Comentarios sobre Arquitetura

What a shame

2011-10-30T18:28:00.001-07:00

http://g1.globo.com/politica/noticia/2011/10/ongs-cobram-taxas-por-vagas-no-programa-minha-casa-minha-vida.html

You do not have to be posh

2011-07-21T06:11:00.000-07:00

"This just reinforces their belief that it’s all about the beauty of the object and that the architect is merely a stylist who sprinkles magic dust over engineering. It’s a sure-fire way of marginalising us."

Sarah Wigglesworth commenting about the Stirling Prize which always list the same and supected names who are concerned with posh projects.

Trendy

2011-04-06T11:57:00.000-07:00

Wiki:
"Bjarke Ingels (born October 2, 1974 in Copenhagen) is a Danish architect. He heads the architectural practice Bjarke Ingels Group which he founded in 2006. In 2009 he co-founded the design consultancy KiBiSi. In his designs, Bjarke Ingels often tries to achieve a balance between playful and practical approaches to architecture."

2011-03-27T10:16:00.001-07:00

Photos by Iñigo Bujedo Aguirre

From wiki, to make easy for me showing off something that make us proud, Brazilians:
The Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer (designer of Brasilia and one of the most important architects in the world) was awarded with the Prince of Asturias Award for Art in 1989. That was the origin of the relationship between Oscar Niemeyer and the Principality of Asturias. Years later, Niemeyer donated a big project to the Principality. His design has become a project meant to be an international reference because of its production in the cultural field. It will be dedicated to culture and education. This centre will be the first Oscar Niemeyer's work in Spain, and he has said he believes it the most important in Europe.

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Building Maker

2011-03-16T20:16:00.000-07:00

Maybe it´s old news to some, but brilliant news:

ARCHITIZER published the winners of evolo 2010

2011-03-09T16:56:00.000-08:00

First place of Evolo Contest 2010

Unfortunately none of ours students got some prize. No wonder - only one had applied, whereas the others groups gave up - I do not know why.

Actually I know... It has to do with the demotivation caused by a kind of approach of architecture which slip inspiration and motivation since the first modules.

Blame on us, tutors, blame on us....

More to read: http://www.architizer.com/en_us/blog/dyn/16436/winning-skyscrapers/

Skyscraper International Contest

2011-01-27T07:59:00.000-08:00

The pictures bellow are from projects created by my students in the previous semester (2010/2). The module was concerned giving answers to basic questions: how is the new meaning of skyscraper in the 21th Century and which are the responsabilities that those mega-structures brings together.

As the contest is running, I will not give the name of the authors, but just explore them in a glance.

This first two pics are an "Urban Farming Research Centre". His Author explain:

Scenario

Nowadays, to feed the world's population of 6.8 billion people, it's needed an equivalent area of entire South America. According to some studies, yet by 2050, with 9 billion people, we may need an area equivalent to Brazil. So, there is a clear necessity to look for new developments of agriculture.

This proposal do not have intention to present a skyscraper that explores maximum deployment of resources in smallest areas, but it constitutes a first essay where skyscrapers like that could pop in the skyline of the city.

In the sense this skyscraper should be a powerful tool to local city farmers, who will make their all experiments and will find the best conditions to produce vegetables and ease their labor. In the midst of many objectives, the building aims to be a center of a local network of urban farmers since his site is in front of a central market of Belo Horizonte city.

The vertical agriculture

The skyscraper has 24 floors where research concerning hydroponics are developed. It has also a experimental greenhouse dedicated to research plants disease and other greenhouse which research no hydroponic farming.

Since the main building is a center of research in hydroponics, there is also a visitors center, with restaurant, stores, exposition hall and multimedia room; there is also an analysis center, with labs (researching water, soil, genetic and others) that can support the community; as well there is a loading area and a warehouse.

Technology, potable water and size of farms

Due to our current technology today we can build skyscrapers. Since immemorial times, as Babylon era, we can see human’s desire of farming and gardening vertically. Adding up to this, nowadays we seek for technological support to built environmental friendly towers and sustainable buildings that create synergic influences within their environment.

Beyond sustainability, in this project we were concerned of a research process that include the building itself as an experiment to cultivate hydroponics. It is justified considering the massive amount of potable water demanded by any traditional agriculture and a giant size of lands used to cultivate. If we not pay attention on those bigger farms, we will devastate ours forests in the behalf of an expansion of agricultural areas.

A lot are being spent in order to get this buildings sustainability. But this one is not to turn other buildings more sustainable, it is to turn life more sustainable. We see food as something that has almost no impact on the planet, but the truth is that agriculture uses lots of natural resources. A good percentage of all potable water is used for agriculture, and we may also say that lots of forests are being devastated. Here in Brazil, the bounds of the Amazon rainforest are being pushed by big farmers.

All the technology used in this building is developed and ready to use. That means that the project is not a prognosis of a technological state in the future. Three concerns were explored in the architectural solutions: all spatial elements were planned to permit plants to grown better, with light, water and temperature.

This second project was probably the one of the most exciting in terms of seeking solutions to horizontal occupations through vertical structures and distributions of empties sites to be occupied by their inhabitants. Certainly this would be prized if the team took at the end the task of sending it to the contest. I guess they give up, without any new I noticed.
Another noticeable work was this, despite the poor graphical solution. It was a Shopping locate nearly our Administrative Centre of the county. A massive structure shelter shoppings, fairies, cinemas, leisure and offices, crossing the highway in fron of it and, at the sametime, connecting two neighbouhoods: Jardim Canaã e Centro Administrativo.

This next project was amazingly developed to permite flexible arragements of containers which would be transformed in places where exhibitions would planned.

It is a pitty that graphical quality of this was poor, but it was one of the most expressive in terms of structural solution, with a beauty result. It was destinated to integrate Shops, Offices and hostel. I am wondering wheather the team will give new pics or not...
A little bit more traditional the approach of this project was mixing up hotel, offices and shopping. The most impressive was the resultant silhouette in the landscape, creating a landmark.
The interesting approach of this was developing a strucuture with new materials, evolving to a ramp along the whole building.

This built, as others, solved the junction betweeen Hotel, offices and shop. The plasticity of the conjoint was adequate to create a landmark in the region as it can be seem.

Instrumentation for blindness

2011-01-23T11:36:00.000-08:00

Architecture contains many fields where there are few absolutes and where self-expression and personal experience are vital elements. The most important for me, in those cases, is recognizing and nurturing the individual temperaments and natural abilities of the students. They should be challenged to challenge themselves. This only happens when we, as tutors, encourage students to develop within themselves a genuine sense of enthusiasm, self-motivation, personal commitment and professionalism. Beyond familiar experiences, they should cope clinging new challenges as an opportunity to grow.

In terms of the teaching and learning fundaments to complement the study of Architecture, some years ago there was a module called “Plastic”, where the students were mainly motivated to study arts and exercise 2D and 3D compositions in all sort of materials. I was in charge to structure that module, and I was absolute convinced that, despite setting the student as free as possible, the structure of the module should be guided in a certain traditional way. By “traditional” I mean basing the structure of the course with some traditions in the teaching of arts and crafts: treating visual elements as similar to words, and deploying some notions as proportions, visual tensions, configuration and visual rhythm as similar to a visual grammar. Yet in that time I was aware about the critics: a non probed fear that all students would be equal in sensing and expressing themselves. Probably, this fear came from the haters of the Beaux-arts model in Brazilians school of arts by the beginning from last century. I myself were never concerned about that, as I knew that one can never break any tradition if you do not know which tradition you are intended to surpass. I knew that the most revolutionary artists in all fields of art were firstly very well knower about their matter. I used the three years of those experiences to analyse as my dissertation to receive my Postgraduate Certificate in High Education by the School of Education of The University of Sheffield (see here), where I also did my doctoral.

When I arrived in 2008 from England I found a class where the students looked as brains empties of that motivation, and along the time I noticed that most of them were out of their soul, lost to study or pursuit their intentions on studying architecture.

In the right, a view of a traditional student: spread and memorize details.

I notice also that finally the curriculum was modified and there was not room to the “traditions” I mentioned beforehand, and mainly in the first modules were modified to a new kind of approach that, afaik, nobody in fact knows.

Perhaps, today, we can convince nowadays those who avoid and are ashamed for using books as “Art and Visual Perception : a Psychology of the Creative Eye” ( Arnheim R. (1956). London, Faber and Faber Limited.) or “Univesos da Arte” (Ostrower, F. (1993) Rio de Janeiro, Campus).

New studies, applying “eye-tracking” technology(Leicester 2008) demonstrate that the “traditional” education on art gives more accurate way to see the world(Kim 2009) to students, that means, sighting become really different and more accurate for those who have the knowledge of the “tradition”… At the same time, trainees gains a quickly view – in a glance, with admirable memory of visual elements(Vogt 2007).

I understand that the mistake of avoiding traditional strategies is disseminated in ours courses and I really feel sorry about this. With so many evasive justifications and other amount of opaque “explications”, the study of arts and its history are being abandoned, causing a dangerous blindness in our students. Will anyone suggest that talent is a gift given from birth?

Odd Nerdrum, "Self Portrait as Baby", Oil, 2000

Some references I mentioned here:

Kim, Y.-j. e. A. (2009). "Students’ Visual Perceptions of Virtual Lectures as Measured by Eye Tracking " Human-Computer Interaction. New Trends Volume 5610: 85-94.

Leicester, N. r. f. T. U. o. (2008) "Understanding the wow factor - Researchers combine social science and neuroscience to examine responses to art." NEWS - PRESS RELEASES Volume, DOI:

Vogt, S. M., S (2007). "Expertise in pictorial perception: Eye-movement patterns and visual memory in artists and laymen." Perception 36: 91-100.

ApocalypseProof house

2011-01-19T05:53:00.000-08:00

It sounds to me as talking about which kind of coffin I will like to be buried. Anyway, japanese company Daiwa has created a post-disaster self-installing self-sufficient house. Daiwa Lease is part of the Daiwa House group, Japan’s largest homebuilder, specializing in prefabricated houses.

Have a look in this video to check:

Could it be inspiring to people who search for new types of hoouses, coping with poverty and natural disasters in Brazil? Well, at least one thing do not permit so: the price. CHeck the site of Daiwa to discover the price. Afaik, it will take a big amount of $ from anyone who decide saving his live with this coffin...

Innovation in education

2011-01-18T13:12:00.000-08:00

"Teaching is an art, engineering is an art, urban planning is an art, photography is an art, business is an art, and design is an art"

"I see serious challenges with people coming out from design schools (as well as business schools) and I wonder what are they teaching these people at some schools today. The missing interdependency of broader functions and the lack of visual sensibilities are impacting the quality of graduates."

"Through art, students can learn to have alternative contact with any kind of knowledge or information about different thematic topics. When a student is interacting with a piece of art, he/she can live a holistic experience, with his mind by the symbols, with his/her body by the senses and with his/her heart by the emotion evoked. A piece of art is a very special because it carries the human history and provoke ways of developing perspectives, which is lacking in MBA education."

Idris Mootee, from innovation playground

To Idris, strategic design (which he calls "Couture") is a work in progress and serves as real world laboratories in fostering collaboration between the information design, engineering, foresight, visual art and industrial design in applied complex business problem solving. He think his office as a global network to "encounter spaces” that design thinkers from differing disciplines, which assembled together as teams to work on specific projects and share insights, uncover foresights.

Putting together colaborative teams, Idris´Offices seek a collaboration among the arts, design, economics, technology to support their clients, looking to create meaningful differentiation, economic value and strategic impact through design thinking and design doing. It is basically the future of management.

His site deserves a look, mainly by those educator who try to evolve their knowledge basis in order to achieve a real sense of education in 21th century.

This is the link: Innovation Playground

Eco-Architecture

2011-01-17T06:04:00.000-08:00

I am repeating this topic, but now I added an abstract to give you in a glance the idea of our article at Wessex conference. We presented this chapter in March 2010, when the conference took place at A Coruna.

I and m. Malard discussed the use of Ubiquitous Computing (Ubicomp) systems in the design of urban revitalizations and refurbishments, using a specific methodology that I researched in order to consider Information Technology (IT) as one more instrument to harmonize the urban scene with the landscape, minimizing the impacts that those processes can bring.

The hypothesis is that when IT components and services are strategically deployed – respecting the structure of the places – they can introduce computational resources that will allow human activities to better harmonize with the landscape.

This hypothesis is based on Heidegger´s thoughts, when he reflects about the concept of “circumspection”, meaning that when a technological apparatus works fine, its presence recedes in the human consciousness. When components and services of IT are deployed strategically in a place – respecting its topological structure – those devices and services can add computational capabilities that improve human activities and make them integrated with the natural environment in a coherent and continual gradient of meaning, functionality and technological availability. Human activities can better harmonize with nature by means of the use of ordinary objects and spatial elements that act as interfaces to access computational services, supporting the activities of a place, making them more efficient, producing less pollution, reducing their cost and energy consumption. Mark Weiser’s idea about the evolution of Ubicomp also reinforces that main hypothesis.

According to him, the spread of computational resources in the environment through Ubicomp will bring a new era of calm technology in which human dwelling will be supported by intelligent environments.

To test that hypothesis, a theoretical framework was developed and applied by architects in three urban projects, in cities of the United Kingdom and South Korea.

Focusing on the potential within IT components to promote qualities such as territoriality, privacy, identity and ambience, three case studies were described and analyzed. There are reasons for appropriately deploying IT based on the nature of the place and the activities that happen within it.

To see more about it, please access:
http://library.witpress.com/pages/PaperInfo.asp?PaperID=20805

Goodbye, Noughties (?)

2011-01-15T12:52:00.000-08:00

"Convergence is a new paradigm that can yield critical advances in a broad array of sectors, from health care to energy, food, climate, and water."

report, "The Third Revolution: The Convergence of the Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Engineering,"

By January 4th MIT news issued in its website of news a white paper where "convergence" is argued to be a new concept to the new days after the "noughties"*. It is described as "a new model for scientific research, which involves the merger of life, physical and engineering sciences — to foster the innovation necessary to meet the growing demand for accessible, affordable health care."

In a glance, about this white paper, it is visible the valuables contributions from Biology and Molecular Research as matters to guide new ways to think scientific approach. But a closer look will make conclude about the need of investments and policies regarding the research model that are being developed from Health research. An old conclusion that have affected a wide variety of models that never come out in the first worlds economies.

_________
*For brazilians readers, let me explain: "noughties" is normally used in a humourous manner to refer to the lack of new ideas and creativity that some author alleged that happened along the years 2000-2009. The word comes from nought (it sounds "not" in portuguese) that means "nada", "fracasso", "Zero", among others meanings.

whatever love

2011-01-04T21:23:00.000-08:00

2011: Welcome.

"The life course wraps everything.

Life is that: it warms-up, chills all,
Tighten everything and then loosen them,
it gets quiet suddlenly and then again gets up set.

What life ask us for is being courageous.

What God wants really it is to see we learning to be able
to be happy - happier - in the midst of happiness
and getting yet happier in the midle of sadness.

Life invents.

We started doing things, many times not knowing why to do so,
and since we lost the power to pursue that initial purpose - because life is a
collective work, it belongs to all, it is mixed and sauced by everybody.

The most important thing in the world is this: people are not the same, they are always changing, and
they are not finished up, but keep constatly changing, tunning themselves to each other.

To live is dangerous - or not, I do not know.

I do not know how to explain this sort of thing: one side is that whom feels, the other belongs to who makes feelings.

Sometimes, when we find a love that one day in past we despised, it hurts always our heart.

Whatever kind of few love is already a bit of health, a rest in the middle of this madness."

Excerpts from Guimarães Rosa, Brazilian writer, with my free translation.

Trip

2010-09-19T10:26:00.000-07:00

At Toulouse, refreshing after a heavy work day.

It was the time visiting the main entrerprises which does or maintain aircrafts in Europe. As part of one project regarding our brasilian situation, the trip was very inspiring, permitting to collect new information to all of us. I myself had paied attention in the use of IT in the places, and in a correct opportunity I would be lightining this aspect of our journey to France and Germany.

Sensors in manholes

2010-08-11T07:41:00.000-07:00

Brazilian enterprise Light has stated that it will install sensors in the underground to prevent explosions in street manholes. The sensors will be deployed later this year, in 720 places, considered more sensitive. In 2014 four, thousand others belonging to the company will be installed.

The new monitoring, according to Light, will be able to detect problems in real time. This year, at least eight manholes exploded in different parts of the city of Rio de Janeiro.

In June, an American couple got burned because the explosion of such holes in a street in Copacabana, in Rio's South Zone. This news, announced by G1, was a timid decision to deploy IT components in the urban place as a means to help city live.

Design Management and technology

2010-07-30T04:06:00.000-07:00

The publisher Márcio Minto (Universidade de São Paulo [EESC-USP], Brasil ) has just announced the new issue 1 /2010 of the magazine "Design Management and technology", published as a result of the "First Symposium About the Quality of the Design" which took place at São Carlos University / USP, in 2009.

SBPQ2009 pictures

Our article, entitled "A theory for the development of IT in urban spaces" was chosen to open that issue, and it is somewhat a summary of my book "Information Technology in Urban Places: A theoretical framework for the development of IT applied in the space", which you can find here.

But the article recently published sumarizes the research for the development of a theoretical framework to help architects in the application of Information Technology (IT) to urban projects. In the developed framework, electronic components such as microprocessors, sensors, displays, tags, actuators, etc., were regarded as means of invigorating urban places in conjunction with physical refurbishment. Focusing on the potential within IT components to promote qualities such as territoriality, privacy, identity and ambience, three case studies where the framework was applied by architects and the results of their project are analysed. It has been concluded that there are reasons for appropriately deploying IT based on the nature of the place and the activities that happen within it.

Congratulations to all CETEC researchers

2010-07-07T20:34:00.000-07:00

I am proud to have my share with this new: despite being in pportuguese, please, use the link:
Comissão quer garantir recursos para formação em aeronáutica
or in english:
Commission wants more resources for training in aeronautics.

Best Regards, CETEC!!!!

A word to Monica

2010-06-26T15:49:00.000-07:00

Monica was in my tutelage twice during her studies at EAUFMG where I am project tutor until today. She was mine student in a module by her 4th year course and in her final graduation project, by 1996. I am pretty sure that there is 14 years I do not see her around after that period. But Just now she has noticed my site and blog and she has read my small introducing with my opinion in Portuguese where I comment that the field of studies of Architecture are constantly threaten with many distinct enemies. Among them I commented that mainly a cause of that hypothesis is a pseudo-scientific attitude that has been invading the curricula’s courses around the world. It created contradictions and reactions, be by the reduction of the design to a prolix calculation of variables, be by heightened a false creativity supported by hollow theoretical approaches. We do not call our learning spaces as ‘ateliers’ or ‘studios’, but ‘labs’.

Monica agreed with me and told me she does not practise architectural design anymore. By reading my text, she said she found an interpretation about which enemies we need to cope with. Despite not considering herself as an architect anymore, what I should say to Monica is about her love to Architecture – at least the subject itself – and the useful help she could give people by educating them, providing elements to reflect whether our buildings are technological poor cages or when they invite us to live the life really. Thank you, Monica.

Perfomance does not mean immateriality

2010-06-04T16:14:00.000-07:00

It is possible to discuss how IT and Technology, in a broad sense, are reflected differently across social organizations within various contradictions and paradoxes. In my book "Information Technology in Urban Places" I summarises the philosophical views of M. Arnold from his text "On the Phenomenology of Technology: the "Janus-faces" of mobile phones", published in Information and Organization: 231-256, 2003.

Basically Arnold mentions five classifications which are: ‘substantive’, ‘determinist’, ‘social construction’, ‘network’ approaches, and the others are ‘mixed’ contributions, regarding how technology and society influence each other. A ‘determinist’ perspective on technology is described by Arnold (2003: 237), suggesting that specific technologies or clusters of technologies determine social conditions and drive specific social changes through historical eras. Different from the other perspectives, this comprehends approaches that link particular technologies to particular social outcomes. On face value, this perspective excludes contradictions in terms of those outcomes, since technology is regarded as independent from social context. Arnold makes clear, however, that it happens because this perspective derives from the modernist usage in the field of knowledge studies (epistemology), which makes three binary divisions: the separation of time and space (privileging time), subject and object (privileging subject), and cause and effect (privileging cause). This strategy enables technology to be separated analytically from society in symmetry with the separation of cause and effect. Analysing how information is found to be related to technology in this point of view, Arnold comments:

“Having made this crucial move to separate society from technology, and to purify the essence of each, (a move so much engrained in our traditions that it is scarcely visible), it becomes possible to stratify by aligning technology with causality and society with effect, producing McLuhan’s Global Village, Bell’s Information Society, Marcuse’s One Dimensional Man, Toffler’s Third Wave, Mitchell’s City of Bits, Poster’s Second Media Age, Gates’ Frictionless Economy, and so on.” (Arnold 2003: 238)

On the other hand, the approach termed the "Social Construction of Technology" is described by Arnold as one that sees society and its imperatives as being prior to the technologies that emerge from them. Like the determinist approach, social construction operates within the modernist framework, and uses the same determinist logic, reliant upon linking linear chains, from social cause to technical landscape. It also cleaves and separates the technical from the social, in ways that are arbitrary and analytically questionable, but are required if the social is to be privileged. After having made this arbitrary distinction, social and technical are connected, with the latter being depicted as a consequence of the former.

Yet other different approaches use networked analogies. For these, technology is both a cause and an effect, and the social is both a cause and an effect as well. This means that each is both emergent and structuring. This point of view is achieved by collapsing the modernist distinction between the two, and referring instead to the performance of an actor. ‘Performance’ may be thus a name to be carefully taken to mean the cluster of actions that constitute the usage, and emerge in the course of the use, when the whole ramified and a very extensive assemblage of heterogeneous beings call upon one another to cooperate, and do so - totally different from what ours students understand about the term. The ontology of any given actor, its origin and meaning, is a matter of its relationship in any given network, and the ontology of the network as a whole is also a matter of its internal and external relations. The relational linkage of the system and the way those links generate hybrid forms linking humans, objects, situations, is the fundamental unit of analysis. Concentrating on uncategorized forms of interconnection and relation, on undifferentiated imbroglios of politics, physics, machinery, bureaucracy etc., all situated within the same frame of analysis, the networked approaches do not foreclose the coexistence of contrary implications or paradoxical observations. Therefore, multiple, though overlapping, ontologies coexist, and even contrary implications are possible. However, the application of such analysis is very hard and most of times it conduces to mistakes that weaken a vision in a reseearch.

Other contributions that mix information and technology are studied by D. Ihde Ihde, in his paper from 1990, "Technology and the Lifeworld: From garden to earth." (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Retrieved January 18, 2006). He refers to technological mediation in phenomenological terms, drawing particular attention to the necessary co-occurrence of amplification and reduction. That means, an increased capacity to engage with the world in a particular way is accompanied by a reduced capacity to engage with it in other ways - for example, the amplified view provided through a microscope closes off the view of the room. A. Borgmann Borgmann, in his book "Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life: a Philosophical Inquiry" (Chicago, University of Chicago Press) also exemplify an approach in which technological devices are seen as a mean to attenuate human engagement with the world, assuming more and more functionality until the point is reached at which social engagement becomes unnecessary.

Finalizing , Arnold argues that Heidegger’s model of a ‘lifeworld enframed by technology’, together with a networked logic that looks to an ontology of hybrids offers a better way forward for the investigation of technology. Arnold does not mention any special feature in his classification relating to IT and space, but it is possible to glimpse that the polarity between technology and society highlighted by him contains some ideas about how space is considered in each approach. For instance, by mentioning Heidegger’s thought, he is implicitly assuming all the spatial implications of the Heideggerian concept of being-in-the-world. expressed as an action, as reflected by the word composed by the hyphenization, as an ontological unity acting in its place, the world. ‘Networked actors’ approaches (Latour and Woolgar 1979; Latour 1987), however, go even further, emphasizing place as action and revealing action as decisive to give meaning to linked actors, which means that all the categories rely on the situation whose links establish their connection. Space and place are, on this view, categories of concepts that are too narrow, whether thought of in terms of stable geometrical properties, referencing an immutable position in the world. This provides, at first sight, an idea of immateriality conformed by actions in space, that is, it will be seen, wrong. Such apparent immateriality, as a result of this analytical treatment, is problematic in terms of the objectives of the research of my book, and closer examples of a spatial analysis of IT could be useful when it comes to clarifying what the concept of space and place come to mean inside ‘networked actors’ approaches, and this will be a serious concern that I discussed in my book.

ECO-Architecture III

2010-06-02T07:48:00.000-07:00

ECO-Architecture III - third International Conference on Harmonization Between Architecture and Nature - happened last 10th to 14th April. Professora Maria Lúcia Malard and I participated of that event, presenting a paper which becomes a chapter of the book issued by WIT. The book contains most of the papers presented in the Eco-Architecture 2010 conference. Previous editions, that were very successful were held previously in the New Forest, UK, in 2006 and the Algarve, Portugal in 2008 and demonstrated the importance of a forum like this to discuss the characteristics and challenges of such architectural vision.

According to the WIT site, "Eco-Architecture implies a new approach to the design process intended to harmonise its products with nature. This involves ideas such as minimum use of energy at each stage of the building process, taking into account the amount required during the extraction and transportation of materials, their fabrication, assembly, building erection, maintenance and eventual future recycling. Presentations in the conference were related to topics like building technologies, design by passive systems, design with nature, ecological and cultural sensitivity, life cycle assessment, quantifying sustainability in architecture, resources and rehabilitation, and issues from education, research and practice. Case studies from different places around the world were also presented."

Our chapter is ready for download in this link.

New Book

2010-05-30T12:37:00.000-07:00

I am linking this blog to Amazon bookstore´s blog where I think I can get more feedbacks on comments and also on helping to advertise my brand new book publish by Lambert Publishers. The book is being sold by Amazon, and you can find more through this link.
Bellow, I am putting some comments about the book. Feel fre to ask about it.

Front cover:

Back cover:

This book is an attempt to develop some analytic resources for thinking about problems and possibilities arising from the incorporation of Information Technology (IT) into the design of public spaces, especially in the early stages of design process. The main concern is about how to deploy IT components in order to positively affect various qualities of place. The framework developed begins with an analysis of public places, and then proceeds to an identification of the spatial conflicts that impair qualities of place such as territoriality, privacy, identity and ambience. Components of digital technologies were then spatially correlated to those qualities, thus revealing how these might be potentially applied as part of a system that would combine IT with spatial/physical solutions.It is an attempt to demonstrate that the use of the developed framework is able to provide a basis for a coherent set of decisions regarding the application of IT in public places.

This book regards some essential questions about the use of IT in the early stages of Urban Design projects:

* How could a theoretical approach correlate spatial elements, activities and the flux of information in public urban spaces?

* How could such a theory explain the changes in those correlations when the urban space is affected by spatial conflicts?

* How could such a theoretical approach, regarding the use of IT in urban spaces, support architects during the design process?

* In what way would the resultant projects be better and more efficient than those without any theoretical support?

Those questions raised the problem of understanding the qualities of places in terms of their physical characteristics and of regarding Ubicomp systems as a means to integrate, reinforce and improve those qualities. In this sense, the use of IT in urban areas should be justified by reasons beyond the mere possibility of cheaper solutions, since this does not reflect any essential criteria of efficiency. Rather, the first issue involved in the evaluation of the use of Ubicomp appeared to be, from that moment onwards, the benefits, advantages and limitations for people who use and live in places where IT is applied.

Price at Amazon: $99.00. Other book details:

Paperback: 324 pages
Publisher: LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing (May 24, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 3838367014
ISBN-13: 978-3838367019
Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds

More details about shipping, please, get to Amazon.com website

Professor projeta lente que exibe realidade virtual

2010-03-23T11:03:00.001-07:00

Movidas à energia solar, as lentes estão sendo desenvolvidas nos EUA e prometem acessar a internet

referente a:

"Movidas à energia solar, as lentes estão sendo desenvolvidas nos EUA e prometem acessar a internet"
- Revista Galileu - NOTÍCIAS - Professor projeta lente que exibe realidade virtual (ver no Google Sidewiki)

Ubi

2010-03-16T13:07:00.001-07:00

This special issue explores an approach to Ubicomp we call “Material Computing”, highlighting work that blurs the boundary between materials and computers—between an object’s material composition, its computational functionality, and its form. We present a collection of research that demonstrates both the feasibility and desirability of this approach; contributions touch on issues as diverse as interaction paradigms for programmable matter, energy harvesting techniques, and methods for leveraging smart materials in Ubicomp.

referente a: Personal and Ubiquitous Computing: Theme issue: Material Computing (in production) | Facebook (ver no Google Sidewiki)

Secretário da ONU anuncia 'revisão' do trabalho científico sobre aquecimento

2010-03-10T14:18:00.001-08:00

Escreve esse jornal:
"O anúncio é uma tentativa de estancar as críticas ao trabalho do IPCC, por causa de erros publicados em avaliações oficiais do grupo.
"Temos de definir com clareza tanto o que sabemos quanto as incertezas. Temos de nos comunicar com transparência e debater com inteligência", disse Ban, que também assegurou que "não há provas que refutem a principal conclusão" do IPCC, a de que o homem é responsável pelo aquecimento."

referente a:

"O anúncio é uma tentativa de estancar as críticas ao trabalho do IPCC, por causa de erros publicados em avaliações oficiais do grupo. "Temos de definir com clareza tanto o que sabemos quanto as incertezas. Temos de nos comunicar com transparência e debater com inteligência", disse Ban, que também assegurou que "não há provas que refutem a principal conclusão" do IPCC, a de que o homem é responsável pelo aquecimento."
- G1 > Ciência e Saúde - NOTÍCIAS - Secretário da ONU anuncia 'revisão' do trabalho científico sobre aquecimento (ver no Google Sidewiki)

Para rir um pouco

2010-03-08T19:25:00.000-08:00

Em 1996, depois que o desconstrucionismo se tornara engessado pelos seus propaladores e seguidores, um professor australiano, Andrew Bulhak, criou um gerador de "textos pós-modernos", com "gramáticas livres de contextos", mas invariavelmente sem sentido algum. Quantas vezes esse link for clicado, irá gerar uma combinação dessas, versando sobre tudo e, ao mesmo tempo, sobre coisa alguma que tenha sentido.

Agradecimento ao apoio contra o plágio

2010-02-23T14:25:00.001-08:00

Prezados Amigos,

Fui vítima de plágio de trecho de minha dissertação de mestrado, e ontem divulguei o fato por email a vocês.

Agora, eu escrevo para agradecer as manifestações de apoio que recebi, todas no sentido de repudiar o plágio feito pelo Sr. eduardo frança.

Muitos amigos indagaram especificamente quem havia me plagiado, e não perceberam que o sistema de registo Sidewiki permite visualizar o comentário no contexto do site.

Para tanto, basta clicar nesse link:
http://www.google.com/sidewiki/entry/rcesarfs/id/twmrttWiNgk0oocXCjM7XdFBjOE
Ele permitirá visualizar o meu comentário e, ao clicar sobre o artigo do Sr. eduardo frança deixará marcado o trecho que ele plagiou.

A cópia parcial ou integral ou mesmo a paráfrase sem citação de fonte constituem plágio, de acordo com os mais comuns standards do ensino superior brasileiro ou estrangeiro.

Além do plágio, o que eu mais estranho nesse incidente é que, tendo o Sr. eduardo frança citado meu texto e minhas idéias, ignorou meu trabalho como fonte, mas fez questão de mencionar outras fontes estrangeiras em seu artigo. Repudio esse tipo de atitude e ainda o de qualquer ato em considerar as referências às pesquisas desenvolvidas aqui em Minas Gerais, especificamente na UFMG, irrelevantes.

Meu estranhamento é ainda maior sabendo que o Sr. eduardo frança é egresso do Curso de Mestrado em Arquitetura e Urbanismo. Encaminhei ao Núcleo de Pós-graduação daquele curso um pedido de divulgação ampla desse incidente crendo que futuramente existam medidas mais enérgicas no sentido de coibir abusos como esse entre seus estudantes.

Particularmente creio que a falta de uma tradição acadêmica no nosso contexto se deva, em grande medida, à atitudes como essa, e também à nossa tolerância por esses atos menores. Atos que, por menores que sejam, somam-se e solapam o ensino, a pesquisa e o valor daqueles que se dedicam seriamente à carreira acadêmica.

Finalizando, agradeço mais uma vez a amigos, ex-alunos, colegas professores e arquitetos o apoio que recebi.

Atenciosamente,

Renato Cesar Ferreira de Souza
Rcesar
www.arq.ufmg.br/rcesar
http://www.google.com/profiles/rcesarfs

Plhis

2010-02-23T05:50:00.001-08:00

Informações úteis sobre "Plano Local de Habitação de Interesse Social - PLHIS — Ministério das Cidades".

referente a: Plano Local de Habitação de Interesse Social - PLHIS — Ministério das Cidades (ver no Google Sidewiki)

Ecos e plágio

2010-02-20T04:12:00.001-08:00

Certa vez li num editorial da revista Vão Livre que a obra de um certo arquiteto "ecoava" sobre a cidade.

Nada mais eufêmico para se referir às cópias bastardas feitas a partir da obra dele, numa arquitetura de 30 anos de ruindades.

Agora, vejo minha dissertação de mestrado "ecoando" por aí.

Especifico a seguinte passagem que encontrei pela net:

"Pode-se inferir que há três modos de conexão entre as edificações e as ruas: no primeiro, o que conta é o aspecto funcional, em que pese o trânsito de pessoas e objetos de um ponto a outro; no segundo, há o suporte a questões técnicas, como esgotamento de águas utilizadas nas edificações ou, mesmo, o abastecimento de energia elétrica; e no terceiro, o modo simbólico estabelece a relação de identidade entre as edificações e seu entorno imediato, sua vizinhança."

Na minha dissertação (veja abaixo a referência), disponível desde 1998 na Biblioteca Central e da EAUFMG , à página 15 eu escrevi:

"Pode-se dizer que a casa solicita a rua de três modos: um modo funcional, através do trânsito das pessoas, dos objetos e do abastecimento dos recursos necessários à vida de seus moradores. De um modo técnico, na construção, manutenção e limpeza de passeios, sarjetas, calçamento, esgotamento de águas, iluminação, arborização, etc.. De um modo simbólico ela é tomada como parte da identidade individual que a casa oferece, de forma localizada, acessível e relacionada à coletividade."

O mais estranho é que autor fez a referência a meu texto e a um conceito que eu criei, e não citou - e creio nem citará jamais - a fonte.

É triste ver esse tipo de "eco" pervasivo nos mais recônditos ninhos de plágio de idéias e formas. Sabendo-se a fonte, era de se esperar.

Minha dissertação é

Souza, R.C., A rua e a sua habitabilidade: Moradores e Espaço Urbano em Situação de Conflito, in Curso de Mestrado em Arquitetura da Escola de Arquitetura da Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais. 1998, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais Belo Horizonte. p. 172.

referente a:

"Pode-se inferir que há três modos de conexão entre as edificações e as ruas: no primeiro, o que conta é o aspecto funcional, em que pese o trânsito de pessoas e objetos de um ponto a outro; no segundo, há o suporte a questões técnicas, como esgotamento de águas utilizadas nas edificações ou, mesmo, o abastecimento de energia elétrica; e no terceiro, o modo simbólico estabelece a relação de identidade entre as edificações e seu entorno imediato, sua vizinhança."
- DIADORIM CULTURAL (ver no Google Sidewiki)

Massive Change

2010-02-18T02:44:00.001-08:00

A celebração do design, agora com um ar mais circunspecto, sem os delírios de outrora. Vale a pena o esforço de traduzir e ler.

referente a:

"Design has emerged as one of the world’s most powerful forces. It has placed us at the beginning of a new, unprecedented period of human possibility, where all economies and ecologies are becoming global, relational, and interconnected. In order to understand and harness these emerging forces, there is an urgent need to articulate precisely what we are doing to ourselves and to our world."
- MASSIVE CHANGE » What is Massive Change? (ver no Google Sidewiki)

'Não gostaria que a Microsoft tivesse feito isso', diz Bill Gates sobre o iPad

2010-02-11T15:28:00.001-08:00

Em http://g1.globo.com/Noticias/Tecnologia/0,,MUL1486816-6174,00.html
'Não gostaria que a Microsoft tivesse feito isso', diz Bill Gates sobre o iPad
“Então, não me senti da mesma forma em que vi o iPhone, quando disse ‘Meu Deus, a Microsoft não sonhou alto o suficiente’. É um leitor agradável, mas não há nada sobre o iPad que eu olhe e diga: ‘Oh, eu gostaria que a Microsoft tivesse feito isso’”, resumiu o fundador da Microsoft.

referente a: G1 > Tecnologia - NOTÍCIAS - 'Não gostaria que a Microsoft tivesse feito isso', diz Bill Gates sobre o iPad (ver no Google Sidewiki)

Interative and generative "art"

2010-02-05T17:01:00.000-08:00

Não vou comentar e convido o leitor a se livrar de seus preconceitos...

Algum William Morris se habilita?

Ubicomp 2010 e Pervasive 2011

2010-02-03T04:51:00.000-08:00

Dois Eventos. A participação no UBICOMP 2010 encerra-se em Março próximo. E no Pervasive 2011 em outubro.

12th ACM International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing

Welcome to the website for the 12th ACM International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing. Ubicomp 2010 will be held in Wonderful Copenhagen, Denmark, from September 26-29. Ubicomp is a premier venue for presenting research in the design, development, deployment, evaluation and understanding of ubiquitous computing systems. Ubicomp is an interdisciplinary field of research and development that utilizes and integrates pervasive, wireless, embedded, wearable and/or mobile technologies to bridge the gaps between the digital and physical worlds. Ubicomp 2010 will bring together top researchers and practitioners who are interested in both the technical and applied aspects of Ubiquitous Computing technologies, systems and applications. The Ubicomp 2010 program features keynotes, technical paper and notes sessions, specialized workshops, live demonstrations, posters, video presentations, and a Doctoral Colloquium.

Who should attend?

Given its multi-disciplinary nature, Ubicomp has developed a broad base of audience over the past 10 years. Key audience communities are: Human Computer Interaction, Pervasive Computing, Distributed and Mobile Computing, Real World Modeling, Sensors and Devices, Middleware and Systems, Programming Models and Tools, and Human Centric Validation and Experience Characterization. More detailed information about the topical focus of Ubicomp can be found in the Call for Participation. On behalf of the entire Organisation Committee, we invite you to begin planning your submissions and participation for the Ubicomp 2010 conference!

------------------------------------------------

Pervasive 2011
The Eighth International Conference on Pervasive Computing
17-20 May 2011 - Helsinki, Finland
This annual conference is the premier forum for researchers to present their latest results in all areas related to architecture, design, implementation, application and evaluation of pervasive computing.

Pervasive 2011 will include a highly selective single-track program for technical papers, accompanied by late-breaking result posters, videos, demonstrations, workshops, a doctoral colloquium and other events. The proceedings will be published by Springer. Late-breaking result posters, videos and possible other results will be published on a USB stick only.

Preliminary critical dates
16 October 2011: Paper deadline
18 December 2011: Notification of accepted papers
10 February 2011: Camera-ready copy due

16 October 2011: Workshop and tutorial proposals
16November 2011: Notification of accepted workshops & tutorials

1 February 2011: Posters/demos/videos/doctoral colloquium submissions, deadline
8 March 2011: Notification of accepted posters
31 March 2011: Camera ready copies of posters
General chair
Patrik FlorÃ©en, Helsinki Institute for Information Technology HIIT and University of Helsinki
Programme co-chairs
Antonio KrÃ¼ger, DFKI, Germany
Mirjana Spasojevic, Nokia Research Center, Palo Alto, USA

Blu

2010-01-16T13:32:00.000-08:00

O nome é Blu, desse(a) artista que eu suponho seja alemão(ã). Seu site contém um emaranhado de informações em que não é fácil acompanhar o ritmo de quem trabalha com o grafiti no corpo das grandes cidades. Abaixo, alguns dos seus filmes em stop-motion:

E num interior:

Feliz ano novo

2010-01-13T17:05:00.000-08:00

Que no ano de 2010 nós tenhamos mais lugares!

Comissão Nacional da Verdade

2009-12-30T21:20:00.000-08:00

Nada como alucinar no último dia do ano, e pretender que possamos ser menos falsos, mais reais, mais honestos porque, de fato, presentes no mundo dos homens e não nos ocultando de uma forma ou de outra, por medo dos mais pobres sendo rico ou por conjuntura de sendo pobre em reclusão, que nos libertem dos nossos preconceitos. Feliz dia de amanhã para todos nós.

Mestrado em recuperação de edifícios e espaços urbanos

2009-12-30T06:36:00.000-08:00

Interessantíssima essa oportunidade para os que desejam um mestrado internacional. Até 15 de janeiro: http://www.emdireb.eu/english/

The European Master of Diagnosis and Repair of Buildings (EMDiReB) is a postgraduate university programme, supported by the European Commission through the Erasmus Mundus Programme. It is a one-year-and-a-half masters course (90 ECTS in three semesters of 30 ECTS each), focused on diagnosis, repair, rehabilitation and improvement of buildings and urban spaces.

The training offered has the following objectives:

To provide solid core training for specialists, which will prepare them to undertake the diagnosis, repair, rehabilitation and improvement of buildings and urban spaces;
To provide integral training to enable specialists to write reports and projects, technically supervise construction work and carry out executive management activities associated with the processes involved;
To provide more advanced training, drawing together the knowledge and experience accumulated by three European universities in such important fields as building diagnosis and repair. The consortium contributes and enriches the programme with three different areas of specialization associated with complementary aspects of architectural activity.

The partner institutions of the Masters consortium are: Universidad de Sevilla (US), Spain; Università degli Studi Mediterranea di Reggio Calabria (UNIRC), Italy; Politechnika Lubelska (PL), Poland.

Niemeyer

2009-12-25T12:49:00.000-08:00

"Os mais inteligentes se queixam do mundo. O mundo tem prazeres e alegrias, mas a razão de a gente estar aqui é precária. Em todo caso, ninguém quer abandonar o espetáculo."
Em Geneton Moraes Neto.

2009-12-23T05:12:00.000-08:00

Arquitetura de Terra, constantemente revisitada:
Agora com Martin Rauch.

Razão para sê-lo

2009-12-11T17:36:00.000-08:00

Na minha experiência, é possível observar o quão pouco os arquitetos se habilitaram a trabalhar em equipe. Um colega que prezo muitíssimo referiu-se a isso de uma maneira mais polida impossível: "o sentido autoral..."

Assim, nesse universo esquizofrênico de gênios-para-si-mesmos, à moda de Álvaro de Campos, cada domínio pessoal, insular e naufragado de trabalho é, elegantemente, um náufrago coberto de razões.

O Risco

2009-12-02T14:48:00.001-08:00

Isso poderia ser um post dedicado a inspirar os dois e meio leitores desse blog para o fim de ano, sobretudo os afetos à arte e arquitetura. Mas não é, e eu explico: não quero reduzir uma coisa à outra, o poema à arte do desenho ou à arquitetura.

Encontrei essa moça, poeta e recitadora, quase uma "estândi comediene" (ainda bem que não!), recitando um texto seu:
Maria Rezende.

“O risco não é só um traço
é a distância entre um prédio e outro
a diferença entre o pulo e o salto

O risco é riqueza e asfalto a percorrer
pode ser a pé
pode ser voar
o risco é o bambo da corda solta no ar

Dentro dele cabe cálculo
cabe medo e incerteza
cabe impulso instinto plano

O risco é a pergunta te atacando ao meio-dia
é o preço do sonho pra virar realidade
é a voz das outras gentes testando a tua vontade

Aceita-lo é saber que não existe
estrada certa
linha reta
vida fácil pela frente

Mas que asa
asa
asa
só ganha quem planta no escuro do braço
essa semente de poder voar”

Fadiga na luta cultural

2009-11-23T02:31:00.000-08:00

"A avalanche de alertas sobre os riscos do aquecimento global pode virar um belo tiro pela culatra. Artigo na edição de 13 de novembro da revista 'Science' recupera recentes indicadores de mudanças climáticas, confrontando-os com sinais de cansaço da opinião pública com os repetidos avisos de que a temperatura pode sair do controle, com consequências incontroláveis.

Citando uma pesquisa do Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, o texto lembra que a proporção de americanos para quem "há sólida evidência de que a temperatura média da Terra está aumentando no decorrer das últimas décadas" caiu de 71% para 57%. A proporção de quem vê nesse processo um problema muito grave ou "em certa medida grave" também caiu, neste caso de 73% para 65%.

Outra pesquisa, do Instituto Gallup, indicou que a porcentagem de americanos que consideram exagerada a gravidade do aquecimento global cresceu para 41%, um recorde em 12 anos de realização desse levantamento.

"Aparentemente, advertências ansiosas de crises climáticas iminentes não estão mais alcançando o público", afirma o artigo. Matthew Nisbet, especialista em comunicação política da American University, em Washington, avalia que "é muito difícil que qualquer evento climático vença outras questões e informações concorrentes". Entre americanos, os temas dominantes não são nada menos que duas guerras (no Iraque e no Afeganistão), uma economia ainda cambaleante e a reforma do sistema de saúde.

Para Nisbet, os cientistas precisam de um novo foco para sua mensagem, tratando mais de efeitos localizados e questões mais imediatas, como os impactos da crise climática sobre a saúde dos indivíduos." Fonte: Aqui

Caia a tarde feito um viaduto.

2009-11-14T17:35:00.001-08:00

Já vimos esse filme??

referente a: G1 > Edição São Paulo - NOTÍCIAS - Consórcio terá de indenizar vítimas se for comprovada falha em obras, diz governo (ver no Google Sidewiki)

Vapor

2009-11-11T16:37:00.000-08:00

Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio, da firma Diller Scofidio + Renfro em NY. Autores do Museu da imagem e do som do Rio de Janeiro, projeto de aparência bem polêmica, algo de comum de tanta ousadia cliché. Veja o site.

Abaixo, o Pavilhão da névoa, na Suécia.

Conferencia sobre Design Computing e Cognição

2009-11-03T11:44:00.001-08:00

Estado da arte, segundo dizem no link.

referente a: Fourth International Conference on Design Computing and Cognition DCC'10 or DCC10 (ver no Google Sidewiki)

Global Específico

2009-10-29T14:28:00.001-07:00

Longe de qualquer preocupação em esclarecer o que seja um método e, para além disso, distiguí-lo dos tantos outros de mesma intenção e assemelhados, alguém (que eu gostaria de saber quem) teve a insanidade de inventar o nome para uma estratégia de planejamento urbano com o belo paradoxo de "plano Global Específico". É a totalidade infinita do jeito mineiro de planejar, sempre caindo na profundidade rasa de planos políticos que, daqui a poucos anos, tornam a mudar de nome sem novamente se ater à preocupação de esclarecer ao que eles vêm.

referente a: PORTAL DO OP (ver no Google Sidewiki)

A lisonja mata e a sinceridade salva.

2009-10-22T16:01:00.001-07:00

Esse Renato aí escreveu isso depois de ver uma exposição de Anita Malfatti, que segundo ele era "onde se notam acentuadíssimas tendências para uma atitude estética forçada no sentido das extravagâncias de Picasso e companhia. Essa artista possui um talento vigoroso, fora do comum." E continuou:

" Há duas espécies de artistas. Uma composta dos que vêem normalmente as coisas e em consequência disso fazem arte pura, guardando os eternos ritmos da vida, e adotados para a concretização das emoções estéticas, os processos clássicos dos grandes mestres. Quem trilha por esta senda, se tem gênio, é Praxíteles na Grécia, é Rafael na Itália, é Rembrandt na Holanda, é Rubens na Flandres, é Reynolds na Inglaterra, é Leubach na Alemanha, é Iorn na Suécia, é Rodin na França, é Zuloaga na Espanha. Se tem apenas talento, vai engrossar a plêiade de satélites que gravitam em torno daqueles sóis imorredouros. A outra espécie é formada pelos que vêem anormalmente a natureza, e interpretam-na à luz de teorias efêmeras, sob a sugestão estrábica de escolas rebeldes, surgidas cá e lá como furúnculos da cultura excessiva. São produtos do cansaço e do sadismo de todos os períodos de decadência: são frutos de fins de estação, bichados ao nascedouro. Estrelas cadentes, brilham um instante, as mais das vezes com a luz do escândalo, e somem-se logo nas trevas do esquecimento."

José Bento Renato Monteiro Lobato

Não sei porquê, mas sinto uma enorme simpatia por um senhor tão antipático como ele, nesse "paranóia ou mistificação", só. Bateu certo com o cajado errado.

Fui forçado a decantar histórias de fazenda desse senhor, sacis e outras desorientações - mais por ter sido obrigado pelas professoras de moral e cívica do colégio onde estudei que de qualquer fascínio que eu pudesse ter; claro, minha família era pobre, urbana, e em última instância, eram mais pesadelos que devaneios de vovós latifundiárias disfarçadas em "sítios". Deploro sítios.

Revide: algum artista para criticar literariamente o Marquês de Sabugosa, sem se rir?

referente a:

"Paranóia
ou mistificação?"
- Monteiro Lobato (ver no Google Sidewiki)

Ecofriend

2009-10-20T06:18:00.001-07:00

Projeto de Vincent Callebaut, Arnaud Martinez, e Maguy Delrieu para converter Hong Kong, de seus 30.000 habitantes por km2, numa selva perfumada.

referente a:

"Vincent Callebaut, Arnaud Martinez, and Maguy Delrieu"
- Vincent Callebaut Dreams To Convert Hong Kong Into A Perfumed Jungle - Ecofriend (ver no Google Sidewiki)

Centro administrativo de MG

2009-10-16T18:49:00.000-07:00

Fotos da visita, no dia 16 de outubro de 2009 (clique em cima para ampliar). Obra de Niemeyer. Na foto, os professores da EAUFMG, Fernando Schwab Firme, Marieta Maciel Cardoso e eu. Preciso de um regime....

Ubicomp 2010

2009-10-16T18:38:00.001-07:00

Mais um evento, agora em Copenhagen, Dinamarca, em setembro de 2010... Papers até março de 2010.

referente a: 2010 ACM Conference on Ubiquitous Computing | UBICOMP2010 (ver no Google Sidewiki)

Ubicomp 2009

2009-10-15T08:07:00.001-07:00

A novidade desse evento sobre computação ubíqua (http://www.ubicomp.org/ubicomp2009/programsPaper.shtml) fica por conta dos vídeos a respeito do proceeding de alguns autores, que já podem ser assistidos no link relacionado abaixo. Computação ubíqua é um espalhamento de capacidade computacional no ambiente, acessado por espaços e objetivos triviais de maneira intuitiva.

referente a: Ubicomp 2009 | Orlando, Florida (ver no Google Sidewiki)

Poema Eletrônico

2009-08-26T13:25:00.000-07:00

Por diversas vezes eu citei para os estudantes acerca da junção de Le Corbusier com musico Edgard Varese e com o diretor artístico Louis Kalff na montagem do pavilhão da Philips na exposição em Bruxelas em 1958. Agora, a visão do impacto desse galpão aparece em projeções estreográficas, permitindo a visão da espetacularidade planejada. Trata-se do mais puro senso de arquitetura como escultura e novidade.

2009-04-26T12:59:00.000-07:00

Povo lindo

2009-03-12T15:58:00.000-07:00

Quiseramos ter o senso e a medida estética desse povo remotíssimo, que nos confins da África vestem-se e decoram seus corpos com galhos, flores, ramos.

Segundo o site de onde tirei, a sensibilidade do fotógrafo Hans Sylvester enquadrou em suas fotos, feitas ao longo de seis anos, o modo de se vestir desse povo, celebrando o espírito ancestral da arte de sua tribo.

Rapido, grande e sem sentido

2008-07-19T18:47:00.000-07:00

Dubailand: a versao muculmana da Disneylandia.

23 Shit House

2008-07-12T00:26:00.000-07:00

Há aqui na Inglaterra uma revista que se tornou cult depois de seu florescimento na década de 1980: A “Viz”. Endereçando a todo tipo de considerada “anomalia” no comportamento da classe média britânica, a Viz satirizou o comportamento sexual, as instituições, a igreja, tudo enfim. Não se tratava de um humor políticamente correto. Pelo contrário: tendo em seu staff alguns membros do antigo Monty Python, a Viz primava por fazer humor indo exatamente nos pontos mais reais da sociedade inglesa, sem piedade desmascarando-os. Desde os anos de 1980, o humor britanico foi acompanhando as prescrições para a alimentação feitas pelo NHS, que impôs a retirada gradativa do sal dos alimentos e a sua standartização, até que tudo ficasse sem gosto, sabor ou cheiro. Hoje o humor é, na minha opinião, “weird”, sem as críticas que fizeram o Viz virar um cult, e pior, desconectado da realidade.

Bem, todo esse intróito foi para comentar sobre um “collectable” lançado pela Viz, há algum tempo atrás, e que me inspiraria a sugerir que os estudantes fizessem algo similar. Tratavam-se de pequenas peças miniaturas, em resina, de casas genuinamente representativas da classe média inglesa. Nelas se encontravam expressas todas as reações dos habitantes aos supostos confortos das casas standarts. Tais casas, mais que o legado das horríveis divisões internas das casas vitorianas, georgianas e mais recentemente eduardianas, tinham como agravante o fato de resultarem de um mix dessas tendencias sobre os auspícios do chamado Council House, um programa social, um BNH inglês que, como o nosso, além de não funcionar, acabou nos ultimos anos financiando as mais caras e horríveis casas desse país. Em 2005, pelo menos 20 % das casas construidas estavam ligadas a esse plano, e é fácil notar sua inflência sobre o tipo de arquitetura residencial que ele gerou. Tanto que as miniaturas do Viz escolheram uma dessas casas como exemplo, a “23 Shit Street House” (casa 23 da rua de merda).

A miniatura da “23 Shit Street House” poderia ser descrita como:

“perfect in every detail, from the fire-damaged, urine-stained mattress, carelessly discarded below the bedroom window, to the jauntily angled dustbin spilling its putrid contents across the path in a splash of repulsive colour”. Reparem o antena parabolica e o desleixo generalizado. Observem o lixo no quintal, onde um colchao urinado foi deixado e tambem um fogao em desuso. Ainda em 2008, essas casas povoam a paisagem daqui.

Pertencendo a 23 Shit Street House a classse media inglesa, me ocorreu a ideia de ver tambem uma expressao equivalente a essa peça de humor na cena brasileira, um resumo das formas prosaicas da ideia de conforto e de proteção que casas de classe média ganharam ao longo dos anos, evidenciando seus resultados maléficos sobre o espaço urbano. Como é que seriam?

Contra exemplo

2008-06-22T05:56:00.000-07:00

Muito frequentemente tenho tido a infelicidade de ler textos ruins como esse. Mas ao menos vale o contra-exemplo como o tipo de texto que nao acrescenta nada, e apresenta a opiniao de uma leiga em arquitetura como uma visao teorica.

Relativismo

2008-06-18T07:28:00.000-07:00

Frequentemente ouço, nas defesas de projetos pelos estudantes, alguns argumentos que pertencem a um ponto de vista “relativista”. Esses argumentos não são, de forma alguma, exclusivos dos estudantes, mas a maior parte das vezes, de seus orientadores. E é interessante observar como, dentro da crítica do projeto, várias questões podem ser levantadas a respeito de uma variedade de problemas, todas elas capazes de serem consideradas somente relativas ao contexto onde ocorrem. É assim por exemplo, na justificação do uso de determinadas soluções de projeto, ou mesmo, no postergamento das soluções, quando “não fazer nada” parece ser relativamente adequado.

O texto abaixo é uma reflexão sobre o relativismo, sem muita preocupação em aprofundar o tema em direções inúteis.

“Relativismo e irracionalismo

Como o relativismo, quando observado através da sua dinâmica e de sua “lógica”, acaba por se converter numa forma de irracionalismo.

Criticar o relativismo imperante em nossa sociedade supõe expor-se a duras críticas porque um ponto de vista que se encontra disseminado hoje em dia é o de que o relativismo equivale ao pluralismo e a liberdade. Atacar o relativismo seria, por esse ponto de vista, tomar partido contra esses valores e defender formas supostamente rígidas e autoritárias de conceber o indivíduo e a sociedade.

Mas se aprofundamos um pouco o conceito, descobriremos que os sinônimos mais corretos para se referir ao que hoje é chamado “relativismo” deveria ser indiviadualismo e subjetivismo. Quem defende uma atitude relativista diante da vida costuma ser frequentemente uma pessoa que considera a sua própria opinião como ponto exclusivo de referência. Se é essa a referência de uma sociedade inteira, o resultado será um conjunto de ‘indivíduos-ilhas’, um agregado de seres humanos partidários de uma liberdade que recusa ter limites. E é mesmo compreensível que indivíduos que pensam assim defendam o relativismo porque todo critério objetivo de comportamento suporia um corte de sua sacrossanta autonomia. Entretanto, não se pode logicamente demonstrar que o relativismo é pluralista uma vez que opiniões não relativistas são, na visão relativista, descartadas em nome de um subjetivismo que se fundamenta somente na ditadura do ‘eu’. Essa ditadura será por definição céptica e dirá um não às ideologias e às religiões, que ela considera termos equivalentes porque não reconhece a diferença entre fé secular e fé religiosa. Mas com isso, o relativismo está nos dizendo que devemos renunciar à funesta mania de pensarmos mais além das quatro esquinas do nosso universo particular. Isso não é em si mesmo irracionalismo, uma contradição imprópria a um ser racional? O irracionalismo é um efeito perverso, quem sabe indesejado, do relativismo.

Precisamente esse subjetivismo que pretende entender de tudo - ainda que não se aprofunde em nada - prescinde pouco a pouco da razão para interpretar os problemas sociais, políticos, filosóficos e reduz tudo a um psicologismo sentimental. O ‘eu’ soberano decidiu que o que ‘eu’ penso é ‘a verdade’, e a minha opinião vale tanto como a dos demais ou até mais, porque é ‘minha’. O subjetivismo radical pode escutar atenta e polidamente o conselho de um especialista, mas não mudará em nada o que pensa, porque se o fizesse, admitiria segundo seus valores que houve um corte de sua liberdade. E para o espírito relativista, antes de qualquer verdade ou certeza do mundo - se é que essas existem, pois tudo seria relativo -, está a sua liberdade individual, tal como um dogma professado. Assistimos assim o paradoxo dos que dizem que se emanciparam em nome da razão e optaram pela liberdade, cairem num rígido imobilismo que lhes impede de admitir a possibilidade de mudar suas opiniões preconcebidas. Não há nenhuma verdade a ser discutida. É esta a atitude irracionalista que é fruto do relativismo.

Mas há outros frutos, ainda piores, no relativismo. Dele vem também uma atitude generalizada de desconfiança em relação a tudo e a todos os que nos rodeiam: a consequência é levar os relativistas a pensar que ninguém é justo ou verdadeiro, que todos atuam com segundas intenções que devem sempre se ocultar. Dizendo de outra forma, para o relativista, tudo é mentira porque nada é verdade. A desconfiança também é uma via para o irracionalismo. Nessas circunstaâncias, o ser humano é um animal isolado, preocupado tão somente em marcar seu território, onde ergue seu santuário da sua autonomia pessoal. O mal é que a desconfiana sistemática alimenta o ódio, e acaba por ‘desumanizar’ os demais, privando-lhes de ter um rosto, de serem pessoas concretas, uma vez que assim ficam categorizados no ceticismo relativista. Ao final de tudo o ‘outro’ é um intruso, um perigoso invasor contra o qual tem de se promover um combate. Mas o pior é que o ódio pelos outros se disarce de realização da Justiça, de ‘exigência dos próprios direitos’. São de fato ‘direitos’ ou um aglutinado de egoísmos individuais ou coletivos? O termo ‘egoísmo’ está proscrito para muitas pessoas porque pressupõe um juízo de valor – e se baseia em fundamentos ‘objetivos’ –sobre condutas que podem fundamentar-se em uma liberdade sem limites. Sem dúvida, o slogan mais apropriado para esses nossos tempos seria: ‘O que é a liberdade? Minha santa vontade!’ Esta frase também nos direciona para uma atitude irracional.

A idéia do outro desaparece no discurso do relativismo entendido como subjetivismo e individualismo radical. O mundo que podemos construir é aquele mundo de flaneurs solitários, vagabundos sem rumo fixo, sem passado nem futuro e apegados a um presente que se deseja sem fim. O coração – importante numa sociedade que tanto diz que valoriza os sentimentos – se torna pouco a pouco raquítico, pequeno, o que contrasta com as frequentes invocações a solidariedade dentro dessa sociedade. Mas essa solidariedade corre o risco de reduzir-se ao material, a transformar a ajuda objetiva em um número de conta corrente, em que se alojam os recibos para causas benéficas. O relativismo não é o mais adequado para resolver os problemas da convivência humana. Em teoria, pareceria que sim, porque supostamente ele respeitaria a liberdade dos outros indivíduos. Ou seja, no relativismo todos teríam o direito de permanecer ancorados em suas convicções e não deveriam impô-las aos outros – nem sequer sugeri-las. Mas, se não buscamos aquilo que temos em comum e isso não se alcança com o mero consenso de textos ou declarações, como buscar algum objetivos social? A debilidade do relativismo está no fato de que ele cai no alçapão das idéias abstratas e não é capaz de oferecer soluções concretas para problemas concretos. O relativismo se dirá pragmático, mas ao final das contas torna-se muito pouco prático. É incapaz de abordar soluções específicas porque pensa que isso limitaria a liberdade dos indivíduos e, sob o ponto de vista de seu cepticismo, não está seguro sobre qual pode ser a solução adequada. O relativismo se transforma, assim, no que provavelmente querem os seus patrocinadores: uma forma a mais de imobilismo.

É irracionalista evitar pensar e evitar se aprofundar em muitos aspectos da complexa existencia humana; é irracionalista pensar que não existe outra ética diferente da que eu me dou a mim mesmo. O relativismo constroe o vazio e não admira que ele abra espaço para a ocupaão desse vazio por um Estado que se dirá, diante disso tudo, um referencial ético.

Antonio R. Rubio Plo
Historiador e Analista de Relações Internacionais”

Nau

2008-06-09T18:11:00.000-07:00

Acrilico sobre madeira 90X90 cm

não é de todo uma arte, mas necessita de um artista para existir

2008-06-01T17:16:00.000-07:00

Morreu Yves Saint Laurent, que em 2007 disse, a respeito de seu afastamento do mundo da moda, algo que poderia bem ter sido dito para Arquitetura:

"-Tenho o orgulho de ter sempre colocado acima de tudo o respeito em relação a esta profissão que não é de todo uma arte, mas necessita de um artista para existir".

low profile

2008-05-28T02:57:00.000-07:00

Sem monumentos, sem revistas ou veiculos de media para alardear. Desenho meu, trabalhado no fotoxopi.

One World, One Dream

2008-05-28T02:55:00.000-07:00

Morro de pavor dessa historia de "um sonho", aquele sonho maldito da cabeca de alguem que inspira um mundo melhor e que justifica que - por causa da perseguicao do sonho - se matem centenas, milhares de pessoas. Tudo por causa de um sonho de um mundo melhor. Isso, em arquitetura, eh uma constante. Eu mesmo joguei no lixo minha formacao marxista depois que vim para a Inglaterra, e observei que processos sociais sao historicos e sem atalhos, se resolvem no mundo real atraves da interacao entre as pessoas, e nao pela imposicao da cabeca de quem quer que seja. Portanto, nota zero para arquitetos que sonham um sonho de impor ao mundo sua crenca, nota zero para outras maneiras de morar, nota\zero por qualquer tirania onirica que se diga contraria a outras tiranias irmas. Todas sao tiranas, sonhos de poder justificados com a "ideia de um mundo melhor".

Information Commons

2008-05-21T07:26:00.000-07:00

Information Commons eh o nome da mais nova biblioteca da Universidade de Sheffield.

Tive a oportunidade de acompanhar sua construcao desde a fundacao, pelo simples fato de passar em frente todos os dias, voltando da universidade. Inaugurada no dia 10 de abril de 2007, esse novo espaco foi construido com bastante dinheiro, o que pode ser imediatamente visto pelo material e acabamento adotado, estendendo-se para a mobilia e instalacoes.

Curiosamente o programa da biblioteca foi dividido em 3 blocos que ocupam todo o quarteirao em 6 andares. Todos os blocos se recortam, indicando aparentemente uma complexidade interna: complexidade que nao existe, pois internamente os blocos se unem e formam um vao flexivel para acomodar um outro tipo de lay out para prateleiras, estantes, salas de leitura e salas de computador. Nem janelas nem estrutura expressam externamente o que se organbiza no interior.

Procurei saber os autores do projeto, me indicaram que seria a equipe de Enric Mirales, o arquiteto catalao que foi premiado no ano de 2004 com o predio carissimo do parlamento escoces. Nao chequei a informacao, mas a julgar pelo material usado, numero de refeitos e complexidade tecnologica, alem do fato de a obra ter demorado quase dois anos, chego a crer que eh verdade.

O parlamento escoces, passado o frisson do premio, revelou-se um edificio caro de construir, manter e demolir. Esta agora reputado como uma das aberracoes que equipes de arquitetura entusiasmadas associadas com muito dinheiro sao capazes de produzir.

Abaixo, segue um video mostrando um tour virtual por dentro da Information Commons.

Casas inglesas

2008-05-16T14:56:00.000-07:00

Aquarela A3.

London Festival of architecture e as ovelhas

2008-05-07T19:30:00.000-07:00

No LFA (London Festival of Architecture) de 2005 os estudantes do Uk que participaram daquela ruindade organizada por Peter Ackroyd quiseram atravessar Londres com ovelhas vivas para chamar a atencao quanto a vida no countryside e protestar contra o evento que soh se realiza na cidade de Londres. Isso causou indignacao massiva de todo pais, em todos setores, pois o ato foi consideado anti-vida, uma vez que as ovelhinhas iriam ficar estressadas ao atravessar uma cidade grande, tadinhas. Seria desumano para elas. O protesto soou estupido e vazio, e as ovelhas ficaram pastando em paz.

Agora, vejo uns projetos inexplicaveis (ruins) de estudantes brasileiros que tentam participar desse evento inexpressivo que eh o LFA... Os projetos sao de uma pretencao cosmopolita ridicula. Parecem-se mais 'penetras' numa festa absolutamente local e convencional, alheia a qualquer preocupacao com a vida no Brasil. Novas ovelhas, que vao estressar logo pela falta de juizo critico.

De volta as fontes

2008-05-07T11:06:00.000-07:00

Fico pensando: como irei lidar novamente com a neurose comum que ataca o meio arquitetônico mineiro (entenda-se o conjunto não harmonioso composto por professores, arquitetos, estudantes e outros profissionais verborrágicos).

Digo neurose referindo-me a uma conjunção de características comuns que atacam a maior parte desses caracteres: a primeira delas é a busca incessante pela aparência de cosmopolitismo em arquitetura, busca que se reflete em opiniões copiadas, em cópias bastardas de projetos, e em eventos sociais e acadêmicos vazios ou de importância inventada imitando algum evento exterior; a segunda é a desagradável necessidade que muitos desses caracteres têm por uma propaganda de suas pessoas e de seus produtos, numa busca agressiva por clientela.

Cansativo, muito cansativo.

Depois de 4 anos observando o que um país endinheirado pode fazer e não fazer em termos de arquitetura, minha vida ficou livre da algaravia histérica desse millieu neurótico mineiro, e as discussões sobre arquitetura que aconteceram por aqui ficaram mais calmas, serenas, com sentido e longe da auto-afirmação e auto-promoção baratas que eu sempre vi nos discursos sobre arquitetura em Minas Gerais.

Ao voltar, estou me prometendo a, de duas uma, fazer um voto de silêncio relativamente a esse povo estranho ou a fundar a mais séria barreira crítica para preservar alguma qualidade nas coisas que gosto de ler e estudar em arquitetura. Talvez a segunda, pois não pretendo deixá-los reduzir o meu prazer pela arquitetura.
Alguns arquitetos mineiros, mesmo nao parecendo, ainda gostam de poses como o arquiteto do filme "The fountainhead".

Inimigos

2008-05-06T14:33:00.000-07:00

Foto de Henri Cartier-Bresson

Ao longo dos anos, eu fui compreendendo que a Arquitetura é um assunto apaixonante, muito mais até do que imaginei há 20 anos, quando me formei. Contudo, nos dias de hoje, eu creio que a Arquitetura está em constante ameaça. Seja por causa da insensibilidade da usura - que multiplica edifícios ruins; seja por causa da ignorância - que os aceita quotidianamente; seja através do discurso pomposo de teorias vazias que prodigalizam uma naturalidade ou um relativismo irreais – uma simples análise revela que são vários os inimigos da Arquitetura. E todos eles, segundo meu ponto de vista, a detestam profundamente, a ponto de diminuir-lhe o valor tentando transmutar a sua matéria num jogo burocrático de palavras e regras, diminuindo a importância da experiência individual na apreciação do espaço e da arte. Esses inimigos fazem com que a Arquitetura pareça necessária apenas para simbolizar um poder coercitivo sobre o cidadão, quando se trata de edifícios públicos e corporativos, e nos edifícios habitacionais, estimular o conformismo.

De um modo mais ou menos disseminado, a ignorância e a pobreza de espírito têm atacado a inspiração e o engenho, na Arquitetura. São esses os dois mais cruéis inimigos, e eu não tenho dúvidas que é no interior das universidades o local onde eles se aninham. Enquanto isso, do lado de fora, entre as atitudes heróicas, não se salvam nem o cosmopolitismo exibicionista de países ricos e novos ricos, nem a pretensa genialidade das excessões nos países pobres e atitudes alternativas. Ambas categorias de manifestações não são orientadas para uma vida real - são apenas uma pose.

Há também uma falsa atitude científica que tenta reduzir as dimensões mais humanas da Arquitetura para apresentá-la como simples resultado do cálculo, do conforto e da eficiência. Ingenuamente, muitos dos que gostam de estudar a Arquitetura acabam por se render à supersimplificação que esse falso espírito científico oferece. Esquecem, entretanto, que a Arquitetura é matéria que conta com milhares de anos na terra, contra os precários 400 e poucos anos do pensamento científico moderno.

Um modo de contra-atacar esses inimigos - e talvez de forma muito mais eficaz do que simplesmente projetar e construir edifícios para o próprio deleite ou curriculum - é estudar e discutir o que seja a Arquitetura e ensinar isso, preservando o espaço para o debate de seus significados e sua importância. Essa educação orientada para a ensino dos aspectos sobre o espaço individual e coletivo pode repercutir objetivamente nos cidadãos e na vida de um país, refletindo-se no modo como eles vão tomar decisões sobre seus edifícios e seu meio ambiente.

Nesse sentido, apoiando um pouco o combate a favor da Arquitetura, disponibilizo aqui alguns textos e outros materiais orientados para o ensino.

Seja bem-vindo, e por favor, participe.

Sheffield, 12 de abril de 2008.

Tall buildings

2008-02-21T07:50:00.000-08:00

This curious footage compares tall buildings and their structures, focusing mainly in the fact that steel structures are very hard to collapse. This is another part of a conspiracy theory...

Arts Towers

2008-01-23T09:32:00.001-08:00

The originality of Arts Tower Building in Sheffield, inspired in, for instance, TD Tower, Toronto - By Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.

I will guide you outside university!

2008-01-22T08:03:00.000-08:00

I am very sad today as a result of reading some stuff about Brazilian architecture, specifically from my state, Minas Gerais. As it happens to be as far as I remember myself as student, the intellectual production concerning architectural subjects in Minas Gerais is pretty targeting commercial promotion, as it can be attested in a small research within internet. I get really upset by seeing some tutors of Federal University - who I thought were supposedly to not act as endorsing any commercial and particular intentions instead focusing on collectively important issues - being used.

My faith is always in the new generation of architects who should not be conduced through such guided and previously planned trip while discussing architecture, neither accepting as true any particular groups' ideas or reason that puts in a far and outside world subjects that should be discussed among them as university.

In the future I will express here clearer this point, using portuguese.

Explication

2007-12-28T11:32:00.000-08:00

Now it is my turn to write up my thesis. For me, the hardest thing is doing something readable - which requires that, at the same time, you bear in mind the complete volume, no matter how big. It is really tiring, more than ever if you consider doing that in your second language.

All of this has been the reason why I have not post in this blog that much. As long as I finish my first version, I will be here again, pleased by sharing with you some thoughts. Take care and have nice parties. Good 2008!

Impossible Bridges

2007-09-30T02:58:00.001-07:00

IT and Urban Space

2007-09-10T04:57:00.000-07:00

It was passed the seminar about Physicality, in Lancaster University.

I presented a paper analysing IT in the urban space. The results of three different urban projects were analyzed in order to draw a conclusion about the limits and contributions of my framework to the creation of urban projects supported by Ubicomp. The first project (project A) was for the international contest of urban requalification of Gwangbok Street, South Korea, 2005. The second project (project B) was the urban requalification to Fargate Street, city of Sheffield, United Kingdom, 2006. The Third (project C) was the urban recast to the central area of the campus of the University of Sheffield, 2007. All projects had a common starting point that was to consider the application of IT as a means to contribute in the solution of spatial conflicts. Those urban areas were analyzed through the “reading space” technique proposed by Malard [1], observing conflicts originated from lack or malfunctioning of spatial elements in local activities. The conflicts were interpreted as interfering directly on the qualities of territoriality, privacy, identity and ambience. The architects of project B and C will be interviewed focusing their experience whilst using the framework. Project A intended to reconnect the street with a broader range of events that surround it in the neighbourhood. Busan is the city of the Korean Festival of Cinema, which attracts people all over the country to its celebrations. Originally Gwangbok Street was a calm commercial path that existed during the Korean middle ages. It has become nowadays a busy and congested street with many conflicts. The illegal parking at street obstructs it continuously causing conflicts with pedestrian activities. By its turn, pedestrian activities interfered over each other. The facades show a lack of maintenance that, together with many areas difficult to clean, interferes on the ambience. Also a wide variety of different types of urban furniture did not offer a sense of identity. Thousand of placards make Gwangbok to look as many other congested streets in Asia, nothing special, but a lack of identity. In addition, the city council was aiming to transform Gwangbok Street in a cultural pole, surrounded by a cast of buildings, open-markets, museums and other facilities in the range of walking distance.

The projects of urban spaces augmented with IT (click to see bigger)

The project consisted of eight movable actuators, gadgets named “robots”. Each robots includes 1 Laser projector, 1 display message board, 2 big screen televisions, 2 video cameras, and 3 IBM’s Everywhere projectors. The laser projectors aimed to produce special visual effects in exhibitions and parades at nighttime. The luminous message board would broadcast news about activities in the street and around, information about local museums, events and so on. Televisions would permit watching small clips, ads, footages from the place, real time sequences, and others. Video cameras would gather material to be mastered and after broadcasted through the Robots. The IBM’s Everywhere projector would combine projection with detection on arbitrary surfaces, converting walls and floor in an crude interactive touch screen. Each Robot would move under rails over the street, sustained by 34 structural portals. The Robots were made in molded polycarbonate and structural aluminum. They would be controlled by the Interaction Research Centre, situated inside the 4 towers along Gwangbok street. But the interaction, position, movement and lights of the Robot would be also modified by users through internet.

In the occasion of Busan International Film Festival or when required the Robot can spread information, ads, clips, games and quizzes about the movies exhibited, interacting with the public and attracting their attention. In order to be a pervasive mechanism for declaring, representing, and querying the physical relationship between people, places, devices, and things, the Robot would need a continuous research. The Interaction Research Centre would be an organization which main concern is designing, experimenting and maintaining systems, software and hardware, in order to produce new improvements on interactive urban devices used at Gwangbok Street.

Project B was a refurbishment of an old commercial street at the centre of Sheffield. That street was bombed in the Second World War, and many buildings were rebuild. A report containing a list of conflicts affecting the qualities of the place was made to assist the architects design. The solutions comprised interactive walls, a ring for amusement, playing with local images and a kiosk for tourism information.

Project C was an urban recast of the public space at the Campus of University of Sheffield. Many conflicts were detected, from the lack of delimitations in the territory, causing confusion in people’s orientation, to the diversity of entrances and circulations reinforcing the transient character of occupation to the place, and so on. Two different systems of integrated solutions were designed, using IT devices and small physical interventions. In comparison with project A and B, the solutions were spatially less intrusive and the devices were more accurately specified.

2007-08-30T08:08:00.000-07:00

The 16 Squares Most Dramatically in Need of Improvement

According to the very good site Project for Public Spaces:

"After looking at what the world's best squares do for their respective cities, you get a better sense of the tremendous untapped potential in the many underperforming squares around the country and the world--places that have crucial locations, but no life. There's something holding back each of these squares from becoming great places that can make a positive contribution to the vitality and prosperity of their communities.

1. City Hall Plaza, Boston, MA

There is no square as terrible and bleak as this one. It is the polar opposite of what belongs at the center of one of North America's greatest cities. We believe that City Hall and the Plaza should be torn down and rebuilt as a great gathering place linked to the all the great places nearby. It would give the people of Boston such a sense of relief after decades of looking at this disaster. There is nothing good about either the building or the plaza, and the sooner Boston decides to move on the better.

2.Place de la Concorde, Paris, France

Place de la Concorde is the worst of all public spaces in Paris because it exists solely to move traffic. This square, the biggest in Paris, is 21 acres large. Calling it the Place de la Concorde ("Square of Peace") is the height of irony. Its history of slaughter, (over 1100 people were beheaded there and another 133 trampled to death), is recalled by the racing traffic that constantly threatens to run over the numerous pedestrians traveling between the Tuileries and the Champs Elysées. Hopes of walking comfortably from the Louvre, through the Tuileries, to the Champs Elysées are immediately dashed upon encountering this asphalt battlefield.

Nowhere can you find so vast an expanse of vehicle-dominated space that is less necessary than Place de la Concorde. The vehicular space could be reduced by 80% and there would still be a smooth flow of traffic. Instead of an enormous void, this could be the central point in all of Paris--a historic destination, a gateway/transition space, and a great event center. From its vantage point there are fabulous vistas of many noteworthy monuments. More than any other single space in Paris, Place de la Concorde could be transformed from a spectacular failure into a sublime, transcendent urban space.

3. Occidental Square, Seattle, WA

Seattle's downtown is on the verge of redefining itself. It simply needs a well-placed push to break out of the self-imposed morass -- bought on by the fear of undesirables and a reluctance to embrace its ethnic diversity -- it has stuck in for decades. There are so many breakout opportunities and Occidental Square in the Pioneer Square District is one of the most important. The state of this square has kept the whole district from becoming a great destination. We would venture to say that property values are now at 60% of what they would be with a thriving square to give energy and stature to this critical historic area. PPS has recently undertaken two community planning efforts for Occidental Square, giving momentum to the reclamation of this vitally important place.

4. UN Plaza, San Francisco, CA

United Nations Plaza is a major point of access to San Francisco's vast but disappointing Civic Center, and a key location on the equally underperforming Market Street. Together, UN Plaza and Civic Center represent a major opportunity to tie together and improve the mediocre Market Street and the abysmal Embarcadero, one of the most unpleasant waterfront boulevards of any major city.

UN Plaza should be the gateway to a dynamic Civic Center. At its center currently is a wonderful fountain that is just in the wrong place--a sunken pit with water raging within (when it is on) that has become a bathing pool for San Francisco's homeless. The potential of UN Plaza becomes apparent on market days, when the place thrives. Further redefining this plaza as a market destination with programming and other activity would do wonders. UN Plaza should stay true to its name and do all it can to showcase the assets of the multiple cultures that are part of the market.

5. Tate Modern Public Spaces, London

Recently redeveloped and opened in 2000, this plaza of a renowned art museum is a study in aggravating design. The fact that people might use it could not have been remotely considered. It truly has the worst and most poorly located benches ever produced by man. A space that offers so few options, that controls people and limits their actions, will only irritate them. Comparing this public space with other contemporary sculpture gardens, such as the Hirschhorn and the National Gallery in Washington, or the MoMA's garden in New York, you realize how far off the mark the Tate Modern is.

6. Pershing Square, Los Angeles, CA

Pershing Square is basically a design statement with little or no function. Its last redesign in 1994 seemed more an egregious exercise in artistic form than an effort to promote the uses and activities that make successful public spaces. In fact, there are no positive uses or activities to speak of. The colors are wonderful, but even the act of walking through Pershing Square is impeded by a series of walls or grass areas that are not to be used. It is surrounded by massive roads that further isolate the square from the city. By focusing on fostering the activities needed to bring life to the space and rethinking the surrounding context of wide, high speed streets, Pershing Square has the potential to be the famous and great people place downtown Los Angeles sorely needs.

7. Public Square, Cleveland, OH

Cleveland's famed Public Square is surrounded and divided by wide roads full of fast moving traffic. So, there's little going on there. The Square's mediocrity is all the more frustrating in light of its promising location: Cleveland's main street, Euclid Avenue, connects Public Square to Playhouse Square, the city's theater district, and the Public Square itself fronts Terminal Tower, a beautiful old mixed-used, transit-centered development. The first priority should be to make Public Square more accommodating to pedestrians by narrowing intersections and reducing the number of vehicle lanes to slow down traffic. These steps are prerequisite to creating better connections between the Square and key places along its edges, such as Terminal Tower. The finishing touch would be to program activities and create attractions and amenities to support this programming within each of the Square's four quadrants.

8. Schouwburgplein, Rotterdam, Netherlands

This is a perfect example of how a design statement cannot be a great square. People have told us that a lot of people use this square as an open space on days when events take place. But sporadic use does not make a great square. Our work on squares emphatically shows that the design needs to first work without any programming. A place works best if it draws a regular clientele who stay even when nothing is being programmed. Then, with a solid foundation to build on, programming can draw different types of activity such as markets, cultural events and performances.

9. Market Square, Houston, TX

Houston is a city where every public space is seen as a design statement, not a place for people. Hence, there are no great public spaces in Houston, and there never will be until city leaders get over the idea of "design" as the solution. They need to get back to the more basic idea of "place." Market Square offers the best opportunity to do just that. It has the history, the location, and the name to draw in all the wonderful cultures of Houston.

Several years ago, PPS developed recommendations to locate an actual public market in Market Square. But we were told that Market Square was a "park," and as such, no commercial activity could take place there. Decision makers chose a silly design that did nothing but continue to keep people away. It wouldn't take much to make Market Square great--they should reinvent it by putting in a great market. The "New Market Square" could open in two months if leaders had the will. Once that domino falls, Houston may be able to free the rest of downtown from the grip of high design and open it up to people.

10. Education Plaza, Washington, DC

The federal government needs to move past the fortress mentality it has imposed on every building it operates. The Department of Education on Independence Avenue is the perfect site to move beyond the perpetual state of fear that pervades every federal building in Washington and, increasingly, across the nation. On a street leading up to the Capitol, full of museums--from the fantastic Smithsonian to the Hirschhorn and National Air and Space Museum--it could become one of the nation's most striking and popular public spaces.

11. Logan Circle, Philadelphia, PA

The spectacular Swann Memorial Fountain is Logan Circle's great attraction. But only the brave few who manage to cross the speeding traffic of Benjamin Franklin Parkway can fully experience the fountain's pleasures. Located on a crucial axis that connects Philadelphia's famous City Hall to the Museum of Art, Logan Circle deserves to be part of a grand pedestrian boulevard, but is instead isolated by five lanes of vehicles. To make matters worse, the renowned cultural institutions that surround the Circle have little connection to the park itself. If Benjamin Franklin Parkway and the roadways around the Circle were dramatically narrowed, this would change the atmosphere of the entire area and help Swann Fountain regain its standing as one of the city's showpieces. Once people feel comfortable walking through the area, other improvements can follow. In an encouraging sign of progress already underway, the Center City District is working with the prestigious cultural institutions around the Circle to make their assets more visible in the park. With these changes Logan Circle could very well become one of the best public places in the world.

12. Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona

This is a tragic missed opportunity. What could be a great example of a contemporary building fitting into an ancient walled city and contributing in many diverse ways to its community life and culture has instead become just a single-use destination for skateboarders. Skate parks are fine things, but there's nothing for anyone else here, in what is supposed to be a premiere public place.

As with so many buildings of this ilk, the main problems are the lack of things on the ground floor to engage or attract pedestrians, and an insistence that the plaza design reflect the minimalist building design. A purely visual space invites purely one-dimensional uses. Suburban buildings relish making a big design statement -- and they have the space to do so (for better or worse). But urban buildings like this need to support diverse, dynamic human activity, and therefore need appropriate and sensitive design. Apparently, the architect did not understand that responsibility.

13. Dupont Circle, Washington, DC

Many think Dupont Circle is the best destination in Washington. We think it is performing at 30% of its potential. The city has undergone a metamorphosis in the past ten years, with many areas gradually becoming more vital. However, there seems to be a limit to this improvement: a rigid adherence to a master plan that keeps many areas from coalescing into real destinations. Dupont Circle needs to be freed from that mold. There are active parts of the Circle, but they are not connected. The Farmers Market is separate from the inner circle and from the active part of Massachusetts Avenue. The road around the Circle is two lanes too wide, and the connections from the interior park to the edges could be dramatically improved. With Connecticut Avenue running underneath the circle, there is no need to cater to heavy traffic. In fact, Dupont Circle could become a traffic-calmed, pedestrian friendly destination and quite possibly the core of a great urban district. Fulfilling this tremendous opportunity is essential if Washington is to become a world class city.

14. City Centre, Mississauga, Ontario

Mississauga is Canada's 5th largest city but is known mainly as the home of Toronto's airport. It lacks a reputation to match its size. A big reason is, as Gertrude Stein once put it, "there is no there there" in the central district, which is dominated by a gigantic shopping center. This could be easily changed by focusing on improving the underperforming public spaces at the public buildings downtown and tying them into the mall with a newly created Main Street between them. Doing this, Mississauga could take a giant leap to becoming a real and dynamic city. With all the residential development happening near downtown and a commitment to a series of new parks to support these residents, Mississauga can be a model for the modern city.

15. Exchange Square, Manchester, UK

Like Schouwburgplein, Exchange Square is known as an "event space." The problem is that it only works when events are taking place. Its fancy paving, sweeping design statements and hidden water feature dress the square up, but leave the user with no place to go. Over-designed, inflexible, and dominated by rows of awkward sitwalls that impede pedestrian flow and gathering, this square should be exchanged for a place that displays a rudimentaty understanding of how people use public space. It masquerades as a civic square, but actually prevents this space from really evolving to celebrate the true richness and diversity of Manchester.

16. Carré d'Art, Nimes, France

Nimes is a lovely city in southeastern France that some have called the "Rome of France." It has a wonderful network of public spaces, small squares, and streets. But the attempt to mix historic and modern design in the Carré d'Art and the new museum that faces it, the Musée d'Art Contemporain, is startlingly out of context. The building, designed by Norman Foster, is sterile and aloof, creating a dead zone around the square. On the side of the plaza opposite the Museum sits an ancient Roman temple called the Maison Carrée. Any similar temple in Rome itself would be a great gathering place. But that is not the case in Nimes, since this small square lacks the qualities that most Roman squares have in abundance. It wouldn't take much to make this a great series of public spaces: The tragedy is that the designer has stifled that possibility by creating a building to be looked at, but not used."

Ubicomp

2007-07-31T17:52:00.001-07:00

Surface

2007-07-16T16:08:00.000-07:00

Is the prerogatives of ubicomp a starting point to new products? This new product from Microsoft looks as an answer. Surface.

A fountain?

2007-06-12T14:57:00.000-07:00

This was one of the first application of IT, towards a ubiquitous computing. It is at least interesting. You can read more here.

"In the morning paper, I can read the weather report as well as
the stock quotes. But when I look out of my window I only get a
weather update and no stock exchange info. Could someone please
fix this bug in my environmental system? Thanks."

Strong

2007-05-29T16:58:00.000-07:00

I've been here in Uk hearing some very weak discourses claiming to preserve the environment. Just to compare, give a go to this one, in 1992, at the ECO conference in Rio de Janeiro:

Question of time?

2007-05-22T01:33:00.000-07:00

In the autumn of 1994, New York University theoretical physicist, Alan Sokal, submitted an essay to Social Text, the leading journal in the field of cultural studies. Entitled "Transgressing the Boundaries: Toward a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity," it purported to be a scholarly article about the "postmodern" philosophical and political implications of twentieth century physical theories. However, as the author himself later revealed in the journal Lingua Franca, his essay was merely a farrago of deliberately concocted solecisms, howlers and non-sequiturs, stitched together so as to look good and to flatter the ideological preconceptions of the editors. After review by five members of Social Text's editorial board, Sokal's parody was accepted for publication as a serious piece of scholarship. It appeared in April 1996, in a special double issue of the journal devoted to rebutting the charge that cultural studies critiques of science tend to be riddled with incompetence.

According to Paul Boghossian, it shows at least three important things. First, that dubiously coherent relativistic views about the concepts of truth and evidence really have gained wide acceptance within the contemporary academy, just as it has often seemed. Second, that this has had precisely the sorts of pernicious consequence for standards of scholarship and intellectual responsibility that one would expect it to have. Finally, that neither of the preceding two claims need reflect a particular political point of view, least of all a conservative one.

In architecture, the constant association of theoretical thinking and post-modern relativism has led to many more examples of such hoax, with the aggravating that we did not discover them yet.

International Competition

2007-05-08T02:57:00.000-07:00

Architecture and design students are encouraged to participate in the
competition and to come up with new and creative approaches to use
traditional or renewable raw materials (e.g. straw, bamboo, paper, etc.).

The focus lies on the intelligent combination of environmentally sound
materials and sustainable building. The specific purpose of the competition
is to bridge traditional knowledge and modern society and to give young
architecture and design students a chance to show their work at the European
Forum Alpbach, a very prominent platform for European science, economy and
politics held every year in Austria.

Click over the poster to get further info.

Visceral

2007-05-02T08:19:00.000-07:00

"A building is a building. It cannot be read like a book; it doesn't have any credits, subtitles or labels like picture in a gallery. In that sense, we are absolutely anti-representational. The strength of our buildings is the immediate, visceral impact they have on a visitor."

Jacques Herzog

Mobility and anti-mobility

2007-05-02T07:57:00.001-07:00

Paul Hartzog got a interesting blog and one of his articles I will copy and paste right now, so interesting the arguments are:

“What do we mean by mobility? Although there are technological forces in the world that promote mobility, are we missing the ones that obstruct mobility? What are the forces of anti-mobility?

For example:

There are many difficulties posed by anti-terrorist safety measures on airplanes. These measures have already had wide-reaching consequences such as musicians not being able to do their jobs (which involve substantial travel) because they can no longer transport their expensive instruments.
Border-crossing and passport issues are getting worse. Many people are just staying within their “safe zones.”

So I got to thinking that if the forces of anti-mobility overcome the forces of mobility, we will actually be less mobile than we used to be. To clarify, what do we mean by mobility? Technological mobility involves smart objects, GPS, telecommunications, wifi, and all of the factors that enable individuals to be tapped into the no-osphere at all times, and, I would argue, is increasing. But political mobility involves the willingness of governments to allow mobility to flourish, and, this, I would argue, is decreasing.

Interestingly, I think this is a fuzzy dichotomy with overlap between the two concepts. For instance:

Technological mobility, i.e. access to information about another place than where I am right now, means that I don’t actually have to go there. So technology can also be anti-mobility.
Political mobility in places like the EU is definitely easier now than it ever has been since the nation-state boundaries came into being.

One can envision scenarios where society becomes more mobile locally, i.e. within some small predefined boundary, but less mobile within the global context. It is too early to tell how bad or good this might be. A lot of environmentalists are already pushing for more local activity and less global activity.

My colleague Kingsley Dennis, of the New Mobilities research centre at Lancaster University in the U.K., has said to me that he wants to investigate “the underside of mobility,” so I’m just free-floating some ideas here. It definitely seems like this area of inquiry has some room for some good analytical investigation though.”

I think it will be a interesting discussion, and will keep waiting to read more. I would include a sense o scale in this view atwart small scales are getting more and more mobility whereas big scales not. In fact, in an architectural and spatial point of view, small scale mobility is a redundance, fortifying the identity notion of the places. This, summing up to the actual delicate state of international relations could drawn a very sad frame of intolerance within regions of the globe, typical in moments as such blind nacionalisms had raised in the political panorama.

Place in Physics

2007-05-02T07:56:00.001-07:00

Place is first of all a (small) portion of the earth's surface identified by a name. The thing whose "place" is being specified is a "material object" or body. Simple analysis shows "place" also to be a group of material objects. Does the word "place" have a meaning independent of this one, or can one assign such a meaning to it? If one has to give a negative answer to this question, then one is led to the view that space (or place) is a sort of order of material objects and nothing else. If the concept of space is formed and limited in this fashion, then to speak of empty space has no meaning. And because the formation of concepts has always been ruled by instinctive striving for economy, one is led quite naturally to reject the concept of empty space.

It is also possible, however, to think in a different way. Into a certain box we can place a definite number of grains of rice or of cherries, etc. It is here a question of a property of the material object "box," which property must be considered "real" in the same sense as the box itself. One can call this property the "space" of the box. There may be other boxes which in this sense have an equally large "space." This concept "space" thus achieves a meaning which is freed from any connection with a particular material object. In this way by a natural extension of "box space" one can arrive at the concept of an independent (absolute) space, unlimited in extent, in which all material objects are contained. Then a material object not situated in space is simply inconceivable; on the other hand, in the framework of this concept formation it is quite conceivable that an empty space may exist.

These two concepts of space may be contrasted as follows: (a) space as positional quality of the world of material objects; (b) space as container of all material objects. In case (a), space without a material object is inconceivable. In case (b), a material object can only be conceived as existing in space; space then appears as a reality which in a certain sense is superior to the material world. Both space concepts are free creations of the human imagination, means devised for easier comprehension of our sense experience.

These schematic considerations concern the nature of space from the geometric and from the kinematic point of view, respectively. They are in a sense reconciled with each other by Descartes' introduction of the coordinate system, although this already presupposes the logically more daring space concept (b).

The concept of space was enriched and complicated by Galileo and Newton, in that space must be introduced as the independent cause of the inertial behavior of bodies if one wishes to give the classical principle of inertia (and therewith the classical law of motion) an exact meaning. To have realized this fully and clearly is in my opinion one of Newton's greatest achievements. In contrast with Leibniz and Huygens, it was clear to Newton that the space concept (a) was not sufficient to serve as the foundation for the inertia principle and the law of motion. He came to this decision even though he actively shared the uneasiness which was the cause of the opposition of the other two: space is not only introduced as an independent thing apart from material objects, but also is assigned an absolute role in the whole causal structure of the theory. This role is absolute in the sense that space (as an inertial system) acts on all material objects, while these do not in turn exert any reaction on space.

The fruitfulness of Newton's system silenced these scruples for several centuries. Space of type (b) was generally accepted by scientists in the precise form of the inertial system, encompassing time as well. Today one would say about that memorable discussion: Newton's decision was, in the contemporary state of science, the only possible one, and particularly the only fruitful one. But the subsequent development of the problems, proceeding in a roundabout way which no one then could possibly foresee, has shown that the resistance of Leibniz and Huygens, intuitively well founded but supported by inadequate arguments, was actually justified.It required a severe struggle to arrive at the concept of independent and absolute space, indispensable for the development of theory. It has required no less strenuous exertions subsequently to overcome this concept-a process which is probably by no means as yet completed.

Note: this text was written by Albert Einsten to the foreword of the book "Concepts of space : the history of theories of space in physics", Max Jammer, Oxford University Press, 1954

ANT

2007-05-02T07:55:00.000-07:00

In the book ‘Science in action: how to follow scientists and engineers through society’ Bruno Latour describes some seminal concepts of his ‘sociology of translation’ – a study about the way things assume being spokesman of other things, translating their power into coordinated actions into a network. To analyze this, the book concerns to the everyday life of scientists and how they deal with each other, competing to achieve their findings, and enrolling things, actions, corporations, societies and so forth into a vast network of scientific research. Exemplifying some concepts, as for instance, the way each actor tries to betray their companion in order to evolve, how other networks came to be compacted into a black box or part of the net starts being regarded as punctual (punctualization process), Latour depicts the quotidian of scientists through his Actor Network Theory lens.

When I was reading, I pretty remembered some circumstances in Brazil during researches at EAUFMG, in which some trainee researches got stressed with the uncertainty of the route of the research. Mainly students, they usually start complaining about a lack of orientation and supervision in their jobs when working together with a researcher. This puts me thinking on how naïve some of us are to look through research as if it was a very straight procedure aiming a clear target, even claiming to a kind of ‘science’ of pure objectivism. I fed up attending to conferences in which one always enacted what is science, of course emphasizing a profitable particular point of view of his/her research, giving the impression the realm of science is fully illuminated and without any shadow of interferences from the social context.

In my opinion, despite being a tough book because the translation is horrible and Latour style lost its richness when translated, it is worthwhile. Discussions about advances in sciences should always include ANT and the way it focuses science as a key note.

The existence of the objects

2007-05-02T07:54:00.000-07:00

I remember an advice from Umberto Eco when I read “How to Write a Thesis”: do not mind whether a book is small or looks like a book to dummies, give it attention, put aside your prejudices and them maybe you can find something useful. So, exactly this happened with me when I was reading “Science, the very idea”, by Steve Woolgar.

I have loaned the book because its title, and at home started having a look, which made me put it in the corner. After a week I started reading more carefully and I discovered a really good book, discussing the approach of Actor Network Theory in the social analyse of science. A sequence of small chapters discusses how the social network brings the world to exist, nothing but this. First, the author discusses the representation on science, taking a good attention to the methodological horrors that normally happen in a misuse of terminologies and methods. To him, the creation of representation permits indexicality, inconcludability, and reflexibility, as any discourse with pretension to be scientific is organized to reinforce the ideology of representation. Reviewing the process of generation of representation, Woolgar dogs a inversion on nature: facts and discoveries are, according to him, first achieved in a social dealing with representations. He summarizes an scientific finding as having the following stages:

(1) document

(2) document → object

(3) document object

(4) document← object

(5) deny (or forget about) stages 1-3

To exemplify those stages, Woolgar explain how the Pulsars were discovered. First, the scientists created hypothesis of such phenomenon, and all the representations, in terms of documents, papers, thesis, experiments reports, were able to generate an object. In the course of the social movement around that representation, the object started being detached from the documents, to after being influent as to generate documents. The last stage, and this is why we normally think there are real objects to be discovered, the social milieu denies the stages in which the representational assumptions were used to create the object.

In terms of architecture, this approach is very interesting to consider the design process. As a matter of fact, drawings could be regarded as a strong representational stage, and ever since the object is generated, it returns its influence over the documents (drawings or written objections about). The main point is conceiving the objects as part of a social network in which they got their permanency through the movements, social and scientific.

Transient Spaces: Habitat of the Outcast

2007-04-27T09:21:00.000-07:00

The following proceeds from the forum about architecture and indeterminacy*:

In reaction to a capitalist economics and its effect on the social, cultural and political domain, some people have chosen to resist by living outside the mainstream. Others do not have a choice: they live "outside" because society has rejected them. In cities, this exclusionary phenomenon has a spatial inscription, the dropouts occupy excluded spaces where they can deviate from the accepted 'norm'. Escaping from the planning authorities' control, these spaces are called 'spaces of indeterminacy'.

Indeterminate spaces are difficult to quantify because of their inherent heterogeneity and although the speakers at the Architecture and Indeterminacy Theory Forum gave many examples of such places, their location, physical characteristics, use and users, there was no single definition of such a space. Several speakers, including Gil Doron, described the nature of these zones, which are the consequence of the subdivision of cities through modern planning practices. This has created 'edge spaces' also known as 'gaps' or 'interstitial urban places',1 whose tricky ownership rights and physical characteristics (not easily accessible, too small, have irregular shapes), have made them difficult to utilise through the common means of architecture and urban planning. Thus, they are excluded from the planning process. Doron called them "an outside within the inside"2 because they still have a "symbiotic although unrealised"3 relationship to the rest of the city. They can be found between industrial and residential areas, between tower blocks, under bridges and on pavements. However, they are difficult to map as they undergo constant change, making them unreadable.

These spaces have no assigned function but many informal uses, usually unofficial and illegal. They are mostly occupied by marginalised groups: squatters, subcultures, the homeless, prostitutes, cultural minorities and drug addicts.

Temporality is another key aspect of these spaces, which can be described as 'dead'4 at certain times of day or night but not at others. What is more, the lifetime of these 'out-of-control zones' is limited - these are transient spaces. According to Dougal Sheridan5 some indeterminate spaces disappear with time whilst others are formalised.

The heterogeneous nature of these spaces, as described above, leads to a variety of different names for them. Some are called 'free spaces', as they are related to life and they encourage their occupants to be creative and express their identity without limit. Sheridan states, "Indeterminacy is freedom"6; he also noted that subcultures living in these spaces have a more direct relationship with space than the dominant cultures inhabiting the controlled zones. They more actively appropriate the built environment by injecting it with their own meaning. A number of speakers conceptualised these spaces as 'culture producers' and Sheridan illustrated this idea through the example of Berlin's 'Besetzt Huser', which were renovated and reorganised by minority groups in response to their own needs. He asserted that architects should use these houses as a model, which provides the users with a framework but also a certain freedom to change their space. One student essay7 refers to graffiti and street art as another way of appropriating space and states that architects should learn from these practices.

Peter Mrtenbck and Helge Mooshammer also referred to indeterminate spaces as 'culture producers' by mentioning three examples of informal markets: Izmailovo Market Moscow, Istanbul Topkapi and Arizona Market Brcko (BaH). They viewed them as "... a myriad of indeterminate parallel worlds [...] within the same place."8 According to their research, the large-scale informal markets of the past two decades are the consequence of the geopolitical transformations of Europe and they believe their existence is important in developing "new dynamics of cultural networking."9

In contrast to this affirmative notion, spaces of indeterminacy are also referred to, negatively as, 'a no man's land', 'urban voids' or even 'dead zones'10. Doron argues that "... these zones are alive, used by men, and full of memories." However, one could question whether every occupant of these spaces really does think of them as 'alive', whilst some subcultures might agree, others, such as homeless people, may find this too optimistic as they are weary of being rejected and of living in bad conditions.

As far as the architect's role is concerned, Doron warned the audience: "Do not touch these spaces." He suggested that we as architects should accept them in order to protect their occupants and the activities taking place within them. Unfortunately, current planning authorities seem to be headed in a different direction and their aim seems to be to sanitise these spaces. One should perhaps remember that people occupy these spaces not for the lack of spatial control, but due to human exclusion, may it be social, cultural, economic or political.

*(Edited by Deborah Jund,

from the forum "Architecture and Indeterminacy",

Sheffield School of Architecture, 2007)

1Gil Doron, 'Missing Bonaventure Hotel and other sites of suspension' in Architecture and Indeterminacy Theory Forum (The University of Sheffield, School of Architecture, 2006)

2Ibid.

3Ibid.

4Ibid.

5Ibid.

6Dougal Sheridan, 'The Space of Subculture in the City: Getting Specific About Berlin's Indeterminate Territories' in Architecture and Indeterminacy Theory Forum (The University of Sheffield, School of Architecture, 2006)

7Ben Craggs, 'Indeterminate galleries. Graffiti & 'Dead Space: Nuisance or Cultural Pioneer?', Fifth Year student essay (The University of Sheffield, School of Architecture, 2007)

8Peter Mörtenböck and Helge Mooshammer, 'Trading Indeterminacy: Informal Markets in Europe' in Architecture and Indeterminacy Theory Forum (The University of Sheffield, School of Architecture, 2006)

9Mörtenböck and Mooshammer, op.cit.

10Doron, op.cit.

Paris/Snow Patrol

2007-04-25T20:17:00.000-07:00

On an August morning in 1978, French filmmaker Claude Lelouch mounted a gyro-stabilized camera to the bumper of a Ferrari 275 GTB and a friend, a professional Formula 1 racer, drive at breakneck speed through the heart of Paris. The result was this:

Inspired in a blog-gadget from Rita

Being big and vulnerable.

2007-02-27T10:02:00.000-08:00

Minoru Yamasaki has two of his buildings pretty related to a watershed to history. In 1972, his Pruit Igoe Housing conjoint ws imploded due to an extraordinary failure of the principles of the modernist architecture. From Pruit Igoe on, a seek of new and human attributes of architecture started. By the September 11 2001, WTC was demplished by the terrorist attack. These these two footages depict opposite feelings. The first is from Godffrey Reggio movie about "life out of balance", including the implosion of Pruit Igoe in 1972. The other is a sort of non-critic documentary naively showing off an idea of power to transform the terrain into the plataform of WTC. I like seeing both, just to judge how inhuman such kind of building came to mean.

Kooyanisqatsi by Godffrey Reggio, music by Phillip Glass

WTC foundations.

Quotations to confuse the laic public

2007-02-26T18:43:00.001-08:00

“Architecture starts when you carefully put two bricks together. There it begins.”
- Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

“Architecture is music in space, as it were a frozen music”
- Friedrich von Schelling

“Architects are pretty much high-class whores. We can turn down projects the way they can turn down some clients, but we’ve both got to say yes to someone if we want to stay in business.”
- Philip Johnson

“Architecture is the art of how to waste space.”
- Philip Johnson

“You can’t photograph that building. Only people who have been there can experience it.”
- Steven Holl in the NY Times

“That is the architecture I do, looking for new, different forms. Surprise is key in all art.”
- Oscar Niemeyer

Why aren’t architects participating in imaging of the future?

2007-02-17T22:52:00.000-08:00

This topic came out from discussion about ICT through the internet (1). So that question could be specified as specifically with respect to embedded computation and specifically because architecture deals with the predictive (just typically with shorter lifecycles).

Some reason that popped up:
Fetish with forms in the last fifteen years;
Unpredictability of new behaviours related to new technologies.

It has to do with the economics of R&D.
Architects do not invent very often because it is expensive – we are the end user, the last in line, we usurp, and at best when we invent we appreciate and marshal the technology that exists to suit an architectural vision, whatever that may be.

What does R&D have to do with being visionary? Clients typically do not like to pay for inventions, and envisioning the future becomes very pragmatic. Whereas the experience grounds the professional attitudes, systems do not deal with architectural issues of space, many research initiatives are not being led by architects and there is a lack of architectural clients involvement (research in a buble).

Other reasons are:
Architecture cannot afford the research of mass-production that we fund in automotive, industrial design and products; When smart homes are mass produced they need to be economically feasible and the technology is borrowed (f.e. KB Kaufman Broad HOMES, where they are not architects).

Architectural research does not have the funding of the military, geriatrics or the disabled;
The research happens outside the field of architecture and then the architects grab it and try to create a future.

New creative originators are:
Artistic explorations;
Academic initiatives;
New commercial trend, as home automation.

Corporations outside of architecture bring in architects to understand systems within a whole and understand behaviours.

The fetish of the forms: we now have architects as consultants in this area to other architects (Gehry technologies, Red, etc.). They are architects who understand the technologies that exist and can help other architects invent. The min point however is that the architects understand that technologies exist, but they understand that the tools can be invented, and they can be malleable to idiosyncratic designer needs.

Busan Tower, Korea - Axel Kilian, Michael Fox, Elite Kedan

Unpredictability of new behaviours related to new technologies:
Breaking it down in two types of needs:
Pragmatic needs: adaptability and optimization (safety, security, spatial efficiency and energy efficiency). This is basically looking how space or objects is doing something and how it can do it better:
Make economic sense
Works for gerontechnology;
Works for disabled;
Works for private interests;
Works for sustainability.

If a space would actively mediate our needs and the environment, its demand on physical resources could be slashed;
If it would transform to facilitate multi-uses, its function would be optimized.

Humanistic needs are a little more difficult. It comprehends sociology, psychology, and human behaviours, sensing of place, understanding of space, control to space and attachment (bonding) to space. It is much harder because we cannot very well predict new behaviours that are altered by new technologies.

“If an environment would adapt to our desires, it would shape our experience.” It was a quote from Fox (1) used to use. He does not agree with it anymore. If we are not visionary with respect of behaviours, we will design specifications that demand new modes of behaviours.

Intuition is nothing but learned experience and our behaviours are intuitive.

Architects are not citizens, nor computer scientists out to direct this development. Architect ought to understand human interactions with the built environment enough to:
Be predictive in order:
To facilitate “conversations”
To design spaces and objects that adapt to behaviours
To foster human interactions.

But not to demand new behaviours!

New modes of designing:
Tools and heuristics: understanding system attributes with goal of communication
Virtual modelling (simulation and visualization)
Physical modelling (looking for mechanical things)
CNC fabrication
Robotics
Prototyping

A pedagogical approach which looks for new modes of design that can understand these tools as malleable: Prototyping is a key, making things full scale, understand how people interact with then. New conceptual issues of human and environmental interaction that comprises other problematic views of unpredictable types of behaviours.

Understanding new conceptual issues of human and environmental interaction:
Person and built environment (local+remote)
Person and person (local + remote)
Person and exterior environment (local and remote)

Human and environmental interaction:
What are the factors that the system is responding to:
Data sets:
Physical factors: acoustics, sunlight, temperature, wind, direct physical interaction, direct virtual user interaction via a particular website; internet activity (input data sets) human activities of a particular group in a particular place (input data sets).

The space knows who you are, where you are and what are you doing.
spatial behavioural patterns (adaptive control)

The space can physically re-configure itself according to changing needs.
(dynamically ready)

The space deliver (translate/interpret) the environmental change to users.
(temperature/ views/ translated affect)

Profiles of the future
Smart materials
Nanotechnologies
Bioinformatics
Autonomous self-maintenance
Robotics (digital clay)

Future generations of architects need to understand tools as malleable and develop new heuristics with the goal of communication. That means not being experts but communicating behaviours and how to use those types of places.

(1) My summary about Michael Fox Lecture from the Center For Visual Architecture, The Institute for Distributed Creativity, and the Architectural League of New York.
(2) Related links:

www.foxlin.com

www.robotecture.com

www.kdg.mit.edu

3 pounds only

2007-02-17T03:56:00.000-08:00

One enjoyable thing here is charities and their books. Normally readers that got bored about a book gave it instead throwing it in the litter. No wonder the books on charities are, as a matter of fact, sometimes, a ticket to boredom. But in these last years I got some few interesting books, but not that much as to fit my luggage when returning to Brazil again: probably I will give them back to the place they belong: the shelf of boredom in the charities.

The last book I got was pretty weird: “The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America” by David Horowitz (3 pounds only) which is probably the most conservative book I ever read (actually, I didn’t finished, I am trying to keep reading until the end, what I think is pretty hard). Horowitz is a Marxist-turned-conservative who writes for online magazines which are conservative publications. His book is a list of American resident professors which, according to him, are anti-americanism and left-wing positions in the universities, a danger to the academy. He says he works “to end the political abuse of the university and to restore integrity to the academic mission as a disinterested pursuit of knowledge.”

Who is expecting at least some elegancy in doing such witch-hunt list will give up just by browsing it: names are bolded in the title and a record, similar to criminal records, follows it. Horowitz is a defender of imperialism and neoliberal economic, and normally uses to attack in a rhetoric manner diminishing the intellectual evidences by criticising private life of his victims. If it is not a book to be taken seriously, at least it is to give you pretty funny amusement and some laughs: it has reminded me Olavo de Carvalho in Brazil. But, even so, I will not put here any link as ad to Horowitz. I think Mr. Horowitz would think that a book which he does not agree with the values should be burned. But in my case I will just return it to a charity, in order to keep the Britons laughing.

Thank God it has passed

2007-02-09T22:01:00.000-08:00

The 1990s were about the virtual. We were fascinated by new virtual spaces made possible by computer technologies. The images of an escape into a virtual space that leaves the physical space useless and of cyberspace – a virtual world that exists in parallel to our world – dominated the decade… By the end of the decade, the daily dose of cyberspace… became such a norm that the original wonder of cyberspace so present in the early cyberpunk fiction of the 1980s and still evident in the original manifestos of VRML evangelists of the early 1990s was almost completely lost… It is quite possible that this decade of the 2000s will turn out to be about the physical – that is, physical space filled with electronic and visual information. (Lev Manovich)

Danger: Technology

2007-02-07T16:01:00.000-08:00

Despite some people insist with me to forget Heidegger, I keep trying to understand him. His regards with technology – a danger – inspired many other texts and movies. But to these footages, machines and technologies are part of the tragic destiny of boredom in contemporary life. These clips were made by Mitchell Rose and worth being watched as examples of some contemporary dreams.

Ubicomp 2007

2007-02-05T17:43:00.000-08:00

It is going to happen the 9^th reunion of Ubiquitous, to which I am willing to apply a paper concerning my research. Ubiquitous Computing refers to the trend that we as humans interact no longer with one computer at a time, but rather with a dynamic set of small networked computers, often invisible and embodied in everyday objects in the environment. The UbiComp conference series has traditionally had a strong workshop program. Workshops allow small groups to gather for intensive discussion around focused topics of interest. The goal of the workshops is to share understandings and experiences, to foster research communities, to learn from each other and to envision future directions. The presence of architects is still missing in that event, as rarely we participate in such seminars. I got a hypothesis about why: innovation is expensive, that’s all. Architecture deals normally with technologies already absorbed, seldom going further than a new material or new shapes. That makes architecture probably one of the most traditional field in which architects using ubiquitous computing engaged with the project is tantamount rare – the common sense (and now has passed years since the invention of the term) is the virtual space in an cyberfuturistic approach that has no enriched proper architectural discussion.

This year papers on the following topics will be the theme of Ubicomp:

Inferring the state of the user, such as location, activity, intentions, resources, and capabilities in the past, present, and future
Developing ubicomp systems, including representations, architecture, middleware, resource management, and service discovery
Embedding computation for new user interfaces, assistive technologies, communication, novel sensors, intelligent environments, wearable computing, and continuous monitoring and actuation
Building ubicomp systems for health, gaming, socializing, and other applications
Ensuring user trust through privacy and security
Understanding ubicomp and its consequences through conceptual models, hard-won experience, user studies, business scenarios, and real deployments

The link is: http://www.ubicomp2007.org/calls/

I-religion

2007-01-28T00:58:00.000-08:00

Iphone is a good product.

It is another good product. Full stop.

I got to see recently the apple ads at http://www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/mwsf07/ and it really annoyed me. Maybe it is because the entire thing looked pretty similar to a religion or worship in a contemporary church in Brazil, with people clapping and admiring every each syllable said by Steve Jobs. Or maybe because, despite showing a device that connect to the world, my impression was that about i-pod things, a selfish and low quality way of listening to music, centred in nothing but the user.

The exaggeration in such presentation did not match with the supposed intelligence that that product used to be designed, neither the inflexion of the speech convince me at all. As user, I get sad when I see good design becoming an emblem associate with posh situations and other prejudices.

Should be different, an accumulative process in a cooperative way, but this seems too far from the competitive market that makes the evolution slow, incompatible amidst other third-parties. One thing will miss in all products and probably will be the challenge to future researches, and it demands a change in the industrial context: the ability to work together and create an intelligent environment.

Closed design as apple has done contribute, in a manner, to turn the market more tuned about the needs to work together, no matter how many patents will stay stuck, blocking the development. In my opinion and justifying why I did not get so impressed with the features in Iphone: it should be outed 7 years ago, at least.

Anthony Townsend of the Institute for the Future discussed the role of mobile devices in the future of the city. With mobiles, people can record, document, and annotate social space. Ideas, insights and emotions can be transmitted. Townsend calls this functional telepathy “telepathic urbanism.”

Telepathic Urbanism would help us experiment with new social ways of urban living that are based on real-time information and feedback. Thus we could get more out of the existing structures of cities and optimize our lives in them through a better representation of their energy, resource and material realities.

UPDATE: I was watching YouTube, and then it happens seeing this parody of Steve Jobs keynote, in which the public was really hysteric. MadTV thing.

Thousand arms, thousand definitions

2007-01-18T14:44:00.000-08:00

Ever wonder what you sound like to the others while explaining architectural theories? Ever wonder what verbal quirks you might have?

Lately my basic concerns have been about the continual lack of reference in some architectural subjects, when they come out from a “try” of systematization. Specifically related to Information Technologies applied in architecture, the so-called embodiment process has asked to some regularity in the use of terminology. “Place” has been one of those terms that are in the core of an architectural discussion in spite of the blurred definitions that most of architects insist using.

I have mentioned before, in the deleted blog, about what I am calling the “hate for Heidegger”, that consists of a process of avoiding Heidegger’s definitions just to recover against the many misunderstandings caused by some cursory theoretical frameworks that adopted the German philosopher thoughts. However being Heidegger thoughts the clearest and most influent to architecture and technology, the “hate for Heidegger” keeps going. And it really adds on in the lack of terminology. This had me thinking that it is felt harder in Portuguese, due the variety of translations, not only from Heidegger texts but even smaller conceptual frameworks related to specific topics as housing, building process and so forth.

Just to refresh, I am posting a nice clip. It has been said that when a blog does not do that very well, it starts embedding youtube clips. Well, I hope this is not the case, anyway...

The Thousand Arms Avalokiteshara, a amazing footage.

Video in the class

2007-01-14T04:10:00.000-08:00

I had watched this clip and unsucessfuly tried to identify the teacher. His appeal is to use technologies as a process to enhance reading and writing. Very interesting.

2007-01-10T19:52:00.000-08:00

To whom is using facebook, my name there is "R. CesarF. S."
I will be pleased adding you!

It became dust

2007-01-08T10:33:00.000-08:00

The dream of a universal connectiviness is now over.

Such dream was about making the world smaller, shortening distances and causing the reduction of the importance of the places. Anytime-anyplace connectiviness was the argument that old futurologists used to consider the dissolution of the city, in a new age in which a virtual space would parallel the real, being prominent.

Just to consider a small argument about such dream (as a matter of fact, confused and obscure dream, since the analogies to spatial issues has caused more confusion than cleaning out the ideas) I come to an analysis of the Wireless Sensor Networks technologies usage, which is a contrast to anytime-anyplace universality, being intermittent and local, and more, much more, real and not a dream. Should you have any interest, see.

Children's toy

2007-01-05T15:55:00.000-08:00

I was studying some IT components in order to classify ubiquitous computing to architects, struggling to find some examples of applications. I started from microprocessors, and had put some examples from Washington University course of design in electronics. After, I decide mentioning the MIT Cricket, and started another search through internet in order to find suitable examples. The point was making my explication clear enough to architects that do not use to use such stuff, what is a very hard mission. Ironically I discover that ubiquitous components even become toys nowadays, asking to children to know computers’ languages and design their own gadgets. This is the most impressive site about.

Old movable stuff

2007-01-03T11:18:00.000-08:00

Transformation technology is a very well know group of inventions and techniques that utilize innovative engineering along a group of inventions and techniques that utilizeside original geometric principles to make products, structures, and environments change their size and shape. They provide conditions to building structures that change their form, an ability that can be used for many different functional applications. Instant spaces can be erected for temporary use. Walls and roofs can retract to transform a space from indoors to outdoors. Structures can transform to create exciting venues for performances and entertainment. Windbreaks and sunshades can respond to changes in weather or time of day.

In observing the natural world, we see continuous transformation all around us; from the changing shape of clouds on a clear day to the incremental growth of a budding plant, the natural world is constantly changing form. These observed transformations of size and shape reveal subtle and ordered natural processes that can be seen in both large and small-scale transformation.

In 1987 Hoberman Associates founder Charles Hoberman discovered and patented a general technique for combining kinetic linkages to make expanding structures of virtually any shape. His discovery was, in essence, an algorithm to translate particular surface properties into the angles and proportions of particular linkages. This fundamental discovery has been followed by a series of related inventions that provide many techniques for the creation of transforming objects. They fall into two general categories: linkage systems which are made up of many parts, and pleated sheet systems whereby a sheet of material is scored and folded.

So far this technology is still asking for researches concerning applications to go beyond the mere formalism, which normally was regarded. Mainly it asks for engaging an intelligent process of environment interactions with users needs and creating possibilities of future uses.