Barcelona 40 years later...

The project was developed by IAAC students Carolina Aguirre, Xiomara Armijo and Carlo Caltabiano during the MAA Emergent Territories Studio directed by Willy Müller. FlexHubDock envisions Barcelona city 40 years later, with the Port Area as new Hub not only for commerce/logistics but for people and the city, rethinking it as a new social layer.

The FlexHubDock is the best example of how Port and City can coexist in harmony. A smart-shared surface will enable the Port area as both a Dock for ships and public Plaza. Depending on the needs for public space and activity as dock, it can be totally managed in real-time, by embedded sensors and network system that receives information of space requirements to begin its transition. In a single day the function and shape of the FlexHubDock can change several times and even share functions.

The solution is based on a new concept of shared space. Flexible enough to respond to the demands of the Port as Dock and as new Social/Mobility Hub; able to transform as the users interact as Agents, optimizing space in different time scales, receiving and processing parameters in real-time.

A Dock is usually associated as in the limits between the city and the water. But the FHD is able to somehow use the water as land, and transform this land into water, giving the city a whole new layer. Spaces can appear and disappear.

The FHD modular/parametric system, provides an adaptable additive structure open for future applications in other ports and cities around the world. The FlexHubDock Project aims to offer new possibilities, some perhaps still unimaginable today.
 

composed of Blades

Dominique Jakob and Brendan MacFarlane have created a light sculpture composed of blades and LEDs, a luminaire specially designed for Moaroom, a Paris-based furniture and art gallery. Since 2004 Moaroom works with designers and artists from New Zealand and presents a selection of creations from the world of design and visual arts. Aimed to explore design beyond the usual scope of trends and patterns, these works are inspired by nature and its needs, and are created in order to respect the environment.

“Both transparent and opaque, this fixture is conceived as a creature from the depths of the sea newly discovered, both unknown and unnamed. It belongs to a dark world, where new sounds, new experiences can be imagined and lived, “say the architects.

The suspended sculpture, composed of thin strips of aluminum and powered by LEDs, alternates between light and shadow. It is a 160x80x45 cm snake-shaped light source that flows organically through space, creating an impression of a moving organism. Hovering above the visitors to the gallery, this item brings the Studio’s continuous exploration of patterns and color into the realm of interior design.

a Tree in Andersen`s Mind

Out in the woods stood a nice little Fir-tree. The place he had was a very good one; the sun shone on him; as to fresh air, there was enough of that, and round him grew many large-sized comrades, pines as well as firs. But the little Fir wanted so very much to be a grown-up tree.

He did not think of the warm sun and of the fresh air; he did not care for the little cottage children that ran about and prattled when they were in the woods looking for wild strawberries. The children often came with a whole pitcher full of berries, or a long row of them threaded on a straw, and sat down near the young tree and said, "Oh,
how pretty he is! what a nice little fir!" But this was what the Tree could not bear to hear.

At the end of a year he had shot up a good deal, and after another year he was another long bit taller; for with fir-trees one can always tell by the shoots how many years old they are.

"Oh, were I but such a high tree as the others are!" sighed he. "Then I should be able to spread out my branches, and with the tops to look into the wide world! Then would the birds build nests among my branches; and when there was a breeze, I could bend with as much stateliness as the others!"

Neither the sunbeams, nor the birds, nor the red clouds, which morning and evening sailed above them, gave the little Tree any pleasure.

In winter, when the snow lay glittering on the ground, a hare would often come leaping along, and jump right over the little Tree. Oh, that made him so angry! But two winters were past, and in the third the tree was so large that the hare was obliged to go round it. "To grow and grow, to get older and be tall," thought the Tree "that, after all, is the most delightful thing in the world!"

In autumn the wood cutters always came and felled some of the largest trees. This happened every year; and the young Fir tree, that had now grown to a very comely size, trembled at the sight; for the magnificent
great trees fell to the earth with noise and cracking, the branches were lopped off, and the trees looked long and bare; they were hardly to be recognized; and then they were laid in carts, and the horses dragged them out of the woods.

Where did they go to? What became of them?

In spring, when the Swallows and the Storks came, the Tree asked them, "Don't you know where they have been taken? Have you not met them anywhere?"

The Swallows did not know anything about it; but the Stork looked musing, nodded his head, and said: "Yes, I think I know; I met many ships as I was flying hither from Egypt; on the ships were magnificent masts, and I venture to assert that it was they that smelt so of fir. I may congratulate you, for they lifted themselves on high most majestically!"

"Oh, were I but old enough to fly across the sea! But how does the sea look in reality? What is it like?"
.....................................

anodized Aluminum

This piece of public art was chosen as the winning proposal among three finalists for the new transit center being built in North Redondo this year. Located at the entry plaza location at Kingsdale Avenue, designed by Marc Fornes/THEVERYMANY in cooperation with Volkan Alkanoglu, the project is a piece of urban furniture, announcing the city of Redondo Beach to arriving visitors.

“Gate Wave” is designed to serve as a communication device, allowing the public to interact and engage with the variety of moiré effects within the colorful pattern and ephemeral qualities of light and shadows.  The design is 13.5 feet at its highest and almost 50 feet wide at its base. It will be constructed using concrete footings, a timber frame structure, and anodized aluminum in four total layers, with cyan and lime colorations on the interior aluminum and white on the outside.

The project had to overcome two major objections: the possibility of misusing the structure as a skateboarding ramp, as well as the fact that the project lapped beyond the constraints set forth in the Request for Proposals. Despite these issues, along with concerns regarding the effects of the ocean air’s on the anodized aluminum shapes near the top of the sculpture, the artwork will be built later this year.

 

Ο Πυγμάχος, το Λιοντάρι και η Σκόνη

Όλη η ζωή είναι ένα πείραμα

Η κοινωνία προετοιμάζει το έγκλημα. Ο εγκληματίας το διαπράττει

Αν ένα λιοντάρι μπορούσε να μιλήσει, δεν θα το καταλαβαίναμε

Σκέφτομαι άρα υπάρχω

Η πιο μεγάλη τέχνη είναι να ξέρεις να αποχωρείς

Δεν μπορώ να πάω πίσω στο χθες γιατί ήμουν κάποιος άλλος

«Πω, πω, σκόνη που σήκωσα!», είπε η μύγα που καθόταν στο πίσω μέρος του άρματος

Η ύπαρξη προηγείται της ουσίας

Ένας φιλόσοφος που δεν θέλει να παίρνει μέρος σε συζητήσεις είναι σαν έναν πυγμάχο που δεν θέλει να μπαίνει στο ρινγκ

Ένα ποίημα δεν τελειώνει ποτέ, μόνο εγκαταλείπεται

Δεν υπάρχει πιο ταπεινωτική απάντηση από την περιφρονητική σιωπή

Οποιοσδήποτε ανόητος μπορεί να πει την αλήθεια. Χρειάζονται προσόντα για να πεις ψέματα

Οι ιδέες είναι σαν τα καρφιά. Όσο τις χτυπάς, τόσο βαθύτερα μπαίνουν

Αληθινοί επαναστάτες είναι εκείνοι που δεν έχουν να χάσουν τίποτα

Εκείνο που η κάμπια το ονομάζει τέλος του κόσμου, η ζωή το ονομάζει πεταλούδα....

από το βιβλίο του Θ.Πελεγρίνη

the Match Girl

On a cold New Year’s Eve, a poor girl tries to sell matches in the street. She is freezing badly, but she is afraid to go home because her father will beat her for not selling any matches. She takes shelter in a nook and lights the matches to warm herself. In their glow, she sees several lovely visions including a Christmas tree and a holiday feast. The girl looks skyward, sees a shooting star, and remembers her deceased grandmother saying that such a falling star means someone died and is going into Heaven. As she lights her next match, she sees a vision of her grandmother, the only person to have treated her with love and kindness. She strikes one match after another to keep the vision of her grandmother nearby for as long as she can. The child dies and her grandmother carries her soul to Heaven. The next morning, passers-by find the dead child in the nook.

SourceThe source for the story was a widely popular woodcut illustration by the Danish artist Johan Thomas Lundbye depicting a poor child selling matches printed in a calendar for 1843; several illustrations had been sent to Andersen by the editor of an almanac requesting him to write a story around one.

Another known inspiration for the story is the well known fairy tale The Star Money previously recorded by the Brothers Grimm. It is a story of a poor young girl who gives away everything that she has to the needy and ends up with nothing except her love for God. The Grimms' variation differs, ending with the girl remaining alive and receiving divine gifts (money that falls from the stars) for her charity.

Another source of inspiration could be his trip to Bratislava (Pressburg) in 1841 where he was witnessing how the town of Devin burnt down and how women were searching for their lost children.

[edit] Publication"The Little Match Girl" was first published December 1845 in Dansk Folkekalender for 1846. The work was re-published 4 March 1848 as a part of New Fairy Tales. Second Volume. Second Collection. 1848. (Nye Eventyr. Andet Bind. Anden Samling. 1848.), and again 18 December 1849 as a part of Fairy Tales. 1850. (Eventyr. 1850.). The work was also published 30 March 1863 as a part of Fairy Tales and Stories. Second Volume. 1863. (Eventyr og Historier. Andet Bind. 1863.)

to Connect Water

As one of three shortlisted proposals for the St. Petersburg Pier International Design Competition, the Wave tries to connect the water and the city of Petersburg by emphasizing the possibility of achieving unity through physical contact. Its undulating form creates a narrative that merges the pier structure with the entire bay area. BIG’s project is divided into three parts: Tributary Park, Wave Walk and the Wave. The first phase of construction will include The Wave and Wave Walk. Tributary Park will be realized in the second phase.

The programmatic concept includes a museum, observation deck, playgrounds and green areas. The loop-shaped structure mimics the physiology of the water wave: it goes underwater and rises in order to frame a swimming pool and holding areas for kayaks, canoes and small boats. The gesture further culminates by looping the promenade overhead, sheltering people and providing elevated views from the generated roof terrace. The public spaces terminate with a platform which submerges into the bay creating an additional view towards the city. exhibition spaces, banquet halls and other public spaces. The proposal also offers different rooms including a salt bath, mist room, botanical room, steam room, cloud room, snow room, polar bear club, water slides and swimming pool.
 

Looking for Immortality

Architects at Manuel Ocaña Architecture and Thought Production Office were asked to design a rather unusual spatial concept, one that would ensure the survival of 20 families and thousands of books for three years after the 2012 Apocalypse. The design was commissioned and promoted by a Belgian foundation and would be located at a mountain slope in Sierra Nevada, Spain. It is conceived as a “culture ark”, after a suddenly precipitated climate change with tsunamis, earthquakes, and a global chain of disasters, nuclear or otherwise.

The initial idea for the project was to use a more organic approach of atomization and circulation strategies. Several dome-shaped areas are interconnected and manifest the underground configuration of the system upon the landscape. In the light of ever-rising number of religious beliefs and, as the architects put it, “the “scientificisim” religious looking for immortality”, the project can also function as an Apocalyptic Resort.

The proposed project encountered serious practical obstacles. Large engineering companies, currently selling thousands of bunkers around the world for the impending apocalypse, eliminated the firm from the project. According to the architects, the companies’ argument was:” This project is extremely serious and your proposal is expensive and unviable. Of course, promoters believe in military discipline in case of global apocalypse.” It seems that the weakened nuclear threat has slowed down their businesses, and climate change opens up a whole new market.

al Qahira in Arabic

A Social Construct for Islamic (Historic) Cairo
Modern Cairo (al-Qahira in Arabic which means the “Victorious”) was founded as the imperial city to a conquering army in 969 AD, at the head of location where the Nile splits into its two main branches. It began as a walled royal compound with highly organized palaces, parade grounds, and lush gardens.

However, within 200 years of its founding and given the fall of its conquering dynasty, Cairo rapidly morphed into the medieval social fabric that largely exists today. At its height in power and wealth in the mid 1930’s, Medieval Cairo was the largest cosmopolitan city in the world, boasting a population of over 500,000 people inside its walls and acted as the center for all trade as it moved from the orient to Europe and the West. The fabric of the Islamic metropolis significantly crystallized within a 100 year period into a complex network of social, economic, religious and cultural network. The historic district of Cairo today is a residue of those relationships, most of which still operate much the same as they did 1000 years ago, upon its founding.

Modern metropolitan Cairo´s growth has far exceeded its medieval numbers and is currently the largest city, in both Africa and the Middle East with a population of over 15 million people. Cairo proper has a density of over 90,000 people per square mile and is suffocating from hyper congestion of every type.

Modern Predicament: Horizontal congestion, lack of vertical density, and the social patterns
The current remarkable state of contemporary Cairo is paradoxically defined by hyper horizontal congestion as one of the single densest cities in the world. While there is an almost complete absence of structures less than 3 stories, there also exist a very low percentage of buildings exceeding 10 to 12 stories, city wide, with typically lower structures in the historic district. A rare exception to this is The Cairo Tower, which is a 187 meter infrastructural telecommunication tower built in 1961. At 187 meters, it is the tallest all concrete (i.e. no steel columns or frames) in the world and stands as a modern landmark in a skyline otherwise singly dominated by thousands of minarets built over the previous 1000 years.
While the most obvious device to deal with horizontal congestion is the skyscraper typology, it is almost never implemented by the Cairene population. Its standard spatial organization and normative mode of circulation is at direct odds with the informal interactions that have been concretized over the previous millennium.

Medieval Complexity: A study in the historic fabric and religious institutions
At the apex of wealth and power of medieval Cairo’s Mamaluk Sultans, the city fabric went through its most spectacular period of monument building, growth, and crystallization. Careful examination of historic city reveals that there is no absolute way in which the medieval complexity can be directed or given a set of guiding rules. Instead, all growth happens by way of few absolute “Certainties” supplemented in a symbiotic way with a significant number of “Tendencies” which occur as a resultant of forces, many of which are driven by the certainties.

In Islamic cities of historic nature, the construction of mosques acts as a “Certainty” operation in the fabric. All mosques by Islamic law are required to face toward Mecca. When constructing mosques, the fabric is removed, the mosques constructed with its appropriate orientation, and afterwards, over a period of time, the fabric grows back around the newly constructed “certainty”. The type and configuration of fabric is vaguely regulated and responds exclusively to symbiotic forces at the moment. They become a construction of “Tendency”.

When looking at the mosque itself specifically from the Mamaluk medieval period, it is easily identifiable that the constructions themselves were first typologies of complex cross programming of both civil and religious lives governed by a theocracy. The mosque complex of Sultan Hassan completed in 1363 was the most massive structure of its time and housed in addition to the religious activities of the day, 4 schools, a dormitory for 400 people, a hospital, and an orphanage. The massive construction also contained infrastructural works such as a water tower that helped maintain the population. A separate room was also set aside as the mausoleum for the patron of the building.
When analyzing “Certainties” and “Tendencies” of built fabric along with an in-depth programming of the medieval mosque complex, there arises opportunities to respond to Cairo’s hyper congestion via a mechanism of medieval morphology that is responsive to both the informal relationships, complex social patterns, and the trajectory of time.

Proposed Tower
The skyscraper proposition is to develop a programmed infrastructure (not dissimilar to the “Cairo Tower”) that strategically places contemporary “Certainties” such as a mosque, madrassa, secular schools, library, hospital, and crypt throughout the framework. Once the certainties are established, the informal “Tendencies” will take over and infill the infrastructure. The proposed project represents a speculative undermined growth cycle of 100 years, where tendencies will infill the tower and help alleviate the horizontal congestion.

from the Ocean to Tuvalu

Rising high from the ocean below, the elevated “Emergency Land” proposed by South Korean architect Jinman Choi and graduate student Ji Yong Shim is a structure topped by skyscrapers that serves the vital cause of housing the 11,000 residents of the Tuvalu Islands – islands that may soon be swallowed by the sea.

The nine islands of Tuvalu, eight of which have human residents, are located in the Pacific Ocean near the equator. Two of the islands are already experiencing significant flooding, and with elevated sea levels submerging the islands’ lands another 0.5-0.6 cm a year, experts fear the islands could completely disappear within the coming decades.

Choi and Shim are especially concerned with the residents of the islands, as they seem to have few options for escape at this point. The two explain that, currently, nearby Australia has not opened their borders, and New Zealand only permits 75 immigrants from the islands per year, As such, new solutions must be crafted for Tuvalu residents, and quickly. Their solution is to build grand, elevated landmasses anchored by bases on the seafloor and topped by massive skyscrapers to house the 11,000 residents needing new homes. The “arch-designed core” will allow for the balance needed to support the expanded mass of “land” above. The funnel-shaped platforms can be recreated continually to expand the amount of land available. This socially responsible design brings innovation and attention to the needs of a people whose land may, sadly, soon be forever submerged.