Books – ka-au

Creative Heritage

Marite Guevara — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 14:40:07 +0000

Jörg Schröder / Maurizio Carta / Sarah Hartmann (eds.)

English
ISBN 978-3-86859-532-1

Creative Heritage is a manifesto during the European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018 – it represents a call to forge connections once again between cultural heritage as things and spaces on the one hand and ideas and people on the other. Creative Heritage demands that cultural heritage be protected, used creatively and viewed as the basis and impulse to create something new. Creative Heritage shows how cultural heritage can provide an impetus to integrate the society of today and design the cities of tomorrow. “We are campaigning to integrate cultural heritage into creative development” writes Filipe Barata, UNESCO Chairman and one of the 42 authors of the book, as well as sponsor of the initiative Creative Heritage.

More info: Creative Heritage

Building a Circular Future

Marite Guevara — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 14:34:58 +0000

The book is the result of a one-year research project supported by the Danish Environmental Agency’s Innovation Program (MUDP).

The contents has been developed through extensive research, knowledge sharing and workshops between 3XN Architects — GXN Innovation (architects), MT Højgaard (contractors), Kingo Karlsen (demolitioners), VIA University College (constructing architects), Vugge til Vugge Danmark (circular economy) and Henrik Innovation (building innovation).

General Theory of urbanization

Marite Guevara — Tue, 05 Dec 2017 16:03:43 +0000

In 1867, with the Industrial Revolution well underway, the engineer Ildefons Cerdà, author of the Plan for the Reform and Extension of Barcelona, published his General Theory of Urbanization. It was the first book in history in witch the process of designing and building cities was systematically analyzed and feigned as a science.

In it, Cerdà coined the term urbanization, defined as “the set of principles, doctrines and rules that should be applied so that buildings and their conglomerations, as opposed to constricting, distorting and corrupting the physical, moral and intellectual faculties of social humans can help promote their development and vitally thereby improving individual wellbeing, the sum total of witch constitutes public prosperity.”

Essay by Vicente Guallart

More information: urbanization.org

THE TOTAL DESIGNER

Marite Guevara — Tue, 05 Dec 2017 15:43:41 +0000

This book develops an alternative and inclusive approach –based on the hypothesis that the impact of digitalization on architectural culture is similar to the effects of the linguistic turn in philosophy– and steers clear of exclusive dichotomous approaches, without the foundational reconsideration of the discipline or its ontological conservation.

The project is open and broad, which was a necessary condition for demonstrating the power of the turn brought about by digitalization. Most studies on the digital phenomenon carried out in the context of the discipline are focused on the more technical aspects, with expert discourses based on the standpoint of the optimization of existing processes. This text was inspired by a concern and a certain discomfort with respect to those positions, which are often underwritten by a positivist vision of reality. This concern gave way to the idea for a study rooted in a cultural approach to the phenomenon. Given the general tendency toward creating experts –a phenomenon that, on the other hand, is not exclusive to the field of architecture– and encapsulating knowledge, this text is meant to be based on a transversal vision, which can help non-specialist readers to understand certain complex phenomena.

More information: actar.com/total-designer

PROJECTIVE ECOLOGIES

Marite Guevara — Tue, 05 Dec 2017 15:36:13 +0000

Ecological research applied to current architectural practice.

The past two decades have witnessed a resurgence of ecological ideas and ecological thinking in discussions of urbanism, society, culture, and design. The field of ecology has moved from classical determinism and a reductionist Newtonian concern with stability, certainty, and order in favor of more contemporary understandings of dynamic systemic change and the related phenomena of adaptability, resilience, and flexibility. But ecology is not simply a project of the natural sciences. Researchers, theorists, social commentators, and designers have all used ecology as a broader idea or metaphor for a set of conditions and relationships with political, economic, and social implications. Projective Ecologies takes stock of the diversity of contemporary ecological research and theory—embracing Felix Guattari’s broader definition of ecology as at once environmental, social, and existential—and speculates on potential paths forward for design practices. Where are ecological thinking and theory now? What do current trajectories of research suggest for future practice? How can advances in ecological research and modeling, in social theory, and in digital visualization inform, with greater rigor, more robust design thinking and practice?

Authors: Chris Reed and Nina-Marie Lister

More information: actar.com/projective-ecologies-3

SELF-SUFFICIENT CITY

Marite Guevara — Tue, 05 Dec 2017 15:28:18 +0000

Envisioning the habitat of the future

The Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia and the technology company HP have developed an international contest with the idea of “self-sufficient city.” It is an invitation to reflect on how we will live in the near future in the light of the social, cultural and technological changes in which we are immersed. This publication presents the projects of the 107 finalists between 708 participant proposals. From connected metropolises, eco neighbourhoods, self-sufficient buildings, intelligent homes or any other proposal for a short, medium or long-term project such as the winning ones: “HURBS” proposed by Sergio Castillo

Author: Vicente Guallart

More information: actar.com/self-sufficient-city

SELF-SUFFICIENT HABITAT

Marite Guevara — Tue, 05 Dec 2017 15:24:30 +0000

Material Intelligence, simulations, sensors, actuators, as well as the bio-mimetic and digital manufacturing innovations provide revolutionary ideas on growth, adaptability, repair, sensitivity, replication and energy savings in architecture. Should we continue constructing rigid and fixed structures? Or can our habitats begin to think?

Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia IAAC (eds)

More information: actar.com/self-sufficient-habitat

PUBLIC SPACE ACUPUNCTURE

Marite Guevara — Tue, 05 Dec 2017 15:17:53 +0000

Acupuncture strategies to renovate infrastructure, landscape elements and public space in cities.

As the financial crisis deepens in many European countries and the construction sector remains in a slump, many plans for urban regeneration have been shelved. Cities are cutting their spending on large public works, so the time is ripe for low-cost strategies that have a positive impact on the urban habitat. One such strategy is Public Space Acupuncture, in which independent but coordinated small interventions help regenerate urban public space and city life. It is based on Zygmunt Bauman’s characterization of the current era as Liquid Modernity.

A must-have manual for those who design the public space. A compilation of strategies on how to renew infrastructure, landscape and public space. Includes the contribution of Oriol Bohigas and Arnold Regidor.

Authors: Helena Casanova

More information: actar.com/public-space-acupuncture-2/

IMMINENT COMMONS: COMMONING CITIES

Marite Guevara — Tue, 05 Dec 2017 15:13:27 +0000

The third book from the Seoul Biennale 2017 explores the value and meaning of cities as commons, which is embedded and operate in various governance mechanisms of cities in the world.
Imminent Commons: Commoning Cities presents questions and answers concerning the current state and near future of cities of the world through the lens of public initiatives, projects, and urban narratives. Cities are searching for new possibilities that will help them survive and thrive within new systems of municipal governance. The strategies of cities with regard to rapid urbanization, scarcity of public resources, and privatization of commons will be examined through the diverse spectrum of focused projects. It also discusses the present and future of cities as commons in the 21st century through examining various ways the cities use to deliberate, operate, imagine and execute their policies for the city.

Hyungmin Pai, Helen Hejung Choi (eds.)

More information: actar.com/imminent-commons-commoning-cities/

IMMINENT COMMONS: THE EXPANDED CITY

Marite Guevara — Tue, 05 Dec 2017 15:09:36 +0000

As the second book of the Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism 2017, it presents contemporary urbanism thoughts on nine imminent commons, which engage collective ecological and technological resources relevant to all cities and even extra-urban territories.
Recent years have seen greatly increased political opposition between urban and rural areas, bordering on crisis. In order to avoid further aggravating this urban/rural polarization, we need to cultivate a discourse on urbanism that focuses on the interdependencies between cities and the greater ecologies of resources, technologies, and natural processes in which they are situated. The way we think about cities needs to expand significantly to incorporate their effects on global natural cycles, how they metabolize resources from rural areas, and their impact on both local and regional economies.

Alejandro Zaera-Polo, Jeffrey S. Anderson (eds.)

More information: actar.com/imminent-commons-expanded-city/