Later Design - Towards a more experimental approach to architectural education

March 26, 2010, 4:53 am

≫ Next: The return of the Figural

≪ Previous: Mixed-Use Skyscraper, Damascus Syria

$

0

0

Marcos Cruz (2010)

Published in: Archithese (Universitäre Räume), 

3.2010, Zurich Switzerland, pp. 60-65

There are many types of architects today, many of which are involved in practices that are not strictly related to the building industry, such as film, graphic/web design, advertisement, engineering, interactive design, writing, etc. As a result, I advocate an architectural education that, against the idea of a Universalist all-knowing architect prepared for such vast knowledge, allows for more differentiated, varied and even specialised routes in academia that enable students to develop their own architectural personality.


As it has often been described, there are many changes occurring in our profession that have to be understood outside the traditional disciplinary boundaries, and we, architects, are thus forced to rethink our field of action including both professional practice as well as education. This is not just in the way in which we understand our own human body and its natural habitat, but also how the profession is exposed to advances in technology, such as a huge range of new computer-aided design and manufacturing procedures, intelligent environments, developments in a microscopic and nanoscopic scale, etc. Moreover, wireless technologies are improving very fast and being introduced everywhere, ‘now completing the long project of seamlessly integrating our mobile biological bodies with globally extended systems of nodes and linkages’, as William Mitchell has argued.[1] There is also a large amount of research made in the realm of time-based, interactive and responsive architecture, while design in biology and the medical sciences is being approached in new and innovative ways. All of this is becoming of significance to architecture due to its inevitable technical, aesthetic, as well as cultural implications.

This is partly why a school like the Bartlett is shifting to a much more research-driven culture (including Research-by-Design) where such changes are being investigated. Staff and students are involved in particular design agendas that go beyond the education of basic knowledge and skills. There is also a greater cross-disciplinary involvement of the school with other parts of the university, which in turn encourages undergraduate and postgraduate courses to develop conjoint research projects with other departments, including Planning, Energy, Environment, Engineering, along with collaborations with external offices and industries. A great advantage of this approach is that this will not just bring the academic production, often criticised for its self-indulgent and overtly eccentric mannerisms, closer to the ‘needs’ of the outer world, but also help schools to push the boundaries of the traditional architectural practice in a both speculative and realistic ways. A further benefit of this shift towards a far deeper research-lead teaching culture is that a lot of future innovation in architecture is probably laying in the interface between different disciplines, which does not imply loosing architecture’s disciplinary identity, but, in fact, strengthen it via a more inclusive design discourses. In the end, schools should aim to use this as a vital instrument to develop more resource-efficient design in the future, and find new ways to confront the environmental, social and cultural challenges that our profession is exposed to.

I still observe in many academic institutions today a pervasive pedagogic attitude that discourages and even inhibits a ‘risk-taking’ approach to architectural design, partly due to prevailing modernist heritage that has been taught for a long time, or simply due to more recent prescriptive teaching methods in terms of parametric design. Either way, ‘risk’ should not be interpreted as a means to accept academic complacency with low quality work; much the contrary, it should imply a way to encourage staff and students to step into unexplored territories where ‘mistakes’ and ‘failure’ are a necessary and accepted condition. In this context, it is worth mentioning Edward de Bono who speaks of the importance of ‘Lateral Thinking’ in creative problem solving.[2] Likewise, we, architects, should perhaps aim for more ‘Lateral Design’ as a means to find new answers for an increasingly complex world that is intensively scrutinising its unbalanced environment, volatile finances and diminishing resources. We need more non-linear thinking systems that do not seek for obvious and predictable outcomes. The notion of ‘lateral’ implies here thinking ‘out of the box’ and more synthetic action that is prone to generate creative ideas across a variety of disciplines by exploring intuitive, rather free flowing design possibilities. In other words, one is here talking about promoting an experimental work ethos that relies on a multiplicity of divergent thinking modes, which in turn have proven in our Unit 20 at the Bartlett to produce an amazing array of original and innovative design propositions.

But we should not think of architecture in experimental terms without also seeing it as an inherently experiential condition. I am referring to an architecture that is in both conceptually and phenomenologically multi-layered and ‘convoluted’, as my partner Marjan Colletti would argue, and where the body is back in the centre of our preoccupations; an architecture that is not the result of a thin, one-line thinking process, but rather the construct of a deep embodied Convoluted Flesh.[3] Like in psychology, where sensory and emotional awareness is understood to precede cognitive perception, the spatial experience of buildings should precede conceptual design, and, consequently, the practice of architecture precede the theoretical interpretation of it. It is tragic to see how many students today are deprived of an experiential culture that strongly reduces their conceptual thinking, while turning design bodiless, often culturally decontextualised and spatially rather empty.

A way out for many students is the refuge in purely skill-driven design modes, where those with better (computational) techniques stand out. But this is obviously not enough, even though the masterly control of tools and techniques is very important in a time where software and equipment is changing with unprecedented speed. We know that architecture schools are competing like never before for good and motivated students in a global world where anyone can be anywhere at any time. Hence, to be on top of the game, schools have to be proactive and forced to invest in cutting-edge equipment and staff that offer students the opportunity to reach out for innovative design solutions. A school that is not well equipped with a proper high-tech workshop, for instance, is inevitably out of touch and with little chance to fight for excellence in research and teaching. There is also a straighter relationship between academia, practice and industry that needs to be fostered in order to re-establish the crucial triangle between these complementary fields. More than the schism between academia and practice that affects so many institutions, at least in the United Kingdom, this straighten relationship could have much greater impact in the way how schools of architecture are able to contribute decisively to the development of our future built environment.

It is however, fundamental to maintain and foster the old and long-established studio culture as a basic pre-condition from where students learn the shared experience of architectural design. There are academics that argue this to be a model of the past, but it has proven too often that the idea of the atelier, as opposed to the office, is a much more enjoyable, and, above all, most efficient way in which architects develop a true culture of dialogue and teamwork. This allows them (within a necessarily competitive surrounding) to recognise their own strengths and engage with a wider community of experts and critics, particularly when they are proactive in exhibiting and discussing their work through international competitions, exhibitions, etc. as many of our Unit 20 students do. Bear in mind that the contemporary architecture student is not isolated in front of a drawing board as in the past, but rather a networked ‘virtuoso’ that should be able to develop a personal language and critical approach to contemporary architecture.

I stated in our introduction to the Unit 20 book, now eight years ago that for me ‘each project is an adventure; a fight to discover, through experimentation, a method in which ideas and information can be integrated into a final credible outcome.’[4] And this has not changed for me since. Ultimately, I value the very few schools like the Bartlett, because they are in essence schools of design, or better said, schools of Lateral Design, because they see current and future challenges as an opportunity to engage in risk-taking research that is original, experimental, experiential and multi-layered. And that should continue to be its genuine strength.

Images and captions:

Exhibitions of Unit 20

Sublime Flesh, Christ Church Spitalfields, London (numerous)
Framework gallery, Berlin (Steve Pike, Keith Watson)
Actions re Form, Munich and Coimbra (Tom Foster, Steve Pike, Jen Ritter)
SaraBen at …., New York (Sara Shafiei, Ben Cowd)
Dreamspace Gallery, London (Yaojen Chuan, Yousef Al-Mehdari)
Architectural Hinterlands, Arup Gallery, London (Johan Voordouw)
Royal Academy of Arts Summer Show, London (Tobias Klein)

[1]marcosandmarjan. ‘Convoluted Flesh’, in AD – Protoarchitecture, Analogue and Digital Hybrids (guest-ed. Bob Sheil), July/August 08, Vol 78 No 4, John Wiley & Sons, London, 2008, pp. 36-43

[2]Cruz, Marcos; Perez-Arroyo, Salvador. ‘Unit 20 – Ground Zero: Looking for New Territory’, in Unit 20 – Projects by Unit 20 of the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, University of Valencia / Actar, 2002, p. 31
[3]Mitchell, William J., ME ++ The Cyborg Self and the Networked City, The MIT Press, Cambridge Massachusetts, 2003, p. 58

[4]De Bono, Edward. The Use of Lateral Thinking, Cape Publishing, 1967

---

The return of the Figural

March 26, 2010, 5:13 am

≫ Next: Article 2

≪ Previous: Later Design - Towards a more experimental approach to architectural education

$

0

0

Marcos Cruz, Marjan Colletti (marcosandmarjan) (2010)

Published in: Beyond (Trends and Fads),

#3 2010, Sun Architecture, Amsterdam Holland

Introduction

This is an argument about the return of the figural.

In a few brushes, we argue that this return is part of a historic progression in which past figural ornaments are being reassessed in a current architectural debate about ornamentation in the digital realm. Different from décor, ornamentation is here understood as a far more architectural ingrained phenomenon that implies a structural, tectonic and aesthetic depth.

From a petrified to a painted dimension, we seek to establish a clear difference between the abstract, the figurative and the figural in digital architecture. 

Figural Ornaments

By Marcos Cruz

The human body identified as an extension of architecture can be understood as part of a long history of figural ornamentation in architecture.

From Greek and Roman times, throughout the Medieval period a plethora of petrified ‘bodies’ as well as animals and vegetation motifs occupy walls and façades of buildings as information screens to describe religious narratives. Buildings at that time do not just speak through the language of architecture itself, but also communicate historic, functional, and moral aspects through the richness of imagery inlaid in them.[1]

A taste for grotesque figures develops especially with the setting of gargoyles in Gothic cathedrals.

The passage from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, however, brings with it the transition from figural ornaments as communication tools to décor.

It is at this stage in history that the image of the human body acquires major importance, namely through a repertoire of figures that conquer the wall outside its former religious context. As Alina Payne describes in her article ‘Reclining Bodies’ (2002), this is demonstrated through a variety of ‘parapet figures, reclining nudes on window pediments, caryatids or modified caryatids, figures on balustrades standing sentinel at entrances, not to mention varied figural bas-reliefs embedded in walls’.[2]

One witnesses a growing ‘sculpturalisation’ of architecture in which figures become more and more free-standing and employed to enhance the formal and tectonic expression of buildings. Rhythmic and vertical compositions as well as structural values in columns, beams and arches are reinforced through the metaphoric representation of bones and muscles of bodies.

Walls become understood as more than walls; they become flesh as Payne mentions in the case of Alberti: a combination of both human and architectural flesh.[3]

With the logic of the contrapposto, for example, architects start enhancing the expressive power of a building to that of a carefully choreographed posture of twisting and dancing bodies. For Payne, the figural ornament thus augments the combination between structural and corporeal references, allowing ‘texture, light, shade, and movement to enhance the tactility of the architectural elements of the façade’;an increasingly integrated wall corporeality takes place.

Figures inhabit walls and façades in which ‘the architectural details belong to sculpture in the same way that the geometry of the bodies placed along pyramids and diagonals suggests that they belong to architecture’.

In other words, the Renaissance accomplishes a significant transformation, in which figural ornaments change from a ‘sculptural motif into an architectural one’.

Figures cease being exceptional signature objects.

Figures become one of many that anonymously ‘inhabit’ the architecture.[4]

In the Baroque period many more figures are introduced into walls achieving an unprecedented excess of sensuous attraction.

An exponent of such phenomenon can be seen in the eighteenth century in Late Iberian Baroque and the majestic effects achieved with the implementation of gilt carvings (Talha Dourada).

The church of S. Francis in Porto (18^th century), for example, stands out as a case of high exuberance and splendour. Various architects and decorators progressively enrich the church in this period with outstanding gilding techniques, forming a rather eclectic ensemble of motifs and spaces, which in turn creates an extraordinary opulent universe of niches, ornamental patterns, rhythms, and an exceptional group of figures.

Differently from the more tectonically rooted version of Italian Baroque, such work is rather decorative, nonetheless achieving an extraordinary three-dimensional depth and fantasy in its topological surface. Hence, although lacking any structural function, the Talha Dourada is fascinating for the haptic intensity and embodied dimension that the interior cladding of gold leaf creates within otherwise rather austere Romanic and Gothic stone settings.

In this brief history it becomes manifest that the phenomenon of figural ornamentation is the reflection of a conspicuous human aspiration to ‘inhabit’ walls both physically and metaphorically. The merger of the human flesh within the architectural flesh is celebrated and accomplished in an unparalleled theatrical manner.

As never before, exuberant and opulently ornamented scenarios exploit a sensory engagement of the body in architecture.[5]

But from the eighteenth and nineteenth century onwards the exposure of bodies is to be gradually erased from architecture. As the German historian Jan Klaus Philipp explains, the loss of the long-lasting relationship between buildings and figural ornaments comes to an end as the result of architecture’s drive for structural and material truth and the understanding of the figural as being pure decoration.

More than relying on figural complexity, architects become obsessed with the veracity of contours, tectonics, as well as textures in buildings, which are understood as truly architectural values that in turn help differentiate architecture from other disciplines in art and science.

The modern era of abstraction takes its pace.

Digital Figural Ornamentation

By Marjan Colletti

Within a contemporary architectural debate, one could argue that it is the recent proliferation of digital techniques that allows going beyond Modern abstraction and the above-mentioned separation of tectonics and ornamentation in architecture.

Observe, for example, how small variations in software protocols, tooling systems and fabrication mechanics can result in the more or less exuberant articulation of ornate textures, surfaces and volumes.

Within digital design, there is a twofold conceptual synthesis to be seen between digital ornamentation and tectonics.

The first propels towards 'pure form' through abstraction, the latter towards the 'purely figural' through sensation. Both these vectors are delineated in Gilles Deleuze's book Francis Bacon: the Logic of Sensation[6] and are described as painting's chance to escape from the figurative in art.

In the context of digital figural ornamentation, the term figurative may stand for the first instance of digitality: ‘cyber’ representation, depiction, narration, illustration of what is not corporeal, body-related, in other words, figural.

Within architecture’s digital domain it can be argued that it is possible to trace a similar distancing from the contemporary digital design equivalent of the figurative in painting, the hyper-real rendering[7]– that simulation that replaces the real with a fictitious and artistic self-representation of its own – digital – properties and characteristics.[8]

Only by avoiding hyper-fake hyper-realism digital design can manage to articulate something purely original beyond the figurative rendering.

As mentioned above, the first trajectory targets abstraction.

The abstract, immaterial, and partly indeterminate nature of the visual arts in the early 20th century had deeply inspired the non-figural 2-D graphic domain of Modern architecture.

Similarly, in the 21^st century, it is still Modern art with its need for geometric clarity and control (i.e. structural and material/digital ‘truth’) in particular that provides the most likely reference material for most of contemporary digital design, which is now mostly described within 3-D software modelling environments. Here, abstraction equals ornament; flat ornament. 

Abstraction has no body, and neither has architecture.[9] In parametric and scripted generative techniques for example, a similar generative logic and morphological syntax produces myriads of complex, patternised, ornamental topologies with more and more 'mental' attributes – albeit that the intellectual endeavour here usually drifts towards the generic and the dogmatic, and away from the phenomenological and the experiential.

The computer is used to perform an intellectual task that goes beyond simulation, representation and simulation of representation. Such task is a digital, intrinsic cerebral expression of a synthetic, subjected and almost spiritual blurred code of abstraction: the articulation of a mediated system for a possible symbolic structure or strategy for digitality itself. It implies a code that is predominantly non-narrative and non-representational, yet being a mimetic[10] graphic mental system.

The value is that of aesthetics and application, understood as bodiless decoration, as software programming, and as global applicability – as method.

This trajectory appears as elegant.

But there is a second, less traveled path that leads away from decoration towards the re-inclusion of the figural into digital architecture.

By using the computer to perform a sensorial task, digital design is shaped by purely sensual neural experiences, by the exuberant dynamic form, by isolated, deformed and dissipated forces of convoluted, folded and distorted figures/shapes/lines/Gestalten. It builds up an architectural repertoire rooted in a different set of exuberant references and precedents.

Think of the Baroque and its passions, tormented visions and metaphysics; with all its magnificent figural, sensual, exuberant examples – Pietro da Cortona's The Triumph of Divine Providence (1633–9) or Gianlorenzo Bernini's The Cathedra Petri (1647–53)– that blur the dimensions of space (3-D) and time (4-D).[11]

In recent times, similar features transpire in what may be called the contemporary ‘cyber-streamlining’ fever, sustained by an ever increasing amount of slick, fleshy, lofted furniture and building proposals – a very similar trend to that of the ‘streamlining fever’ of 1930s America.[12]

The justification for the dynamic ornament is again very similar and to do with the manufacturing protocols: such machines and materials had then, and still have now, constraints that usually demand sharp and thin edges to be smoothed down.

Ornamentation at this point is not intellectual; it is to do with the visual consumption of the unequivocal athleticism and ergonomics of shapes and forms.

In this instance, the values of ornament are not aesthetic and application, but esthesis and performance.

Performance is understood as sensorial task or, better, as graphic meta-task (what is to be performed is the performing of a task), and as staging (the reality of the task is not identical to the real-life task).

Without an intellectual structure (or strategy), the ultimate task is for the body/figure to become the ornament, or for the ornament to become the body. Eventually, for the ornament (and hence the body) to become architecture.

Here, ornament and architecture are not flat but convoluted.

This is exuberant.

Albeit arguing in favour of ornamentation, one cannot disregard the fact the danger of misinterpretation and superficiality, i.e. decorative abstract wallpapering, and crude formal contortions.

As ever, even though inherent to the thinking and tooling of digital architecture, ornament cannot be the only feature of architecture. After all, inhabitation is not an abstract thought, it is mere fiction, and space is not only the modeling of forces, of friction.

But then again, digital figural ornamentation should not belong to the everyday, as much as Bacon or the Baroque do not consider themselves, in Waldemar Januszczak's words, 'perfectly formed, exquisite, delicate, so civilized, precious', but rather as the imperfect pearl that gives the name to style: 'blobby, exuberant, misshapen, difficult to handle, and exciting in a deformed kind of way’.[13] 

Conclusion: Aesthetics of the figural

Both past and contemporary figural ornamentation implies a bodily dimension of architecture that, against the tendency for abstraction in the Modern era, is essentially impure. It accepts blurry and unclear conditions, along with deformed and grotesque (and ugly) phenomena, while playing out the sensuous (even sexual) as perfectly valid aesthetic criteria.

However, a lot of the contemporary architecture is still lead by a formal drive for purity in the digital realm that, in the way it is being handled, risks bringing about a new Digital Modernism of ‘clean’ aesthetics that are corpologically empty.[i]

Perhaps we should start re-evaluating a less outspoken history of the figural within the Modern period that goes from Kurt Schwitters down to Carlo Molino, Bruce Goff, Pancho Guedes, Gaetano Pesce, Haus Rucker and Archigram, in which the bodily and sensuous (in the context of a technological belief that was neither mechanical nor abstract but rather experiential) were inherently necessarily conditions. They precede the return of the figural.

Wigley: ‘The rejection of decoration in favour of the cultivated eye is explicitly understood as a form of architectural purification.’[ii] Any ornamental voluptuousness or sensual excess is removed in favour of an architectural experience whereby ‘pleasure [is] purified of pleasure’, as Pierre Bourdieu emphasizes.[iii] 

---

[1]         Translated by the author from Jan Klaus Philipp, in Architektur Skulptur. Die Geschichte einer Fruchtbaren Beziehung, Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart / München, 2002, p. 63.

[2]         Payne, Alina, ‘Reclining Bodies: Figural Ornament in Renaissance Architecture’, in George Dodds, and Robert Tavernor (ed.), Body and Building. Essays on the Changing Relation of Body and Architecture, The MIT Press, Cambridge Massachusetts, 2002, p. 96.

[3]         Ibid., pp. 112-113.

[4]         Ibid., pp. 108-110.

[5]         I am here reinterpreting Natália Marinho Ferreira-Alves’ descriptions of Northern Portuguese Baroque churches. She argues that ‘for the complete understanding of the [Baroque scared space] one has to consider the important role of music played on organs (the majority of organs having great boxes of guilt carvings); the monotonous tune of litanies; the syncopic rhythms of Latin, a language used by priests during the celebrations that just few could understand, and which therefore filled it with mystery; the opulence of liturgical utensils, and the unimpaired vision of hangings with rich embroideries; the inebriating odour of incense emerging from the thuribles, which was mixed with the acrid smell of burned candles, and whose flickering light contributed to intensify the mystic ambience of spaces. “As a fascinating expression of the Baroque, interior spaces of churches covered with gold aimed for a sensory stimulation.”’ Translated from Natália Marinho Ferreira-Alves, A Escola De Talha Portuense e a sua Influência no Norte de Portugal, Edições INAPA, Lisboa, 2001, p. 17.

[6]         Gilles Deleuze, Francis Bacon: the Logic of Sensation, trans. Daniel W. Smith, Continuum, London 2003 (first published in France, 1981), p. 2 et al.

[7]         The hyper-real rendering is here understood as the commercial illustration and depiction of architecture that in all its sophistication and accuracy is not particularly intended to convey any theoretical, strategic or spatial properties. It is clear that such hyper-real simulations are per se 'hyper-fake'.

[8]         In fact, they are neither part of Realism as reality is not altered by the absence of reality effects, nor of Surrealism, which makes a clear distinction between what is real and what is imaginary. Instead, 'hyper-fake' renditions embed the unreal in its very own Baudrillardian ‘real's hallucinatory resemblance to itself’. Architecture becomes a figuration of a hyper-fake simulacrum. Jean Baudrillard, Symbolic Exchange and Death, Sage Publications, London, 1993 (First published in France, 1976).

[9]        As known, Islamic architecture omits bodies and figuration, and instead constructs a taxonomy of patterns and ornaments that express a basic tenet of the religion: not to be misled into an imaginary and idolatrous world. Ornamentation here is not mere decoration, it has an intellectual, mental, metaphysical bias. That the Middle East has experienced an urbanistic/architectural/financial boom has also well served such developments.

[10]       ‘Mimetic’ here is derived from ‘mimesis’ (world making) and not from ‘mimicry’ (simulation). This differentiation is crucial, as the latter pretends that CAD performs best when simulating something – usually reality, structure, etc. Digital mimesis, on the other hand, is understood as world making, imagination and interpretation.

[11]     One can also think of Jain and Hindu Indian temples, or those of the Mayas, Incas and Aztecs. All of these architectures manifest a truly exuberant figural architectural ornamentation. Different to Islam, religion here promotes the creation and representation of a hyper-world of fetish and of simulacra, of eccentric avatars and sexual idols.

[12]       Once again there is no need for dynamic-looking, animate formed projects. However, this occurrence has a justification: smooth (Deleuzian) spaces, NURBS geometries and parametric models are described by complex, distinct entities that can be easily manufactured – milled, printed, thermoformed or cut – by specialist CAD/CAM machines. László Moholy-Nagy, Vision in Motion, Paul Theobald and Company, Chicago Illinois, 1947, pp. 53–54.

[13]        Waldemar Januszczak, ‘Baroque! From St Peter's to St Paul's’, BBC documentary, Episode 1, first broadcast on BBC4 11.03.2009.

---

[i] A closer look at recent trends that are to a large extent driven by digital/topological preoccupations shows that what was originally an avant-guard of language and thought is becoming now a mainstream in contemporary architecture with a conspicuous Modernist touch. Apart from the fact that this is lead by a hand full of seminal international figures, which spread their thoughts through a waste number of sophisticated publications, exhibitions and buildings, they are supported by a clear networked of leading educational institutions which help disseminating what is at the end consumed almost everywhere.

[ii] Ibid., p. 3

[iii] Bourdieu, Distinction, 2000, p. 491

Article 2

May 5, 2010, 12:58 pm

≫ Next: Article 1

≪ Previous: The return of the Figural

$

0

0

News / Events 2010
2011-2010-2009-2008-2007-2006-2005-2004-2003-2002-2001-2000

07-12-2010

Unit 20 crits at the Bartlett School of Architecture UCL, London UK.
Critics: Colin Fournier, Ines Dantas, Johan Voordouw, Paula Morais, Alessandro Ayuso, Marjan Colletti and Marcos Cruz.

04-12-2010 

Lecture at architecture symposium 'COAST (architecture by/on/in the sea)', Arts University College, Bournemouth UK.
Organisation: Simon Beeson
Keynote speech: Sir Peter Cook
Speakers: Dennis Crompton; Mike Davies; Yael Reisner; Richard Horden; Roger Zogolovitch; Marcos Cruz
http://www.aucb.ac.uk/newsevents/architecturesymposium.aspx

30-11-2010

Lecture 'Nurbsters, Foldsters and Neoplasmatic' at the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning - University of Michigan, Ann Arbor USA.
http://www.tcaup.umich.edu/news_and_events/events/archives/2010-2011/?event=0000c0a8de10000007e05a010000012aa706756e6ddb0957

29-11-2010

Lecture 'Nurbsters, Foldsters and Neoplasmatic' at the Beyond the Fringe Lecture Series, UCLA, Los Angeles USA.

24-11-2010 

Lecture 'Nurbsters, Foldsters and Neoplasmatic' at AbsolutLab, Madrid Spain.
http://www.absolut-lab.com/es/evento/30/Nurbsters_Foldsters_and_Neoplasmatic_Design

04-11-2010 to 05-11-2010

Marcos Cruz invited jury for the Taiwan Tower Conceptual Design International Competition.

Location: Taichung, Taiwan
Jury: Yucheng Ann (Taiwan) - Dean of College of Design, Shih-Chien University; J.J. Pan (Taiwan) - Principal, J.J. Pan and Partners, Architects and Planners; Marcos Cruz (UK) - Director, Bartlett School of Architecture UCL; David Tseng (Taiwan) - Architecture Professor, National Chiao Tung University; Craig Hodgetts (USA) - Director, Hodgetts+Fung Design and Architecture; Junjieh Wand (Taiwan) - Media artist; Watanabe Kunio - President, Structural Design Group
Judging Results: Stefan Dorin (Romania) with Craciun Mihai Bogdan (USA) - First Prize; Cook Robotham Architectural Bureau Limited (UK) - Second Prize; Irma Maria Coello munoz with Leticia Gemma Montero Amice, Tomer Shimon kenin and Alvaro Guinea Martin (Spain) - Third Prize; Pablo Gil Martinez and Jaime bartolome Yllera (Spain) - Honourable Mention; Nicolas Laisne Architect (France) - Honourable Mention; Spatial Practice Ltd (Switzerland) - Honourable Mention; CYS.ASDO (Taiwan) - Honourable Mention; Institute of Architecture University of Applied Arts Vienna / Tze Chung Ma, Chien-Sheng Liu, Xinyu Wan, Emre Icdem (Austria) - Honourable Mention
http://www.twtower.com.tw/

29-10-2010

Unit 20 crits at the Bartlett School of Architecture UCL, LondonUK.

Critics: Hannes Mayer, Marjan Colletti and Marcos Cruz.

12-10-2010

Lecture 'Pensamiento lateral / Proyectos laterales. El caso Bartlett' at the Universidad de los Andes (Auditorio Mario Laserna ML-A), Bogota' Columbia.

http://arquitectura.uniandes.edu.co/scripts/index.php?lang=en

11-10-2010 

Lecture 'Experimentalismo/Experiencialismo - El caso Bartlett' at PEI, Universidad Pontificia Javeriana, Bogota' Columbia.

27-08-2010 

Opening of 'Exuberant and Sublime Flesh' exhibition at the Venice Biennale, Italy.

Location: Austrian Pavilion 
Curator of the Austrian Pavilion: Eric Owen Moss 
Curator of Exuberant and Sublime Flesh: Marjan Colletti 
Student work in show: Yousef Al-Mehdari, Ben Cowd, David Edwards, Peter Griebel, Tobias Klein, Jay Williams, Sara Shafiei, Johan Voordouw, Hannes Mayer, Vicky Patsalis, Jason Chan, Kasper Ax, Yaojen Chuang 
Sponsored:Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL

Photography: Marjan Colletti

29-06-2010

Keynote Lecture 'Lateral Design' at ENHSA-EAAE Conference: Educating Architects towards Innovative Architecture', Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul Turkey.

04-05-2010 

Seminar talk 'Inside-Out Urbanism' to the MArch UD at the Bartlett School of Architecture, London UK.

29-04-2010

Lecture 'Neoplasmatic Architecture' at Syracuse University, New York State USA.
http://soa.syr.edu/videos/ensemble.html?videoID=pVvVx3tAq0KiPlZyvtVDIw

24-04-2010 

Opening of the 'Food Junction Kiosk' at the Reveal Festival, Camley Street Natural Park, London UK. 

Organisation: Stefanie Mills and Marina Chang from the Development Planning Unit, UCL
Design: marcosandmarjan with Unit students (Aleksandrina Rizova, Richard Beckett, Wendy Teo, Linda Hagberg, Amanda Bate, Leonhard Clemens, Luca Rizzi Brignoli)
www.food-junctions.org.uk
www.casa.ucl.ac.uk/fj/?p=496

Photography: Paul Smoothy

16-04-2010 

Lecture 'Sublime Flesh' as part of the Design Computing Community, at the RIBA, London UK.

Location: Wren Boardroom, 66 Portland Place, London

Speakers: Tim Lucas & Emmanuel Verkinderen; Eugene Lim; Rory Campbell-Lange; Uli Horner; Gregory Epps; Marcos Cruz
www.design-computing.com

13-04-2010

Unit 20 crits at the Bartlett School of Architecture UCL, London UK.
Critics: Peter Cook, Caroline Rabourdin, Stephan Lengen, Marjan Colletti and Marcos Cruz, et al.

06-04-2010 

Symposium 'Sublime Flesh' at Christ Church Spitalfields, London UK.
www.sublimeflesh.blogspot.com 
Organiser and Moderator: Marcos Cruz 
Speakers: Rev Rod Greene, Sir Peter Cook, Ali Mangera, Robert Harbison, Yael Reisner, Marjan Colletti 
Media: M.A.D. London

29-03-2010 - 11-04-2010

Opening of 'Sublime Flesh' exhibition at Christ Church Spitalfields, London UK.
Location: Christ Church Spitalfields

Curators: Marcos Cruz with Lisa-Raine Hunt
Design: marcosandmarjan with Unit 20 students (Aleksandrina Rizova, Richard Beckett, Wendy Teo, Linda Hagberg, Luca Rizzi Bringoli, Amanda Bate, Leonhard Clemens)
Manufacturing of Exhibition Tables: Special Thanks to Emmanuel Vercruysse - CADCAM workshop at the Bartlett School of Architecture UCL and Guan Lee at Grymsdyke Farm.
Manufacturing of Models: DMC London

Student work in show: Yousef Al-Mehdari, David Edwards, Sam White, Tobias Klein, Jay Williams, Kenny Tsui, Johan Voordouw, Hannes Mayer, Vicky Patsalis, Jason Chan, Kasper Ax, Yaojen Chuang, Laurence Dudeney, Leonhard Clements, Aleksandrina Rizova, Amanda Bate, Richard Beckett, Lucca Rizzi Bringoli, Wnedy Teo, Linda Hagberg, Jenna Al-Ali. 
Sponsored:Christ Church Spitalfields, University College London / DMC London, Grymsdyke Farm + Mesa Studio, BDP

Photography: Paul Smoothy
Opening Recption Monday 29 March 19.00-21.00
Exhibition Continues 30 March to 11 April
Opening Hours Mon-Sat 11.00-18.00, Sun 13.00-18.00
(Exhibition closed on 2 and 3 April for Good Friday and Easter Saturday)

26-03-2010 - 01-04-2010

marcosandmarjan workshop 'Fluid Flesh', at Ecole Speciale d'Architecture, Paris France.
www.esa-paris.fr/Workshop-marcosandmarjan-Fluid/html 
workshop-esa-marcosandmarjan.blogspot.com

Photography: Guy Vacheret

25-03-2010 

Lecture 'Exuberant Flesh', at Ecole Speciale d'Architecture, Paris France.

24-03-2010 

Seminar talk 'Inside-Out Urbanism' to the China Research Group at the Bartlett School of Planning, London UK.

19-03-2010 

Sir Peter Cook and Eric Owen Moss in conversation with 'London Eight' exhibitors, at Sci-ARC, Los Angeles USA. 
Location: M.H.Keck Lecture Hall

19-03-2010 

Opening of 'London Eight' exhibition, at Sci-ARC, Los Angeles USA. 

Location: Library Gallery 
Curator: Sir Peter Cook 
Exhibitors: marcosandmarjan + Yousef Al-Mehdari; CJ Lim + Pascal Bronner; SmoutAllen + Johan Hybschmann

18-03-2010 

Final Crits - marcosandmarjan winter studio, at UCLA, Los Angeles USA.
Critics: Hitoshi Abe, Peter Cook, Kivi Sotamaa, Roland Wahlross-Ritter, Dana Bauer, Dina Krunic, Marjan Colletti, Marcos Cruz, et al.

15-03-2010 

Lecture 'marcosandmarjan' (back to back with Marjan Colletti), at LA FORUM, Los Angeles USA.

 

16-02-2010 

Interim Crits - marcosandmarjan winter studio, at UCLA, Los Angeles USA.
Critics: Hitoshi Abe, Kivi Sotamaa, Dina Krunic, Natalia Traverso-Caruana, Marjan Colletti, Marcos Cruz, et al.

21-01-2010 

Lecture 'Neoplasmatic Design' for the MA Design Interactions, at the Royal College of Art, London UK.

11-01-2010 

Crits - marcosandmarjan winter studio, at UCLA, Los Angeles USA.
Critics: Hadrian Predock, Kivi Sotamaa, Dina Krunic, Georgina Huljich, Michael Osman, Marjan Colletti, Marcos Cruz, et al.

04-01-2010 

marcosandmarjan run a winter studio at UCLA, Los Angeles USA.

Start of term with intro presentation by Marcos Cruz

Research topic: Alimentary Convolutions - from kitchen interface to Agropolis

Location: Lecture Hall, Perloff Hall

Article 1

January 24, 2011, 4:51 pm

≫ Next: Article 0

≪ Previous: Article 2

$

0

0

News / Events 2011                     2012-2011-2010-2009-2008-2007-2006-2005-2004-2003-2002-2001-2000

19-12-2011

Unit 20 crits at the Bartlett School of Architecture UCL, London. 

Critics: Colin Fournier, Jose Sanchez, Marjan Colletti, Hannes Mayer, and Marcos Cruz

30-11-2011 - 07-12-2011

marcosandmarjan's Nurbster II table exhibited at 'Turning the Tables'show, Testbed 1, London UK.
Location: Testbed 1, 33 Parkgate Road, London SW11 4AU
Curator: Yael Reisner

Participants: Will Alsop; GilBartolome'; Cinimod; Peter Cook and Yael Reisner; Barnaby Gunning; Bernd Felsinger; Sixteen Makers; Helen&Hard; Naja de Ostos; Sandra and Rudolf Knoebl; Jason Bruges Studio; Nat Chard; marcosandmarjan

Introduction by Yael Reisner

Proposing the exhibition to TESTBED1, evolved from one’s architect’s instinct to promote and reveal the architect as maker whilst retaining the yardstick of an exhibition that might give a genuine joy to the aficionados of design. Architects, unlike product designers or artists, still lack the system of networking via agents, galleries or others and their design stays in the private realm of development without reaching the public domain. 

The aim of exposing a wide range of new tables - from cutting edge innovative ideas through to customized solutions designed around specific architects’ needs - has resulted in wide range of forms and intentions. It exhibits displays that are fast to re-assemble, or domestically suitable in an affordable context, through such varied approaches as the selection of a tree in the forest as the best tree of dinning or perforating steel sheet for best stress forces, vs. perforating steel for best laid table.

Architects who often focus on architecture – as one of the most complex visual arts – collaborate with many disciplines, who are all involved in the long a process of its making, from generating the design to the built end product on site. Nevertheless, some of them take a delight in directly making the real thing, and tables seem a great example of a pleasurable (yet relatively short) task that architects can enjoy making: right up to the moment of having the prototype in hand.

An incredibly wide range of CNC cutting machines and 3D printers enables today’s processes to be more affordable than even five years ago, cutting different materials, in almost no time, or laying others in tight layers. (Robots are now entering these processes, though not sufficiently cheaply as yet.)

Now more than ever before projects are led by drawing. A sketch that captures an idea is articulated and perfected through a three dimensional digital drawing - and there lies the real artistic craft of the architect these days. They have become the makers of 1:1 building fragments and objects - a revolutionary shift, turning them from the visionaries who often lead design processes through the crafts of others to the crafty makers themselves.  Yet with the manufacturing now often dependent on the machine, the artistic qualities resides and is controlled by the drawing; surely a meaningful change of character.

03-12-2011

Bartlett Unit 20 Student Sam Welham distinguished by the IAB-SP with his project 'CO +/+ Incident', as part of the International Student Competition for the 9th Sao Paulo Biennale (9a BIA), Sao Paulo Brazil.

Tutors: Marcos Cruz, Hannes Mayer and Marjan Colletti
Jury: Ado Franchini, Italy; Amilia Malavolti, Italy; Francois Chas, France; Ligia Pinheiro, Brazil; Mila Giannini, Brazil; Patrizia Pedrelli, Italy; Paul Maitre-Devallon, France; Yutaka Shiki, Portugal + popular vote.

29-11-2011

Lecture at the FAU - Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

18-11-2011

Unit 20 crits at the Bartlett School of Architecture UCL, London. 

Critics: Marco Poletto, Izaskun Chinchilla, Ricardo de Ostos, Michael Wihart, Susana Soares, Sara Shafiei, Hannes Mayer, Justin Nicholls, and Marcos Cruz

10/11-11-2011

Jury member of the Taiwan Tower International Competition (Stage Two), Taichung Taiwan.

Jury: Yu-Chien Ann; Adele Naude Santos; Hidetoshi Ohno; Chao-Lee Kuo; Sheng-Fong Lin; Shuenn Ren Liou; Marcos Cruz.

Prizes: Sou Fujimoto, Japan (First Prize); SOMA ZT, Austria (Second Prize); Stefan Dorin, Romania (Third Prize); CRAB Studio, London (Honourable Mention); HMC Group Inc, USA (Honourable Mention).

09-11-2011

Lecture at URS127 Gallery / TamKang University, Taipei Taiwan.

08-11-2011

Public Presentation of WIW project at the Sheraton Hotel Taipei, Taiwan.
Project: World-in-a-World / Chong Qing Nan Lu Towers, Taipei
Design Team: marcosandmarjan
Collaboration: David Edwards; Aleksa Rizova; Tze-Jun Wei; Ergin Birinci
Client: Glory Yeh Art Park Ltd, Taiwan 

01-11-2011

Lecture at Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham.

10/11-2011

Interview 'Marcos Cruz y la conciencia del tiempo' in resvista SU CASA, Costa Rica.

http://www.revistasucasa.com/contenido/articles/987/2/Especiales-Sucasa-63/Paacuteginas2.html

21-10-2011

Talk at the event This is Tomorrow, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Toledo.

20-10-2011

Jury member for the International Housing Competition This is Tomorrow, Fundacion Fiscac/Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha/Colegio de Arquitectos de Castilla-La Mancha, Toledo.

Jury members: Frederico Soriano, Jose Luis Pardo, Juan Luis Morazo, Donatella Fioretti, Marcos Cruz

19-10-2012

Crits at the ESAYT UCJC, Madrid. 

Critics: Fernando Jerez, Marcos Cruz

13/14-10-2011

Lecture at the Conference Public and Private in the Contemporary Age: Sliding Broders, Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon.

Speakers: Bernardo Carvalho, Thierry Paquot, Jose Pedro Regatao, Julien Glauser, Jorge Figueira, Didier Fiuza Faustino, Marcos Cruz

We take great pleasure in announcing the Congress Public and Private in the contemporary age: Sliding Borders, organized by the Centre for Comparative Studies of the University of Lisbon, and to be held in the Faculty of Letters of the University of Lisbon in October 13-14, 2011. This conference proposes a reflection on the theme of Public and Private and on the changes related to these two concepts from the second part of 20th century. The borders between these two concepts have been gradually sliding, as well as our needs and sensations. Man as social animal and as entity in continuous cognitive evolution tries to develop new strategies for his protection and exposition, relation and isolation. Our intimacy is more represented, exposed, nevertheless more and more unreachable and protected, distant from the other because of a continuous over-exposition. And above all does public means belonging to Everybody or to Nobody nowadays? To what extent does Privacy correspond to Intimacy and vice versa? Our intent in this occasion will be to determine the alteration of our time considering fundamental paradigms of our social living and questioning them beside the contemporary age. The main interest of this conference is the exchange of opinions and scientific results between different areas of study, but our reflection will focus on the way the concepts of private and public are changing, and how these changes are recognizable in our society: in the organization of spaces, in its rhythms and in its relationships, in its juridical organization, in the description of its demands and frustrations, even in the concept and image of the human body and its exposition and manipulation. Our need of privacy and of public exposition changed deeply in the last 60 years, we propose to start from this point of view in order to define the main paradigms to understand our own reality and man’s new necessities and expectations.

2/3-09-2011

Jury member for the Taiwan Tower International Competition (Stage One), Taichung Taiwan.
Jury: Yu-Chien Ann; Adele Naude Santos; Hidetoshi Ohno; Chao-Lee Kuo; Sheng-Fong Lin; Shuenn Ren Liou; Marcos Cruz

5 Shortlisted Teams: Sou Fujimoto Architects, Japan; Stefan Dorin, Romania; HMC Group Inc/Raymund Pan, USA; CRAB Studio with Tai Architect and Associates and Buro Happold, London; Soma ZT/Martin Oberarscher, Austria
www.twtower.com.tw

August 2011

Unit 20 student Wendy Boon Ting Teo featured in 'Wallpaper Graduate Directory 2011', Wallpaper, London UK.

http://www.wallpaper.com/directory/graduate/2011/grads#54703

Wendy Boob Ting Teo, model of New Taipei Central Station

 

19-08-2011

Lecture 'El retorno de lo Figural' at the Veritas Festival, Veritas University, San Jose Costa Rica.
Organiser: Juan Carlos Sanabria (Director of the Veritas University) 
Speakers: Jorge Ayala / [Ay]a studio; Esteban Zamora; Benjamin Garcia; Juan Robles; Janet Echelman; Ruben Sepulveda y Margarita Flores / DearArchitects; Javier Rojas; Zoom Arquitectos; Pietro Stagno; Juan Lalinde; Marcos Cruz / Bartlett; Marcos Poletto / Ecologic Studio; Datum Zero

Touring the End-of-Year Exhibition at the Veritas University, Marcos Cruz and Juan Carlos Sanabria

19-08-2011

Interview by Randall Zuniga for revista SU CASA at the Veritas Festival, San Jose Costa Rica.

July 2011

Unit 20 students Wendy Boo Ting Teo and Richard Beckett featured in 'Highlights from the UCL Bartlett School of Architecture Summer Show', The Telegraph, London.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/propertypicturegalleries/8586385/Highlights-from-the-UCL-Bartlett-School-of-Architecture-Summer-Show.html?image=8 

01-07-2011 - 08-07-2011

Unit 20 exhibition at the Bartlett Summer Show.
Location: Slade School of Art, University College London

Photography: Tze Jun Wei

01-07-2011

Bartlett Summer Show opening.
Guest opener: Itsuko Hasegawa
Location: Slade School of Art, University College London

24-06-2011 - 26-06-2011

Participation at the Studioplex exhibition, IE University, Segovia, Spain.

Student work by Aleksandrina Rizova and Wendy Boon Ting Teo

24-06-2011 - 26-06-2011

Presentation and participation at the International Architecture Education Summit 2011, Madrid/Segovia, Spain.

Organisation: Instituto de Empresas (IE) and University California Los Angeles (UCLA)

Photography: Mar Agra

Participants: Thom Mayne (Distinguished Professor, Department of Architecture and Urban Design, UCLA, Los Angeles), Javier Quintana (Dean, School of Architecture, IE University, Segovia/Madrid), Martha Thorne (Associate Dean for External Relations, School of Architecture, IE, Segovia/Madrid), Hitoshi Abe (Chair, Department of Architecture and Urban Design, UCLA, Los Angeles), Stan Allen (Dean, School of Architecture, Princeton University), Rob Docter (General Director, Berlage Institute, Rotterdam), Mark Wigley (Dean, Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation, Columbia University, New York), Peter Cook, Odile Decq (General Director, Ecole Speciale d'Architecture, Paris), Monica Ponce de Leon (Dean, A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor), Donna V. Robertson (Dean, College of Architecture, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago), Ingeborg Rocker (Associate Professor of Architecture, Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, Boston), Urs Hirschberg (Dean, Faculty of Architecture, TU Graz), Wang Shu (Head of Architecture Department, China Academy of Arts, Hangzhou, China), Branko Kolarevic (Associated Dean, Professor and Chair in Integrated Design, University of Calgary), Hans-Juergen Commerell (Director ANCB - Aedes Network Campus Berlin), Winy Maas (Director of 'The Why Factory', Delft University of Technology, Delft), Yasuaki Onoda (Professor, Department of Architecture and Building Science, Tohuko University), Brett Steel (Chair, Architectural Association School of Architecture, London), Neelkanth Chhaya (Dean Faculty of Architecture, CEPT University Ahmedabad), Nobuaki Furuya (Professor Department of Architecture, Waseda University, Tokyo) and Marcos Cruz (Director, Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, London).

20-06-2011

Lecture 'Sublime Flesh and Neoplasmatic Design' at the University of the Arts (UdK), Berlin.

18-06-2011

Presentation at the LUSO 2011 Summit, Nottingham University.

Lecturers: Mario Baptista Coelho, Steve Lewis, Claudio Sunkel, Manuel Forjaz, Fernando Pinho, Ricardo Zozimo, Miguel Soares, Marcos Cruz, Joao de Vallera
Organisation: PARSUK

19-05-2011

Radio Interview at Planeta Beta, Circulo de Bellas Artes, Madrid. 

Interview by: Enrique Encabo, Inma Maluenda with Izabela Wieczorek and Juan Roldan.

19-05-2011

Final crits at the ESAYT UCJC, Edificio de Tabacalera, Madrid. 

Critics: Jaime Coll, Judith Leclerc, Marcos Cruz

13-05-2011

Unit 20 final crits at the Bartlett School of Architecture UCL, London. 

Critics: Colin Fournier, Ricardo de Ostos, Murray Fraser, Christine Hawley, Justin Nicholls, Marjan Colletti and Marcos Cruz.

12-05-2011 

Lecture 'Marcos Cruz - explora,coes recentes' at the Faculdade de Arquitectura da Universidade Tecnica de Lisboa, Portugal.

Photography: Dilen Magan/ M.A.D.

11-05-2011

Lecture 'The Inhabitable Flesh of Architecture' at the Universidade de Evora, Portugal.

14-04-2011

Unit 20 and Unit 22 crits at the Bartlett School of Architecture UCL, London - an event with Salvador Perez Arroyo and Andres Perea.

Critics: Salvador Perez Arroyo, Andres Perea, Izaskun Chinchilla, Carlos Jimenez, Marjan Colletti and Marcos Cruz.

Photography: Marcos Cruz

01-04-2011

Unit 20 crits at the Bartlett School of Architecture UCL, London. 

Critics: Theo Spyropoulos, Fernando Jerez, Marjan Colletti and Marcos Cruz.

15-03-2011

Critic at PhD Research Project, Bartlett School of Architecture UCL, London. 

Critics: Dr Sharon Morris; Dr Mette Ramsgard Thomsen; Sean Griffiths; Dr Marcos Cruz

Presentations: Jaime Bartolome; Eva Branscome; Joanne Bristol; Pablo Gil; Ruairi Glynn; Popi Iacouvou; Christiana Ioannou; Thomas-Bernard Kenniff; Laura Kuch; Tim Long; Christos Papastergiou; Felix Robbins; Nina Vollenbroecker.

Organisers: Dr Willem de Brujin; Prof Jonathan Hill; Dr Yeoryia Manolopoulou

10-03-2011 - 11-03-2011

Member of re-validation team of MA Design Interactions, Royal College of Art, London. 

Panel: Alan Cummings (Chair); Jeff Willis; Jane Pavitt; Mat Hunter; Marcos Cruz

09-03-2011

Unit 20 crits at the Bartlett School of Architecture UCL, London. 

Critics: Marcelo Spina, Roberto Bottazzi, Peter Zellner, Kasper Ax, Marjan Colletti and Marcos Cruz.

10-02-2011

President's Medals Crit at the Royal Institute of British Architects, London. 

Chair: Ruth Reed (RIBA President) 

Critics: David Chipperfield, Peter Blundell Jones, Marcos Cruz 

Students: Jack Hudspith (Bronzemedal winner 2010); Jonathan Schofield (Silvermedal winner); Clare Richards (Dissertation winner 2010)

Article 0

January 26, 2011, 3:39 am

≫ Next: WIW Chong Qing Nan Lu Towers

≪ Previous: Article 1

$

0

0

News / Events 2012                    2011-2010-2009-2008-2007-2006-2005-2004-2003-2002-2001-2000

Forthcoming

Lecture at the Edinburgh International Science Festival, UK - March 2013 

Lecture at the CCAE / University College Cork, Ireland - 19.12.12

25-11-2012

Keynote lecture 'Postmateriality: Towards a new Fabricated Materiality' at the Parametric Thinking & Making on Architecture and Urbanism (PaTMAU) international conference held at Tunghai University, Taiwan - 24/25.11.2012
http://arch.thu.edu.tw/thu_arch/patmau/
Keynote Speakers: Tim Stonor, Andrew Witt, Marcos Cruz

from left to right: Tien Ling, Marc Aurel Schnabel, Ercument Gorgul, Tim Stonor, Tom Verebes, Douglas Vieira de Aguiar, Shih-Wei Lo, Simon Shu, Marcos Cruz, Shun Ren Liou, Hao-Hsiu Chiu

23-11-2012

Lecture 'Architecture's path to Ecology' at Tunghai University, Taiwan

04-11-2012

Lecture 'Towards a Postmateriality' at the symposium 'AA - Contemporary Models of Production', EAUM Guimaraes, Portugal

11-10-2012

Lecture 'Interfacial Skin' at Universidad CEU San Pablo, Madrid Spain

29-09-2012

Symposium 'Never Again Resistance?' at the Steinhaus, Steindorf Austria

20-08-2012

Alga(e)zebo on DETAIL online

http://www.detail-online.com/daily/algaezeboby-marcosandmarjan-architects-the-bartlettucl-london-6110/

15-08-2012

Alga(e)zebo on suckerPUNCHDaily

http://www.suckerpunchdaily.com/2012/08/15/algaezebo/

27-07-2012 - 10-09-2012

Alga(e)zebo - Wonder, Incredible Installations for the London Olympics, London UK.

Location: Euston Square Gardens, London

Design team: marcosandmarjan, London UK

Manufacturer: Formstaal GmbH & Co.KG, Stralsund Germany

Engineering: Bollinger-Grohman-Schneider, Vienna Austria

Photobioreactor: Richard Beckett - DMC London; UCL Algal Biotechnology, London UK (special thanks to Dr Saul Purton, Marco Lizzul, Lamya A Haj, Laura Stoffels, Joanna Szaub, as well as Joanne Field at the Culture Collection of Algae and Protozoa, Scottish Marine Institute)

Other sites: 

-->

http://www.bartlett.ucl.ac.uk/architecture/partnerships/installations-for-london-2012/algaezebo

-->

http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/daily-news/in-pictures-architecture-schools-olympic-installations-revealed/8631419.article

-->

http://www.recitymagazine.com/project-520-marcosandmarjan-architects-algaezebo
http://www.bread.uk.com/core/?p=573

-->

http://aroundtherings.com/articles/view.aspx?id=40259

-->

http://qxw.boyuyuan.com/7e2b34c1/nhjyan-ww-kjl/u/80580257/005514-gal

--> http://sports.qq.com/a/20120613/001157.htm 

Photobioreactor with bio-luminescent algae

Photo credits: BREAD

28-06-2012

Marcos Cruz under UCL's spotlight. 
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/staff/staff-news/20062012-marcoscruz

22-06-2012

Unit 20 exhibition opening at the Bartlett Summer Show, Slade School of Art UCL, London UK.

Photo credit: Maria Kuntsson-Hall

22-06-2012

Bartlett Summer Show opening 2012, London UK.
Welcome speech

Photo credit: Steven Ascencao

Marjan Colletti and Andrea Branzi (guest opener)

Photo credit: Paul Smoothy

Peter Bishop, Marcos Cruz, Frederic Migayrou, Andrea Branzi

Photo credit: Paul Smoothy

03-06-2012

Lecture at TEDx UCL, University College London, UK.

Location: North Cloisters, UCL

Speakers: Alisa Anokhina; Kristin Bakke; Peter Bentley; Ravi Das; Hannah Fry; Paul Gesiak; Amber Michelle Hill; Titus Hjelm; Helene Joffe; Jerome Lewis; Hugh Mattan; Ian Phillips; Kerstin Sailer; Sara Shulman; Semir Zeki; Ilya Zheludev; Ester Yuan.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFKJW67X8hw&feature=player_embedded

14-05-2012

Unit 20 Final Crits at the Bartlett, London UK. 

Critics: Peter Cook, Marjan Colletti, Colin Fournier, Branko Koralevic, Jonathan Hill, Niccolo Casas, Hannes Mayer, Marcos Cruz

23-04-2012

Lecture at TEDx Barcelos, Portugal.

Location: Auditorio S.Bento Menni, Barcelos

Speakers: Bruno Silva; Vasco Teiseira; Nuno Treitas; Maria Semedo; Jose' Manuel Costa; Jose' Valen,ca; Joao Paulo Pinto; Filipe Pina; Paulo de Carvalho; Ilidio Marques; Joao Vasconcelos; Marcos Cruz; Isabel Jonet; Carlos Sa'.

13-04-2012

Talk and table discussion with Fernando Jerez, as part of the ESAYT lecture series at HUB Madrid, Spain.

03-04-2012

Lecture 'Bio-Tectonics' at Universidade Lusofona, CCB / Coleccao Berardo, Lisbon Portugal.

30-03-2012

Unit 20 Crits at the Bartlett, London UK. 

Critics: Sean Hanna, Oliver Domeisen, Justin Nicholls, Julia Backhaus, Hannes Mayer, Linda Hagberg, Marcos Cruz

23-03-2012 - 25-03-2012

Keynote Speech at the First-Annual Biomimicry Challenge, Syracuse University, NY State USA.

Location: Syracuse Centre of Excellence
Organiser: Donald Carr

Presentations: Kevin Stack, Josh Stack, Marcos Cruz

http://syrbiomimicry.com/

February 2012

marcosandmarjan project AGROPOLIS featured in the book Futuristics - Visions of Future Living (ed. Caroline Klein with Text by Stefanie Lieb), daab.

22-02-2012

Lecture 'Nurbsters, Foldsters and Neoplasmatic Architecture' at Georgia Tech, Atlanta USA.

22-02-2012

Crits at Georgia Tech, Atlanta USA. 

Critics: Lars Spuybroek, Marcos Cruz, et al.

13-02-2012

Seminar talk at the V&A-RCA-UCL 'Skin' workshop, Department of Anthropology / UCL, London UK.

01-02-2012

Seminar talk 'Inside-out Urbanism' to the MArch UD at the Bartlett School of Architecture, London UK.

06-02-2012

Marcos Cruz becomes an invited member of the FAUTL School's Council, Faculdade de Arquitectura da Universidade Tecnica de Lisboa, Portugal.

20-01-2012

Crits at the ESAYT UCJC, Madrid. 

Critics: Jaime Bartolome', Pablo Gil, Fernando Jerez, Marcos Cruz

19-01-2012 - 18-02-2012

marcosandmarjan's Nurbster II table exhibited at 'Turning the Tables' show, Great Western Studios, London UK.

Location: Great Western Studios, 65 Alfred Road, London W2 SEU

Curator: Yael Reisner

Participants: Will Alsop; GilBartolome'; Cinimod; Peter Cook and Yael Reisner; Barnaby Gunning; Bernd Felsinger; Sixteen Makers; Helen&Hard; Naja de Ostos; Sandra and Rudolf Knoebl; Heng Zhi; marcosandmarjan

The tree of dining by Helen&Hard

Nurbster II by marcosandmarjan

WIW Chong Qing Nan Lu Towers

March 22, 2014, 3:29 pm

≫ Next: Alga(e)zebo

≪ Previous: Article 0

$

0

0

Commercial Project - 2010 marcosandmarjan
WIW World-in-a-World / Chong Qing Nan Lu Towers, feasibility study of three multi-programmatic towers in central Taipei [unbuilt], Taipei Taiwan [31.06.05–31.08.05).

Design team: marcosandmarjan;
Collaboration: David Edwards; Aleksa Rizova; Tze-Jun Wei; Ergin Birinci
Client: Glory Yeh Art Park Ltd, Taiwan

Programme:
Residential (large tower) 36000m2
Commercial (middle tower) 29000m2
Retail (base) 13500m2
Hotel (small tower) 17000m2
Cultural centre 12000m2
Circulation (ramps) 1500m2
Roof area 3500m2
Balconies (reidential) 8000m2
Parking 38500m2

CONCEPT

The design concept is rooted in the symbol of the lotus flower, loosely re-interpreted as a symbol for the emergence of beauty and life. As the flower emerges above the water, the proposed complex rises high above the neighbouring park and adjacent buildings, hopefully promoting a further regeneration of the whole site.
In general terms, we propose to translate the spiritual aspects of the lotus’ daily opening and closing and emergence from the water into architectural terms in various ways. The sinuous silhouettes of the towers represent the dynamics of growth, of the flower rising above the water line and reaching for the sun. Seen in perspective, the curvilinear towers should convey this notion of vertical aspiration and of the elegant flower vacillating in the wind. The thin, long cylindrical stalk of the lotus flower is re-interpreted as the internal air-chimney that should work as passive ventilation and conditioning device. Since the lotus flower unfolds its blossoms daily, we are envisioning an interactive façade that responds intelligently to the environment—to light, wind and pollution—opening up and closing down to protect and maintain adequate interior atmospheric conditions. 

URBAN PLACEMENT

The proximity of the site to major urban landmarks such as the park, the National Museum, the Theatre, the Mayor’s Town Hall etc. plays to the project’s great advantage, as it will attract and cater for a multitude of users: residents and tourists alike.

It is planned to open up the urban levels towards to park, thus to take advantage of its openness (a very desirable public void within a dense urban fabric) and all the activities taking place there.

At the same time, the urban levels (ground floor plus minus 2 floors or more) are proposed as porous civic interfaces to allow pedestrians to cross the complex from West to East etc. passing by shops and art galleries. We propose diagonal crossings through the site, as this maximizes access and shopping window area. The division of these shopping streets splits the site into sectors by facilitating orientation and circulation and generating an urban feeling, rather than a shopping mall as shed feeling. 

The urban levels will be topographically complex and hence very three-dimensional, maximizing the impact of the presence of the project on the street level. However, generous internal and external voids and folded spaces of variable scale and size will open up to the surrounding streets and to the park. Visitors will be invited to enter the lobby spaces, and to explore the facilities located on the urban levels. This opening up of the space will be diversified over the day, i.e. day and night.

MORPHOLOGY

If the East side of the site open up to the park, the West side (and also the North and South side) seems to be confronted with a rather dense and volumetric urban matrix. The project attempts to respond to both conditions, locating the main towering blocks away from the park towards the main traffic axes to emphasize urbanity and density. By pushing the towers to the limits of the site, maximum distance between each other is gained. This layout protects the apartments’ and offices privacy and at the same time facilitates generous panoramic views over the park and the city. Variable exposure to sunlight is thus also granted.

The morphologies of the towers are based on similarity yet multitude. Different folded drapes are constructed based on the outline of each shopping sector and the size and position of its related tower. Whilst the vertical cores of each tower are equal, the floor plates change shape on each tower and also slightly on each floor. This, combined with different skin-morphologies, creates change in shapes based on one structural and material-based solution: since the towers are draped similarly, they generate morphological variety yet at the same time create a sense of togetherness and community.

Lower floors could be granted more balcony space, whilst upper floor would appreciate a better panoramic view. These lower balconies and terraces, with footbridges etc. work also as temperature cushions by providing extra shade to the floors below, especially during the hottest hours of the day. This setup also creates magnificent internal 3D open voids or folded, layered spaces (like the petals of the lotus) between the towers.

The interior space, in particular of the podium, are characterized by the spatial dialogue between the folds and the voids and the floor plates. In these voids, one should feel the presence of the towers above, creating a tension between their weight and volume, and the open scenery of the podium spaces. These urban floors are a topographic landscape that varies with program, height and location (East-West, North-South etc.).

The retail units on the main floors will be accessed from the main circulation loops. Single units will have single sided entrances but maximized window, whilst duplex units can be accessed on various floors. The upper podium floors (but not only) are characterized by large skylights and vertical views of the towers and horizontal views of the city and the park. These are ideal for entertainment, restaurants, lounges etc.


MATERIALITY

We are envisioning a macro-scaled ornamental skin as double-layered veil that is draped around the towers and the podium roof and walls. It filters light, creates privacy and provides the buildings with a very strong design identity. On a micro-scale, ornamentation that will perform as environmental devices should be constructed thanks to parametrically optimized for CAD/CAM manufacturing techniques. Also, it is controlled in relationship to the interiors of the apartments and offices and the exposure to sunlight. The skin could be treated with multicolor varnish. It would reflect and refract sunlight and artificial light in various hues and colorations depending on intensity and inclination angle, achieving the elegance and beauty of the lotus flower.

The podium floors should feature large-scale interactive and mediatic facades to invite people inside and to feature advertisements, but also to respond to the environment: the building should monitor, screen and give feedback of and to the climatic conditions inside and outside as well as to the degree of inhabitation (i.e. amount of people inside).

Natural light will be allowed to flood the podium’s internal voids, yet filtered and diffused by a double-layered skin. Such soft light enhances the dramatic quality of the interior. At night, artificial light penetrates from the inside to the outside giving the building an intriguing, yet spectacular presence.


ENVIRONMENTAL

This building proposal follows a clear environmental strategy. Prevailing winds are drawn into the outer skin of the building. Through a passive downdraft evaporative cooling process, the air remains cool around the inhabited spaces while pressing out hot air through a ‘chimney’ stack effect.

On the roof of the building, but also on particularly sun exposed facades, several photovoltaic panels are set up in order to avoid excessive energy consumption. This double-layered skin-system perfectly integrates the photovoltaics, which are sandwiched between other panels. In fact, the most effective and environmentally sustainable insulation system for a highly sun exposed building is based on avoiding the direct impact of indoor and outdoor climate. Therefore the propose building has a double skin: it has variable opacity following the different building orientations to stop direct sunlight from penetrating the interiors and it grants for a pleasant and temperate indoor climate.

Furthermore, a grid of pipes could be integrated into the south façade to slowly pump water from the ground floor up to the top of the towers. Due to the direct sun exposure, this water warms up and is then used for air conditioning or heating the interiors. Afterwards, the water is pumped back down along the shaded north façade to cool it and prepare for a new circle. Furthermore, like a shower, water will be injected into the north façade, which will evaporate, cool down and condensate lowering the temperature.

Air conditioning will be collected and distributed through the ceilings of the podium in order to maximize its performance. That way, the system cools down he common access and circulation areas of the urban levels.

The podium is designed to cool the hot winds which reach the building’s base before rising upwards along the façade’s folded surfaces. Water and vegetation should be introduced to allow evaporation and evapo-transpiration to cool down air temperature passively.

Rain water and other waters collected by the building (especially podium roof) should be accumulated in a subterranean phase change water tank, to be cooled down and to be re-conducted to the air-conditioning cycle.

 

Alga(e)zebo

March 22, 2014, 4:24 pm

≫ Next: Algae-Cellunoi

≪ Previous: WIW Chong Qing Nan Lu Towers

$

0

0

Leisure / Culture Project - 2010 marcosandmarjan
Alga(e)zebo, installation for the London Olympics, Euston Square Gardens, London UK [built]

Design team: marcosandmarjan
Manufacturer: Formstaal / CSI, Stralsund Germany
Engineering: Bollinger, Grohmann und Schneider, Vienna Austria
Photobioreactor: Richard Beckett / DMC London with UCL Algae (special thanks to Dr Saul Purton, Marco Lizzul, Lamya A Haj, Laura Stoffels, Joanna Szaub; Joanne Field at the Culture Collection of Algae and Protozoa, Scottish Marine Institute)

Located at Euston Square Gardens, this installation consists of a large decorative canopy-structure, a Gazebo. The concept of the Gazebo follows an English tradition in which such filigree construction becomes a jewel that punctuates the landscape, creating a small gathering or viewing point that in turn organises the natural setting around it. The steel structure also fits in the tradition of exposed steel paraphernalia – gates, fences, fountains, pipe work etc. – which distinguishes and enriches so many UK cities. The complex patterns of the surface create a unique ornamental structure that evokes a sense of delicacy and elegance, with an ever-changing effect of light and shadows.

The internal space functions as a sitting facility for visitors to rest and gather or simply contemplate the surrounding views. The permeable boundaries of the structure, also allows for an endless play of framed vistas through and in-between it. The Gazebo also triggers associations of dynamism, indeterminacy, transparency, as well as joyfulness, festiveness and community, all of which, combined with the recyclable materiality and biotechnological augmentation of the structure makes it a potentially iconic landmark within the London Olympic setting.

 

The Alga(e)zebo intertwines human artifice with natural surrounding. This is achieved in three distinct manners that vary in scale and effect.

• The irregular outline of the Gazebo allows for trees or taller bushes to grow in between the structure.
• The multifaceted patterns create a scaffold for smaller vegetation to grow into it as a pergola.
• The vertical columns incorporate algae tubes with different strains of locally bred algae that vary in texture and colour. It suggests an Alga(e)zebo.

All three conditions reflect the complex boundary negotiations that take place between architecture and nature in our contemporary cities. There is an aspiration to intermingle and merge these conditions; architecture is behaving and looking more like biological construct, whilst nature is manipulated via human interference.

The installation makes a statement of the use of state-of-the-art technology along with interdisciplinary work methodologies. The design, with its complex geometry and perforated motifs, is originated from the implementation of sophisticated digital media processes by London-based practice marcosandmarjan. Bespoke algorithmic and parametric scripting programmes by the renowned engineering practice Bollinger-Grohmann-Schneider allow for the maximisation and design efficiency of two-dimensional processes (nesting scripting) and structural integrity in three dimensions (topological projections). World leading company Formstaal/CSI guarantees the construction out of double-curved welded steel panels manufactured from recycled steel. The resulting shell plates are then laser cut by CNC (computer-numerically controlled) machines.

Manufacturing process of perforated double steel curvature at Formstaal/CSI, Stralsund Germany.

 Calculation of ornamental pattern by Bollinger-Grohmann-Schneider, Vienna Austria.

 

PHOTOBIOREACTORS
The separate columns, consisting of varying volume bioreactors contain a range of different micro-organisms. From carbon dioxide consuming strains of algae to localised bacteria from surrounding gardens. The columns represent a unique real world testbed, looking specifically to see how such technology can be adapted to work within the complexity of a non standardised environment that architecture inevitably inhabits.

Testing of algae insertion into different thicknesses of growth medium.

 Carbon-impregnation of 3D prints, which work as a scaffold that attracts the growth of algae. 

Algae-Cellunoi

March 22, 2014, 4:25 pm

≫ Next: Foldster III

≪ Previous: Alga(e)zebo

$

0

0

Installation - 2013 marcosandmarjan with Guan Lee and Richard Beckett
Wall installation for 9th ARCHILAB 2013 - Naturalizing Architecture, FRAC Centre, Orleans France [built].

Design team:marcosandmarjan with Guan Lee and Richard Beckett
Collaboration: Olivia Pearson: Emu Masuyama; Jessie Lee; Keith McDonald; Jonas Brazys; Cullum Perry
Fabrication:Grymsdyke Farm; DMC London
Algae Technology: Marin Sawa with Nixon Group and Hellgardt Group (Imperial College); Richard Beckett (UCL)
Sponsors: Bartlett School of Architecture; Grymsdyke Farm; Innsbruck University  

9th ArchiLab, Naturalizing Architecture
View of the exhibition © Les Turbulences - Frac Centre
Photography: François Lauginie

The installation is an ornamental wall structure for external use composed of numerous cellular components that work as a scaffold for algae to grow. The patterns have multiple patterns with gaps and crevices that aim for a gradual involvement of nature in its three-dimensional surface. The wall is made out of foam which is a quintessential insulation material. What is usually hidden in external walls is here turned inside out and exposed as an ornate thick surface.

Photography: Paul Smoothy

Photography: Marcos Cruz

Each cellular component is seeded with terrestrial algae that grows in the ridges of the variable patterns. The selected algae strains are  Neochloris texensis  - a soil based algae of the Neochloris genus and Trentepohlia  - a filamentous green chlorophyte algae traditionally living on tree trunks, rocks or housing facades. The filaments of Trentepohlia have a strong orange colour caused by large quantities of carotenoid pigments which mask the green of the chlorophyll. Particular to this fast growing algae is that they live symbiotically in lichens which grow much slower, but ultimately create an enduring natural outer protection for the insulation wall. Each cellular component is also designed to host a variety of flasks in which liquid algae can grow for ground fertilization or simply to help creating a varied ecology of natural elements on the wall.

The overall organization of cellular components is the result of a computational voronoi pattern that determined the size and complexity of each cell. The result is a sequence of lofted surfaces that follow a gradient of punctuated lines and indentations that vary according to the geometric inclination of each surface – similar to growth layouuts in sea barnacles and shells. 

The fabrication process is based on two three stages: 1) the milling of each cellular component floating over a milled back wall; 2) 3D objet printing of each flask filled with grown medium and green algae; 3) spraying of grow medium and algae in computationally determined areas of each cell (due to time/technical contraints, this stage has not been carried out for the installation at ARCHILAB).

Testing of a variety of algae for objet printed flasks.

---

Foldster III

March 22, 2014, 4:26 pm

≫ Next: Topotable

≪ Previous: Algae-Cellunoi

$

0

0

Installation - 2013 marcosandmarjan, Richard Beckett and Unit 20
Foldster III - Exhibition table for Unit 20, Bartfest 13, London UK [built].

Design team:marcosandmarjan with Richard Beckett and Unit 20

Fabrication:Grymsdyke Farm
Location: Slade School of Art, UCL

Topotable

March 22, 2014, 4:29 pm

≫ Next: The Palm on the Palm - Hakkasan Dubai

≪ Previous: Foldster III

$

0

0

Installation - 2012 Marcos Cruz / Hannes Mayer with Unit 20Topotable - Exhibition installation for Unit 20, Bartfest 12, London UK [built].

Design team:Marcos Cruz, Hannes Mayer and Unit 20

Fabrication: Bartlett CADCAM workshop
Location:Slade School of Art, UCL

Concept: Following the annual field trip to Rio de Janeiro, the final exhibition installation interpreted Rio's fascinating topography in form of a topological continuum of striated mdf boards.


Final installation

Construction process

The Palm on the Palm - Hakkasan Dubai

March 22, 2014, 4:30 pm

≫ Next: Pearl Dubai

≪ Previous: Topotable

$

0

0

Residential Project - 2013 marcosandmarjan / RMJM (Dubai)
The Palm on the Palm - Invited competition entry for the new Hakkasan hotel on the Palm Dubai, UAE.

Design team: marcosandmarjan / RMJM (Dubai)

The Palm on the Palm
The main concept is driven by the idea of a set of grand inhabitable palms that are grown on the Palm of Dubai. The morphology of the palms suggest that trunks are extrapolated into a series of inhabited cones which host the main bulk of hotel rooms, while the ramified longitudinal leaves that hold the roof are expressed through ornamental louvers that cover the facades. Contradicting the rather low stature of the building (7 floors high), the vertical language of its ‘leaves’ gives it presence and grandeur. The symbol is of growth, festivity and prosperity.

Accommodation cones – Hakka villages
Three large cones host the main bulk of accommodation. The circular plan layout is derived from the Chinese Hakka villages, which are round and organized around communal central spaces. This iconic organization locates in the middle space a large light shaft, a central circulation area and social spaces on the ground floor. By facing the circular array of rooms on the periphery of the accommodation cones allows for a maximum exposure of rooms towards the outside and make use of the fantastic views in the distance of the Dubai Marina, Atlantis hotel and sea.

Inhabitable Roof – Chinese Garden
The roof is conceived as a much more orthogonal arrangement with large suits, which enjoy private courtyards, swimming pools and gardens. Whilst this rather more introverted layout is in line with the exclusive nature of these spaces, there is a strategic topological layout of the roof that allows each space to enjoy views of the surrounding landscape.

Undulating landscape – the Dunes
A key feature of the project is an open landscape that undulates throughout the building, allowing for a visual relationship between both sides of the site and the connecting between the inner and outside edge of the palm. The topological ripples of this landscape suggests a dune landscape that creates a morphological gradient from street scape to the beach. This upper floor suggests that in parts the ground is pealed off and embedded with pockets of space: the lobby, club, communal and social areas and parking. This lower ground also gives access to the three accommodation cones and inhabitable roof.

Pearl Dubai

March 22, 2014, 4:30 pm

≫ Next: Soho flat

≪ Previous: The Palm on the Palm - Hakkasan Dubai

$

0

0

under construction

 

Soho flat

March 22, 2014, 4:34 pm

≫ Next: Archimaera Lisbon Wall

≪ Previous: Pearl Dubai

$

0

0

Residential Project - 2008-10 Marcos Cruz
Moss-Armstrong apartment - refurbishment of a duplex in Soho, London UK [unbuilt]

Design team: Marcos Cruz

Collaboration:Tze-Jun Wei; David Edwards

Located in Soho, two separate flats (2nd and 3rd floors) are proposed to be joined to create a two-bedroom duplex unit.
The new layout is organised around the location of a new internal staircase. Kitchen, storage, living and dining, as well as toilet and bedrooms are distributed around this middle core which acquires a central feature.

The duplex apartment has two entrances: it can be accessed daily from the 2nd floor directly into the bedroom and toilet area (where outside clothes are taken off), while kitchen living and dining can be accessed (by visitors) from the 3rd floor. This decision is determined by the habits of the client, while also bringing about both spatial and material advantages. The ktichen/living/dining areas remain open plan spaces without any volumetric obstruction, while floor insulation is avoided on the hard surface of the living/dining areas.


Stage 1 - 2008/09
Open plan visibility allows for kitchen-living-dining to become unified. Built-in units are proposed to developed around the perimeter of the apartment.
 

Stage 2 - 2009
Built-in furniture made of striated plywood gives special textural features to the apartment.

Stage 3- 2010
Middle core of kitchen-staircase-sofa element gains a bigger volumetric presence. Views from kitchen parlour to TV set in the living area become a key organisational feature.
 

 

Archimaera Lisbon Wall

March 22, 2014, 4:35 pm

≫ Next: Syn.de.Bio

≪ Previous: Soho flat

$

0

0

under construction

Syn.de.Bio

March 26, 2014, 4:08 pm

≫ Next: Article 7

≪ Previous: Archimaera Lisbon Wall

$

0

0

SYN.DE.BIO (Synthetic Design Biotopes) is a forum and website created by Marcos Cruz and Richard Beckett that aims to disseminate and promote new bio-digital work that is emerging in the crossroad of design, biology and engineering. Its objective is to develop a network of designers, artists and scientists who employ novel design methods and innovative fabrication techniques to explore and manipulate biological material and its application to the built environment. Advances in the field of synthetic biology, biotechnology, molecular engineering and material sciences, as well as new modes of production and simulation in architecture, product and textile design, are leading towards an increasing multidisciplinary approach to design. The result is a new sense of materiality, new hybrid technologies and unprecedented living forms.

www.syndebio.com
 

Network
Carolina Ramirez-Figueroa / ArchaID Lab
EcologicStudio (Marco Poletto & Claudia Pasquero) / Bartlett UCL
Ecovative
Henk Jonkers / TU Delft
Marco Lizzul / UCL Algae
Marcos Cruz / marcosandmarjan / Bartlett UCL
Marin Sawa / Imperial College
Richard Beckett / Betatype / Bartlett UCL
Splitterwerk (Mark Blaschitz, Edith Hemmrich, Josef Roschitz)
Steve Pike / Arcolony
Thom Faulders Studio
VenhoevenCS



Editors
Marcos Cruz
Richard Beckett

Syn.de.Bio runs from the Bartlett School of Architecture at University College London

---

Article 7

March 26, 2014, 4:52 pm

≫ Next: Article 6

≪ Previous: Syn.de.Bio

$

0

0

News / Events 2013

2014   2013   2012   2011   2010   2009   2008   2007   2006   2005   2004

31-12-2013

Publication of authored book THE INHABITABLE FLESH OF ARCHITECTURE, Ashgate Publishing, December 2013, UK.
See on Ashgate websitehttp://www.ashgate.com/isbn/9781409469346  
See on Amazon website http://www.amazon.co.uk/Inhabitable-Flesh-Architecture-Design-Research/dp/1409469344

13-12-2013

Unit 20 End-of-term Crits at the Bartlett, London UK. 

Critics:Manuel Jimenez, Mollie Claypool, Justin Nicholls, Luca Rizzi Brignoli, Jeffrey Lee, Michael Pelken, Vasilena Vassilev, Peter Scully, Richard Beckett, Marcos Cruz

12-12-2013

Keynote speech at the Westminster Media Forum, Architecture and the Built Environment, London UK.


 

09-12-2013

Guest Lecture atSyracuse University in London, UK.

04-12-2013

Bartlett students win unprecedented 6 awards at the RIBA President's Medals, London UK.

Bronze Medal: Ness Lafoy (Tutors: Rhys Cannon, Ben Addy)
Silver Medal: Ben Hayes (Tutors: Prof Niall McLaughlin, Dr Yeoryia Manolopoulou, Michiko Sumi)
Dissertation Medal: Tamsin Hanke (Tutor: Sofia Psarra)
SOM Award:Ben Hayes (Tutors: Prof Niall McLaughlin, Dr Yeoryia Manolopoulou, Michiko Sumi)
Research Award for Outstanding University-located Research:Prof Adrian Forty
Research Award for Outstanding PhD Thesis: Dr Ricardo Agarez
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/1213/051213-Bartlett-students-make-clean-sweep-of-2013-RIBA-Presidents-Medals/
See also article in AJ: ‘Shock at Bartlett clean sweep in RIBA President’s Medals awards’, by Merlin Fulcher

http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/shock-at-bartlett-clean-sweep-in-riba-presidents-medals-awards/8656369.article
See also article in BD: ‘Bartlett hat-trick at 2013 RIBA President's Medals’, by Mark Wildinghttp://www.bdonline.co.uk/news/bartlett-hat-trick-at-2013-riba-presidents-medals/5064560.article
See also article in Dezeen ‘RIBA President's Medals Student Awards 2013
all go to one London school’http://www.dezeen.com/2013/12/04/riba-presidents-medals-student-awards-2013-winners/

07-11-2013

Lecture (with Richard Beckett) 'Hybrid Ecologies, and the emergence of novel bio-digital manifolds', at the American University of Sharjah / AUS, UAE 

05-11-2013

Talk at Virginia Commenwealth University / VCUQ, Doha Qatar

01-11-2013

Unit 20 Crits at the Bartlett, London UK. 

Critics:Marjan Colletti, Richard Beckett, Marcos Cruz

 

30-10-2013

Speaker at the symposium Relational Architectural Ecologies, Bartlett School of Architecture, London UK.
Organiser: Peg Rawes
Speakers: Verena Andermatt Conley; Anita Berlin; Nathan Moore; Barbara Penner; Adrian Lahoud; Oliver Wilton; Mark Smout/Laura Allen; Jonathan Hill; Jane Rendell; Katie Lloyd Thomas; Marcos Cruz

25-10-2013

Keynote (with Marjan Colletti) 'Novel Beautesque - between beautiful and grotesque bio-digital manifolds' at 9th ARCHILAB Symposium- Architecture et science: une nouvelle naturalite', FRAC, Orleans France
Speakers: Alisa Andrasek/Biothing; Claudia Pasquero-Marco Poletto/Ecologic Studio; Theo Spyropoulos/Minimaforms; Michael Hansmeyer; Philippe Morel/EZCT; Marc Fornes/Theverymany; Achim Menges; TU Architects; Kristina Schenigger/SOMA; Marcos Cruz-Marjan Colletti/marcosandmarjan

Panel discussion (from left to right): Alisa Andrasek, Claudia Pasquero, Marco Poletto, Michael Hansmeyer, Philippe Morel, Marjan Colletti, Marcos Cruz, Frederic Migayrou

05-09-2013

marcosandmarjan 'Algae-Cellunoi' wall installation at 9th ARCHILAB - Naturalizing Architecture, OrleansFrance
Location: FRAC Centre, Orleans
Duration:14.09.2013 - 02.02.2014
Design: marcosandmarjan with Guan Lee and Richard Beckett
Fabrication: Grymsdyke Farm; DMC London
Algae technology: Marin Sawa with Nixon Group and Hellgardt Group (Imperial College); Richard Beckett (UCL)
Collaboration: Olivia Pearson: Emu Masuyama; Jessie Lee; Keith McDonald; Jonas Brazys; Cullum Perry
Sponsors for Algae-Cellunoi: Bartlett School of Architecture; Grymsdyke Farm; Innsbruck University

Photo: Marcos Cruz

01-09-2013

Keynote lecture at the 16th ENHSA Heads of Schools conference, Chania Greece

 

 

Photo: Maria Voyatzaki - Introduction by Nicolau Brandao

Photo: Maria Voyatzaki - Marcos Cruz keynote lecture

18-07-2013

Lecture and guest opener of the end-of-year show, Universidad Europea de Madrid, Centro Centro / Plaza de Cibeles Madrid.
Seminar on Architectural Education: Marcos Cruz
Opener speeches: Jose Tono Martinez (Director Centro Centro); Miguel Gomez Navarro (Dean UEM); Juan Roldan (Madrid Think Tank); Marcos Cruz (Director, Bartlett)
Design of Installation: Pablo Gil 

21-06-2013

Unit 20 exhibition opening at the Bartlett Summer Show, Slade School of Art UCL, London UK. Award Best Unit In Show, given by Claude Parent. (This is the fourth time for Unit 20!)

Photo: Virgilio Ferreira

21-06-2013

Bartlett Summer Show opening 2013, London UK
Welcome speeches: Marcos Cruz (Director), Frederic Migayrou (Chair), Alan Penn (Dean)
Guest opener: Claude Parent

Photo: Virgilio Ferreira

21-06-2013

Publication of Bartlett Annual Book 2013, London UK

14-06-2013

Crits at the Institute for advanced architecture of Catalonia - IaaC, Barcelona Spain. 

Critics: Marco Poletto, Marcos Cruz

13-06-2013

Lecture 'Neoplasmatic Design / Architecture of multiple Ecologies' at the Institute for advanced architecture of Catalonia - IaaC, Barcelona Spain. 

13-06-2013

Jury member of the European Award AADIPA of intervention on architectural heritage, Barcelona Spain.

07-06-2013

MArch Architecture External Examination Board introduction (first day), Bartlett, London UK. 

Present (from left to right):Simon Kennedy, Mike Davis, Michael Chadwick, Paul Bavister, James O'Leary, Ricardo de Ostos, Manuel Jimenez, Emmanuel Vercruysse, Kate Davis, Bob Sheil, Wolfgang Tschapeller, Stefan Ritter, Abigail Ashton (hidden), Christina Schenigger, Mark Smout, Laura Allen, Bernd Felsinger (hidden), Peg Rawes, CJ Lim, Charles Rice, Perry Culper, Izaskun Chinchilla (hidden), Piers Gough, Tania Sengupta, Josep Mias, Yeoryia Manolopoulou, Kasper Ax, Elizabeth Dow, Mollie Claypool, Peter Wilson, Sean Griffith, Jonathan Hill, Fiona Raby, Christine Hawley, Marjan Colletti, Marcos Cruz.

Photo: Richard Beckett

04-06-2013

Bartlett tops best Architecture School in the UK according to the Guardian league table, University guide 2014, London UK

http://www.theguardian.com/education/table/2013/jun/04/university-guide-architecture?guni=Article:in%20body%20link

07-05-2013

Unit 20 Final Crits at the Bartlett, London UK. 

Critics:Stefan Rutzinger, Marco Poletto, Roberto Bottazzi, Stefan Ritter, Marjan Colletti, Richard Beckett, Marcos Cruz

03-05-2013

Board member for the Open University - Validation of the AADRL Masters of Architecture and Urbanism, Architectural Association, London UK.

24-04-2013

Lecture 'Architecture of multiple ecologies'at the Feng Chia University,Taichung Taiwan

23-04-2013

Lecture 'The new ecology of architecture' at the National Cheng Kung University (NCKU),Tainan Taiwan

23-04-2013

Seminar 'Architectural education today - the school of tomorrow' at the National Cheng Kung University (NCKU),Tainan Taiwan

19-04-2013

Moderator of the panel 'Technology and the future culture'at Smartgeometry, London, UK
Location: Institute of Education, University of London
Moderator: Marcos Cruz (Bartlett UCL)
Speakers: Brady Peters (CITA); Manuel Kretzer (ETH Zurich); Sean Hanna (Bartlett UCL)Panelists:Shane Burger (Smartgeometry); Bruce Davison (Amanda LevetteArchitects)

15-04-2013

Introduction and welcome: Smartgeometry - 'Constructing for Uncertainty', the Bartlett School of Architecture UCL, UK

 

07-04-2013

Present at the exhibition'IMAGINE - Fictional Architecture and the Liberation of Ideas' at the Shaikh Ebrahim bin Mohammed Al Khalifa Centre for Culture and Research, BahrainPlace:Bin Matar House, Muharraq, Kingdom of Bahrain
Project production and organisation: Melissa Enders-Bhatia and Mariyana Veles
Curators: Elke Frotscher, Florian Fortscher with Alexandra Ehrenfeuchter
Bartlett students present in the show: Julian Busch, Michael Dean, Sun W Hwang, Meor Haris Kamarul Bahrin, Thomas Impiglia, Kevin Kelly, Jinhyuk Ko, Gillian Lambert, Chris Leong, Joerg Majer, Dijan Malia, Tim Norman, Pernilla Ohrstedt, James Redman, Yumi Saito, Sara Shafiei, Martin Tang, Yinfang Wang

06-04-2013

Lecture at the Edinburgh International Science Festival, Scottish National Museum, Edinburgh, UK

22-03-2013

Unit 20 Crits at the Bartlett, London UK. 

Critics: Kathy Basheva, Yael Reisner, Matthew Butcher, Fernando Jerez, Jaime Bartolome, Marin Sawa, Marjan Colletti, Richard Beckett, Marcos Cruz

24-01-2013

Final Crits at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna Austria. 

Critics: Wolfgang Tschapeller, Sandra Manninger, Stefan Rutzinger, Marcos Cruz

Photo credit: Romana Prokop, copyright IKA

Article 6

March 26, 2014, 4:55 pm

≫ Next: The Pearl

≪ Previous: Article 7

$

0

0

News / Events 2012

2014   2013   2012   2011   2010   2009   2008   2007   2006   2005   2004

19-12-2012

Lecture 'Para-materiality'and crits at CCAE / University College Cork, Ireland

25-11-2012

Keynote lecture 'Towards a new Fabricated Materiality'at the Parametric Thinking & Making on Architecture and Urbanism (PaTMAU) international conference held at Tunghai University, Taiwan - 24/25.11.2012
http://arch.thu.edu.tw/thu_arch/patmau/
Keynote Speakers: Tim Stonor, Andrew Witt, Marcos Cruz

from left to right: Tien Ling, Marc Aurel Schnabel, Ercument Gorgul, Tim Stonor, Tom Verebes, Douglas Vieira de Aguiar, Shih-Wei Lo, Simon Shu, Marcos Cruz, Shun Ren Liou, Hao-Hsiu Chiu

23-11-2012

Lecture 'Architecture's path to Ecology' at Tunghai University, Taiwan

04-11-2012

Lecture 'Towards a Postmateriality' at the symposium 'AA - Contemporary Models of Production', EAUM Guimaraes, Portugal

31-10-2012

Article 'Convoluted Flesh: A synthetic Approach to Analog and Digital Architecture' (by Marcos Cruz and Marjan Colletti) in Studioplex volume 1 - Architecture, a timely matter (ed. Mohamed Sharif), UCLA - Takashi Kishi / Sogo Shikaku LTD.

11-10-2012

Lecture 'Interfacial Skin' and guest opener of semester exhibition opening at Universidad CEU San Pablo, Madrid Spain

29-09-2012

Symposium 'Never Again Resistance?' at the Steinhaus, Steindorf Austria

20-08-2012

Alga(e)zebo on DETAIL online

http://www.detail-online.com/daily/algaezeboby-marcosandmarjan-architects-the-bartlettucl-london-6110/

15-08-2012

Alga(e)zebo on suckerPUNCHDaily

http://www.suckerpunchdaily.com/2012/08/15/algaezebo/

27-07-2012 - 10-09-2012

Alga(e)zebo - Wonder, Incredible Installations for the London Olympics, London UK.

Location: Euston Square Gardens, London

Design team: marcosandmarjan, London UK

Manufacturer: Formstaal GmbH & Co.KG, Stralsund Germany

Engineering: Bollinger-Grohman-Schneider, Vienna Austria

Photobioreactor: Richard Beckett - DMC London; UCL Algal Biotechnology, London UK (special thanks to Dr Saul Purton, Marco Lizzul, Lamya A Haj, Laura Stoffels, Joanna Szaub, as well as Joanne Field at the Culture Collection of Algae and Protozoa, Scottish Marine Institute)

Other sites: 

http://www.bartlett.ucl.ac.uk/architecture/partnerships/installations-for-london-2012/algaezebo

http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/daily-news/in-pictures-architecture-schools-olympic-installations-revealed/8631419.article

http://www.recitymagazine.com/project-520-marcosandmarjan-architects-algaezebo
http://www.bread.uk.com/core/?p=573

http://aroundtherings.com/articles/view.aspx?id=40259

http://qxw.boyuyuan.com/7e2b34c1/nhjyan-ww-kjl/u/80580257/005514-gal

http://sports.qq.com/a/20120613/001157.htm 

Photobioreactor with bio-luminescent algae

Photo credits: BREAD

28-06-2012

Marcos Cruz under UCL's spotlight. 
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/staff/staff-news/20062012-marcoscruz

22-06-2012

Unit 20 exhibition opening at the Bartlett Summer Show, Slade School of Art UCL, London UK.

Photo credit: Maria Kuntsson-Hall

22-06-2012

Bartlett Summer Show opening 2012, London UK.
Welcome speech

Photo credit: Steven Ascencao

Marjan Colletti and Andrea Branzi (guest opener)

Photo credit: Paul Smoothy

Peter Bishop, Marcos Cruz, Frederic Migayrou, Andrea Branzi

Photo credit: Paul Smoothy

22-06-2012

Publication of Bartlett Annual Book 2012, London UK

03-06-2012

Lecture at TEDx UCL, University College London, UK.

Location: North Cloisters, UCL

Speakers: Alisa Anokhina; Kristin Bakke; Peter Bentley; Ravi Das; Hannah Fry; Paul Gesiak; Amber Michelle Hill; Titus Hjelm; Helene Joffe; Jerome Lewis; Hugh Mattan; Ian Phillips; Kerstin Sailer; Sara Shulman; Semir Zeki; Ilya Zheludev; Ester Yuan.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFKJW67X8hw&feature=player_embedded

Photo credit: Christine Lau

14-05-2012

Unit 20 Final Crits at the Bartlett, London UK. 

Critics: Peter Cook, Marjan Colletti, Colin Fournier, Branko Koralevic, Jonathan Hill, Niccolo Casas, Hannes Mayer, Marcos Cruz

23-04-2012

Lecture at TEDx Barcelos, Portugal.

Location: Auditorio S.Bento Menni, Barcelos

Speakers: Bruno Silva; Vasco Teiseira; Nuno Treitas; Maria Semedo; Jose' Manuel Costa; Jose' Valen,ca; Joao Paulo Pinto; Filipe Pina; Paulo de Carvalho; Ilidio Marques; Joao Vasconcelos; Marcos Cruz; Isabel Jonet; Carlos Sa'.

13-04-2012

Talk and table discussion with Fernando Jerez, as part of the ESAYT lecture series at HUB Madrid, Spain.

03-04-2012

Lecture 'Bio-Tectonics' at Universidade Lusofona, CCB / Coleccao Berardo, Lisbon Portugal.

30-03-2012

Unit 20 Crits at the Bartlett, London UK. 

Critics: Sean Hanna, Oliver Domeisen, Justin Nicholls, Julia Backhaus, Hannes Mayer, Linda Hagberg, Marcos Cruz

23-03-2012 - 25-03-2012

Keynote Speech at the First-Annual Biomimicry Challenge, Syracuse University, NY State USA.

Location: Syracuse Centre of Excellence
Organiser: Donald Carr

Presentations: Kevin Stack, Josh Stack, Marcos Cruz

http://syrbiomimicry.com/

February 2012

marcosandmarjan project AGROPOLIS featured in the book Futuristics - Visions of Future Living (ed. Caroline Klein with Text by Stefanie Lieb), daab.

22-02-2012

Lecture 'Nurbsters, Foldsters and Neoplasmatic Architecture' at Georgia Tech, Atlanta USA.

Photo credit: Terry Kearns

22-02-2012

Crits at Georgia Tech, Atlanta USA. 

Critics: Lars Spuybroek, Marcos Cruz, et al.

13-02-2012

Seminar talk at the V&A-RCA-UCL 'Skin' workshop, Department of Anthropology / UCL, London UK.

01-02-2012

Seminar talk 'Inside-out Urbanism' to the MArch UD at the Bartlett School of Architecture, London UK.

06-02-2012

Marcos Cruz becomes an invited member of the FAUTL School's Council, Faculdade de Arquitectura da Universidade Tecnica de Lisboa, Portugal.

20-01-2012

Crits at the ESAYT UCJC, Madrid. 

Critics: Jaime Bartolome', Pablo Gil, Fernando Jerez, Marcos Cruz

19-01-2012 - 18-02-2012

marcosandmarjan's Nurbster II table exhibited at 'Turning the Tables' show, Great Western Studios, London UK.

Location: Great Western Studios, 65 Alfred Road, London W2 SEU

Curator: Yael Reisner

Participants: Will Alsop; GilBartolome'; Cinimod; Peter Cook and Yael Reisner; Barnaby Gunning; Bernd Felsinger; Sixteen Makers; Helen&Hard; Naja de Ostos; Sandra and Rudolf Knoebl; Heng Zhi; marcosandmarjan

The tree of dining by Helen&Hard

Nurbster II by marcosandmarjan

The Pearl

April 18, 2014, 9:55 am

≫ Next: Hyperdermis

≪ Previous: Article 6

$

0

0

Leisure / Culture Project - 2013 marcosandmarjan with Richard Beckett / RMJM
The Pearl, regeneration of Union Squareand proposal of new Etihad Museum, Dubai UAE [unbuilt].

Design team:a collaboration between RMJM and marcosandmarjan with Richard Beckett
 
 

Hyperdermis

April 18, 2014, 10:03 am

≫ Next: Palos Verdes Art Centre

≪ Previous: The Pearl

$

0

0

Research Project - 1998-2004 Marcos Cruz

Palos Verdes Art Centre

April 18, 2014, 10:21 am

≫ Next: Deviant Bodies

≪ Previous: Hyperdermis

$

0

0

Leisure / Culture Project - 2000 Marcos Cruz
Competition entry for the new Palos Verdes Art Centre, Los Angeles USA [unbuilt]

Design team: Marcos Cruz with Wanda Yu-Ying Hu and Gwenola Kergall
Engineering consultancy: Arup Engineering
Renderings: Matthew Porter

The proposal for the new Palos Verdes Art Centre is based on one-storey building with a double inhabitable wall. This wall creates a wall–ceiling continuum that integrates the exhibition halls, as well as the all the rest of the programme on two parallel flanks. The façade of the building along the main road shields the interior galleries from outside noise through an enclosed inhabitable wall. The opposite façade is likewise inhabitable, yet more open and penetrable through a series of doors.

Overall view of Art Centre

The character of the building is mainly determined by its unconventional materiality and surprising hairy complexion. This skin plays host to a variety of interactive devices that parasitically inhabite its malleable surface. On the one hand, photo-chromatic chemicals are embedded within the silicon and water sprinklers allow an automatic control of heat and humidity levels; on the other, a multitude of individual entities, acting as ventilation devices, colonize the roof. These ventilation hairs draw air through the space in a Venturi effect. As the wind blows, the hairs are supposed to gently bent, animating the art centre. The hairy wall-ceiling continuum of the art centre, sensing visitor movement, trigger a cam that cause the hairs to twitch or gesture at passers-by. Furthermore, the natural ‘give’ of the silicon material registers any type of movement (including earth movements – be they caused by a truck or an earth-tremor) which is then translated into architectural movements.

Hairy wall on South facade

 Hairy wall on South facade with interacting people

Hairy wall seen from inner spaces