New Winds from the South

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

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

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

Rankings y Rankings

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.