Arte en Juego - Diálogos de apolo Y Dionisio | Siglo XIX-XXI

On the 24th, 25th and 26th of January I was in Barcelona at the invitation of my dear friend Oriol Vaz from the University of Barcelona. The challenge was irrefutable: to talk about the relationship between art and play at the Picasso Museum in the company of people like Juan Bordes, Michel Manson or even Alfons Torelló and Lurdes Crirlot. 

And it was what I expected it to be: wonderful. Everyone spoked different languages (Catalan, Spanish, English, French, Italian, Portuguese) but they all talked about the same thing. Like friends who meet after a long time and always resume the conversation at the same point, with the same enthusiasm. All in a magical place where we feel like guests of the great Picasso.

The seeds were planted for many future projects, including a book, an exhibition, and much more... stay tuned!

 

Educating children in Architecture. XXth architectural narratives troughs toys design

ETSAB building

My article, presented at the  International Workshop COAC-ETSAB Barcelona 2014 in Barcelona, Spain is finally available on line.

Abstract: 
Teaching processes are, since renaissance, created and supported in order to develop specifically skills for a small part of the society. Otherwise, education can be considered as a larger type of processes that, according to E. Morin, “preserves, memorizes, integrates and ritualizes a cultural heritage of knowledge, ideas, values; it regenerates while re-examines, updates and transmit; create knowledge, ideas and values that return to the heritage”.
In this theoretical framework toys are considered as educational devices and a part of a materialistic culture that contains educational, artistic and ideological values. Through toys it is possible to map which part of each culture wants to be preserved and transmitted to the following generation.
From this point of view architectural toys are quite fruitful because represent not only architectural paradigms as languages and technics but also dwelling models and habits or, in some examples, urban design or territorial organizations.
This article attempts to organize the narrative lines that exist in the background of architectural toys production and design during the XXth century that are, according to the author, quite coincident with the architectural production changes. 

Please enjoy your reading!

Download the full article here.

Paper at the International Workshop COAC-ETSAB Barcelona 2014.

One more time I presented an article about Architectural toys and their connection with architectural history, education and culture. This time was in Barcelona, Spain, in the  International Workshop COAC-ETSAB Barcelona 2014. The hardest challenge was try to explain in only 15 minutes all the complexity of these narratives, but it was as well a good exercise in order to understand and organize the main core of the issue. 

I also meet some other people that are developing researches in some fields that are very close to mine and that is always good in order to share experiences and knowledge.

Furthermore, four day in Barcelona is always a great opportunity to visiting such beautiful city and some of the best pieces of architecture in the world (as the Mies van der Rohe German Pavilion, a really inexhaustible reference).

Here you can find the abstract. The article will be published in October.