Articles


Architecture for Chilhood

Traditionally presented as a landscape architect, Lady Allen of Hurtwood (1897-1976) stood out in this field so related to aesthetic and perception. However she will be protagonist in a way of making architecture apparently far from that visual and romantic world of the landscape. She was related to action, recycling and waste. In particular, she identified childhood and play spaces as a target to study. Her studies quickly go to practice through her dirty parks, authentic “urban laboratories”, areas where she manage to experiment with topographies, with free play and with the self-construction, all seasoned with a good dose or risk. She provides children with materials, many of them informal […]


From the Great Kilo to the Castillian Yard

How much does your building weigh? It is the famous question with which Sir Norman Foster remember the clairvoyance of his master Bucky Fuller trying to make people think about the efficiency of architecture. This phrase came to my mind when I read the news about the International Bureau of Weights and Measures that this month has come together to change the definition of Kilo (also of ampere, Kelvin and mole). The scientific community does with these units what in its day they did with the meter, to establish definitions that do not depend on physical models. Because the physical models however stable they are (the Great Kilo guarded by the scientific community is a cylinder of iridium-platinum) at the end, vary their dimensions, either by the ambient conditions or by their […]


The Drawings of the Incovenient Architect

El arquitecto incómodo es aquel que no es previsible, es el independiente, el que no se deja influir. He conocido a varios (no muchos), y reconozco que siento una especial atracción por este perfil de profesionales. Sin mencionar nombres quería hacer en este artículo un homenaje a un gran maestro que encontró en el dibujo una estrategia social digan de análisis psicológico. Se trata de Ricardo Aroca. Para muchos un desconocido pero para los arquitectos, especialmente los de cierta edad una autoridad en el mundo de la docencia y del cálculo de estructuras. Profesor, director de la ETSAM, decano del COAM… Durante años ocupó una gran cantidad de cargos que le obligaron a prolongadas reuniones. Reuniones que se alargan en el tiempo y que obligan a escuchas, réplicas y […]


Learning by doing. Learning of the mistake

Learning by doing is the mantra who guides a way of understanding the education and also the exercise of any profession. In moments of redefinition of so many aspects of our company, the phrase can be interpreted in a way as flexible as let’s be ready to interpret both verbs, what do we learn? And what is to do nowadays?
What the pupil learns already has stopped being identified with what the teacher teaches, the pupil liabilities – recipient already is not or it should not be in the educational methodology. The process gains points in a world that it is not necessary to to analyze in statically, individual not unidirectionally, where the work has to leave his aim of final, conclusive result. The processes have been opened […]