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I Wish This Was…, interesante proyecto creativo para soñar otra ciudad

Category: #follow+#followcreative+⚐ ES+art


Os presento el proyecto I Wish This Was…de la artista Candy Chang que se autodefine como ‘public installation artist, designer, urban planner, and co-founder of Civic Center who likes to make cities more comfortable for people‘.

Este es un proyecto que lleva a cabo en su barrio de Nueva Orleans, donde mediante el diseño de unas sencillas pegatinas crea un elemento de comunicación para que los vecinos expresen sus deseos en los edificios y solares vacíos o abandonados (una especie de what if .. analógico) sigue leyendo

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REBEL MATTERS | ecosistema urbano in genova

Category: ⚐ EN+ecosistema urbano

Next Friday 4th the International Seminar REBEL MATTERS I. SOUTH‐NETS will take place in the University of Genova.

Rebel Matters identifies a series of international seminars, promoted by ADD (Scuola di Dottoratoin Architettura e Design – Doctoral School for Architecture and Design) in collaboration with DSA (Dipartimento delle Scienze Architettoniche – Department of Architectural Sciences) and the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Genoa. The idea is to convey a new architectural, urban and contemporary design approach based on complicity, innovation and relational involvement as a possible alternative both to iconographic marketing and show business, the disciplines traditional tools (formal, typological, commercial, etc). continue reading

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URBAN PROTOTYPE PLAZA ECOPOLIS to Compete for the 2011 Buckminster Fuller Challenge

Category: ⚐ EN+ecosistema urbano+sustainability


Madrid, Feb. 14th

WASTE TO RESOURCES- URBAN PROTOTYPE PLAZA ECOPOLIS led by ecosistema urbano is proud to announce our submission to the Buckminster Fuller Challenge. Named “Socially-Responsible Design’s Highest Award” by Metropolis Magazine, the Challenge is an annual international prize program that awards $100,000 to support the development and implementation of a solution that has significant potential to solve humanity’s most pressing problems.

We are thrilled to be a part of the Buckminster Fuller Challenge review process, which brings together influential design science leaders such as Josè Zaglul, Vandana Shiva, Danny Hillis, William McDonough, John Thackara and Hunter Lovins.

We entered this competition because of its reputation as the most prestigious Prize concerning social issues. continue reading

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#followresearch XC: software libre para diseñar estructuras

Category: #follow+#followresearch+⚐ ES+arquitectura

XC es un programa desarrollado por el equipo de Iturribizia, destinado a resolver problemas de análisis estructural mediante el método de los elementos finitos.

La idea principal que ha guiado el desarrollo del programa es la de LIBERTAD. No sólo las libertades que propugna la comunidad del software libre sino, también, libertad a la hora de establecer la geometría, las condiciones de apoyo y los materiales que forman la estructura. En lugar de enfocar el desarrollo a conseguir dimensionar rápidamente elementos estructurales bien conocidos (forjados uni o bi direccionales, vigas, pilares, pórticos,…) se prefiere dotar al usuario de herramientas que le permitan emplear los distintos algoritmos de comprobación propuestos
por las normas (EHE, CTE, eurocódigos,…) del modo que le parezca más adecuado.

Libertad y responsabilidad van inseparablemente unidas y, por tanto, debe ser el diseñador de la estructura el que, basándose en sus conocimientos, elija los procedimientos de análisis y comprobación apropiados para su diseño. De este modo el programa deja de ser una guía de diseño, favoreciendo (cuando no imponiendo), la aplicación de soluciones estándar, para ser una simple (pero potente y obediente) «calculadora». continue reading

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Invisible Cities: A Transmedia Mapping Project

Category: ⚐ EN+city+espacios sensibles | sentient city

What social media activity has to do with the literal lay of the land.

By Maria Popova

In December, the now-infamous map of Facebook friendships revealed an uncanny cartography of the world depicted purely through social relationships data. Now, a project by Christian Marc Schmidt and Liangjie Xia is taking the concept ambitiously further: Invisible Cities is a transmedia mapping project, displaying geocoded activity from social networks like Twitter and Flickr within the context of an actual urban map — a visceral, literal embodiment of something VURB‘s Ben Cerveny has called “the city as a platform,” the idea that cities are informational media and living computational systems for urban society. continue reading

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Gunter Pauli. Sistemas económicos inspirados en ecosistemas naturales

Category: ⚐ ES+sostenibilidad

La nueva economía verde es azul

Supongamos que somos unos empresarios y nuestro negocio consiste en producir cerveza. En nuestra fábrica, como en el resto del sector, solo se emplea el almidón de la cebada y desechamos la proteína y la fibra, es decir, ¡el 92 % de la biomasa del cereal se va a la basura! Algo falla.

Si aplicamos la manera de funcionar de los ecosistemas a nuestro negocio, lo primero que haremos será preguntarnos ¿Quién está interesado en comerse estos desechos? Y pronto averiguaremos que las setas digieren la fibra y producen más proteína que, por cierto, es ideal para los cerdos, que a su vez generan excrementos que producen biogás. Y el pH del excremento del animal genera lodo que es ideal para alimentar a las algas. Con los desperdicios de nuestra industria cervecera hemos producido setas, cerdos, biogás y algas. Nuestro negocio ha dejado de ser lineal y además de ser más rentable ya no produce desperdicios. Estamos en el camino de la sostenibilidad y somos más competitivos. continue reading

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Innovate, create

Category: #follow+#followresearch+⚐ EN+creativity

Innovation, creativity power fresh thinking at Harvard

The heart pacemaker. Surgical anesthesia. Facebook. Even breathable chocolate.

Harvard’s combination of questing minds, passionate spirits, and intellectual seekers tackling society’s toughest problems fosters a creativity that has produced a stream of innovations, from novel inventions to history-making devices that provide profound benefits to the public.

Creative thinking is a key component of Harvard’s Schools, centers, and institutes. Many innovations have come from looking at old problems in new ways, from recognizing the importance of serendipitous results, and from understanding that failures are steps to success. That innovative spirit has long been part of Harvard’s DNA, leading to the first use of anesthesia at Massachusetts General Hospital in 1846 and the development of the pacemaker by Paul Zoll in the 1950s.

President Drew Faust highlighted this University role when she took office, noting that an institution of higher education has an “accountability to the future.”

“One of the most significant things about our research universities,” she told a gathering of civic and higher education leaders in Boston, “is that they are engines that also produce the fuel — the scientists, physicians, and engineers, the thinkers and ideas … that spur the new products, new jobs, and new companies that will help renew our economy.” continue reading

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Si vivimos en un mundo capitalista ¿por qué no vivir en un anuncio?

Category: ⚐ ES+arquitectura

VIVIENDAS AUTOFINANCIABLES. Si vivimos en un mundo capitalista ¿por qué no vivir en un anuncio?

Por Pablo Saiz, arquitecto MODULAB con la colaboración de Javier Pastor Gómez.

Un anuncio en un monoposte puede suponer unos ingresos de 1500 euros/mes.

Aprovechando la forma en cuña del monoposte se puede ubicar en su interior una vivienda de 51m2 en dos plantas con un espacio de estar a doble altura y con terrazas en las diversas plantas. Un ascensor situado en el interior del poste da acceso a la vivienda que se dispone como una vivienda tradicional.

La construcción realizada en taller permite un rápido montaje.

Puede disponer de todas las comodidades tecnológicas e incluso ser autosuficiente energéticamente.

La punta de la cuña estaría enfrentada a la autopista, minimizando así el ruido en la vivienda, mientras que la fachada posterior se abriría a lo que suele ser la mayor parte de las veces paisaje. continue reading

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Nearer, better

Category: ⚐ EN+research


Photo Credit: Kyungjoon Lee

Link found between physical proximity of researchers, impact of work

The above schematic represents the relationship between intra-building collaboration and citations. The height of each building reflects the average number of publication citations originating there, and the color reflects the degree to which authors on those publications cohabitated (from gray=low to blue=high). The graphic depicts that, in general, buildings with more intra-building collaborations produced studies with higher citation rates.

Absence makes your heart grow fonder, but close quarters may boost your career. continue reading

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Bucky on stage

Category: ⚐ EN+creativity

Photo courtesy of the American Repertory Theater

Harvard gave R. Buckminster Fuller a gift beyond academics, his biographers say: a lifelong preoccupation with human welfare, and the social, technical, and economic problems that vex the modern age. “R. Buckminster Fuller: The History (and Mystery) of the Universe,” a two-act monologue performed by A.R.T. veteran Thomas Derrah, explores the life and ideas of the inventor and futurist.

R. Buckminster Fuller, the self-taught architect, inventor, and futurist who coined the term “Spaceship Earth,” entered Harvard College in the fall of 1913. But by 1915, he had been thrown out twice — he preferred the term “fired” — and never returned for a degree. continue reading