El blog de Lebbeus Woods queda como homenaje.

Lebbeus Woods nos dejó huerfanos de su blog en agosto pasado, ahora hemos conocido su defunción.
Vease a manera de necrologica el blog de The Guardian, que recoje diversos testimonios, Puede versa en especial el testimonio de Joseph Grima y el de Geoff Magauff como blogueros, o el de Neil Spiller como dibujante.

Shaping architectural discourse from magazines.

20/20: Editorial Takes on Architectural Discourse Edited by Kirk Wooller, with a preface by Brett Steele 20/20: Editorial Takes on Architectural Discourse brings together editors from 20 leading contemporary architectural magazines to discuss collectively the role editors play in shaping architectural discourse. Each of the contributors has responded to a set of 20 questions on the multiple conditions under which particular ideas and words enter architectural discourse through publication. The resulting critical positions and observations are as diverse as the magazines from which they originate, and range from the oldest student-edited journal (Perspecta) to a research collective that at the time of writing was on the cusp of being launched ([bracket]). Also included are contributions from the editors of 306090, AA Files, Actar,  An Architektur, Footprint, Grey Room, Harvard Design Magazine, Hunch,Interstices, Log, Manifold, Mark, New Geographies, OASE, Praxis, Scapes, UME andVolume. 20/20 is a timely publication that provides today's architectural reader with concise viewpoints from the editors behind the magazines behind architectural culture. View sample pages AA publications  See also another post from archidose    http://archidose.org/wp/2011/10/03/2020/

Arquitectura en la red

Video de la mesa redonda en UPC Commons 

Designers & Books. Fair NY 2012 y siempre .

Este fin de semana en NY,   DESIGNERS&BOOKS FAIR.

Puede seguirse la web, con la lista de expositores, las conferencias paralelas.
El mejor termómetro del mundo editorial especializado en inglés.Autores, editores y lectores se encuentran en la feria. 

De entre los actos seleccionamos:

Buildings and Books: Four Architecture Critics in Conversation
From Type to Tablet: Publishers and Editors Talk about Directions in Design Book Publishing
Keynote: Designing the Future of the Design Book

La web  y el blog    DESIGNERS & BOOKS  mantienen el clima  más allá de las ediciones anuales.

things magazine | things weblog . About objects and their meanings

(From "About") 

Things magazine was originally founded in 1994 by a group of writers and historians based at the Victoria & Albert Museum/Royal College of Art. things embodies the belief that objects can open up new ways of understanding the world, building on MA research and taking a curatorial eye out into the world. We’re now an independent magazine, a home for new writing – essays, reviews, short stories and poems – about objects and their meanings. This website began as a way of promoting the magazine but evolved into a regular weblog from September 2001. The site also contains photography galleries, special projects, searchable archives, ten years of weblog posts and the occasional on-line only article. To order back issues of the magazine or read our archives (1 through to 19-20), visit our archive page. To buy, click on ‘add to basket’ and our friends at PayPal will handle the rest. Our printing schedule used to be biannual, but now it’s just occasional. This means you can’t subscribe any more, but if you’d like to be notified of new issues, drop us a line and we’ll keep you up to date. The latest issue, 19-20, is now available to buy."

CLOG slows things down

CLOG on line               http://www.clog-online.com/


"CLOG explores, from multiple viewpoints and through a variety of means, a single subject particularly relevant to architecture now."
CLOG slows things down. Each issue explores, from multiple viewpoints and through a variety of means, a single subject particularly relevant to architecture now. Succinctly, on paper, away from the distractions and imperatives of the screen".



"Online press, blogs, tweets, social media, and other digital forums have drastically increased the speed at which architectural imagery is distributed and consumed today. While an unprecedented amount of work is available to the public, the lifespan of any single design or topic has been reduced in the profession's collective consciousness to a week, an afternoon, a single post-an endlessly changing architecture du jour. In the deluge, excellent projects receive the same fleeting attention as mediocre ones. Meanwhile, mere exposure has taken the place of thoughtful engagement, not to mention a substantive discussion. 

"While CLOG is about architecture, we encourage individuals from any field or background to contribute. We are interested in all forms of critique and commentary, including, but not limited to, images, graphics, diagrams, and/or text. Ultimately, the form of each contribution should be determined by whatever most effectively communicates the idea."

YOUNG JOURNALS' AT COOPER UNION

YOUNG JOURNALS

Monday, April 9th.   2012
The Cooper Union Rose Auditorium
41 Cooper Square

(Download the flyer)

When it comes to small architecture publications, something is clearly in the air, as demonstrated by the relatively recent increase in architecture journals and zines worldwide.

This roundtable, moderated by Log editor and founder Cynthia Davidson, will focus on young architecture journals in the NYC-area by bringing together the editors of CLOG (clog-online.com), the editors of Another Pamphlet (anotherpamphlet.com) and a mix of founding and current editors of Pidgin (pidginmagazine.com) to both situate each publication in a recent historical context, and to discuss the reasons for and practicalities of starting up and running architectural journals in New York today.

Sponsored by the Cooper Union Student Lecture Series
Free and Open to the Public

Video  

The New City Reader: A Newspaper Of Public Space

The New City Reader: A Newspaper Of Public Space 

The New City Reader was a temporary newspaper  published from October 6, 2010 to January 9, 2011 as part of the Last Newspaper exhibition at the New Museum, 235 Bowery, New York.

AMO la curiosidad constante (Koolhaas)

Ayer, Rem Koolhas fue galardonado como doctor honorifico por la Universidad Vrij de Amsterdam , por sus destacadas contribuciones a la arquitectura.

En su discurso de aceptación Koolhaas mencionó su "constante curiosidad" como motor de su trabajo tanto como proyectista , como ensayista. (OMA  y  AMO).

Le antecedieron los discursos de Michel ter Hark , Dean de la Facultad de Artes , y de Kristien Hemmerechts, escritor belga.

HTC Experimental practices in Architectural History Theory and Criticism

La intervención de David Gissen en Postopolis LA  2009,  reseñada por Dan Hill de CityofSound,    sirve para referirnos  a HTC Experiments  una excelente página - blog de especial interes para estudiantes de post-grado.

Johannes Trithemius en contra de la imprenta

Against print 

( Tomado del blog de Kazys Varnelis)

"No hay nada más molesto que oir a  personas de edad (o jovenes) eruditas  lamentando la falta de rigor intelectual on line. Seguramente estas personas educadas han oído hablar de Johannes Trithemius, el abad de Sponheim que publicó su De laude Scriptorum Manualium, la defensa de la tradición  manuscrita frente a  la imprenta en 1492. Nuestros conocimentos no eran más rigurosos en la década  postmoderna de 1980 o postestructuralista de  1990 para no mencionar  la época heroica de la década de los 1920 que ahora. Hay un  montón de material que  se publicó en aquel entonces  que no merecía la tinta y el papel ni el costo de imprimir. Pero, en vez de lamentar la impresión, vamos a trabajar juntos para romper (paywalls) quotas, físicas o electrónicas. Aquellos de nosotros que estamos en la acadèmia, que no estamos en el negocio del conocimiento, sinó en la  comunidad del  conocimiento, una comunidad que trasciende los viejos límites, vamos a partir de ello."

On Experimental Writing | Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA)

On Experimental Writing | Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA):

Albert Ferré, Pedro Gadanho, David Howes, Naomi Stead and Kazys Varnelis

On Experimental Writing is an open discussion about different approaches to writing about architecture, urbanism and criticism today. These new endeavors begin by borrowing from the logic of other genres and forms like narratives, short stories, novels, science-fiction, journalism, poetry, tourist guides, ethnographic descriptions and others.

This direction has generated interesting interdisciplinary results with an entertaining character, and one of the consequences is a growing interest from a less specialized public. There could be many reasons for these new directions: perhaps these ways of writing, or the use of different “editorial instruments”, have a greater capacity to describe and capture contemporary complexity, and more appropriately confront the world of architecture and urbanism.

These experiments lead also to the establishment of different containers for writing, such as anthologies, short story collections, archives of records, blogs—new forms that can introduce a varied panorama and allow for unexpected perspectives on a specific topic.

This mix of genres can produce new content and new understandings with a mix of real and imaginative ‘facts’ that add an emotional character. The traditional reading of a city or a building is brought new layers such as atmosphere, objectivity, and fantasy.

Invited guests will discuss and challenge these new editorial directions from their own perspective and based on their editorial experiences.

Introduction: Giovanna Borasi
Moderator: David Howes
Guests: Albert Ferré, Pedro Gadanho, Naomi Stead and Kazys Varnelis

---

Event information:
10 February 2011, 6:00 pm
Click here for the Facebook event.

DESIGN . design journalism as bedrock

The House That Design Journalism Built: Observatory: Design Observer

Rick Poynor

The House That Design Journalism Built

"The continuing closure of print publications without equally auspicious online platforms to replace them is not a good sign".

Reflexió de Poynor sobre les publicacions sobre diseny. Des dels anys 80 , a propòsit d' un número   de  DESIGN, fins la crítica publicada avui.

Més enllà de la  nostàlgia proposa alternatives i exemples.

També coincideix en que les revistes son una perfecte font per una recerca històrica.

(Veure també el seguit de comentaris després de l’ article).

THAT NEW DESIGN SMELL

http://thatnewdesignsmell.net/

A  Desing Observer,   Rick Poynor, (The House That Design Journalism Built: Observatory: Design Observer),    don una  referencia d' una nova revista -web a considerar. La  versió impresa es perllonga en les opinions  recollides a la pàgina web i així s' encoratja el diàleg.

"The continuing closure of print publications without equally auspicious online platforms to replace them is not a good sign.

So let’s hope for renewal. Last week I did, in fact, see a new publication, issue 0 of a critical design magazine with the boldly acerbic, though admittedly slightly off-putting title That New Design Smell. The magazine, divided between web and print, is conceived and edited byMichèle Champagne, an ambitious Canadian MFA graduate from the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam, with a crisp, “flight attendant” persona — her tutors’ words, not mine — and a nicely cultivated sense of irony. Her aim, she says, is to encourage dialogue, not monologue, by folding comments made online back into the printed version of the magazine. In an amusing video on Vimeo, Champagne locks horns with “lame designer lingo.” And, sorry Design Observer readers, but she has also composed a witty illustration — we used to say deconstruction — of the language of adoration used in many of your comments. The website gives a little taste (or is that sniff?) but you really need to see the whole thing on page with all that positivity amplified in big type. You may never gush again."

A l' editorial de la pàgina web,  Michèle Champagne escriu sobre les intencions de promoure la crítica en producció oberta:

"That New Design Smell is an experiment in smart and fun conversations on design. It takes the form of a critical design magazine driven by dialogue, rather than monologue. It experiments with open content production, where criticism engages an active online public. Dialogue is edited and published as a printed magazine you can hold in your hands.

The magazine began as a thesis proposal at Rietveld Academie’s Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam with the objective of thwarting design’s mandatory optimism, lame designer lingo and ‘likedy-like’ mafia. While there are several obvious approaches to infusing critical thinking in design, some are too easily dismissed. More monologues from professionals are known to be ignored. Academics used to own criticism, but now—with blogs and forums—it belongs to everyone. Yet, more often than not, design blogs are short, shallow and trite. Professional blogs may be smarter, but their public relations are too obvious.

As an alternative, That New Design Smell introduces an independent venue for design criticism and dialogue in a post-medium fashion—it offers a dirty yet diligent dialogue online and a batterie-free product in print."

Bracket, San Rocco, Candide: a cross-reading of three new print magazines

http://www.domusweb.it/en/book-review/bracket-san-rocco-candide-a-cross-reading-of-three-new-print-magazines/

New publications use strategies both familiar and innovative to take on contemporary architectural criticism. A book review by Roberto Zancan  in DOMUS  8/april/2011.

Symposium on Publishing Practices

Storefront for Art and Architecture | Programming: series

 20  april , 2012

ARCHIZINES LIVE: Symposium on Publishing Practices

5 Manifesto Series on: MEDIUM / SPEED / HISTORY / CRISIS / DESIRE

In conjunction with the exhibition Archizines, Storefront hosts a 2-day symposium on publishing practices as part of its Manifesto Series.  Throughout its exhibition tour, Archizines has provided platforms for architectural research and debate, demonstrating the residual love of the printed word and paper page. Made by architects, artists and students, the publications included in the exhibition add an important, and often radical, addition to architectural discourse that will be further explored through the Manifesto Series.

  

Storefront will live-stream the event at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/archizines-live.

The 2-day symposium will include a Manifesto Series consisting of presentations on themes of medium/speed/history/crisis/desire by editors of the publications on display in the exhibition together with writers, critics and historians working within the fields of architecture and publishing; and a conversation between  Elias Redstone , curator of Archizines and  Craig Buckley, Beatriz Colomina  and  Urtzi Grau , members of the curatorial team of  Clip Stamp Fold,  an exhibition about the radical architecture of little magazines that was presented at Storefront in 2006:

Friday April 20, 7-9 PM: Medium and Speed

The materiality and temporality of a publication produces an epistemological space that conditions the writing and reading of the architecture depicted in its pages. With the emergence of new publishing technologies, new modes of writing and reading have emerged and these new mediums and speeds will be explored in the Manfiesto Series. Presenters will include:

7.00-8.00 Medium

MAS Context
PIDGIN
PLAT
Fresh Meat
Archphoto 2.0 

8.00-9.00 Speed

Log
OASE
CLOG
One:Twelve
Architects Newspaper 

Saturday, April 21, History/Crisis/ Desire

2.00-3.00 / HISTORY. The context in which architecture magazines insert themselves today is undeniably historical. Fueled by a rich collection of publications from the last forty years, magazines position themselves in relation to a large dilated present. Presenters who will take part in the discussion of the historical relevence of these publications will include:

Another Pamphlet
No Now
P.E.A.R

Praxis
New Geographies

3.00-4.00 / LITTLE MAGAZINES THEN - LITTLE MAGAZINES NOW

A conversation between Elias Redstone, curator of Archizines and Craig Buckley, Beatriz Colomina and Urtzi Grau, members of the curatorial team of Clip Stamp Fold, moderated by Eva Franch.

4.00-5.30 / CRISIS. Moments of crisis are moments of redefinition, when the institutionalized realms open up to the spaces of experimentation and cultural debate in order to retrace the path toward the future. From global ecologic crisis to the crash of the construction bubble in Spain to generalized economic turmoils, architects have found new ground in the production of architecture through the pages of magazines. Presentations will include:

Cornell Journal of Architecture
Foreign Architects Switzerland (FAS)
Volume
PLOT
Scapegoat
San Rocco
Metropolis

6.00-7.30 DESIRE. Desire always desires content. Going beyond the spaces of fulfillment required by society or institutional bodies, magazines are the our space for the production of new imaginaries and vectors of desire. Presentations will include:

Candide
Evil People in Modernist Homes in Popular Films
Megawords
Thresholds
PIN-UP

INFRANET LAB . INFRASTRUCTURES ++++ NETWORKS ++++ ENVIRONMENTS

InfraNet Lab is a research collective probing the spatial byproducts of contemporary resource logistics. The laboratory posits the argument that a body of unique built works continues to arise out of the complex negotiation of, and competition for, biotic and abiotic resources. Operating in a manner similar to infrastructures, these works have evolved to merge landscape, urbanism, and architecture into a sophisticated mutant assemblage of surfaces, containers, and conduits.

The globe’s networked ecologies of food, water, energy, and waste have established new infrastructures and forms of urbanism linking dispersed entities. These agglomerations evolve and shift as resources are uncovered or depleted. While these ecologies exist at the service of our contemporary lifestyles, they have typically remained hidden from view and from the public conscience. Yet as resources of food, fuel and water begin to run scarce, new resources are mined and new networks develop.

Long accepted patterns of globalization are being called into question as transportation costs soar and resources run scare, transforming mobility and trading patterns. New local, regional and international networks of goods, movement and trade are beginning to emerge. Infranet Lab is mining the physical infrastructure produced in the wake of these shifting / changing conditions. InfraNet Lab, in partnership with Archinect has initiated a new publication on these issues called [bracket] published annually byActar. Please visit the website for information on current calls, and forthcoming editions.

EXCLUSION & INCLUSION. “WEAPONS” USED TO WAGE THE ONGOING WAR BETWEEN INTEGRATION AND SEGREGATION IN CITIES

THE ARSENALOF EXCLUSION & INCLUSION is  a blog from  Interboro Partners, a New York City-based office of architects, urban designers, and planners, working together to improve cities with innovative, experimental design ideas.

Interboro is led by Tobias Armborst, Daniel D’Oca, and Georgeen Theodore. 

We may see projects, diary, awards, Cvs in their site INTERBORO.

An excerpt from the definition of the blog  :

“Cities exist to bring people together, but cities are pretty good at keeping people apart, too. this is a blog about “weapons” used by architects, planners, policy-makers, developers, real estate brokers, community activists and other urban actors to wage the ongoing war between integration and segregation, between nimby (not in my back yard), and wimby (welcome in my back yard)”.

They are preparing a book: The arsenal of exclusion & inclusion that is announced to be published by Actar.

306090 opening up architectural discourse from every angle

306090, Inc. is an independent non-profit arts stewardship organization. Since its founding in 2001, 306090 has worked to support architect professionals and students by organizing publications and events geared towards fostering a community of ideas and exchange within the field of design. Exploring contemporary issues in architecture “from every angle,” 306090 is dedicated to opening up architectural discourse by publishing design projects, critical essays, and historic inquiries across a range of places, people and practices. Comprised of new work and untested ideas from around the world, 306090's books are an arena of open criticism, addressing contemporary conditions in political, technological and artistic disciplines on the basis of how architecture can address them.

Founded in 2001 by two architecture students and published twice yearly, 306090's Architecture Journal was an independent series of volumes dedicated to promoting the work and the interests of students of architecture and young designers. The Architecture Journal addresses themes, generating productive dialogue amongst geographically and ideologically diverse students and practitioners.

See Architectural Journal index 2001-2006

We may undeline, for instance, number 6:

"306090 06: Shifting Infrastructures that focuses on the influence of communication systems, data and material distribution, and other new technologies on existing physical and cultural infrastructures. The volume includes work from AUDC, Daniella Fabricius, Gnuform, Emily Eastman, Designlab, and others."

From 2006 there is a new sèrie substituting the Journal:  306090s books

From 306090s most recent books:  the 13th volume  Sustain and Develop,  investigates the contradictory yet potentially productive tension between our drive to develop and our growing knowledge and emerging concern that such unregulated growth is eroding the natural ecology in which we live. We are continually confronted with the knowledge of our own destructive potential and the unknown unquantifiable revenge that nature will undoubtedly seek, while the wonders of modern life gleam on the horizon for a world population of whom for the first time over half live in cities. 

How can architects confront either of these courses within the paradox that any mark in the ground will inevitably disrupt a natural ecology?

306090 13 re-examines the premise of the first definition defining sustainable development as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Is such a position tenable? Is the standard it implies sufficient to guide our work? How can developing countries undergoing rapid urbanization processes, particularly in Asia, be brought actively into the debate? How can developed countries with their own post-industrial landscapes and shrinking populations adapt to a redefined global economy?

Rather than take a one-sided position 306090 13 provides a forum to investigate sustainability and development and their relationships to one another from every angle. Eschewing established definitions and polemics in favor of active investigations into current development models, ecological strategies, site specific examples of the tension between development and sustainability, and the philosophical and theoretical context underpinning both terms.  

The series' fourteenth book, Making A Case, features radically new and varied ideas about the future of the North American home.

To reprise this idea today seems appropriate: it is important to ask what the house of our time should look like, do and say — but in a time of continuing crisis, addressing the contemporary house is complex. Faced with post-urban flight, the need to encourage density, a new focus on food production close to home, a glut of cheap, unused housing in some areas while homelessness persists in others, we are looking at shifts in the American way of life (both those already underway as well as those not yet begun but required for long-term survival) so drastic that they can only suggest a new and different future for the North American house.

Arq FILM FESTIVAL (tambien on line)

AFFR

Architecture Film Festival Rotterdam.
Ademas de la próxima edición del festival y reportages de las pasadas ediciones la web tiene otros utensilios:
Un Festival on line perpetuo donde se ofrecen  algunos cortos, y enlaces con films para visionar .
Un calendario de festivales en otras ciudades.
Trailers.
Reseñas de films.
Colecciones temàticas.
Noticias.
Y más.

ANY Conferences & Books

1990-2000 History

From Any Corporation web site is  the following exerpt:

"In the decade leading to the new millennium, Anyone sponsored ten multidisciplinary and cross-cultural conferences on the condition of architecture at the end of the millennium. The results of each conference - the participants' papers and edited transcripts of the discussions - are published in books of the same name. The conferences, which took place between 1991-2000, were held at different sites around the globe and explored different themes based on architectural definitions of the ten compound any words in the English dictionary".

Index of Conferences held in: http://www.anycorp.com/any_conferences.php
  and  Any books published  in:  http://www.anycorp.com/any_books.php

This post is only a introductory  note for a further  deep study  required .

ANY Magazine

(May 1993-oct 2000)

From ANY Corporation  web site is the following excerpt:

" The bimonthly magazine ANY critically examined architecture, its relationships to other disciplines, and its cultural role in general at the end of the millennium. ANY, the name of which both reads as something undecidable (any magazine) and as an acronym for Architecture New York, involved architects, critics, theorists, sociologists, economists and others from around the world who address issues in architecture that bear on contemporary culture. The publication, which began in May 1993, also sponsored public seminars to open up the discussion of themes presented in the magazine. Publication ceased in October 2000 with number 27".


A index of published issues and content  is in : http://www.anycorp.com/any_issues.php

Esta es una nota que necesitaría de una explicación más extensa, fruto de un estudio más  detallado,  pendiente de realizar. 

Log. Resisting media images through printed pages on writing and reading.

From about in Log web site we extract what is Log:

"Log is an independent journal on architecture and the contemporary city that presents criticism and commentary in a literary format designed to resist the seductive power of the image in media, while identifying and elaborating the central concerns of architectural thinking and production today. A carefully crafted compendium of essays, interviews, and brief "observations," Log provides an ongoing international platform for the exchange of ideas, both bearing on and emanating from architecture and the city, among a curious audience of readers, including architects, designers, students, scholars, and artists. Published three times a year, general "open" issues are punctuated by occasional thematic issues on prescient topics.

 Founded in 2003, Log is a project of the Anyone Corporation, a non-profit organization in New York City devoted to advancing architectural thought and writing".

In particular we underline from last issues : Log 24  a compilation of architecture criticism that exemplifies the range of criticism today. 

In Any Corporation web site / Observations there is a link with some free digital  excerps from Log.

Log is edited by Cynthia Davidson.

Esta es una nota que necesitaría de una explicación más extensa, fruto de un estudio más  detallado,  pendiente de realizar. 

ESTA ES UNA PLAZA

“operarios del espacio público”

Són:

Andre Albuquerque – arquitecte
Cristina Braschi – arquitecta
Jerome Gottardi – arquitecto
Laura Riera – ciències ambientals
Nuria Navarro – biòloga
Olga de Marco – dissenyadora industrial
Remedios Vincent – belles arts
Roberta de Nanni – arquitecta

Una altra ciutat és possible. Una ciutat on l'absurd legal que deixa a famílies sense llar i recolza l'existència de solars i cases buides no hi te cabuda. Aquestes sentències, tot i encoratjadores, resulten, per molts, utopies. Accions com les que narra aquest bloc són incitacions pràctiques que conviden als escèptics a recuperar l'esperança i les ganes de lluitar per una ciutat millor (i, per tant, per un futur millor). Si més no, més justa i saludable.

Avui ESTA ES UNA PLAZA, quatre anys enrere, no. Un grup de joves amb formació universitària (faig aquesta puntualització, molt a pesar meu, per evitar els atacs que usualment es dirigeixen als joves amb iniciatives i inquietuds d'aquesta naturalesa) van descobrir un solar buit al barri de Lavapiés (Madrid) que portava trenta anys tancat i en desús. Després d'avaluar l'estat dels espais públics del barri i ratificar que la situació era clarament deficitària; i d'escoltar la veu del poble mitjançant un procés participatiu obert, van convenir que la parcel·la del carrer Fourquet n24 exigia ser replantejada. I que, duran el temps que seguis en desús, el veïnat tenia tot el dret a utilitzar-la per satisfer les necessitats urbanes que el barri no resolia.

Primer l'ocupació, desprès el sanejament, tot seguit l'autoconstrucció amb materials i elements reciclats; i, finalment, l'obertura al barri sota el nom de ESTA ES UNA PLAZA. Desprès d'un llarg procés reivindicatiu, el col·lectiu va aconseguir la cessió temporal de la parcel·la. Actualment és considerada com un solar autogestionat pels veins. Malgrat això, al marge dels termes legals, és per tots ells una plaça.

Al blog s'hi pot trobar la presentació del col·lectiu, una crònica detallada del proces (carregada d'imatges), l'estat legal actual del solar i, entre altres, el seguit d'activitats esportives i culturals que dia a dia omplen la plaça.

És un blog entranyable i inspirador. Esperem que, així com també creu el col·lectiu, la iniciativa resulti contagiosa i, mica a mica, el ciutadà recuperi l'espai que li pertany.

.J

ESTA ES UNA PLAZA

EL BLOC

“DE ARQUITECTURA Y URBANISMO DE BARCELONA”

Cansats de sentir sempre les mateixes històries sobre la ciutat i l'urbanisme de Barcelona els arquitectes Alejandro Bahamón i Ana María Álvarez s'han llençat al carrer, bloc en mà, amb el propòsit de retratar experiències urbanes pròpies i compartir-les amb aquells navegants inquiets que defugen la crítica estereotipada. La vivència dels llocs en primera persona, la relació sensorial amb l'entorn, la vinculació emocional amb la ciutat...són part de les premises des d'on aquests dos joves arquitectes construeixen els seus relats.

EL lloc web té un format similar al blog i les entrades es classifiquen, principalmentm, segons quatre grups:

AGENDA: proposen un seguit d'esdeveniments vinculats a la ciutat, l'arquitectura i l'urbanisme que destaquen pel seu interès. El criteri és refinat i selectiu. Molt actualitzat i amb un bon nombre de propostes.

ARQUITECTURA / URBANISMO: és el cos del Web. Articles ben documentats i escrits amb molta cura. La diferenciació en dues pestanyes (Arquitectura/Urbanisme) marca una distància excessiva que no correspon al caràcter integrador dels textos. El ritme de les actualitzacions acostuma a ser mensual, en tot cas, no respon a una periodicitat determinada. En aquest cas, la qualitat disculpa abastament (i fins i tot requereix) la manca de regularitat i de terminis.

RESEÑAS: “en pocas palabras lo que otros dicen en muchas: breves notas sobre lo que se puede leer, ver y escuchar en torno a Barcelona”, diuen. L'oferta, malgrat tot, es queda curta tenint en compte l'ambició de la definició.

INVITADOS: aire fresc amb format d'entrevista mensual. Personatge sempre interessants aporten al blog una opinió més sobre la ciutat al marge de la dels redactors. Les entrevistes estan ben portades i els entrevistats no escapen sense deixar petjada.

Un espai que mereix estones esporàdiques d'atenció per part del ciutadà barceloní (als qui viuen fora també pot interessar).

.J

ELBLOC

CAMINAR BARCELONA

“reconeixent la ciutat”

Caminar Barcelona és un curs del departament d'urbanisme de la ETSAB orientat, principalment, als estudiants amb beca ERASMUS. L'objectiu del durs és conèixer (o segons anuncien en el blog: reconèixer) diversos barris o zones de la ciutat de Barcelona. La metodologia de treball és la següent:

Totes les classes es fan a peu de carrer, fora de la facultat. Cada classe te lloc a un barri o zona diferent i mai la dirigeix la mateixa persona. L'encarregat d'impartir la classe és algú (arquitecte, urbanista o cap de les dues coses) vinculat al lloc i bon coneixedor d'aquest. Abans de cada classe els encarregats del curs fan arribar als alumnes l'itinerari i els comuniquen en quin indret de la ciutat tindrà lloc el tret de sortida del taller setmanal.

Donat que, com he dit anteriorment, la majoria d'estudiants del curs es troben d'intercanvi, el curs suposa una oportunitat d'or per conèixer de primera mà algunes parts de la ciutat poc freqüentades per estudiants de l'estranger.

El treball de curs correspon a la publicació de cinc entrades al blog CAMINANT BARCELONA. En cada una d'elles els estudiants han de desenvolupar un tema que els permeti relacionar una de les sessions, es a dir, un dels barris, amb un barri de les seves ciutats d'origen. Les entrades es signen amb un nik-name que correspon al nom de l'alumne i a la seva ciutat.

Sempre és interessant contrastar opinions sobre una mateixa ciutat d'usuaris que, alhora, ho son d'altres. Tot i això i malgrat la lucidesa del propòsit, el blog no acaba de fer-li justícia. És, en qualsevol cas, una iniciativa molt lloable. 

.J