December 28

The ways of Fashion and Design

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Aversa – Facoltà di Architettura SUN
Chiostro di San Lorenzo
December 16, 2009 – January 7, 2010

Between hand-made and Made in Italy, an intricated close-up on clothing and objects outlines the ways of fashion and design, drawing unusual visual paths shaping a history that’s yet to be written.

The exhibition is part of the “Storie per il design” class, in the Design and Fashion course’s first year, curated by professor Francesca Castanò and professor Ornella Cirillo. Le vie della moda e del design aims at highlighting the existing connections between the campanian textile tradition and industrial-bred innovation on national scale during the XX century. Read more

December 2

Interview to Alejandro Aravena. The Elemental case, how to answer the housing demand and more…

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[Read the Italian version of this post]

(Text by Simona Galateo and Angela Ferrari, special thanks to Alejandro Aravena who’s been simply kind and willing to co-operate with us)

What can you do when a country has half the needed resources to answer the house demand?
Alejandro Aravena answers: Elemental. The building programme by Elemental S.A supplies half house, and covers the exact half expense a family couldn’t afford.

Portrait_Alejandro_Aravena
Portrait of Alejandro Aravena

Elemental was started out of the co-operation of two distinguished universities, Harvard and the Pontifica Universidad Católica de Chile around the (hot) topics implied in social housing. At the beginning it was just a research and a testing method held by the universities, subsequently it became a real investment and building company run by two big protagonists: the Pontifica Universidad Católica de Chile and the Chilean Oil Company. Elemental is now a “for profit” association socially oriented and strongly bound to people’s daily problems. Elemental starts a project on the basis of different factors, the economical and, most of all, the social one are the first development keys. The aim is to realize a low cost structure which will be finished off by the client according to his economical possibilities.
But, generally speaking, Elemental is a more actual and concrete attitude towards the making of architecture, today. It’s a project method which avoid any unnecessary expense, no matter what the avilable budget is. It’s a new experimental and innovative way to think about the Planet’s development in the name of a better quality lifestyle and protection of the Planet we live in.

Elemental_Houjsing_Monterrey_Mexico_CASA_PILOTO70 HOUSING UNITS © Elemental,  Monterrey (México)

You have grown up during one of the most difficult period of your country history – Pinochet dictatorship. This event must have influenced your way to conceive the job of the architect. Would you please explain our readers how the political regime affected your life?

Nobody in my close environment suffered directly from any persecution . I got aware of the regime when I started university in 1985, 5 years before democracy returned and therefore a very radical period. So dictatorship influenced my practice but not for the reasons belonging to the cliché one would expect from adverse political contexts.
First of all, we were forced to take a position, you had to define your choices: are you in favor or against? I think this is a very deep issue since it has consequences on many aspects of life not just politics: be conscious of the big picture, act coherently and do not hide behind problems that interest nobody but you. Read more

October 15

Quale storiografia per quale storia?

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prog1

prog2

[PDF]

June 12

Words in Postwar Architectural Discourse

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(Click on image to download flyer in .pdf format)

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May 6

Diploma 2008: “AlpTransit” and “Ticino City”, student exhibition in Mendrisio

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Graduates’ models © F38F – Famiglia 38 Fotografi

The Mendrisio Architecture Academy is showing works by its graduating students. The University’s gallery becomes a real atelier, a workshop where to experience project design research. We’re talking about Diploma 2008: “AlpTransit” and “Ticino City”, a yearly event opening tomorrow at 7.30 p.m in the presence of State Councillor Marco Borradori (also director of the Canton Ticino Territory Department), Valentin Bearth (Mendrisio Architecture Academy’s director), Aurelio Galfetti (curator of the exhibit and foreman of the 2008 edition’s jury) and Franz Oswald (architecture and town planning emeritus professor at Federal Politecnico of Zürich).

Read more

March 26

Estudio Teddy Cruz
A talk at Facoltà di Architettura in Roma Tre

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teddy-cruz-talk

March 11

A book as a pretext

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28

Tomorrow afternoon Yearbook’s Vice-Director architect Nicola Russi also teaching Urbanism and Contemporary Project at Facoltà di Architettura Civile in the Milan Politecnico, will present Architettura e territorio. Una ricerca attraverso il progetto, a book by Cesare Macchi Cassia and Ugo Ischia. For the occasion several speakers will participate in a seminar at Dipartimento di Progettazione dell’Architettura. Read more

January 28

New Biochemistry building opens at the University of Oxford

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(Photos: exteriors © Tim Crocker, interiors © Keith Collie, text © Hawkins/Brown)

The new £49 million Biochemistry building at the University of Oxford designed by Hawkins\Brown architects is now complete.

The distinctive 12,000 sq m facility with its glass façades and coloured glass fins brings together 300 lecturers, researchers and students previously based in a number of separate buildings. Inside, a 400 sq m atrium with breakout spaces and specially commissioned artworks encourages collaboration between the researchers. Read more

November 5

New Bocconi building awarded World Building of The Year

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Yearbook saw it right. Almost one year ago we selected University Luigi Bocconi of Milan designed by Grafton Studio as a 2008 example of “Generous Building”, a project capable of creating a direct relationship with the city, of giving a new space to live and enjoy to its citizens.

With the same reasons, the new Bocconi has been recently awarded the “World Building of the Year” by the prestigious Barcelona World Architecture Festival and acclaimed in occasion of its inauguration days (October 30th – November 1st) by italian public and private representatives. Read more

 

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