building solutions world congress

From 22 to 24 May and within the framework of Construmat, the Building Fair taking place every two years in Barcelona, the first edition of the Building Solutions World Congress will open its doors, an event that combines discipline and industry, two worlds continuously overlapping but lacking cross-fertilization.

Hot topics for two strategic areas for the future of Architecture and Construction, the Mediterranean and Latin America, will be discussed at two plenary sessions. A closing lecture by Antonio Cruz will present their work for the recently opened Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. The Congress will be an opportunity to discuss the challenges the industry is facing today and the practical solutions that can enable us to face the future.

A rich programme of parallel sessions will discuss reference projects, discover the most advanced technological innovations and debate the policies needed to addressing existing challenges. With a strong international flavour and structured around three major axes -sustainability, innovation and rehabilitation-, the Congress envisages a reflection that avoids stagnant compartmentalization.
Guillermo Vázquez Consuegra, Emre Arolat, Alfredo Brillembourg, Peter Rich, Beth Galí, Victor Navarro, Carme Pinós, Louisa Hutton, Arturo Franco, Stefano Boeri, Olga Tarrasó, Mauricio Rocha, Meritxell Inaraja, Fermín Vázquez, Bet Capdeferro, John Macdonald, Victòria Garriga, Ruiz Larrea, Marti Franch, Francisca Pulido or João Alvaro Rocha, are just some of the 65 international speakers who will participate in the sessions.

Wadi Hanifa Wetlands in Riyadh, the Matadero in Madrid, the public space for the Port of Tangier, in Morocco, the CaixaForum in Seville Shipyards, the Collage House in Girona, the project for Adhamiya, in Baghdad, urban regeneration of Shibam, in Yemen, the harbour front of Porto Alegre, Brazil, the rehabilitation of the Hospital de Sant Pau in Barcelona, ​​the Tower David / Gran Horizonte in Caracas, the public space for HafenCity in Hamburg, the restoration of Culip Tudela (Club Med) in Cap de Creus, Girona, buildings for the cultural capital of Marseilles in France ... are some of the projects that will be displayed.
They will be joined by technological research centers such as the Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, TWI Cambridge, the Adhesion Lab at the University of Alicante, the Heimholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Energie und Materialen, Materfad, or Saudi Arabia's Nanotech Lab, who will present papers displaying potential products for the future of the construction market or materials currently being tested that may revolutionize the way we build.

A final block of sessions will discuss energy efficiency policies related to new regulations in Spain and Europe, the role of handbooks in rehabilitation or the participation processes that allow society to be involved in revamping our built environment.

A first-rate event open for registration to professional of the construction industry (architects, engineers, surveyors, builders, providers, students ...) who, in many cases, enjoy significant discounts.

building solutions world congress

Del 22 al 24 de Mayo y dentro del marco de Construmat, el salón de la construcción que se celebra en Barcelona cada dos años, tendrá lugar la primera edición del Building Solutions World Congress, un evento transversal que aúna disciplina e industria, dos mundos que se solapan continuamente pero que tal vez dialogan menos de lo necesario.

A partir de dos sesiones plenarias en la que se debatirán temas candentes para dos áreas geográficas estratégicas para el futuro de la arquitectura y la construcción -el Mediterráneo y América latina- y una conferencia de clausura a cargo de Antonio Cruz -quien presentará su trabajo en el Rijksmuseum de Amsterdam, recientemente inaugurado-, el congreso será la ocasión para debatir sobre los retos que tiene planteados hoy el sector y las soluciones prácticas que pueden permitirnos encarar el futuro.

Un rico programa de sesiones paralelas permitirá debatir sobre proyectos de referencia, descubrir las innovaciones tecnológicas más punteras y discutir sobre las políticas necesarias para afrontar los desafíos existentes. Con un marcado carácter internacional y estructurado entorno a tres grandes ejes -la sostenibilidad, la innovación y la rehabilitación-, el congreso propone una reflexión integrada que evite los compartimentos estancos.

Guillermo Vázquez Consuegra, Emre Arolat, Alfredo Brillembourg, Peter Rich, Beth Galí, Víctor Navarro, Carme Pinós, Louisa Hutton, Arturo Franco, Stefano Boeri, Olga Tarrasó, Mauricio Rocha, Meritxell Inaraja, Fermín Vázquez, Bet Capdeferro, John Macdonald, Victòria Garriga, Ruiz Larrea, Martí Franch, Francisca Pulido o João Alvaro Rocha, son sólo algunos de los 65 ponentes internacionales que participarán en las sesiones.

Los Humedales de Wadi Hanifa, en Riad; las naves de Matadero, en Madrid; el espacio público para el Puerto de Tánger, en Marruecos; el CaixaForum en las Atarazanas de Sevilla; la Casa Collage, en Girona; el proyecto para Adhamiya, en Bagdad; la regeneración urbana de Shibam, en Yemen; el frente portuario de Porto Alegre, en Brasil; la rehabilitación del Hospital de Sant Pau, en Barcelona; la Torre David/Gran Horizonte, en Caracas; el espacio público de Hafencity, en Hamburgo; la restauración de Tudela-Culip (Club Med) en el Cabo de Creus, Girona; los edificios para la capitalidad cultural de Marsella, en Francia... son algunos de los proyectos que se mostrarán.

Junto a ellos, centros de investigación tecnológica como la Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, TWI Cambridge, el Adhesion Lab de la Universidad de Alicante, el Heimholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialen und Energie, Materfad, o el Nanotech Lab de Arabia saudí, presentarán trabajos que permiten visualizar potenciales productos para el futuro del mercado de la construcción o materiales en fase de experimentación que pueden revolucionar la manera en que construimos.

Un último bloque de sesiones debatirá sobre las políticas de eficiencia energética vinculadas a las nuevas normativas en España y en Europa, sobre el papel de los manuales en la intervención sobre el patrimonio o sobre los procesos de participación que permiten implicar a la sociedad en la rehabilitación de nuestro entorno construido.

Un acontecimiento de primera magnitud abierto para la inscripción a los profesionales del sector de la construcción (arquitectos, ingenieros, aparejadores, constructores, industriales, estudiantes...) quienes, en muchos casos, gozan de importantes descuentos.

tokyo "open! architecture"

At the occassion of the UIA Tokyo 2011 congress, a special edition of “open! architecture“ allows visitors to discover, free of charge, some representative buildings of Japan's capital. This video is some kind of guide to them.

fumihiko maki's vision of tokyo

Fumihiko Maki is one of the most prestigious contemporary japanese architects. In 1993 he received both the Pritzker Prize and the UIA Gold Medal. He is the chair of the Advisory Board of the forthcoming World Congress of Architecture that will take place in September this year. This video shows his vision of Tokyo, the city that will host the event.

Tokyo is a city made of layers that chaotically overlap in a very fragmented way, combining the remains of the huge Edo capital with the new city created after the 1923 earthquake and the reconstruction that followed the air raids in 1944 and 1945. How to respond to this specific context, where chaos is not exempt of a certain charm, is among his concerns. The Hillside Terrace complex is used as a reference building in his description of a city that remains vigorous despite the economic downturn.

architectural flight over tokyo

Take a ride on a zeppelin, 600 meters above the city of Tokyo, and discover its architectural landmarks, from Harumi Harbour all the way to Yokohama.

changes in the architectural profession

I had the opportunity to make the opening lecture at a recent congress of architects in Turkey under the title “Changes in the architectural profession” and decided to concentrate on two specific aspects of the relation between Education and Professional Practice. These two issues were Internship and Continuing Professional Development as they seem key to me in ensuring that our profession can cope with the changes that currently happen at all levels.

It is often considered that the graduates from our universities are not necessarily prepared to get into the daily practice of the profession. In many cases, this gap is filled by some internship period or a complimentary exam by an authority different to the academic, before being allowed to get into practice. While this is quite frequent in countries governed by common law, it is not often the case in those where the Napoleonic code is the base for their regulations.

Similarly to the above, there seems to be a consensus on identifying Continuing Professional Development (some times referred as Life Long Learning) as the only means to guarantee that architects can cope with the changes that happen along their professional life and maintain their abilities up to date.

Surprisingly, internship is only compulsory in 49 countries around the world (see the Architectural Practice around the World research in a previous post of this blog) and only in 35 of them it is structured and supervised. Similarly, only 58 countries have put in place some Continuing Professional Development system, which is compulsory in just 16 of them.

These two issues will undoubtedly need to evolve in the coming years. There will be an increasing demand to better structure and define them, making Internship and Continuing Professional Development progressively sophisticated and maintaining some kind of a logbook that keeps record of the progress made. At a certain point, compulsoriness will also come into the discussion in those countries where they are not yet so, as a prerequisite for practice and as evidence to the registering authorities that the required training has been completed before accessing the profession or while being into practice.

Click here for the English version of the abstract.
Click here for the Turkish version of the abstract.

a superb venue for uia tokyo 2011

The next world congress of architects will take place in September 2011 in Tokyo under the auspices of the International Union of Architects, UIA. The organizers have just launched their first “visual newsletter” which is devoted to explore the main congress venue: Rafael Viñoly’s International Forum. This superb building is the result of a UIA competition and stands in the very heart of the japanese metropoli. The way it relates to the surrounding urban fabric allows for something other convention buildings are lacking of: the feeling that those attending the event there will not be missing the city life around. Watch the video here.

en la bienal de sao paulo

Brasil lleva un tiempo preparándose para la Copa del Mundo de Fútbol de 2014 y ha obtenido hace unas semanas la organización de los Juegos Olímpicos de 2016 en Río de Janeiro. Son dos eventos excepcionales que van, sin duda, a tener un impacto considerable en las ciudades donde se celebren. Se impone, por tanto, la necesidad de canalizar adecuadamente las energías y los recursos que se van a generar y hacerlos revertir en mejoras substanciales para sus ciudades. Esa preocupación está precisamente en el origen de un seminario que se celebra en el marco de la Bienal de Arquitectura de Sao Paulo, recientemente inaugurada.

En su sesión de apertura, y compartiendo palestra con el arquitecto y urbanista portugués Nuno Portas –que habló sobre la Expo de Lisboa-, tuve ocasión de exponer cómo la ciudad de Barcelona se preparó para los Juegos Olímpicos del 92 y sobre el impacto que éstos tuvieron en el desarrollo urbano de la ciudad. La necesidad de un proyecto de ciudad preexistente, la clara identificación de los elementos que establecen la coherencia entre el acontecimiento excepcional y las previsiones generales, o la visión de futuro hacia la cual hacer bascular las intervenciones, fueron algunos de los elementos que aparecieron recurrentemente, tanto durante nuestras intervenciones como en el posterior debate con el público, moderado por Gilberto Dimenstein, conocido periodista de la televisión brasileña.

accessible public spaces

Some of the emerging Eastern European countries are seriously facing the need to improve the quality of their public spaces. In Warsaw, Poland, a conference took place in June under the title “Architecture for all – friendly spaces of Europe” where the aspects related to accessibility were a key issue. My lecture intended to explain, using Barcelona as a case study, how providing accessible public spaces was intimately related to improving in general the quality of the urban life.

una oportunidad para renovar el modelo

El congreso de Arquitectos de España, celebrado en Valencia a principios de Julio, ha sido una ocasión para reflexionar sobre el futuro de nuestra profesión, de nuestras organizaciones profesionales y de la Arquitectura en un sentido amplio. Fui invitado a presentar una ponencia sobre la posible evolución de los Colegios de Arquitectos en España, en un momento en que tantas cosas están en cuestión y el modelo actual resulta difícilmente sostenible. Las conclusiones fueron aceptablemente esperanzadoras. Todo depende ahora del impulso que se les dé desde el Consejo Superior y desde los propios Colegios, de si éstos se deciden a llevarlas adelante o, como pasó tras el anterior congreso, la reflexión, por acertada que sea, se queda simplemente en eso, en reflexión, y no en acción.