Glorieta de Bilbao [Madrid]
-fisheye view from top-
urbanism
January 21, 2009
Nocturnal dub ambiances, pollution as echo chambers, drumming traffic noises, singing street lights… Scratching tramway bells by approaching walls, grabbing metallic railing as guitar strings, turning corners towards a chorus… Music creation with Sonic City is a co-production of user actions and urban conditions. It is experienced as a dynamic improvisation in context and continual rediscovery of everyday urban settings. Encounters, events, architecture, (mis)behaviours… all affect the music and become means of interacting with or ‘playing the city’.
January 19, 2009
Urbania Festival 29-30-31/01/2009 Bologna Italy
The Festival is focused on “the Hell and Paradise” of life in contemporary cities. Urbania, the Bologna urbanism festival, proposes to gather urbanists, landscape architects, artists and politicians from Italy and abroad. Lectures, talks and meetings held for three days in order to discuss about urban economy, town life and urban writing. Here, some of the preeminent international figures of architecture, economics, public administration, art and literature aim to exchange views on several themes.
January 9, 2009
Welcome to this new project of the Architectural League of New York. Come see what we’re all about. Explore, read, listen, watch, and join in the conversation. We encourage your input – this is a soft launch, and we will be relying on your feedback to help us keep making the site better.
December 10, 2008
fisheye sessions #9
Category: creativity+cultura abierta+urbanism+⚐ EN
Jacinto Benavente Square, Madrid [Top view]
November 25, 2008
fisheye sessions #8
Category: city+cultura abierta+urbanism+⚐ EN
Here we go with “fisheye sessions” issue #8…
Puerta del Sol [Madrid] -top view-
October 23, 2008
another “hot spot” we are working on…
[Jacinto Benavente Square, Madrid]
October 9, 2008
[Ludic-Tree. EcoBoulevard, Vallecas]
October 6, 2008
hi there! to continue showing nice pictures from the work we are developing about Fuencarral urban axis…
[Sol square, Madrid]
October 3, 2008
The 1st of October – it happened! What many citizens of Copenhagen have been looking forward to. The day when they shut down one of the most busy streets for cars, Norrebrogade, Copenhagen N. The street is one of the main thoroughfares of the capital – and it will be permanently closed for three months.
October 1, 2008
September 24, 2008
Hi! I’m going to start up a new thematic post series called “fisheye sessions” to show homemade views that can show other ways to interpret or analyze urban or suburban space.
In this case, in relation to the work about Fuencarral axis that we are developing in the office, I shall show a fisheye view of the Gran Vía & Montera crossroads in Madrid.
July 14, 2008
Official website HERE, full description of the project THERE
The Wikibivouac is a collaborative map which reappropriates space to create new uses of the city. The wiki element of contibutions from anyone aggregates information for improved transient occupancy of place. We understand the value of a local resident’s recommendations and guidance – when this infomation is pooled and accessed a visitor attains a greater understanding of the true availability of resources and locations shown on a static map.
May 16, 2008
BURB.TV is a collaborative research wiki focusing on the urbanization of China. Each article is a topical blog or BURB into which texts, images, and discussion are submitted. Each BURB grows to expand into the larger knowledge of The Chinese Dream, a project that investigates the goal to build 400 new cities by 2020. The research is produced with visionaries, architects, planners and social scientists invited by the Dynamic City Foundation.
May 15, 2008
URBAN AGE es una serie de conferencias que investigan el futuro de las ciudades a través del estudio de la vida, la evolución y el crecimiento de una serie de ciudades por todo el mundo:
NUEVA YORK – SHANGAI – LONDRES – CIUDAD DE MEJICO – JOHANNESBURGO – BERLIN – BOMBAI – SAO PAULO – ESTAMBUL
es un proyecto de seis años de duración organizado por la london school of economics y dirigido por el profesor ricky burdett. explora los procesos económicos, medioambientales, sociales, políticos y culturales que dan forma a la vida en la ciudad.
URBAN AGE is a worldwide series of conferences investigating the future of cities by thoroughly studying the life, evolution and growth of certain cities throughout the world:
NEW YORK – SHANGHAI – LONDON – MEXICO CITY – JOHANNESBURG – BERLIN – MUMBAI – SAO PAULO – ISTANBUL
a six-year project organised by the london school of economics, directed by ricky burdett, that explores the economic, environmental, social, political and cultural processes that shape city life.
March 29, 2008
KRAX* is a project that investigates, promotes and connects urban creativity in Barcelona with that of other cities. KRAX believes that Urban Creativity generates alternative proposals and reactions that are necessary to the city’s transformation. Autonomous initiatives emerge in response to the lack of value that public institutions place on the need for collectivism, participation and self-management in the process of building the city’s future. These initiatives exist at the cultural, social and economic levels, and we recognise the need to acknowledge and involve them.
March 24, 2008
December 26, 2007
Last Wednesday, I (Domenico) had the chance to attend the event held at Medialab (Madrid) about Wikis and Knowledge Standards. I could only watch the round table chaired by Adolfo Estalella, who was joined by Antonio Lafuente, Platoniq and Juan Freire.
Antonio Lafuente talked about the capacity of new virtual communities to generate knowledge that would never be possible without the use of new technologies, such as wikis. He talked about the production process of lay knowledge, which obtains a percentage of “error” of 6%, that is, lower than what is obtained in normal scientific processes.
Platonig talked about some of their most interesting projects, such as the BCC Banco Común de Conocimientos (Shared Knowledge Bank), concerned about favouring free broadcasting networks and free contents (education p2p).
What I most liked about Juan Freire (who I finally met) was his thoughts about the wiki technology: it allows us to generate knowledge while we design it, something that previously couldn’t be done. I’d like to add that it also allows us to associate a static element (design) to a dynamic element (knowledge). He also talked about the concept of standard, describing it as something arbitrary, something that doesn’t depend on nature and that isn’t inevitable.
Talking about Wikipedia, he pointed out how the whole debate about its functioning is taking place with full transparency, thanks to the very essence of the wiki system. All this is new, very new. We were used to standing aside this kind of debates between a few “chosen” ones.
Wikis are introducing transparency standards never seen before. I think we could take example and start thinking about the possibility of similar standards applied to public spaces. Is there a public space where one can enjoy the same transparency standard as in wikis? What would this space be like? I will carry on thinking about this topic, see if something interesting comes up… what do you think?
Ps. I met Marilo from La Fundacio, who told me about a very interesting project: http://projecte3.pbwiki.com/ I will write more about this in future posts.
November 13, 2007
The neighbours’ association Nudo Sur (southern Madrid) has complained about the “creative urbanism” project for the old fruit and vegetable market in Legazpi, Madrid. They claim the project seeks economic profit instead of caring for the real needs of the neighbourhoods around Nudo Sur. They are calling an alternative ideas competition open to neighbours, urbanists and social organisations, to try to find the best uses for the market.
The debate, currently ignored by the city council, will be published in the web (http://mercado.afectadosnudosur.com) and the outcome of the competition will be published in early 2008, simultaneously with the results of the city council competition.
October 2, 2007
www.agenda21-local.net
Category: sustainability+urbanism+⚐ EN
We have opened up our own media channel at www.agenda21-local.net. We are given the chance to communicate our innovative products for implementing the objectives of the local “agendas21”. We offer a range of high-quality services that can be used to improve the relationship between neighbours and the public space. We have started a new site inside our blog, next to the projects site, called products. In this space you will shortly find a list of specific services aimed for sustainable towns and cities. Some of the services, including rehabilitation of neighbourhoods, workshops for the future involving the participation of the neighbours or the eco-pack, will be carried out together with fundación CIREM foundation, an expert on this matter. We hope these services are what Spanish towns are looking for. We will watch out for your comments to improve our proposals throughout the process.
