ACE DIP7:

ACE DIP7:

D7

MR&KG 2013-14

      “Mercado de la Cebada” Madrid

           

1.     Accommodating architecture .

2.     The politics of the plaza

3.     Habit-at-ion Accommodating Architecture   Social – Cultural Anthropology –

4.     The crafted special components

The building is a form of body, which like any other consists of lineaments and matter, the one the product of thought, the other of Nature; the one requiring the mind and the power of reason, the other dependent on preparation and selection; but we realized that neither on its own would suffice without the hand of the skilled workman to fashion the material according to lineaments.

—Leon Battista Alberti, On the Art of Building in Ten Books, Prologue.5

The aim of the unit is to develop a broadly informed framework within which to study architecture. Such a framework is intended to provide a critical and personal approach to architecture that can appreciatively engage with the complexities of a given site. The unit encourages a free thinking stance from its students, and asks that they approach their work as an open-ended challenge.

Over the years we have been working in intercity conditions discussing the regeneration possibilities from within the urban fabric. The challenge to insert in the often precious urban fabric with 21th century “thoughts” should be seen as Craft.

The project of the  “Mercado de la Cebada” in the historical city is not only working with the rich urban fabric but also  with the untameable “desires” of the locals  claiming the city back and partly  taking over the Plaza . How to negotiate space and accommodate the current needs in this 9th century fabric and simultaneously accommodating the needed community centre lead to many architectural and urban discussions of which “the politics of the plaza” and   the reinterpretation of the meaning community centre is a starting point.

We have to test different positions of our proposals in how we think about each individual project, in relation to culture, economics, politics, construction and poetry.

The fact that the organisation welcomes thinking outside the box should provoke us to be creative in our architectural thinking.

The unit sees Technical Studies as a creative way of thinking that helps to clarify and make precise any the architectural proposal. This makes technical study simply that part of the design programme that thinks at larger scales. Students will be asked to explore a negotiated part of their work by the making of 1:1 pieces exploring material and technical aspects of their project.

We encourage you to visit places of manufacture such as boat builders, Brick makers, Violinmakers etc. in order to gain an understanding of the processes of how to manipulate material. At the same time this should encourage us to go beyond the everyday use of concrete in an architectural proposal.

Throughout the year the unit will organise drawing and construction workshops to assist the architectural discussion, as well as a series of workshops and lectures aimed at developing drawing/design and writing skills.