"L'arquitectura de la biblioteca", més accessible
L'obra de Romero, cap de la unitat d'Arquitectura Bibliotecària de la Diputació de Barcelona, va ser publicada en paper per darrera vegada a la col·lecció Papers Sert del COAC l'any 2008.
El llibre pretén ser un instrument per planificar i projectar de forma integral una biblioteca, a partir del treball comú entre arquitectes, bibliotecaris i usuaris.
Es tracta d'una monografia basada en la realitat bibliotecària del país, que omple el buit existent quant a publicacions especialitzades en aquest tema.
Sala Ferusic: architecture in winemaking regions
Relja Ferusic and Carles Sala (SALA FERUSIC Architects) gave a conference in Zagreb (Croatia) on Saturday 16 March on the key factors for environmentally friendly and sustainable development in winemaking regions from the perspective of architecture and urban planning. Both the planning and the architecture play a key role in developing the region as a whole and on every scale, from the huge territorial scale to medium-sized regional scales and finally the scale of the individual facility.
This approach to development in winemaking regions involves the mapping and monitoring of existing and future networks as well as their nodes with a view towards the geographically sustainable development of the territory, this being defined as an indivisible system in which each individual action must necessarily influence the evolution of the whole.
As a result, successful individual architectural and town and country planning projects have a positive impact on the development of the region and the territory as a whole, working as an economic booster. The presentation was supported by specific examples of architectural and town and country planning solutions for the winemaking and wine tourism sector in Catalonia by the SALA FERUSIC architectural firm. The conference finished with an overview of the research and academic studies undertaken in this field.
The presentation formed part of an international conference programme held in the Croatian capital.
Tender for the participation of Catalonia in the Venice Biennale 2014
The Ramon Llull Institute (IRL), in collaboration with the COAC, has convened a public tender to choose the curator responsible for drawing up Catalonia’s proposal for taking part in the 14th Venice Architecture Biennale between 7 June and 23 November 2014. The first phase—the presentation of projects—ends on 13 June.
For the submission of projects, a conceptual framework was established that aims to demonstrate the paradigm shift taking place in contemporary architecture, whereby the current situation is triggering a readjustment of values that will usher in new ways of approaching architecture.
The competition is divided into three phases. The first of these is the entry phase, which is open to submissions of proposals by all interested professionals and companies that fulfil the requirements. In this initial phase, which closes on 13 June, entrants need to submit a CV and a draft project on a maximum of two pages, outlining the general ideas of the proposal in line with the conceptual framework and including a budget.
The second stage is the Ideas phase in which the jury will invite a maximum of three selected participants to further develop their initial project. The final phase is the contracting of the winning project. The final verdict of the jury will be announced on 16 July.
The proposals received will be appraised by an independent jury made up of:
Lluís Domènech i Girbau (President); the Dean of the COAC, Lluís Comeron; Fernando Marzà, member for Culture of the COAC; Fèlix Arranz and Jordi Badia, curators of the Catalan stand in the Collateral Events of the Venice Architecture Biennale 2012; and Carme Pinós, Olga Felip and Àlex Susanna.
This will be the second time that the IRL has promoted the presence of Catalonia at the Architecture Biennale, having presented the ‘Rowers’ project curated by Jordi Badia and Félix Arranz in 2012, which comprised nine works by young Catalan and Balearic architects, and comes in the wake of its third participation in the Art Biennale which is being opened this week.
See the competition rules here.
Organised by: Ramon Llull Institute and COAC
From: June 7th to November 23 (2014)
The "Rowers" exhibition in Toulouse
Between 20 June and 14 September this year, the Southern Centre for Architecture and the City (CMAV) in Toulouse hosted the exhibition 'Rowers, Young Architecture in Catalonia and the Balearic Islands', featuring the project which Catalonia and the Balearic Islands exhibited at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2012.
Conceived by Jordi Badia and Félix Arranz and produced by the Ramon Llull Institute in collaboration with the COAC and the COAIB, ‘Rowers’ highlights the importance of austere architecture based on respect for the environment and its users, taking a quotation from Jorge Oteiza as its basic premise: 'He who forges ahead creating something new does so like a rower, moving forward but back-paddling, looking behind him, towards the past, towards what exists, so as to be able to reinvent its underpinnings.'
Thus, through the works of new Catalan and Balearic architects, the aim is to demonstrate that this kind of architecture is not just an automatic response to the economic crisis but a cultural and aesthetic trend that is directly connected to a whole intellectual, technical and social tradition of Catalan and Balearic architecture which has remained in place even when the international context was calling for other formal and expressive representations. It also makes a connection with the international trends that were already alerting us to the excesses of certain types of architecture in recent years.
The COAC has also developed a specific app that provides a guide to Catalan and Balearic architecture, featuring information on the 151 works and projects in the ‘Context’ section of the ‘Rowers’ exhibition.
The organisers of the ‘Rowers’ exhibition in Toulouse enjoyed the support of the companies CRICURSA, ESCOFET, FLEXBRICK and LAMP.
For more information on the exhibition, visit the Toulouse CMAV website.
Organised by: Southern Centre for Architecture and the City (CMAV)
From: June 20th to September 14th