In her own words:

I am currently a master student of architecture at the Aarhus School of Architecture, from where I also completed my BA of Arts in Architecture. During the past years I have found a lot of inspiration from travelling and through my camera I try to take notion of every-thing that wonders my Nordic eye.

One late evening at the Aarhus School of Architecture I found myself caught in a post about the parallelism between pizzamaking and a concept called network design. When I was to discover that the Madrid based studio Ecosistema Urbano was the pizzachef, I realized that to learn more about this intriguing idea of network design and how to profoundly activate the citizen as a integrated ingredient in architecture, I had to head south. I had for a while been interested in the relation between citizens and architecture and I found Ecosistema Urbano’s mindset very inspiring.

With strong predilection for a sensible architecture I usually try to work with the mechanisms of the urban landscape to create durable concepts that can make us even more aware of the beauty of our constantly evolving environment. During my studies I developed a strong interest for an architecture of process –and I encountered the idea that the process is in fact the project. By working with Ecosistema Urbano I am hoping to explore another layer in the field of architecture in process, that I have not yet been able to fully explore during my studies.

So here I am. Lets bake!

And here is Julie’s short profile and related links:

Occupation: master student, Aarhus School of Architecture
Interests: People/city/landscape, travel, photography, food, friends, family, hygge
City, country: Aarhus, Denmark
Web: juliekaalbybjerre.dk
Social profiles: facebook.com/julie.bjerre

Marta is a graduate student at 4Cities, a European master in urban studies which takes students to Brussels, Vienna, Copenhagen and Madrid. Previously, she also studied visual arts and theater in Venice and landscape design in Vienna.

To the question “Where are you from?”, her answer is both open and precise:  30% from Este, 30% from Venezia, 20% from Wien, 5% from Modena, 5% from Bruxelles, 5% from København and 5% from Madrid.

She is mainly interested, among other topics, in cultural theory related to urbanism and public spaces, landscapes, contemporary dance and photography. A wide and rich profile that brings new approaches and perspectives to the agency, so we are sure we will be sharing interesting debates and experiences with her at work during her internship.

Welcome, Marta!

Last week we were glad to welcome a new collaborator here at our office in Madrid.

Manon Bublot is an undergraduate student at the Architecture school of Montpellier in France. She studied last year in the ETSAM in Madrid through the Erasmus exchange program, and during that time she grew interested in social participatory processes as a transversal approach to design architectural projects.

She will be helping us with this blog, providing fresh content in English, highlighting the most interesting projects, professionals and collectives related to her (and our) fields of interest . We hope you enjoy her first series of posts about placemaking and related projects.

Welcome to EU, Manon! We hope you’ll have a nice time here with us.

Urska Cernigoj

Architectur student in Faculty of Architecture, University of Ljubljana

My four months internship at Ecosistema Urbano is at the end. Working with such a great team, of young creative people is excellent experience for me at the point when I am just about to start my professional career. When I came here I immediately landed in the dreamhamar project. I took part at preliminary design process and now I am a part of a network design team. Coordinating, communicating, developing and dreaming Hamar’s square with so many participants and experts made this four months even shorter.

I am from Slovenia and I am an undergraduate student in the urbanism oriented program at the Faculty of Architecture from the University of Ljubljana. Before I finish my studies I decided to take the opportunity of the scholarship for international training exchange and to apply for internship.

In academic year 2009/2010 I was on Erasmus student exchange in ETSAG, University of Alcalá and became more familiar with Madrid’s architecture and also with Ecosistema Urbano, which became one of my favorite’s studios. Specially because of the projects, which are creative, smart, innovative, social and environmentally friendly. Probably the endless blue sky and mostly sunny weather only helped in my decision to come to Madrid again.

I am also the kind of person who always thinks that she does not have enough knowledge and I am always searching for new ways to learn more. Not just more about architecture but also about things from other professions, because when you have knowledge from different fields you can manage it and do things better. And my curiosity only helps. All this I found here and after four months I am even more convinced that my choice about the internship was right.

You can follow Urska on Twitter: @aksruc

Ecosistema urbano is always searching for talented people, but many times it works the other way around and we feel very lucky to be directly contacted by them. Today I want to introduce you to another person who has joined us at ecosistema urbano. We are very pleased with Gitte and with all collaborators that want to join us and share their unique backgrounds, that brings a fresh approach to our work.

Here is the profile of Gitte Håhr Larsen:

_BA, Bachelor of Fine Arts at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture, Denmark. 2007-2010
_Stud.arch MAA at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture, Denmark. 2010-

gittelarsen.tumblr.com | upcoming website: gittehaahrlarsen.wordpress.com

Three years of study, research, studytrips around the world, enrichment, inspiration and becoming a person living a creative lifestyle made me curious what is out there and if there is more.
Before starting the actual master studies at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, I needed to use the opportunity enriching my experiences and broaden my knowledge about all the different layers of architecture, urbanism and cultures. I wanted to challenge my professional skills by trying them out in the real world.
I decided my year away from the Academy should start with an unusual place with a special task in mind. By choosing a southeuropean country I already challenge my understanding of architecture, life and space. Madrid as a very rich cultural city with everything a modern metropolis today must have: a scenic landscape just outside the gate, a very lively culture and a population that is letting the streets glow with life and joy. People here life “inbetween the spaces” and enjoy togetherness in a unique way -a way that is very different to the danish societys. So by choosing the internship here it is already challenging my abilities as a person and an architect on many levels and I am enhancing my knowledge of European architecture, culture and differences every day.

On top of being in Madrid I got to work for one of the leading architect studios in town. Since march 2011 I am glad to be a part of the Ecosistema Urbano team and being a equal part of a team of professionals working with experts from several disciplines. For the first time I get to see an architects work and PURPOSE from a very different angle and a more innovative and complex understanding of the city as a phenomenon related not just to architecture, but also urbanism, engineering and sociology. In school we were taught about a smaller and linear scale, as I now see is missing a lot of layers that I get to know here. Our task is not just to build a “shelter” for people but to react to the present situation of cities by taking multidisciplinary approaches to these issues focusing on solutions which includes all aspects and scales of the city. As Ecosistema Urbano say: “ think big-start small-act now”. Since I have started working at Ecosistema Urbano I was exposed to new ways of contributing to society through active digital and on-site participation. I am particularly drawn to the agency’s focus on engaging community members in their project development processes that is innovative. I am very excited about this part and am sure that it will affect my future way of thinking of complex architecture and cities as a part of the society and not just “a shelter” but as an activator for live, space and engagement.

MY MIND MAP RESEARCH AT ECOSISTEMA URBANO

Concept map for the preliminary design

image above: Concept Mapping: a kind of a brainstorm and in praticular this one shows the connections between several ideas, concepts, analyses, facts to become the strategy of the preliminary design process of the eu-project dreamhamar in Hamar, Norway. It is just one of several benefits and outcomes of this project.

Since I started working for Ecosistema Urbano in march 2011 I have already been involved in several of the projects going on and starting some new up. Right now the team is very focused on one special project: the Hamar Stortorget Project in Norway called dreamhamar . Finally the work has started and we are designing a process with several layers so the participation phase with on-site and online workshops, events and physical mock ups successfully can start in the middle of august/september.
While several groups started research, analyse, designing and networking, several weeks ago my first main task was to make a common ‘mindmap’ that is merged with a calender, so we can design the actual proces through this open-minded way. This will also help us to create interaction and coordination between the elements of the project. As many people are working on many different tasks at the same time we still need to keep a balanced view on every layer and share to get the best thinkable outcome. This project is a network design process that will engage Hamar’s social sphere, On-site installations that will summarize the progression of interactive experiences and, finally, an architectural and urban design plan for Stortorget Square tested and experienced by Hamar citizens.

Here I will tell you about the research for keeping an overview with the mind map as a tool:

While researching the main principals of a ‘mind map’ I discovered that we actually aim for a ‘conceptual map’.
In my research I discovered that a mindmap represents words, ideas, tasks, or other items linked to and arranged around one central key word or idea. They can be used to visualize, structure and especially classify ideas. The elements of a given mind map are arranged intuitively according to the importance of the concepts, and are classified intro groupings, branches or goals, but we are actually searching to use a tool so we can combine several concepts that represent different main tasks of the dreamhamar with the result of processes of elements of the project. A similar idea, and for us more useful, is the use of a conceptual map. The former is based on radial hierarchies and tree structures denoting relationships with a central governing concept, whereas concept maps are based on connections between several concepts in more diverse patterns.

image above: Apollo Space Mission Mind Map – MyThoughts for Mac on Flickr
characteristics: one concept with several grouped branches.

image above:GTD – Mapa definitivo by jokin.lacalle
characteristics Concept Map: several concepts combining and fullfilling each other to become a combined goal.

As we want to use this particular map as a tool to design a proces we will use its characteristic of inclusion of “cross-links” that will show us relationships between our conceptual elements in different levels. We use it in 1:1 scale where we can add, change and connect new ideas, incomes, factors and new developments. (The image “Concept map for the preliminary design” is showing just an input from the design team. )We will be able to visualize for ourselves and for the client Hamar municipality how the different elements of the project together with active participation of the Hamar-citizens are connected and relate to each other. Together they will create new knowledge and a new creative sustainable process of urban space. This method, of using the “usual waitingtime”to still design the final result is a new agenda that can be confusing for clients as they do not have a picture of what they end up with. But by using this method and the active digital and on-site participation of the Hamar-citizens, the city will end up with a main square that is not “just pretty and modern landscaping”, but a space that is engaging in everyday lifes and will be an active part of urban, social and creative life in Hamar. It will not be designed by architects, but will be co-designed by Hamar itself -to fit their lifes and needs fully and will result in a much better and more sustainable way, than previously possible.

Here are their profiles (chronological order):

Pau Munar
Architecture student in ETSALS Barcelona.

I´m working at Ecosistema Urbano since september 2010, and collaborating at the same time with Recooperar, an architecture students group that investigates alternative forms of action for a local and global situations. We are also interested in ecological systems and alternative
processes of construction.

Before finishing my studies in Barcelona I decided to enrich my experience by working at Ecosistema Urbano. This experience gave me the opportunity to discover Madrid, which have a different lifestyle than Barcelona, and showed me a unique way of thinking about architecture.

I had first learned of Ecosistema Urbano in 2007 in an architectural post describing the top ten young architects in Spain. Discovering their work made me realize this office would have a promising future, leading the main architecture social networks in Spain.

While trying to imagine what my future in architecture will be, I realized that I would have to unlearn many concepts that i´ve studied in the past, in order to decide which factors will most importantly lead my work.
The first factor is the social networks and digital media. Using communication tools one can spread and exchange information, encourage action, and establish networks between other teams of architects.
The second factor is collaborative teamwork, and the third and last one is the relation between architecture and society, since architects usually develop their work in a self-centred and anarchic way.

Working at Ecosistema Urbano gave me tools of how to work in a big office using collaborative design process. As we spend most of our time at work, sharing a pleasant environment is a very important factor. Meetings and cooking time is a good opportunity for exchanging ideas and knowledge.

Today i’m interested in how the old cities structure’s could be renovated and hybridate functional processes with new alternative actions such as urban sports or recreative activities, and how these structures could produce new living ways into the city.

http://cityasplayground.tumblr.com/
http://twitter.com/paumunar

Petrusjka Skjerning
Stud.arch MAA at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture, Karch.

After three years of studies and a bachelor degree in building architecture, primarily working in the small scale of urban studies, I am searching to explore some of the many fields within architecture.

In this search of new inputs and experiences I decided to do an exchange semester at the University of Fine Arts, UdK in Berlin, where I took interdisciplinary classes in drawing, garden culture and landart along with my semester project in urban planning and space development. As I finished the exchange semester at UdK, I have continued my master studies at the department of Urban Planning and Landscape Architecture at Karch, to further explore the possibilities of the profession.

Since I returned from Berlin I have continued to challenge myself and I decided to do an internship at to gain work experience. I visited the studio of Ecosistema Urbano during a study trip to Spain in 2009 and I chose to apply for an internship at this agency because the visit had left me with a very good impression of both the people and the work at the agency.

I have now been working at Ecosistema Urbano for one month and doing this internship has been an eyeopener. The work in the agency is much more interdisciplinary and humanitarian than the work in school. In particular the humanitarian field of architecture has always fascinated me. To get to work with people who focus on these values in their work, gives to me, the profession of architecture another meaningful significance – and a responsibility – and I hope to continue working in this field in the future.

Joining the Ecosistema Urbano team also means using digital media publishing and blogging as an important part the work. I believe that, including and engaging the citizens and community in the process of making architecture and working in collaborative teams are a good and relevant ways of making architecture human and present.

I know that when I finish my internship in Madrid, I will have gained valuable experiences that will colour and enrich my future work, both in school, as well as an architect. I am exited about what (and where) the life as an architect will bring me!

petrusjkaskjerning

Noa Peer
Accredited architect and urban designer
HMONP / École nationale supérieure d’architecture de Paris-La Villette 2009-10
BArch, Master II / École nationale supérieure d’architecture de Versailles 2003-09

Having trained as an architect and urban designer in France and the United States, I have studied this profession for the creative thinking and manifold skills it requires when developing a project – conducting research, analysing data, collaborating, working with clients. I find that urban development involves acquiring an inquisitive mind and investigating the process, understanding the contexts whole complexity in terms of social, economic, environmental and political features, in order to produce meaningful changes.

I have discovered Ecosistema Urbano through a+t in common publication of their innovative project Ecoboulevard de Vallecas. The project´s high-tech aspects along with the impact on the public scale attracted my interest in their unique work, the investigation of nature and urbanism through innovative architecture. Joining Ecosistema Urbano team is to me an opportunity to collaborate while learning and sharing knowledge, motivations and methods.

My interest in urban development have taken me to live around the world, Tel-Aviv, Paris, New York, Shanghai and recently Madrid, to me the fine understanding of cities is a key to knowing
the composing of our contemporary society. Since I have started working at Ecosistema Urbano I was exposed to new ways of contributing to society through active digital and on-site participation. This is particularly inspiring to me as my personal research focuses on putting together a co-housing project montage of a collaborative scheme in which residents will actively participate in the programme to design their future home.

Website
Blog

Ayasha Guerin
BA candidate, Urban Ecology,  University of Pennsylvania

As a student studying the complex relationship between urbanism and environmental ecology, I am constantly on the lookout for creative projects that approach city planning in environmentally responsible ways. Because I am pursuing an individualized degree in this contemporary, interdisciplinary subject, a lot of my learning is supported by the study of projects that are currently being developed and implemented.

My interest in urban ecological design has taken me across the Atlantic ocean from The University of Pennsylvania to universities in Berlin, Germany. After viewing Ecosystema Urbano’s exhibition at the DAZ Berlin, I was inspired to contact the Madrid office about a chance to work with the team. I am certain that my time with Ecosistema Urbano will be a supportive and unique learning experience – I am particularly drawn to the agency’s focus on engaging community members in their project development processes.

I believe that an approach to urban development that, like nature, is evolving, informal, and aware of local contingencies, has the capacity to sustainably transform urban communities in response to the changing needs of society and society’s natural environments. My own research focuses on identifying and defining mutually beneficial relationships between the culture and nature of areas. I study urban ecological design as a way to incorporate both human and environmental needs into future urban development.

http://twitter.com/urbanlightlife