CONTINUITY IN ARCHITECTURE

Melanie Miller (of Schiffli fame) forwards the following pictures from Barcelona where the Mobile World Congress was in full swing on Montjuic.

Choice quote from a participant (via Reuters): Richard Windsor, industry specialist at Nomura, estimated after day one that attendance was down as much as 25 percent.

“Taxi, lavatory and sandwich queues are all down substantially on last year meaning that MWC is an accurate reflection of life in the mobile phone industry,” he wrote.

Mies’s rather more refined temporary pavilion was not spared ill-treatment.

Eamonn Canniffe has been invited to contribute photographs of Italian villas to the interactive exhibition which will feature in the Italian National Pavilion at the 2008 Zaragoza Expo. The theme of the Expo ‘Water and Sustainable Development’ will be represented in the pavilion, sponsored by the Italian Foreign Ministry, in a display which features

‘our common historical past: from the marvellous achievements of the Roman Empire to the Middle Ages and Renaissance water mains and Leonardo da Vinci’s hydraulics systems. An interactive map – running around the walls with plasma screens waiting to be “interrogated” by the visitors and equipped with holograms – is both the packaging and the leitmotif of all the material on display, alternating between examples of state-of-the-art technology and brilliant solutions designed by geniuses of the past.’

The gardens featured include Villa Lante at Bagnaia, Villa Barbarigo Dona delle Rosa at Valsanzibio, and the Villa Barbaro at Maser, all of which are illustrated on guttae

The site for the Expo and for the Italian Pavilion.

The designer can create small valuable elements within a much larger composition that can affect the quality of a much larger space. Within the hot climate of Mallorca, Rafael Moneo has used the natural qualities of light and water to create an atmosphere of coolness and character.The architect delicately placed the foundation building between the almond grove that spreads out over the slope below the building and the artist’s studio, which occupied the space immediately next to the road. The building is composed of a star-like volume to hold the collection and a linear element, which contains the service areas, the entrance and the schoolrooms. There is a very tense relationship between these two contrasting elements. The long thin building is placed on slightly higher ground than the splintered building; stairs within the foyer offer access to the lower gallery areas. This slight disconnection is emphasised by the pools of water, one of which is actually placed upon the roof of the lower building. The landscaping also reinforces this difference, the upper level is organised in an orthogonal manner, while the lower gardens are as dynamic as the star-like building. The upper rectangular building has integrated into it, a south-facing colonnade and from here the visitor has a magnificent view over the top of the gallery, across the island to the sea. This arcade also acts to help cool the building. This slender out-side space shades the enclosed rooms, therefore reducing solar gain. The narrow shape encourages air movement, thus creating a slight wind, which again aids cooling. This is supported by the louvers within the top half of the façade, they also stimulate air movement by encouraging the hot air to speed up as it rises through them. The pool of water directly below this area provides cooler air to replace this, and thus a small isolated stack effect is created. The movement of the water enhances the quality of the atmosphere, as it ripples, it is reflected onto the underside of the colonnade and into the interior space. A small detail that creates a beautiful and effective environment.Name: Pilar and Joan Miró FoundationLocation: Palma de MallorcaDate: 1993Designer: Rafael Moneo

The slightly warped orthogonal form of the housing next to the Santa Caterina market contrasts strongly with the flowing roof canopy of the market building. The contextual deformations of the housing appear responsive and natural in the tight urban landscape. The walls are sheer and pale with an apparently arbitrary splattering of windows arranged on them. This simplicity is reinforced by the manner in which the openings are treated. Each window is covered with an austere and unpretentious wooden louvered panel, mounted on runners. When necessary, these can slide in front of the openings to stop direct sunlight from overheating the interior, while still encouraging air movement through the gaps between the individual blades.

Enric Miralles - Benedetta Tagliabu

Beatrice Fasciato, Mixed-use Development, Barcelona. Mixed Media.

Ian Scullion, Detournement, Barcelona. Mixed Media

Please click here to see more of the student’s work.

An infill scheme in the Plaza del Colegio del Patriarca in Valencia uses an arcaded screen derived from the blind arches in the adjacent building to produce an understated urban form. I have no information about the date of the building or the architect.

The Interventions exhibition at CUBE showing student work from the Atelier Barcelona/Manchester (a collaboration with the architecture school at UPC Barcelona) finishes on 16 September. Get down there to see what students get up to when they are abroad.

The CUBE Gallery is on Portland Street in Manchester (Location).

Exhibition curated by Sally Stone and Nick Dunn. While you are there buy the catalogue of the exhibition published by Artemide, Rome.

The ‘Interventions’ Exhibition at CUBE opened at the end of June and runs until the middle of September. The exhibition features work from the Atelier Barcelona/Manchester run by Sally Stone and Nick Dunn in collaboration with the Architecture School at UPC Barcelona. The CUBE Gallery is on Portland Street in Manchester (Location).

Buy the book!

The INTERVENTIONS exhibition opens at CUBE on Wednesday evening at 6.30pm.
Exhibition Location

Interventions is an exhibition of the work of a group of students from the college of Continuity in Architecture at Manchester who worked with the students from the Recycled Architecture Unit at the University in Barcelona. They created installations, first in February in Barcelona and then in May in Manchester. Interventions is a record of this process.

Buy the catalogue at CUBE for a fiver.

Pencil, pencil crayon, photography, Photoshop.

…from Artemide publishing: ‘Interventions’ a record of our Atelier Barcelona/Manchester joint project with UPC Barcelona.

Matt has produced a website that focuses on the Ateliers and the forthcoming exhibition at CUBE. Click on Interventions 2006 in the sidebar