Public Space in Metropolitan Barcelona (ENG ED.)

Interventions and Conversations 2018-2022 AMB

The AMB is releasing the sixth volume in the Metropolitan Spaces collection, a catalogue presenting the main interventions from the period 2018-2022, which have shaped public space in metropolitan Barcelona.

The volume features 56 out of 251 projects built during these years, grouped under six themes that the journalist Anatxu Zabalbeascoa introduces through interviews with two experts who offer their perspectives from inside and outside the metropolitan Administration.

With Contributions of Presentation Ramon Torra Prologue Xavier Mariño Epilogue Albert Gassull

Interviews by Anatxu Zabalbeascoa to Imma Jansana, Cati Montserrat, Iñaki Alday, Margarita Jover, Antoni Farrero, Josep Ferrando, Oriol Ribera, David Chipperfield, Carlos Llinás, Beth Galí, Claudi Aguiló-Riu, Eva Pagès, Paul Lecroart, Javier Ortigosa

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L’espai públic de la Barcelona metropolitana (CAT ED.)

Intervencions i converses 2018-2022 AMB

With Contributions of Presentation Ramon Torra Prologue Xavier Mariño Epilogue Albert Gassull

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Golconde

The Introduction of Modernism in India Pankaj Vir Gupta, Christine Mueller, Cyrus Samii Golconde is an astonishing architectural accomplishment. With technical finesse and extraordinary craft, it offers a living testament to the original modernist credo - architecture as the manifest union of technology, aesthetics, and social reform. Here exists an undiluted view of a wholly triumphant tropical Modernism, built during the tumultuous years of the second world war. Mira Nakashima, George Nakashima’s daughter, contributes with a new 800 word introduction essay for this new edition. EBOOK VERSION

Inventory

Adamo-Faiden Sebastian Adamo & Marcelo Faiden This book is built from images, drawings and texts. These three types of documents are exposed in an elemental way, alone in the center of each page and isolated from the project to which they belong. The authors organized the inventory from a set of documents that first claim their independence and then undergo a peer dialogue. These two actions may seem to cancel each other out, but they actually both reaffirm a very basic idea, which holds that the interest of a conversation is closely related to the consistency of its interlocutors. The conversation that arises from each diptych is precisely what stimulates the appearance of a tacit project. A project that bypasses material organizations and that is only possible due the intervention of an active reader, capable of establishing connections between the printed documents. This book is a twofold response to what are the disciplinary assets that the architecture studio Adamo-Faiden produces and how they should be organized to accurately delineate the authors' interests. Adamo-Faiden is established in Buenos Aires by Sebastian Adamo and Marcelo Faiden. Their practice extends to the field of teaching and research, and has been internationally recognized by different media and institutions. Their works were exhibited at the Sao Paulo Architecture Biennial, the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Venice Architecture Biennale, the Chicago Architecture Biennial, the LIGA Architecture gallery in Mexico, the Deutsches Architekturmuseum in Frankfurt, the Storefront for Art & Architecture in New York, and at Princeton University School of Architecture. EBOOK VERSION

E+U: Espinet Ubach Arquitectos (SP ED.)

Últimas obras y proyectos 2007-2022 Espinet/Ubach Arquitectes Espinet / Ubach belongs to the generation of the 70s. Born in the postwar period and with offices founded at the beginning of democracy, their architecture draws a fine line between late rationalism and the modern movement. With the focus on the accurate integration with the landscape, the spatial organization, the knowledge of the materials and the composition of sober geometry. Without being within trends or fashions, his projects follow a common, timeless, reasonably understandable and moderately abstract compositional trajectory. His work notebooks, which will be present in the book, are considered authentic Storyboards of the construction. Architecture manuals and compositional solutions. The book published by ACTAR deals with the latest works by these Catalan architects grouped into four suggestive chapters: public buildings, social housing, major renovations and a trip to Colombia. With Contributions of Jordi Badia, Pau Bajet, Xavier Osarte, Miquel Espinet. Buy English Edition

E+U: Espinet Ubach Architects (ENG ED.)

Latest Works and Projects 2007-2022 Espinet/Ubach Arquitectes Espinet / Ubach belongs to the generation of the 70s. Born in the postwar period and with offices founded at the beginning of democracy, their architecture draws a fine line between late rationalism and the modern movement. With the focus on the accurate integration with the landscape, the spatial organization, the knowledge of the materials and the composition of sober geometry. Without being within trends or fashions, his projects follow a common, timeless, reasonably understandable and moderately abstract compositional trajectory. His work notebooks, which will be present in the book, are considered authentic Storyboards of the construction. Architecture manuals and compositional solutions. The book published by ACTAR deals with the latest works by these Catalan architects grouped into four suggestive chapters: public buildings, social housing, major renovations and a trip to Colombia. With Contributions of Jordi Badia, Pau Bajet, Xavier Osarte, Miquel Espinet. Buy Spanish Edition

The ReView

How and What for Iñaki Alday / Tulane School of Architecture The ReView: How and what for, presents the pedagogical project of the Tulane School of Architecture through the work, mostly visual, of both students and faculty over the past few years. The book is organized into two main blocks, "how" and "what for". On the one hand, "how" exposes the sequence of studies and theoretical courses with exceptional pedagogical methodologies. On the other hand, "what for" shows the connection of the Tulane School of Architecture's academic work with the social, economic, and environmental reality we face today. The conceptual link that connects the "How?" and the "What for?" is the idea of innovation. In a time of global crisis, the Architecture - and educational systems - needs to be revised. This revision of academic programs is crucial to educate new architects to address social and environmental challenges from an innovative perspective. With Contributions of Iñaki Alday, Jesse M. Keenan, Edson Cabalfin, Scott Bernhard, Kentaro Tsubaki

A House Deconstructed

Mark Jarzombek, Vikramaditya Prakash We would like to think that we ‘know’ what goes into making a modern building. But the truth is that no one, not even architects, knows. The OUR [Office for Uncertainty Research] spent three years studying a single, relatively modest modern house located in Seattle, WA. The research focused on four vectors: Atomic Consciousness that dates back to the Big Bang and the earliest Super Novas: Production Consciousness that involves a vast array of ingredients that are combined to make architectural products: Labor Consciousness that spans a wide spectrum of temporal and economic conditions; and Source Consciousness that is multilayered and global in its reach. Though much was learned, it became clear that a huge proportion of what we ‘know’ about the house was unknowable, not because our epistemological instruments aren’t strong enough or calibrated precisely enough, but because things themselves are indeterminate, uncertain. This begs the question about agency. If we are to critique our profession and even improve some of its claims about Sustainability, then we must develop a more robust understanding of the building industry and the sourcing and making of materials. We must even develop a stronger awareness of the history of atoms and how architecture brings that history into a remarkable focus. EBOOK VERSION

The Caring City

Health, Economy, and Environment Izaskun Chinchilla Moreno This book invites us to rethink architectural and urban models, prioritizing not so much the technical, formal and abstract knowledge sought by urban planners, as the public and civic dimension of citizens’ experience when they try to care for themselves, for each other or for the environment. After decades of industrialization, our cities, in their physical and governmental dimensions, are productivity-oriented places. Cities are, nonetheless, a more hostile environment for non-productive activities: being able to choose where to sit and rest, use a public toilet, drink clean water without paying or breathe unpolluted air. The privilege that productive activities have enjoyed and those who exercise them has led to the denial of the various biological and subjective characteristics of its inhabitants and the multidimensional character of the city, becoming a cultural principle and a political practice. The Caring City opens up an extensive field of alternatives that can present a uniting vision of the economy, the environment and the health of a diverse community. The translation of this work has had the participation of Acción Cultural Española, AC/E.

Design for Biocities

Global Contest to Rethink Our Habitat from the Body to the City. Vicente Guallart, Laia Piferré The Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) calls its 9th Advanced Architecture Contest as a global reflection to rethink human settlements at a time when our natural environments and the human habitats are more clearly intertwined. The planet is immersed in a fast process of urbanization while we are simultaneously facing a serious climate crisis that must be addressed. We look to the model of Biocities, cities that follow the principles of ecological principles in order to promote life and biodiversity, to provide us with potential design solutions. How can we reimagine our cities as Biocities, capable of creating an ecologically attuned and reciprocal relationship with nature? This year’s competition challenges students and professionals from all over the world to propose how to design urban spaces, cities, buildings, objects, or solutions of any scale, directed towards the transition to Biocities. These responses should explore how we might adapt to the changing relations between human and natural systems in a moment of climate crisis. Cities have always reflected the civilizations that built them, and at this critical moment where climate change is transforming our living environment, we must rethink our position of domination in relation to all that surrounds us. To respond to rising concerns of the bursting of planetary boundaries, which regulate the stability and resilience of the earth system as it currently stands, we urge the need to simultaneously look at nature based as well as advanced technological solutions to reimagine resilient cities of the future. The contest encourages participants to propose a design at any scale, anywhere in the world, that reflects different cultural, environmental, economic, or social conditions. EBOOK VERSION

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