InnovatiON-Architecture

Design, Sustainability, Emotion, and Technology Eduardo Gutiérrez, Jordi Fernández, Ricardo Devesa, ON-A Laboratorio de Arquitectura. InnovatiON-Architecture compiles ON-A work philosophy: a constant search for innovative ad hoc solutions for each project, using the most updated technologies and design research at the service of ideas, with criteria based on their professional career, but always going beyond the conventional. The contents of the book have been organized illustrating the four conversations held between Eduardo Gutiérrez and Jordi Fernández (ON-A founders and principals) and Ricardo Devesa (editor). With the aim of understanding the different degrees of innovation on how they operate in ON-A, the book is organized into these four blocks. First one is routed on Design as a starting point to attend the control of the geometry (inspired on mineral, arboreal, and organic shapes) and encoding the information (using parametric design, BIM, and coding techniques). That methodology allows them to visualize and interact with the continuum of data and workflows of all stages of development, attending to the entire life cycle of the project. Since ON-A considered themself as a Laboratory rather than as a professional architecture office, the second conversation explored their ways of making innovative architecture throughout bioclimatic and sustainable experiments and tests done in their works and projects. In that chapter they talk about how to incorporate the 'green' feature through bioarchitecture —a layer of technological green that appeals to sustainability from materiality, management and maintenance— in order to re-naturalize cities and reconnect people with the natural environment in favour of an ecosystem balance. Technology is the third chapter, a key tool to enhance design and creativity, carrying out complete material, structural and installation modeling that gives them control of any layout whether they use curved glass, precast GRC, wood or another innovative material technique to build their projects. Last but not least, the fourth conversation is about how the ON-A’s projects work as a catalyst for creating positive Emotions: physical-visual, well-being, and comfort that contribute occupants’ health and flexible usability of the designed spaces. As a result of these four conversations, the book shows how to innovate in architecture from different layers with only one concern: helping to reduce the environmental impact of human intervention, improving citizens' quality of life and seeking the emotional interactions between the inhabitants and their environment. EBOOK VERSION

Miàs: The Making of Making (architecture)

Josep Miàs This exhibition analyses the design processes of MIAS studio, founded by Josep Miàs in 2000. The show proposes a route for the design process through seven concepts: Between lines, Everything could happen, Oniric spaces, Assemblage, Architecture to take away, X-RAYS and Ripped Surfaces. These concepts appeal to the most basic actions of the creative and productive process of study. With Contributions of Peter Cook, Izaskun Chinchilla, Bob Sheil, Josep Miàs, Marina Povedano

AA Book 2021

The AA Book 2021 celebrates the depth of research and plurality of practice pursued at the Architectural Association (AA) during the 2020-21 academic year. The publication features hundreds of projects by students from every unit and program within the school, which together document the AA as an environment where architecture is investigated as a form of knowledge that aims to address the most urgent questions we face in contemporary society. The work featured within this book is the outcome of circumstances that have challenged the entire school community over the past year; to rethink how designers approach the environment, to reinvent practice so that we can address societal inequality and to reconsider how our space can foster a sense of care. Collectively, these reimagined buildings, reconceptualized cities and regenerated landscapes seek to establish a future that is more sustainable, equitable and democratic. Complementing these projects are a series of thoughts and provocations that reveal the AA’s commitment to remaining nimble and at the forefront of architectural culture and learning, both today and tomorrow. With Contributions of Students and staff of the Architectural Association (AA)

Green Obsession

Trees Towards Cities, Humans Towards Forests Stefano Boeri Architetti

Cities have contributed for centuries to the promotion of some of humanity’s greatest ideas, we must now urgently include them as among the principal players in the environmental debate and at the forefront of any policy tackling climate change. Nevertheless, even today one of the most significant technologies capable of absorbing CO₂ and restoring our environment is photosynthesis. Planting trees, in addition to protecting, restoring and managing existing natural areas and biodiversity, together with de-carbonization, renewable energies, digitalization, smart mobility and the circular economy could be the set of tools necessary to counter the climate crisis.

Today the effects of the Anthropocene age are ever more visible, changing our environment and affecting every species that lives within it. Green Obsession offers a path to be taken, a hard but still necessary paradigm shift –even for architecture and urbanism– that aims to give a voice to this much needed ecological transition.
This book aims to unveil the processes and the complexity involved in the search for a new kind of urbanism, while raising questions and opening old wounds related to the relationship between the human species and Nature and finally putting these fragments together to create a portrait of our era.

With Contributions of Enrico Alleva, Emanuele Coccia, Fredi Devas, Laura Gatti, Jane Goodall, Paul Hawken, Cecil Konijnendijk, Davi Kopenawa Yanomami, Pier Mannuccio Mannucci, David Miller, Harini Nagendra, Thomas B. Randrup, Giuseppe Sala, Mitchell Silver, Giorgio Vacchiano, Li Xiangning

Supported by: Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts.

EBOOK EDITION

Domesticidad a la Intemperie (SP ED.)

Sobre las relaciones entre árboles, arquitectura y habitantes Ricardo Devesa The first part of this publication is to present a collection of exemplary five houses that evinced explicit relationships with preexisting trees. The five twentieth century projects are: La Casa (B. Rudofsky, 1969), Cottage Caesar (M. Breuer, 1951), Ville La Roche (Le Corbusier & P. Jeanneret, 1923), Villa Pepa (J. Navarro Baldeweg, 1994) and Hexenhaus (A. & P. Smithson, 1984-2002). The second part of the book is to contribute with three theoretical concerns for the contemporary project, those ones which are established in the process, with respect to time, place and outdoor domesticity in modern western housing. One of these theoretical contributions establishes that any house located on a site finds a significant place in conjunction with the preexisting trees. The second contribution describes the effects in terms of time, in addition to spatial considerations, which trees can contribute to the architectural project. Finally, the establishment of these connections between architecture and trees enlarges the idea of the house: the tree serves to draw the surrounding environment into the house and, as a result, becomes an intrinsic part of the house itself. With Contributions of María Teresa Muñoz (foreword), Iñaki Ábalos (afterword) Buy English edition EBOOK VERSION

Outdoor Domesticity (ENG ED.)

On the Relationships between Trees, Architecture, and Inhabitants Ricardo Devesa The first part of this publication is to present a collection of exemplary five houses that evinced explicit relationships with preexisting trees. The five twentieth century projects are: La Casa (B. Rudofsky, 1969), Cottage Caesar (M. Breuer, 1951), Ville La Roche (Le Corbusier & P. Jeanneret, 1923), Villa Pepa (J. Navarro Baldeweg, 1994) and Hexenhaus (A. & P. Smithson, 1984-2002). The second part of the book is to contribute with three theoretical concerns for the contemporary project, those ones which are established in the process, with respect to time, place and outdoor domesticity in modern western housing. One of these theoretical contributions establishes that any house located on a site finds a significant place in conjunction with the preexisting trees. The second contribution describes the effects in terms of time, in addition to spatial considerations, which trees can contribute to the architectural project. Finally, the establishment of these connections between architecture and trees enlarges the idea of the house: the tree serves to draw the surrounding environment into the house and, as a result, becomes an intrinsic part of the house itself. With Contributions of María Teresa Muñoz (foreword), Iñaki Ábalos (afterword) Buy Spanish edition EBOOK VERSION

Systems Upgrade

(Re)fabricating Tectonic Prototypes Leire Asensio Villoria & David Mah Systems Upgrade offers a design research approach that leverages the embodied knowledge latent within the material legacies of design history for direct applicability in creative practice. This long-spanning research into the construction of links between the deep study of precedent and future practice has been advanced through a simultaneous engagement with digital archeology and the new tools of creative practice. Invested in the belief of a need to open design and its material legacies to a multiverse, this research has yielded a collection of methods, techniques and novel outcomes grounded in history yet openly speculative in outlook. Systems Upgrade extensively illustrates an engagement with some of the most notable works of the Austrian American sculptor and designer Erwin Hauer. This book highlights several important phases of this specific design research project to provide a detailed view of how a series of bridges between analysis to creative practice may be achieved. Foreword by Hanif Kara Visit urbanNext for exclusive on-line content about this book:

Watch an interview with the authors about the book: https://urbannext.net/systems-upgrade/
Read an excerpt: https://urbannext.net/from-things-as-they-are/

EBOOK VERSION

Vacant Spaces NY

Michael Meredith, Hilary Sample, MOS This project began by walking around our neighborhood noticing empty storefronts. Once we saw them, they were everywhere. They followed us, appearing quietly throughout New York City. Many with no signage, no “for rent,” no “coming soon.” Usually empty, sometimes dusty, sometimes with brown paper covering the glass. Now, vacancy has only increased. In the densest city in the United States. During a housing crisis. Throughout a pandemic. The quantity of vacant spaces is anyone’s best guess. It’s only partially documented. They hide in plain sight. Vacant Spaces NY is organized from large to small, general to specific. It begins by looking at vacancy within the United States and continues down to each Manhattan neighborhood, where we zoom into specific vacant spaces, where we have provided as case studies that imagine some possibilities for transforming current vacant spaces into housing or social services. There is also a section on Covid 19, which infiltrated New York during our research. As a whole, this document is not meant to provide specific solutions. The data is incomplete. Case studies are limited. We are not policy experts or data analysts or urban planners. Instead, it is simply meant to show something we have taken for granted, vacant spaces, taking part in a collective process of imagining a better city. EBOOK EDITION

Designing Resilience in Asia

Volume 1: Thinking the Unpredictable Volume 2: Designing with Uncertainty Oscar Carracedo García-Villalba et al. This publication, leaded by the National University of Singapore School of Design and Environment, presents the research by design results of four consecutive years in four different countries (China, Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand) responding to the current challenge of building more resilient cities in front of impacts of climate change, such as coastal and river flooding, water and air pollution, water scarcity, urban heat island effect, aquifer depletion or subsidence. The book brings together the work of highly-reputed academics, professionals and scholars from 20 universities worldwide with the aim of serving as a guide for mitigating and adapting to the effects of climate change, and more specifically to reinstating the environmental qualities of our cities through carbon-neutral or carbon net-positive urban designs and plans. The book demonstrates ‘seven inspirations’ – seven ideas –and 80 design interventions that contribute to the debate on how to address urban resilience through design, planning, technology, management, policies or community involvement in uncertain, unpredictable and transient scenarios, while suggesting creative and innovative design solutions to anticipate, prevent and adapt to the effects of climate-change. The research and designs included in this publication, aim to be speculative visions and provocative reflections that might present alternatives or paradigm shifts for imagining anticipatory and preventive scenarios for our cities. With Contributions of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology.Bangladesh CEPT University. India Louisiana State University. USA National Cheng Kung University. Taiwan National University of Singapore. Singapore Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. Australia Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences. The Netherlands Technische Universität Darmstadt. Germany Université de Montréal. Canada EBOOK VERSION

Strange Objects, New Solids and Massive Things

Archi-Tectonics Winka Dubbeldam/ Archi-Tectonics A manual for a non-standard approach to research and design in architecture. For close to a century, modernism was the norm, presented to culturally aware citizens as the expression of modern life. It arrived hand in hand with medical advances, mass standardization, and a shared ideal of what the ease and speed of the modern lifestyle could offer. Only in the early years of the 21st century did our widespread allegiance begin to shift away from modernism and towards a new social realm. The digital revolution introduced online societies, niche cultures, and digital design. Digital manufacturing facilitated opportunities of surface patterning and the fabrication of one-off special building components, removing the constraints of standardization in the construction industry and celebrating the experimental. Testing designs through prototypes allows for a much more informed decision-making process. The focus is on precise, rigorous research and development, rather than the usual representational models. Now, after nearly two decades of implementing digital tools, we have reached a new platform where digital design and robotic production are the norm, and by extension, digital craft and integral design are as the future. This has been particularly important in the rethinking of advanced digital design processes. As showcased and examined in Strange Objects, New Solids and Massive Forms, from the earliest projects and regardless of scale, Archi-Tectonics has valued performance over form, design intelligence over style. Through prototypes and mock-ups, process documentation and testimonials, the book presents 10 current and recent projects that celebrate the particular and singular over the ideal and universal. With Contributions of Manuel DeLanda, Jonathan Jackson EBOOK VERSION

Select Gift