Building Speculation written in 1957. It tells the story of a writer that fails in becoming a business man. On the other hand, much later, the same Calvino wrote Six Memos for the Next Millennium which is certainly one of the best creative clues for the future.

At the Reflexive Architecture Laboratory (check the LAR tag) we did the other way round: after doing we started theorizing. Still it looks that Reflexiveness is at the centre of creativity.

El arte de enseñar y aprender

2010-04-30T11:52:00.005+02:00

Paulo Freire, el pedagógo brasileño, habla en este corto video de la dimensión ideológica de enseñar y de la importancia de partir del contexto de los alumnos. Simplemente inspirador.

Fundamentalismo de mercado

2010-04-23T16:39:00.015+02:00

Se suele reservar el término "fundamentalismo" para la religión, pero es que la economía hoy se ha vuelto religión. En un artículo reciente sobre las nuevas tendencias del mercado laboral, uno de los blogeros más populares de España, Enrique Dans, declaraba en El País que:

"el mercado de trabajo no tiene por qué ser democrático"

En este contexto se entiende por democrático lo igualitario o simplemente lo justo. Sólo caben dos posibilidades: o bien esta postura se enmarca en la fe ilimitada en la justicia inmanente del mercado o, en el peor de los casos, en la spenceriana máxima de la supervivencia de los más aptos (que en el mencionado artículo son los que tienen dinero para pagarle a las agencias de colocación para que promuevan su CV). En cualquier caso todo, absolutamente todo lo que sucede dentro de una democracia es democrático pues está sujeto al estado de derecho, hasta los delitos, ya que incluso ellos están contemplados en el ordenamiento jurídico. Otra cosa es que la libertad, que la democracia garantiza y regula, haya permitido excesos que necesitan corregirse a la luz de deflaco global reciente.

Es cierto que el fundamentalismo del mercado ha contaminado el centro de nuestra sociedad casi sin darnos cuenta. Ahora toca regular esta situación para retrasar todo lo que se pueda la próxima crisis: en ello están todos los gobiernos (democráticos y no democráticos) en estos momentos.

Unos días más tarde, en el mismo periódico, Marcos Peña, presidente del Consejo Económico y Social de España ponía las cosas en su lugar con respecto al mercado y el trabajo en otro artículo:

"La centralidad financiera viene necesariamente acompañada de la depreciación del valor del trabajo. Del valor central por antonomasia. Del valor que ha cohesionado y estructurado nuestras sociedades."

Y se pone realmente serio cuando advierte:

"Se trata de un asalto que asedia, no sólo a las personas, sino también a todas las instituciones que las representan, y, en primer lugar, a los partidos y los sindicatos. Instituciones que, los más benévolos, en el mejor de los casos califican de retardatarias, de obstáculos del pasado que entorpecen el rápido disfrute del placer inmediato, primario, único: el lucro."

A propósito, en el mismo artículo Peña recomienda El Avaro de Molière, protagonizado por Juan Luís Galiardo en el María Guerrero de Madrid. La cultura es lo que tiene: a todo le saca punta.

Nihilism for the Money

2010-04-13T09:22:00.014+02:00

The Treachery of Images, 1928, Rene Magritte

Until very recently, nihilism was just a cultural stand that made leftists look culturally elegant. Since 1989, nihilism has become the common ground for right and left wing intellectuals, especially in American and European Universities. In fact, John Gray affirms in his The Enlightenment's Wake (1995) that nihilism is Western's "only truly universal inheritance to humankind", and one of the main reasons why non-western cultures will take the lead in the global world.

In my "Arquitecturas virtuales" in Revista de Occidente (2002), I related Koolhaas's architectural approach to a precise political praxis that had more to do with marketing than art.

Some political analysts consider now as postmodernist the right wing strategy of twisting the meaning of language to impose their ideas: "regulation is bailout" is the new one that tries to stop Obama's financial reform. The best example of the deconstruction of language for the money is Frank Luntz's Memo to kill the bill. The thing is that as a media strategy it really works: the lie of mass destruction weapons allowed already the huge business of the Iraq war. That was another initiative to take the money away from tax payers. Paul Krugman calls it the "black is white strategy".

PD (30/04/2010):

On the 28th Obama gave a strait answer to what I have called "Nihilism for the money". After saying that this crisis is not a cyclical one he responded to the "White is Black, and Up is Down" strategy. The three points of Obama's Wall Street Reform are:

Protection to consumers
End of bailouts
Financial Transparency

Have a look at the video:

"Las Meninas" by Richard Hamilton

2010-04-05T10:01:00.014+02:00

An extraordinary opportunity. El Prado Museum is exhibiting Las Meninas by Hamilton, a homage to Picasso, together with three Goya's prints (Velázquez's) and the very first drawing by Picasso of his own 44 variations (brought to Madrid from Barcelona's Picasso Museum). If you complete your visit going to the Villanueva building and have a look at the real one that day might stay in your memory for quite a long time.

The video the Museum has in its WEB is fantastic too. So much so that it is a pity that visitors can not watch it in the same room where the exhibition takes place.

Just one thing for architects: Richard Hamilton was a member of the Independent Group together with Alison and Peter Smithson in the 1950's, which gives hints of the pop inspiration of Brutalism in architecture. If you think about it, between Hamilton's Meninas and Picasso's there is the same sort of relation than between the Hunstanton School and Mies: in both cases, what it is at stake, is a splendid "manipulation of second hand images", the essence of Pop Art in Hamilton's opinion.

Productividad y arquitectura

2010-03-30T10:05:00.014+02:00

Pavellón de la Serpentine Gallery, Londres, 2009, de SANAA

Se dice que España tiene un problema de productividad, y de eso no cabe la menor duda, aunque su arquitectura es de las mejores del mundo. La enciclopedia de la Red define la productividad como la proporción entre los resultados y los recursos empleados para obtener esos resultados. De hecho, dice textualmente: "cuanto menor sea el tiempo que lleve obtener el resultado deseado, más productivo es el sistema".

Bien, resulta que la cosa se está extendiendo: SANAA, que acaban de recibir el Pritzker, reconocen ser tremendamente improductivos, emplean mucho más tiempo que otros en hacer sus proyectos. Esta es una de las contradicciones en las que estamos atrapados en este momento: ¡premiamos la improductividad!.

En realidad resulta que la buena arquitectura es improductiva por definición. Se trata, como decía Alejandro de la Sota, de dar liebre por gato: eso es la quintaesencia de lo improductivo. El hijo de de la Sota decía hace días en El País que su padre tuvo que recurrir a su puesto de funcionario de correos en los momentos más duros de su particular batalla por la arquitectura. Sans, el aparejador de Coderch, me contaba que algún domingo por la noche, y al ver luz en el despacho, sorprendía al jefe echando horas a hurtadillas.

Sejima también celebra el premio trabajando de noche. El hijo de Alejandro de la Sota confiesa que rechazaba encargos por no estar de acuerdo con los clientes. Un alto responsable del Pritzker me comentaba consternado que Zumthor, a quien le acababan de dar el premio, "¡RECHAZABA ENCARGOS!".

Hay que concluir, remedando la célebre frase romántica que Hay motivos de la arquitectura que el mercado no entiende.

Re-writting History in Texas Education?

2010-03-24T09:50:00.016+01:00

Daguerreotype of Susan B. Anthony by Southworth & Hawes, circa 1850. From Wikipedia

Two days ago El País published the news that Texas Education Agency was changing text books with a clear ideological purpose. Next day I received from the Chronicle of Higher Education the news that billions of fresh dollars were being put aside by Texans for their universities. It was quite disturbing the sum of both news: piles of money for manipulating education?.

I have checked.

First of all, Texas Education Agency is brilliant: hope we get something like it with our Quality Agencies. Second, the agency do not impose anything, it only recommends what external experts suggest. Now, talking about the contents, in the particular case of Carrie Capman Catt, El País says:

Se borrarán las iniciativas de la sufragista Carrie Chapman Catt

Well, the fact is that TEA suggests to delete her (see it here) but it also recommends to introduce Susan B. Anthony, earlier and rather more important that Capman (there is much more bibliography and much more material for further readings).

So in the particular case of women rights the TEA is clearly improving the education in Texas: ¡Así se escribe la historia!

PD By the way the TEA has made efforts to correct what the media says about what they are doing. In this case is the right-wing FOX that has distorted some of their initiatives.

¿Debe continuar el show?

2010-03-09T12:30:00.010+01:00

Torre Dubai (foto de Marco Saraceno en FLICKR)

(...) el espectáculo, inseparable de la opulencia, contamina la arquitectura con una exhibición circense de formas insólitas, difíciles de reconciliar con la necesaria permanencia física y simbólica de [las] construcciones (...)
Luis Fernández Galiano, El País 08/03/2010

!The Show must go on¡ es el grito de guerra del mundo del espectáculo para mantener el ánimo. Las contaminaciones entre espectáculo y arquitectura, que han acabado por adulterar a esta última, se pone ahora en entredicho desde los mismos mass-media. Ya comentabamos en posts anteriores que en el New York Times, Ouroussoff, su crítico de arquitectura, fue uno de los primeros en desmarcarse al comenzar la crisis financiera ("era de vulgaridad y ambición", decía).

Ahora en ámbitos españoles empieza a cundir cierto arrepentimiento por las complicidades con los excesos de los felices 1990. Hay arquitectos como Chipperfield que nunca se prestaron al "branding through architecture" ( "Hoy lo icónico se asocia a los excesos del Mercado", dice), y aún así es muy prudente en sus críticas: hace bien, ya que no habrá rectificación, e incluso la arquitectura espectáculo se incrementará en ciertas partes del mundo.

La desglobalización incluirá partes en las que la euforia neoliberal continuará como si nada y su arquitectura seguirá saturando los media. Por lo tanto la respuesta a la pregunta Must the Show go on? es: It's up to you.

AYUDAR A CHILE

2010-03-03T08:52:00.002+01:00

Para enviar ayuda económica a Chile, que ha sido devastado por el terremoto, usar el link que lleva a las cuentas abiertas en Bancos españoles.

Educación y poder

2010-02-08T10:11:00.010+01:00

Baños romanos de Bath, con la abadía detrás

Ojala tuviésemos en España conservadores como el británico Chris Patten: ¡casi no quedan ni siquiera en Reino Unido!

El valor estratégico de la universidad y la investigación es algo que se entendió en España hace poco tiempo por parte de los políticos, pero se dejó de lado por atender otras urgencias menos importantes para el futuro aunque más acuciantes en el presente. Sirva este trozo de la entrevista aparecida en El País de ayer como invitación para disfrutarla entera en su web:

Una de las claves del poder de América es cómo enfoca la investigación y la Universidad. Por supuesto, influye que sea la principal potencia militar del mundo. Pero lo fundamental es que de las 50 mejores universidades del mundo, 42 son americanas. Y lo que me sorprende es este dato: hace 50 años, la mitad de los europeos que se doctoraban allí volvían a sus países. Hace cuatro años ya sólo regresaba el 25%. Imagine usted lo que supone perder la mayor fuerza intelectual en una sola dirección. El 75% de los trabajos y ensayos científicos de Estados Unidos son escritos por extranjeros. La mitad de los start ups de Silicon Valley han sido fundados por inmigrantes. Ésta es para mí la base del permanente poder global americano.

Los artículos de Patten (en inglés) no tienen desperdicio. Patten es otro de esos personajes que avalan mi teoría de que Bath se ha convertido en el Bloomsbury del siglo XXI: él también es bathense aunque sea el rector de Oxford.

PhD in Architectural Design

2010-01-27T09:14:00.005+01:00

Talking about architectural design is a big challenge. To do it in Milan, at the Politecnico, it's a privilege.

Ernesto Rogers at Rai Radio 3

2009-12-19T09:19:00.006+01:00

On tuesday 22th (next Tuesday) on Rai Radio 3 the program Radio 3 Suite will be on the new books published to celebrate the centenary of Ernesto Rogers. Eugenia López Reus will be interviewed. Press "ascolta RADIO3 in diretta" at 21:45 local time to listen to it live.

Gillo Dorfles: cien años os contemplan

2009-12-08T14:06:00.010+01:00

Dorfles ha hablado. Y lo ha hecho alto y claro para afirmar (confirmar) que Ernesto Rogers era tan proyectista como teórico, las dos cosas al tiempo.

Coincidiendo con el nacimiento de Rogers (este año cumpliría cien años, los que va a cumplir Dorfles el que viene), el crítico de arte con más autoridad en Italia y su amigo de la infancia dice en un artículo en el Corriere della Sera que el libro de Eugenia López Reus llena "una laguna verdaderamente incomprensible".

Esa laguna, que según Dorfles llena el libro a base de "sutileza", es, en mi opinión, resultado de la dificultad de reconocer en otros la capacidad de hacer y pensar al mismo tiempo, de hacer literatura con las palabras y arquitectura con la construcción: algo de eso le pasaba a Wright con Le Corbusier.

En efecto, escribir y diseñar suelen convertirse en pecado cuando es un mismo arquitecto el que ejerce ambas habilidades. La kantiana autonomía entre pensar y actuar se convierte en intolerancia cuando el profesional y el crítico se obsesionan en defender la pureza de sus ámbitos respectivos. Lo que sucede es que la vida mezcla las pretendidas purezas, las cuales, por cierto, son en el kantismo sólo legalidades subjetivas no constituciones objetivas. En los textos del excelente congreso que acaba de terminar en el Politécnico de Milán-Bovisa se recogerán muchos de estos matices que la celebración ha permitido sacar a la luz.

Mientras tanto, hay que agradecerle a Dorfles que siga defendiendo tan rotundamente la posibilidad de una subjetividad integrada a través de lo artístico. ¡Salve Maestro!

X Bienal Española de Arquitectura y Urbanismo (BEAU)

2009-11-25T11:57:00.004+01:00

Hasta el 14 de diciembre se puede (debe) ir a ver la X BEAU en las Arquerías de los Nuevos Ministerios en Madrid.

El montaje de la exposición es muy interesante (Luís Úrculo y su equipo son los responsables): cada visitante se puede llevar una copia de lo que está expuesto, al punto de que podría montar una exposición identica en su casa (si tiene espacio para hacerlo, claro, y está un poco pirado).

Además, hay un blog que recoge la expo. Los finalistas se pueden ver allí con calma: este es el link. Los PFC que han participado también están colgados en el blog: este es el otro link. Casi 700 comentarios en algún proyecto da idea del interés que realmente existe y que se puede canalizar por esta vía. Ambas exposiciones la virtual y la real son excelentes.

Market and Con-temporary Art

2009-11-17T11:35:00.007+01:00

This interesting book on "the curious economics of contemporary art" has just been published in Spanish. Written by an economist, professor Donald Thompson, is a good example of the theoretical benefits of joining art and economy.

As it always happens when aesthetic matters are involved, there are several ways of considering the central theme of the book: one, the amazing and crazy market of contemporary art. Another, market itself tends to be criticized when considered in art's world.

As every version of it art market has been de-regulated in the last two decades. One of the main expressions of this is the almost total disappearance of art criticism: except Robert Hudges, who considers brand-art pieces as "simple minded" works addressed to "business big-shots", art critics have been replaced by docile journalists that produce the "blither and rubbish" necessary for the "fatuity of art-world greed" (Hudges).

In architectural realm the situation is even worse, I am affraid: no respected critic has had the courage of denouncing brand-architecture and, which is more harmful in the long run, this whole situation has already contaminated architectural education. Today students of some of the best architecture schools in USA do not know who are Arnee Jacobsen, Utzon or Niemeyer, but they are saturated by con-temporay brand-architecture (temporary meaning that it is not going to last in time). The problem is that painting or sculpture can be hidden in a wardrobe, but architecture always involves public space and/or public money.

Do not miss the video with Hudges's critique on Hirst's work and the business of art:

Reforming Architectural Education

2009-11-14T16:07:00.005+01:00

Let us suppose it is true that Western culture is in a conclusive crisis: would not the best educational institutions in USA and Europe have certain responsabilities in all this? The curriculum of the best architecctural schools are going to change very soon. Where to? How? The article New Blueprint for Architecture in Inside Higher Education gives hints.

Ágora, ¿ahora?

2009-11-06T09:50:00.004+01:00

En una entrevista reciente sobre la última película de Alejandro Amenábar, Ágora, Iñaki Gabilondo y el director se esforzaban por ver en el mundo actual un conflicto entre conocimiento y religión similar al que ilustra la película. Hace unas semanas también se podía leer en la prensa nacional que la película tiene "un guión que bien podría servir para ser interpretado con personajes de la actualidad" (El País 7/10/09).

Crítica cinematográfica aparte, este diagnostico de la realidad es errado y puede inducir a actuaciones desencaminadas para salir del atolladero en el que nos encontramos. Nuestro tiempo no está caracterizado por un choque entre ciencia y religión sino por una mezcla de ambas, por una religión de la ciencia, y muy especialmente por la religión de las ciencias económicas y políticas. (seguir leyendo en el Adelantado de Segovia)

Human Nature

2009-10-24T11:31:00.016+02:00

Human nature is the responsible for the financial crisis, in Greenspan opinion (watch the BBC video here). And former Federal Reserve Chief does not just talk about current one: all of them, he says, from the South Sea Bubble in the XVI Century to todays.

The amazing thing is that the Homo Economicus is the only model economists use today: this is not serious at all. Current economy should not be considered a real science (in fact, it is a religion right now) since its models do not fit its subject. To make a long story short: the main problem is that economists are pure mathematitians that excuse their failures and dogmatic excesses about society by blaming the "unquenchable human nature" (Greenspan). How can coexist ideas like deregulation, free market and invisible hands in the very same discourse with "unquenchable human nature" and still pay these people such bonuses?

To have a remote chance of understanding human nature it has to be taken into account factors like art, for example, that are not reasonable or driven by interest. Any map of human soul that does not count on subjective impulses, beside moral attributes and mathematical skills is not going to be fully human. Economist should have the capability of dealing with the contradictions of human nature. So, little hope of fixing current state of the art of society in the hands of current leaders, I am afraid. Last hope are politicians...

Estilo blogero del premio Nobel

2009-10-07T18:55:00.005+02:00

«O Caderno de Saramago», o livro do blogue from Fundação Jose Saramago on Vimeo.

Hasta el más pintado puede columpiarse con esto del blog. Los comentarios de la actualidad calientan la pluma como se le calienta la boca a los oradores en público.

El caso de Saramago es ejemplar en este sentido. Toda la sutileza y poética de su escritura se desvanece al calor de sus enfados por lo que pasa y no le cuadra en sus esquemas. Que los comunistas no aceptan la realidad tal como es ya lo demostraron suficientemente en la historia. Que un medio como el blog podría hacer a todo un premio Nobel abandonar la autonomía estética de la literatura es algo novedoso.

Como dice Umberto Eco al respecto: resulta "simpático" verlo perder los papeles en su libro El cuaderno, escritos del blog.

Principles against poison

2009-10-06T09:27:00.009+02:00

Yes, I know that I have already linked Ouroussoff's article in a recent post. The thing is that I have read the article again (thanks to a reader of the blog from New Zealand) and have decided to give it its own space.

The most "delirious era in architecture" is not going to be over just like that: years, maybe decades will be needed to overcome this "poisonous cocktail of vanity and self-delusion" (Ouroussoff).

By the way, have you notice that there is a consensus about "desintoxication" (see post under this) and "poisons" in the realm of contemporary form creation...?