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Metropoli Novissima | Exhibition in Naples

Category: ⚐ EN+architecture+events+urbanism

If you are visiting Naples you have until the 3rd of December to see the Metropoli Novissima, an exhibition dedicated to successful interventions in suburban contexts featuring architectural and urban international projects. Curated by Prof. Cherubino Gambardella and promoted by the Annali dell’Architettura e delle Città Foundation, the exhibition has a free admission at the Monumental complex of San Domenico Maggiore.

Structured as a unique urban route and conceived as a travel card, the exhibition accompanies the visitor through suggestions and ideas from some of the most interesting case studies of urban design and architecture, with a special focus on processes and scenarios that unite cities.
The exhibition is the last moment of the debate promoted this year by the Fondazione Annali dell’Architettura e delle Città which, under the curatorship of Prof. Cherubino Gambardella, has chosen to investigate the topic of suburbia and its environmentally sustainable development, starting from Naples and Campania, at the center of political debate and planning process, aiming then at opening the debate worldwide. Professionals from all over the world have been called to provide their vision of possible interventions in suburban areas, offering a comprehensive view of the evolution of marginal spaces and underlying social dynamics.

Ecosistema Urbano is among the designers invited to present works related to environmental sustainability and urban activation. Ecosistema Urbano’s projects displayed at the exhibition are the Eco-boulevard, an urban recycling intervention in the outskirt of Madrid, Spain, aiming at creating a comfortable public space following the principles of bioclimatic design; Cuenca Red, an urban activation project developed in parallel to a participatory process, leading to the definition of an urban strategy and the design of 6 pilot projects in the city of Cuenca, Ecuador; Open Shore, a complex project proposing actions at different scales to reactivate the Downtown of West Palm Beach, Florida, and redesign the its limit between the natural landscape of the lagoon and the urban environment.

In Metropoli Novissima more than forty designers are called to present new scenarios and resources for the so-called “difficult places”. Other designers invited to share some of the most important works on urban renewal are works by: Alejandro Aravena, Archea Associati, Stefano Boeri, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Andreas Kipar from LAND, Francisco Mangado, Piuarch, and Sauerbruch Hutton, with scenarios that go from Paris to Moscow, from Johannesburg to Sichuan, from San Paolo to Milan.

More information at:
http://www.annaliarchitettura.it/comunicati-stampa.html
https://casabellaweb.eu/2018/10/09/metropoli-novissima/

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Nordic Urban Spaces | Exhibition in Berlin

Category: ⚐ EN+espacio público+events+news

If you ever wondered how the North builds, this exhibition is for you.  The “Nordic Urban Spaces” shows examples of Nordic architecture and urban planning already implemented that make life in the city better. The Nordic weather tends to be quite extreme, being either a bright and hot summer or a very long and cold winter, so weather particularly affects architecture and urban planning.

This exhibition shows successful, innovative and participatory examples of Nordic construction and planning. The projects not only bring summer into the city (for example, with urban swimming spots) but also provide light and color in winter (for example with brightly colored subway stations). They also try to demonstrate that functionality and sustainability, consideration and elegance are not mutually exclusive.

We are happy to announce that our project Dreamhamar is displayed in the exhibition until the 28th of September. The redesign of the Stortorget Square in Hamar, Norway, through participation and a network design process, took place during Fall 2011. Citizens took part in a collective creative process that helped us shape the future of the square. Our approach was supported by workshops, lectures, urban actions, communication, and participation tools. Dreamhamar was awarded as BEST PRACTICE by the United Nations-HABITAT program in 2014.

If you are in Berlin and want to check it out, go to The Felleshus. This building is the cultural center and event venue of the five Nordic embassies (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden).

Exhibition: Nordic Urban Spaces. Inspirationen für Stadt und Raum
Date: Until 28 September 2018
Place: Felleshus, Nordic Embassies, Berlin, Germany
Find out more: www.nordischebotschaften.org/ausstellungen/nordic-urban-spaces

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On Cities Workshop by the Norman Foster Foundation

Category: ⚐ EN+city+events+news

Norman Foster Foundation On Cities Workshop

Belinda Tato and José Luis Vallejo will be participating in the On Cities Workshop, organised by the Norman Foster Foundation, which will take place this week (18 to 22 June 2018) in Madrid. The workshop will focus on Autonomous Innovative Communities, selecting a district in Madrid as a case-study for a research project that will be developed throughout the week. The On Cities Workshop will include seminars, lectures, one-to-one tutoring and urban architectural tours to learn more about the context of Madrid and it’s districts. During the course of the workshops, participants will have the opportunity to engage with the Norman Foster Foundation’s archive and research projects.

Can each community locally produce all of the energy, food, and clean water needed for basic living—requiring no centralised infrastructure? Can humans transition from ownership to sharing, while living and working in compact, agile, supportive environments? This workshop explores the premise that emerging urban innovations can dramatically reduce resources consumed by cities while simultaneously creating more livable, entrepreneurial communities.

‘We are living in an era of extreme urbanisation and rapid global warming’, states workshop mentor Kent Larson. ‘The challenges of both call for more than mere incremental adjustments.’

After reviewing applications submitted by hundreds of candidates from around the world, the selection committee awarded ten scholarships to students from the following universities and institutions: American University of Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Harvard Graduate School of Design, Cambridge, United States; London School of Economics and Political Science, London, United Kingdom; Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago de Chile, Chile; Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen, Denmark; Technische Universiteit Delft, Delft, the Netherlands; Tongji University, Shanghai, China; Tsinghua University, Beijing, China; Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña, Barcelona, Spain and University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.

These ten students will engage with a group of specialists through a series of seminars and lectures culminating in a five day workshop led by the Atelier mentor, Kent Larson, Director of MIT Media Lab City Science Group and Initiative, and his team. Nicholas Negroponte, Co-Founder and former Director of MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, United States will act as the Chief Advisor of the workshop tutoring the students through the research process.

The Academic Body spans a wide range of practitioners working in different fields interrelated with the City, including: Beatriz Colomina, Director of Graduate Studies, School of Architecture, Princeton University, Princeton, United States; Luis Cueto, General Coordinator for the Mayor in Madrid, Madrid City Hall, Madrid, Spain; Anupama Kundoo, Principal, Anupama Kundoo Architects, Madrid, Spain/Auroville, India; Winy Maas, Co-Founder and Director of MVRDV and Director of the Why Factory, Delft, the Netherlands; Tim Stonor, Managing Director of Space Syntax, London, United Kingdom; Leonor Tarrasón, Director of Environmental Solutions, Norwegian Institute for Air Research, Oslo, Norway; Belinda Tato and José Luis Vallejo, Founders and Directors of Ecosistema Urbano, Madrid, Spain/Miami, United States.

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Ecosistema Urbano at Milano Arch Week

Category: ⚐ EN+architecture+ecosistema urbano+events+news

Triennale Milano - Milano Arch Week 2018

Next Sunday 27th May José Luis Vallejo will be giving a lecture at the Milano Arch Week 2018.

This important event, this year under the title “Urbania“, is promoted by the Comune di Milano, the Politecnico di Milano and the Triennale di Milano in collaboration with Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, and includes a rich program of conferences, workshops, installations, exhibitions, performances, events open to citizens to reflect together on the future of the city and the dynamics of contemporary architecture.

Date and time: May 27th, 19:00 h.
Location: Palco giardino – Viale Alemagna, 6, Milano

Location map of the Garden pavillion at the Milano Arch Week 2018

See full program at the website

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Atmospheres for Social Interaction | Workshop and lecture in Helsinki

Category: ⚐ EN+architecture+city+events+news

Next Thursday 23rd and Friday 24th José Luis Vallejo will be giving an open lecture and leading a workshop at the Aalto University Department of Architecture.

The workshop will develop the topic “Atmospheres for Social Interaction”. How can we, as architects or urban planners, support the development of the social aspect of urban life?
Lecture and workshop by Ecosistema Urbano at the Aalto University Department of Architecture

Location: Lecture Hall A1 at the Lecture Graduate Centre, Aalto University
Lecture: November 23rd, 17:00h
Workshop: November 24th, 10:00-18:00h
Original call: www.groupxaalto.fi

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Lecture in Aalborg

Category: ⚐ EN+events+news

Tomorrow José Luis Vallejo will be giving a lecture at the Utzon Centre in Aalborg, Denmark, as part of the Utzon(x) Lecture Series).

Cartel - Charla de Ecosistema Urbano en la serie Utzon(X)

Since 2010 the international Utzon(x) Lecture Series have arranged lectures and symposiums with the participation of Jacob van Rijs (MVRDV), Juhani Pallasmaa, Mathias Kohler (ETH Zürich), Sigrid Adriaenssens (Princeton University), Dirk van Gameren (TU Delft/Mecanoo), Yoshiharu Tsukamoto (Bow-Wow,9 Jenny Osludsen (Snøhetta) and Nanne de Ru (Berlage Institute) among others.

Location: Utzon Centre, Aalborg, Denmark
Date: November 21st, 2017
Time: 16:00 h

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Jose Luis Vallejo, keynote speaker at New Generation Festival in Rome

Category: ⚐ EN+ecosistema urbano+events+news

Next Tuesday September 26, Jose Luis Vallejo will be lecturing as keynote speaker in Rome on the occasion of the Fourth Edition of New Generation Festival.

More information about:
DAY 1 – Programme of Sunday 24 September 2017
DAY 2 – Programme of Monday 25 September 2017
DAY 3 – Programme of Tuesday 26 September 2017

Among other experts and architects that will take part to the event, there are: ENORME Studio (ES), Fosbury Architecture (IT), Luca Montuori (Deputy Mayor for Urban Planning at the Municipality of Rome, IT), Orizzontale (IT), Olga Polishuk (Chief Operating Officer of Strelka Institute, RU), SET Architects (IT), Jean-Benoît Vetillard (FR), U67 (DK), and WikiSpazioPubblico (IT). Moreover, the second day of the festival on Monday, September 25, will be closed by the keynote speech of Koert van Mensvoort (Next Nature, NL).

About New Generation Festival:
The 4th edition of the New Generations Festival – Architects VS Rest of the World – proposes an intense programme of discussions, workshops and cultural activities, involving numerous international guests, gathered to reflect on the profession of the architect from multidisciplinary points of view. After successful events in Milan (2013), Florence (2014) and Genoa (2015), Rome will host the fourth edition of the New Generations festival with the aim of creating a community of architects and experts from different disciplines, in order to redefine the role of architecture in contemporary society.

The relation between the new generations of architects and other disciplines is a broad field of discussion that will be addressed via three umbrella topics: (a) Urban Vocabulary & Public Space, (b) New Economies & Values, and (c) Digital Infrastructure & New Media. These 3 topics will be at the center of the debate during the Festival, inviting young architects, city makers, sociologists, economists, public & private institutions, startups, communication and digital media experts, web developers, programmers and many others professionals to discuss and exchange ideas. The discussion will see the participation of representatives from the wide network of the New Generations Platform, which counts more than 80 young practices and more than 500 international experts.

URBAN VOCABULARY & PUBLIC SPACE: cities are changing at a fast pace, is the profession and the way we face urban problems keeping up with this rapid developments? New Urban Vocabulary looks at the way architects are more and more becoming mediators in complex urban processes, proposing new ways of thinking not just in terms of urban planning methods, but ways of working with communities, re-activating and re-claiming public space.

NEW ECONOMIES & VALUES: how did the economic crisis of 2008 affect the profession? What do we mean when we talk about successful, sustainable and collaborative economic models in relation to the design field? Collaborative Economies proposes an investigation of the economic models behind successful, emerging and innovative architectural practices. The aim is to analyse the contemporary workscapes with a specific attention to economic sustainability, unveiling challenges and opportunities of the contemporary workfield.

DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURES & NEW MEDIA: New Technologies and Digital Media are changing the way we work in an unprecedented way, but what is the impact of those changes on the architectural profession? Which new figures and experts need to be involved in this highly complex process? Digital infrastructures looks at how seamlessly integrated technological systems run in the background of our cities but have the power to fundamentally change both the approach to architecture and the way we experience spaces, creating a base for innovation.

See you in Rome!

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Lecture at UdK Tuesday, Berlin

Category: ⚐ EN+events+news

UDK TUESDAY

Next Tuesday, December 13th, José Luis Vallejo from Ecosistema Urbano will be giving a lecture at the Universität der Küste Berlin, as part of the UdK Tuesday series of talks.

If you are in Berlin and didn’t know about these activities, you should also have a look at the the rest of the impressive programme. And these are only the last of a series of more than 158 lectures!

NOV 08 – MARKUS BADER – RAUMLABOR
NOV 15 – PUBLIC WORKS
NOV 29 – EFFEKT
DEC 13 – ECOSISTEMA URBANO
JAN 10 – ARISTIDE ANTONAS
JAN 17 – PASCAL FLAMMER
JAN 24 – RICCIONE ARCHITEKTEN
JAN 31 – DILLER SCOFIDIO + RENFRO
FEB 07 – K GEERS D VAN SEVEREN

If you happen to be around by that date, we hope to meet you there!

Day: December 13th, 2016
Time: 19 h.
Address: UdK Berlin, Raum 310, Hardenbergstr. 33, 10623 Berlin
Free entrance!

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X International urban conference “City 2016. City management” in Katowice

Category: ⚐ EN+city+ecosistema urbano+events

Salesiam Museum in Katowice - photo by

Salesiam Museum in Katowice – photo by Ziemowit Cabanek on Flickr

Next Monday, November 14th Belinda Tato will be giving the ‘keynote speech’ on urban social design at the X International Urban Conference “City 2016. City Management” in Katowice, Poland.

This event is organised by Jan Olbrycht, member of the European Parliament, and Think Silesia, a regional think tank based in Katowice. Participants will reflect on environmentally friendly cities, discuss the conclusions on Habitat III and the opportunities behind big data and open data.

You can see the event announcement and the program at the URBAN Intergroup website.

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Stortorget Square in Hamar is an incredibly lively place, even Sting says so !!

Category: ⚐ EN+dreamhamar+ecosistema urbano+events

sting_1920x1080_highres_m_logo-1

Do you remember those drawings of our preliminary design for Dreamhamar project? And how Stortorget Square, the main public square in Hamar, was represented as a flexible and dynamic place for public events, concerts and gatherings? one-thousand-squares-01

Well, as many of our readers may know, after that initial phase we developed a complex participatory process (narrated in detail in our publication Dreamhamar – a network design process for collectively reimagining public space), that led to the urban design we finalized in 2012. The final spatial configuration of the main public space of Hamar is characterized by the presence of the Social Ring, an arena used as an ice skating area during the winter and as stage/meeting area/urban beach during the summer.

social-ring

Since its construction was accomplished, Stortorget square fulfills its role as the main center of the urban life in the city. The Social Ring has truly become a landmark for Hamar and we are so pleased to discover at Stortorget’s Facebook page a great number of pictures showing so many different uses and users enjoying this reconquered public space.

Picture: Thomas Tapani Härkönen – from Facebook

Even if during last years Stortorget square hosted events of different kinds targeted at different social groups, satisfying the interests of many (kids playing gymnastics, classic music passionates, bikers, ice-skaters, Christmas tree lovers, etc…) without any doubt one of the most acclaimed event took place last August, gathering more than 8.000 people and completely filling the square at its maximum capacity.

Pictures from Facebook. Authors from top right: Glenn Sætre, Morten Aspeli (3 pictures), bottom: Torfinn Kringlebotn

On August 6th 2016 the concert of the world’s famous musician Sting took place at Stortorget. Local newspapers reported that it was a great success, and honestly, looking at the pictures it really seems so. We are so happy that one of our most loved public spaces, conceived with locals to be transformed into an icon of new ways of making urbanism, gained this visibility, not only because of the features of the place itself, but also for the importance of the event it hosted, becoming known to a larger audience.

Stortorget Square on the day of Sting’s concert. Source: http://www.h-a.no

Sting performing in Stortorget Square. Source: http://www.h-a.no/

Further information (in Norwegian, of course) at here, here and here.

We hope many other events will take place at Stortorget, and that it will continue to be a great and liveful place!