This is just a short update to let you know that all our sites were attacked a couple of days ago. This is the reason behind the unrelated posts or any other strange behavior you may have seen these days. The attacks were not dangerous for our readers, and we didn’t lose any information, but they were nonetheless a hassle and kept us busy for a couple of days.
This is the second time this happens in several years, and this time we were more prepared, with regular backups and other security measures. It just seems the attackers were also more prepared!
So… don’t worry, and bear with us as we chase down every single one of the malicious files. We will soon be back on track and with new content!
We know it’s been a while since we published something in our blog, but we can assure you that we have been everything but idle. In fact, it was totally the opposite: 2017 was a big year here at ecosistema urbano. We had the opportunity to develop a wide scope of projects, from participatory workshops to urban-scale studies, in countries like Mexico, Argentina, Ecuador, Germany, and even Spain! Let us have a look at the last updates to our 2017 portfolio, and some of the projects that are coming during 2018.
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB/BID) tasked us with the challenge of reactivating urban spaces around the Historical Downtown in Hermosillo, Mexico. For this project, we put in place a brief but intense participatory process involving different stakeholders (institutions, businesses, students, neighbors) from Hermosillo. That way, we were able to identify the key aspects to address towards the revitalization of the city center. The Idea Hermosillo Revitalization Plan consisted of a brief diagnosis, a series of general strategies, and a set of 27 pilot projects which, together, would help reactivating the urban spaces in the area. One of these pilot projects was further developed as proof of concept: the Banco de Ideas, proposing the renovation of an existing building with a creative and mixed program that would act as a catalyst for attracting activity and driving interest about the Historic Downtown.
One of the pilot projects in Hermosillo – ‘Banco de Ideas’
The Febres Cordero School was identified as one of thekey interventions in the the CUENCA RED project in Cuenca, Ecuador. The proposed project keeps part of the original school building while creating a new mixed-used building in side it. The main goal was to create new public spaces and combine local businesses, a civic center, student residences and other uses that would help activating the surrounding area. The new Febres Cordero building also implements sustainable design elements such as locally sourced materials, bio-climatic façades and passive temperature regulation.
In 2017 we were also invited to take part in an international competition to design the conversion of a former military base in Heidelberg, Germany. The City of Heidelberg alongside the IBA hosted a competition for the opening of the -until then- restricted area, and creating new public spaces for the city to enjoy. ecosistema urbano devised a playful layout for the park, concentrating the intervention in the central areas of the open spaces, and integrating the existing pavements and elements whenever possible. The overarching design and pathways of the park were conceived as a “game board”, where elements of the park, such as playgrounds, would become “game pieces”. The program and final design of these elements would be defined by the “game rules” consisting on a series of participatory processes involving neighbors and other stakeholders.
This project consisted of the preparation of a big participatory project in Getxo, Spain, towards the conversion of a closed sports area into an open park. An urban diagnosis of the Fadura area was made in order to identify the main issues, challenges, and opportunities that the park, the surrounding area and the population currently possess. This diagnosis was intended to inform both the technical development and the participatory process. In addition to this, a social mapping was created by meeting and interviewing all possible stakeholders and representing their relationships, their possible level of involvement and the key topics they were interested in. Over the course of four months, the team conducted multi-stakeholder meetings and presentations to engage the users of the park, as well as to inform and prepare them for the participatory process.
Stakeholder mapping as part of the preparation for the participatory process
In the same sports area in Getxo, Spain, a participatory architecture project was commissioned to us, with the aim of building a community center in the place of a public facility which had recently been damaged by a fire. In its final years, the former pub (cervecera) was used as a social facility. In order to create a design that would allow for the same level of engagement and active use, a participatory design process was devised. Three workshops were conducted where stakeholders could take part in the rethinking and redesigning of the building and its surrounding open spaces. At the end of the process, a sustainable and flexible community center was designed, capable of hosting even more activities than before while remaining adaptable to future needs.
As part of the 100 Resilient Cities program in Santa Fe, Argentina, ecosistema urbano was asked to lead a participatory project for the youth of Santa Fe. In this exciting activity, we had the opportunity to create and run a program which allowed children to get involved with the future of their city. The children were led through an explorative stroll around Parque del Norte where they were encouraged to be creative about what they observed and what they envisioned for the park. Afterwards, the children drew on maps to demonstrate what they hoped to see implemented into the future park. Then they were given materials to create small models of their proposals, micro-landscapes they created using natural materials, sourced from the park itself, in a transparent box. The maps and boxes provided invaluable feedback in order to include the vision of the younger citizens in the future park.
Images of the “participation kits” used for the creation of models
In a collaborative project with the European Commission, ecosistema urbano is helping to define the European Union Green Public Procurement (GPP) Criteria for Public Space Maintenance. We are working on creating a guide of best practices that will become the framework for procurement processes regarding public space maintenance. This project will have a big impact due to its scale: the public sector represents 14% of the GDP of the European Union. Therefore, a systematic sustainable change in any part of the public sector will increase the market viability of sustainable products. Our participation in this project will help to augment sustainable change and cost effectiveness in the EU.
Other ongoing projects in 2018
The past few months have been incredibly busy at ecosistema urbano, with more projects happening all over the world. Here are some examples of what we are working on right now:
In 2017 we won the competition to become the architectural partner for the Open Shore Initiative in West Palm Beach. We are currently working on the Banyan Hub multifunctional building, as well as the public space improvement of selected passageways. We have recently begun work on a new intervention at one of the key streets in downtown.
We started a public space project at the University of Málaga. The project addresses the planning and construction of a central boulevard that will improve the flow of people across the campus, promote sustainability and green space, integrate physical and digital layers of the campus and create places for new activities to happen.
We are also currently working with the World Bank in the identification of opportunities for improvement of public spaces and public buildings in one of the most dense and congested cities in the world: Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh.
We write this short post to tell you that we have slightly changed the way email subscription works in our blog. The system that sent every published post directly from our blog to your inbox has become outdated, so we have reconfigured the whole thing through a new, more powerful service.
If you were already subscribed, you don’t have to worry about anything: you are (hopefully) already getting this very same post in your email, and you’ll be receiving every new one from now on… just without the ocasional errors and in a much more attractive format :)
For those of you not yet following the blog by email, this is a good chance to do so. Many people are following it through social media (Facebook and Twitter) or RSS services like Feedly or Inoreader (which are still one of the best ways of following any blog out there). However, email is still a universal and easy-to-use format, allowing you to read any content in your inbox without having to visit a different site.
Subscription is done within seconds by using a form, and you can choose whether to receive posts in a specific language or in several of them.
Hacemos este breve post para comunicaros que hemos actualizado la suscripción por email a los contenidos del blog. El sistema que permitía que cada post publicado fuera enviado directamente a vuestras bandejas de entrada estaba quedando desactualizado, así que lo hemos reconfigurado a través de otro servicio más potente y sencillo de gestionar.
Los que ya estabais suscritos por email no tenéis que hacer nada: seguramente este mail os esté llegando por el mismo medio, y en adelante seguiréis recibiendo cada post como hasta ahora… sólo que sin “baches” y en un formato mucho más atractivo :)
Para los que todavía no seguís el blog por email, esta es una buena oportunidad para hacerlo. Mucha gente lo sigue por las redes sociales (Facebook y Twitter principalmente) o por servicios RSS como Feedly o Inoreader (que siguen siendo una de las mejores formas de seguir blogs). Sin embargo, el mail es un formato universal y cómodo, que nos permite leer los contenidos que queramos en nuestra misma bandeja de entrada sin tener que acceder a otra web diferente.
La suscripción se realiza en unos segundos a través de un formulario, y podéis elegir recibir solamente los posts que estén en un idioma determinado, o en varios.
Una vez hecha la suscripción, los artículos se enviarán a vuestro mail automáticamente al ser publicados. Esperamos que este canal os siga siendo de utilidad a muchos.
Seguro que os habéis encontrado más de una vez ante un artículo interesante pero sin tiempo para leerlo en ese momento. Ante esa situación, uno puede tomar “nota mental” y esperar acordarse de revisarlo luego, o puede guardar el enlace en cualquier lado, o usar un servicio específico: Precisamente para esas ocasiones se crearon servicios sencillos y utilísimos como Instapaper o Pocket, antes conocida con el intuitivo nombre de Read It Later.
Como la primera de una serie de pequeñas (y grandes) mejoras que estamos incorporando al blog, algunos habréis notado que desde hace un tiempo tenéis un botón en el encabezado de cada artículo que os permite añadir el post en cuestión a vuestra bandeja de Pocket con un solo click, para volver a leerlo tranquilamente en otro momento, por ejemplo, usando el móvil o la tablet estando cómodamente tirados en el sofá de casa. Pocket permite añadir artículos, vídeos y otros contenidos desde cualquier dispositivo, para leerlos en cualquier otro, incluso offline y con un formato muy limpio.
¿Por qué ese botón está arriba, solo, en lugar de junto al resto de botones al pie del post? Aunque es cierto que los botones de “compartir” están bien bajo el artículo con la lógica del ya lo has leído, y ahora puedes compartirlo, el botón de “guardar para leer más tarde” tiene todo su sentido antes de leerlo.
¿Qué os parece esta pequeña mejora? ¿Usáis estos servicios? ¿Echáis de menos algún otro?
Por fin, tras un prolongado silencio veraniego, ¡volvemos con el blog! Un silencio que no ha sido —sólo— de descanso y desconexión, sino también debido a la gran actividad que hemos tenido en el estudio, ocupados con varios proyectos que os iremos contando en las próximas entradas.
Han sido unos meses intensos, con la oficina llena de gente y de energía, con una mezcla refrescante de idiomas y culturas diferentes, y volvemos ahora con ganas tanto de retomar cosas pendientes como de comenzar un nuevo período en la actividad de Ecosistema Urbano.
Así que aquí estamos de nuevo, poniendo en marcha nuestros espacios físicos y digitales, en los que esperamos encontraros a todos, colaboradores, clientes, seguidores, colegas y amigos, de una u otra manera.
Durante la semana pasada unos bichos verdes y bastante feos (abajo podéis ver el retrato robot que ha hecho Jaime) se colaron inadvertidamente por una puerta trasera del blog y, como algunos habréis notado, desde entonces han estado sucediendo cosas un poco extrañas por aquí.
Parece ser que a todo blog medianamente activo le llega el momento de afrontar un ataque de algún tipo, y este en concreto está siendo bastante… entretenido. Además de morder y arañar el código aquí y allá con efectos variados, los intrusos neutralizaron temporalmente al vigilante, circunstancia que aprovecharon muchísimos de esos bichos más pequeños (e igual de molestos) que por la red llamamos SPAM para colarse. Miles de ellos en apenas unas horas.
Esta súbita plaga ha roto el equilibrio de nuestro “ecosistema” digital, de modo que es posible que durante unos días el ritmo de publicaciones varíe un poco mientras damos caza a todos y cada uno de los invasores y volvemos a adecentar el lugar.
Os rogamos que si veis alguno de ellos en acción o notáis algún otro comportamiento extraño en el blog, nos aviséis para que podamos seguirles la pista. Si obtenéis un mensaje de error al cargar alguna página, sería especialmente útil que nos lo comentarais por twitter (@ecosistema) o por mail, añadiendo el mensaje de error y/o una captura de pantalla.
Por lo demás el problema no es contagioso, no hay peligro para los lectores, y menos aún para los que nos lean habitualmente via RSS. Disculpad las molestias que el contratiempo os haya podido causar, y estad atentos: ¡continuará!
Resumiendo:
Si veis un fallo, toque a @ecosistema o mail a info@ecosistemaurbano.com.
Si os ha gustado el bicho de Jaime, no dejéis de mirar la sección de eucomics.
Si no, hacedlo igualmente, que merece la pena.
Andrea, Belinda, Ida y Javier revisando la información de la entrega de diagnóstico del proyecto de plan especial del eje de la calle Fuencarral (Madrid) desde la plaza de Jacinto Benavente hasta la plaza de Quevedo, que desarrollamos junto a la Fundación CIREM.
Esta mañana en ecosistema urbano hemos echado una mano (literalmente) al taller de producción creativa.El caucho puede llegar a pesar bastante a partir de ciertas dimensiones…
Hoy nos ha visitado una caravana peculiar de 25 estudiantes/arquitectos que llevan 7 meses recorriendo el mundo repasando lo más importante de la arquitectura de hoy y de ayer, una formación y un viaje imposible.
Os dejamos la foto del grupo en la oficina y el correo de los profesores *Prof. Arq. Alejandro Baptista / Prof. Carolina Pereiro* que nos cuentan en que consiste la aventura. continue reading