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Francesco Cingolani | eu collaborators

Category: ⚐ EN+colaboradores+ecosistema urbano

Today we introduce Francesco Cingolani, one of our closest collaborators in the past couple of years. In the following post he explains some of his projects and interests, and his experience in Ecosistema Urbano.

Francesco Cingolani

Photo above by urban sociologist Andres Walliser, good friend and collaborator.

I have studied architecture and engineering and I’ve always been interested in the relationship between creativity and new technologies, more than in building. For the last 3 years I’ve been payed to work as an architect, professional blogger and creative project manager. Since 2012 I’ve been teaching parametric design in Paris at “École d’architecture de la ville et des territoires” in Marne-la-Vallée.

I recently started my first projects as entrepreneur: one is a creative cohousing in Madrid and the other is about going into Parisian apartments and create handmade Italian pasta; the project is called farine00 and I’m in this with Valentina, in the photo below. At the moment, people are just crazy about those projects but we still don’t get any income from them. Old story.

Farine00

Photo above by flo – flickr.com

I am 34, Italian and I have been living in Paris for 9 years. 3 years ago I quit my job at Hugh Dutton Associates to move to Madrid and work with Ecosistema Urbano, Basurama, Meipi and other amazing people from Spain.

In Ecosistema Urbano, I was in charge of the DIGITAL COORDINATION of dreamhamar, a network design and participation process in Norway. It was the most interesting project I participated since I am working. It was also the most stressful one. Old story.

Thanks to dreamhamar I’ve learnt more about complex systems and emergency phenomena.

I think that the most interesting shift in recent design experience is that we have passed from designing object to designing networks and processes. That’s why for dreamhamar we’ve developed a network design methodology. As a project manager, I also applied minimalism as a management tool for highly complex processes which often tend to information overload.

At Ecosistema Urbano I also was in charge of the development of Urban Social Design Experience, a network learning experience focused on participatory processes and sustainability.

Before that, I took part in some more architectural projects. I especially like this one with Ecosistema Urbano and Koz and the new Louvre in Paris with Hugh Dutton Associates, that is opening in September (photo below).

Département des Arts de l’Islam, musée du Louvre, Paris

Département des Arts de l’Islam, musée du Louvre, Paris
Client: Etablissement Public du Musée du Louvre
Architects: Rudy Ricciotti et Mario Bellini
Muséography: Renaud Piérard and Mario Bellini
Facade and Structure Consultants: HDA | Hugh Dutton Associés
Photo: “La couverture de la cour Visconti, département des Arts de l’Islam, musée du Louvre”
© R. Ricciotti – M. Bellini / Musée du Louvre
© photo 2011 Musée du Louvre / Olivier Ouadah

Since january 2012, I am trying to work no more than 3 hours per day and check my email box only 3 times a week. The italian newspaper “Il Corriere della Sera” featured my story as an example of downshifting in its magazine “Sette”.

I am a walker, and last year I realised intraverso, a slowlife and storytelling project in collaboration with the Italian magazine whymarche. The project included a slow, walking trip through Italian countryside and a digital journal.

Since 4 months ago I am moving through Europe and working remotely without a unique location, even if I consider Paris as my principal home. I don’t have a clear idea of what I am doing in the next future. Looking for new stories.

When writing for the Internet like this, I like sharing details of my physical location:

Montecanepino, (Italy), 11.47 AM August 8th 2012.

Here is a photo of my window right now.

Montecanepino, (Italy), 11.47 AM August 8th 2012.

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Marcos Guardiola | eu collaborators

Category: ⚐ ES+colaboradores

Hoy os presentamos a otro de nuestros colaboradores. Marcos Guardiola se unió al equipo hace poco para ayudarnos con la visualización e ilustración del proyecto que estamos desarrollando para Hamar, y algún otro que ha surgido durante este tiempo.

Marcos Guardiola

Como él mismo nos cuenta:

Aunque mi formación es de arquitecto (estudié en ETSAMadrid), mi actividad profesional en los últimos años ha ido por derroteros, a veces mas alejados a la profesión, pero siempre relacionados con el diseño y la creación plástica o artística.

Durante los años de estudiante viví, entre otros sitios, en México D.F., donde formé parte del equipo ganador del concurso para la rehabilitación del edificio catalogado, la Casa de la Covadonga en el centro histórico de la Ciudad de México.

También estuve viviendo en Granada, donde realicé, entre otros trabajos, el proyecto de la plaza de Eras de Cristo, junto con los arquitectos Francisco del Corral y Federico Wulff. Durante esta época trabajé mucho haciendo infografías para estudios de arquitectura, entre los que cabe destacar los trabajos que hice para el estudio Vidal & asociados.

En los últimos dos años he participado dentro del proyecto “aTetuán”, evento realizado durante la noche en blanco de Madrid del año 2010, he realizado trabajos de video-creación, arquitecturas efímeras, diseño gráfico, web, y últimamente, más volcado en el mundo de la ilustración y dibujando de manera habitual para el periódico El País.

Con ecosistema Urbano trabajo de “3D freak“, con algunas incursiones en la ilustración arquitectónica.

Mis intereses, al margen de la arquitectura, y la creación artística son mis hijas y la escalada, actividad que realizo de manera continua desde hace ya 15 años.

Marcos en pleno trabajo

Os recomendamos dar una larga vuelta por su porfolio, en el estudio quedamos impresionados con sus trabajos. ¡Gracias, Marcos!

Página web:  www.maguma.es
Redes sociales: Facebook

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Siri Brudvik | EU collaborators

Category: ⚐ EN+colaboradores

Siri is a Norwegian architect, and started working at Ecosistema Urbano for the urban design development of the dreamhamar project in march 2012. When she was told about the opportunity to work for Ecosistema Urbano, she literally jumped on the next flight from Oslo to Madrid. Siri is excited to be part of the EU and dreamhamar team, and she says her first impression was: “It’s is going to be an interesting experience. This is a great team of people!”

Siri, as seen by photographer Emilio P. Doiztúa
This amazing photo was taken by Emilio P. Doiztúa at the Ecosistema Urbano office.

Siri is specially interested in how the inputs from the participatory process based upon network design are going to influence the future development of both the particular square, Stortorget, and the mentality of the citizens of Hamar regarding their involvement and ownership to their local public spaces.

Siri hopes both to contribute to develop the physical realisation of the urban design project into a well-functioning public space, and to push the investigations of the possibilities of participatory elements after the completion of the physical design.

Heimstadlære

Back home in Oslo, Siri has her own small office, and she is dividing her time between working with architectural projects and on “Heimstadlære”, together with Ulrika Staugaard (architect). Heimstadlære is focusing on placemaking, urban development, discussions about public space and bottom-up/participatory processes. At the moment Heimstadlære is collaborating with other artists on the cross-disciplinary project “Bok på Veitvet”; an “Open Source Library” based on trust and self-organizing tools in Oslo.

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EU collaborators | Ekaterina Kozhevnikova

Category: ⚐ EN+colaboradores

Today we’re glad to welcome a new intern: Ekaterina Kozhevnikova. She will be staying here for the next 3 months and taking part in the different projects that are going on at Ecosistema Urbano. And you’ll be reading soon some articles of her own on this blog, because she comes with a lots of ideas to share. Welcome, Kate!

Kate in the workshop 'Una scuola Sostenibele' Turin

As she says:

About 1 year ago I graduated as an architect in one of the Siberian cities in Russia. Then I became really interested in the topic of Sustainability and decided to go to Italy to find out more about that topic. I chose the Professional Master in Sustainable architecture that was held in Turin. One of the cities in Italy that really pays a lot of attention to the way of using renewable energy and reduction of CO2 emissions. During the period of study I was involved into the workshops and researches that explained the way of sustainable design, not just using the environmental strategies, but also the tools. So it let me discover new and great ways of designing.
I was always interested in the urban design that collaborates with the buildings and the environment, so the Ecosistema Urbano’s way of work seems really inspiring for me. I hope during the period of my collaboration I will improve my skills and see the practical side of designing.

Kate in Roma

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

Occupation: Master Sustainable architecture IED Torino (graduated)
Interests:  Sightseeing / Travelling, Theatre, Painting / Body art, Sculpting, Hand made
City/country: Tyumen / Russia
Web:  Online portfolio
Social profiles: Facebook | VK
Ekaterina’s posts on ecosistemaurbano.org

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EU collaborators | Julie Kaalby Bjerre

Category: ⚐ EN+colaboradores

Today we are happy to introduce you to Julie, one of our most recent collaborators. Welcome to Ecosistema Urbano!

Julie Bjerre

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

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EU collaborators | Marta Battistella

Category: ⚐ EN+colaboradores

Today we are very glad to introduce you to Marta Battistella, one of our most recent collaborators.

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!

Edit: During her stay at Ecosistema Urbano, Marta wrote a very interesting series of posts about digital social tools for the city. You can check them here: Social Toolbox | Marta Battistella

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EU collaborators | Manon Bublot

Category: ⚐ EN+colaboradores+placemaking

Manon Bublot

 

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.

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EU collaborators | Urska Cernigoj

Category: ⚐ EN+colaboradores+ecosistema urbano

Urska

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

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EU collaborators | Gitte Larsen

Category: ⚐ EN+colaboradores+ecosistema urbano

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

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