Mercat de Mercats

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.