https://mondonostrum.center www.mondonostrum.center Mon, 07 Dec 2020 17:21:34 +0000 https://mondonostrum.center en https://mondonostrum.center/Homepage Thu, 15 Oct 2020 19:11:45 +0000 www.mondonostrum.center https://mondonostrum.center/Homepage <img width="1748" height="2480" width_o="1748" height_o="2480" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7681185dd4bb482d5cabe28147e04a25873df221f18600e81052fc225838c52b/COVER-A5_ENG-1.jpg" data-mid="98487041" border="0" data-scale="43" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/7681185dd4bb482d5cabe28147e04a25873df221f18600e81052fc225838c52b/COVER-A5_ENG-1.jpg" /> https://mondonostrum.center/Featured-English Thu, 15 Oct 2020 20:35:51 +0000 www.mondonostrum.center https://mondonostrum.center/Featured-English MONDO NOSTRUM MAGAZINE MANIFESTO Document_o Planet_ario Mondo nostrum_A&amp;U is a document focused on the analysis and communication of critical-theoretical-philosophical-poetic thinking, and relevant and pertinent ideas and designs in architecture, urbanism, ruralism (and other areas of design) around the Planet. Mondo nostrum_A&amp;U acts as an agent of change to promote sustainability, social justice and beauty in the built environment - architecture, cities and human settlements around the globe by publishing advanced ideas and solutions for environmental design and construction. &nbsp; Mondo nostrum_A&amp;U is made up of experts, activists, intellectuals and professionals from different disciplines from all over the Planet. Editorial by Álvaro Rojas <img width="3496" height="2480" width_o="3496" height_o="2480" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f54392c8756c519edafd6eeb6c09867cac384534949053c079b67fe1c73322ed/Mapa-low.jpg" data-mid="127079641" border="0" data-scale="51" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f54392c8756c519edafd6eeb6c09867cac384534949053c079b67fe1c73322ed/Mapa-low.jpg" /> Cambiar a&nbsp;Español https://mondonostrum.center/Featured-Espanol Mon, 07 Dec 2020 17:21:34 +0000 www.mondonostrum.center https://mondonostrum.center/Featured-Espanol REVISTA MONDO NOSTRUM MANIFIESTO Document_o Planet_ario Mondo nostrum_A&amp;U es un documento enfocado en el análisis y la comunicación de pensamiento crítico-teórico-filosófico-poético, y de ideas y diseños relevantes y pertinentes en arquitectura, urbanismo, ruralismo (y otras áreas del diseño) en todo el Planeta. Mondo nostrum_A&amp;U actúa como agente de cambio para fomentar la sostenibilidad, la justicia social y la belleza en el entorno construido la arquitectura, las ciudades y los asentamientos humanos en todo el Planeta por medio de la publicación de ideas y soluciones avanzadas para el diseño ambiental y la construcción. Mondo nostrum_A&amp;U está conformada por expertos, activistas, intelectuales y profesionales de diferentes disciplinas de todo el Planeta. Editorial de Álvaro Rojas <img width="3496" height="2480" width_o="3496" height_o="2480" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e2e31558384a94485dbb8181877a430ee43ae768e5f73a0e0564c252d5a6cfae/Mapa-low.jpg" data-mid="127079885" border="0" data-scale="69" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e2e31558384a94485dbb8181877a430ee43ae768e5f73a0e0564c252d5a6cfae/Mapa-low.jpg" /> Read in English https://mondonostrum.center/0-Intro-Emilio-Ambasz Mon, 23 Nov 2020 17:51:59 +0000 www.mondonostrum.center https://mondonostrum.center/0-Intro-Emilio-Ambasz Intro Emilio Ambasz FRAGMENTS TOWARDS A WHOLE The Western notion of Man's creations as distinct and separate entities - in contrast with Nature - has exhausted its intellectual and ethical capital. An emerging man-made garden is overtaking the one we were originally given. We must build our house on this Earth because we are not welcomed on the land. If Nature were to have welcomed us in the guise we have become, we would not have need to make shelters. Every act of construction is a defiance of nature. We need to conceive of an architecture that stands as the embodiment of a Pact of Reconciliation between nature and building. In our pursuit to master Nature-as-found, a second man-made-Nature has emerged, intricately related to the given-Nature. We need to re-define architecture as one aspect of our man-made nature, but to do so we need first to re-define the contemporary meaning of Nature. We must formulate&nbsp; an a-tectonic notion of architecture, where architecture is conceived as an integral component of that emerging Man-made Nature we are willingly, as well as unwittingly, creating. The task of the architect is that of easing our man-made Nature into the organic one we have been given. If, as herein postulated, the task of the architect is that of making peace between our man-made Nature and the organic one we have been given, perhaps a new Philosophic Academy is what is called for. Shall we call such institution a Universitas, i.e. the whole? We must create alternative models of the future proposing a better life to guide our actions if we do not wish to perpetuate present conditions. Any architectural project not attempting to propose new or better modes of existence is unethical. This task may stagger the imagination and paralyze hope, but we cannot subtract ourselves from its pursuit. POSTSCRIPT There is in all of us a deep need for ritual, for ceremony and procession, for magical garments and gestures.&nbsp; It is an archetypal quest in which all partake. But let us beware. The supreme misfortune occurs when the Idea arrives before the Image. Ideas come wrapped in words, and words are part of our already established linguistic baggage. Words denote an established and culturally agreed upon typology, when not a stereotype. As such, they inhibit the introduction of new meanings, i.e. of invention. Words operate in the domain of semantics, while images belong to the realm of Visions. https://mondonostrum.center/1-James-Wines Thu, 15 Oct 2020 19:11:46 +0000 www.mondonostrum.center https://mondonostrum.center/1-James-Wines Nostrum Essentia Interview with James Wines <img width="719" height="720" width_o="719" height_o="720" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6e7552b16d5c4a00b70a5a96decbc80ed7dfa010f17491804dc6e46823a8656b/maxresdefault-vertical.jpg" data-mid="89825491" border="0" data-scale="82" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/719/i/6e7552b16d5c4a00b70a5a96decbc80ed7dfa010f17491804dc6e46823a8656b/maxresdefault-vertical.jpg" /> James Wines is an American artist and architect. During the 50s and 60s, Wines worked as a plastic artist in Italy, where he exhibited his sculptures in galleries and corporate plazas. His time in this European country had a great influence on the development of his work, and the disciplinary cross over between this and architecture, art and the public space. Wines moved to New York where he began to build a career more focused on sustainable architecture and design. In 1970, together with Alison Sky, Emilio Sousa and Michelle Stone, he founded the design studio SITE. SITE focuses on the sustainable design of buildings, public spaces and the integration of these in the context, seeking the fusion between art and architecture. Wines has been the recipient of a large number of awards, and since 1999 he has had a strong presence in academia, as a professor at Pennsylvania State University. Among his most recognized works is GHOST PARKING LOT, in Hamden, USA and the design of several BEST stores in Houston. In addition, he has published various texts, among which is Green Architecture, in 2000. Interview by Mauricio Quirós (MQ), Fredy Massad (FM) and Álvaro Rojas (AR) ECONOMY OF MEANS: DOING LESS IN THESE TRYING TIMES This conversation with James Wines might lead us to think back to some of the most essential parts of 20th century’s architecture. A side of the story often intentionally forgotten by the orthodox views of “Official History”, which struggles to deal with its radicality, heterodoxy and desire to defy any established terms. Working from SITE (Sculpture in the Environment), Wines determinedly crossed the borders set out by academic rules throughout the 70’s and 80’s in order to play with art and concepts.. His main obsession was dematerializing the architectural object, de-architecturalizing it in a creative and unprejudiced way. He was clearly influenced by Venturi, and also by some of the best bits of Marcel Duchamp, from whom he borrowed the title NOT SEEN and/or LESS SEEN of… in order to state: “Duchamp has been a key influence not just for painters and sculptors, but also for architects. He showed that every object, beyond its materiality, can be a concept, a traffic light that changes the viewer’s habits in respect of the context’’ The current speed of things tends to leave behind people that have been instrumental in creating the conceptual corpus of the present time. Speaking again with these people is a way to remember and reinforce the value and energy of their work, which has never gone astray. Mauricio Quirós (MQ)- James, your practices in art and architecture already span over five decades and they have seen – certainly survived and thrived - many of the western world’s most severe crises; 1968, Vietnam, the Oil Crisis, the fall of the Iron Curtain, 9/11, 2008's financial crisis, Hurricane Katrina, you name them. What feels similar, or different, from those critical moments when compared to the crises that beset us today? What opportunities do you think they presented to your work? James Wines (JM)- The one thing I think made SITE’s work unique in those circumstances was that there was always some kind of contextual, environmental commentary happening. Something was always talking about something. Most buildings are about form and space and structure and function and so forth, and that is part of it. But historically, buildings carried messages, they talked to people. All of our projects are relatively small compared to what they have done to the world. I have always been interested in, and practiced with, economy of means; that is, perform communication or create narrative structures in things with the variable of effort and money. It is about creating something that deals with people’s attitudes, something that they already brought to a site, some kind of information, some kind of expectations. I have always been proud of the work SITE did with the BEST shops. We looked around and found situations, found objects, that were the perfect vehicle for these projects. A chair or a table or a shopping center, they all come with their own invested information, everyone knows what to expect. But if you invert and change that expectation, somewhat it generates a lot more dialogue with people.&nbsp; I always say that the highest compliment I got through the years was "I never thought about a building like that before." There were a lot of resources that I was using that were not from the fields of art or architecture and I still get much controversy because of these projects. Fifty years later I still get hostile remarks like "that is not art" or "that is not real architecture," as if there was something sacred that is real and I am just an artificial person doing artificial work. I was in a conference many years ago with artists who launched their careers in the midst of hostile perceptions. It was an incredible event; Claes Oldenburg was involved, Frank Stella was there with his pinstriped painting set, Roy Lichtenstein... it was a group of people whose careers had been launched from hostility. When Roy Lichtenstein had his first show at the USA, Castelli and the New York Times published an article titled ‘Is this the worst artist in the world?’ I more or less started my career the same way. <img width="2500" height="1597" width_o="2500" height_o="1597" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8127cb27dd9bdf5681e0a11405f0ce605b68b86b7e00f4e366c1b59920ce8c99/1--SITE--BEST-FOREST-BUILDING--RICHMOND--VA-1979--gen.overview.250.jpg" data-mid="89810730" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8127cb27dd9bdf5681e0a11405f0ce605b68b86b7e00f4e366c1b59920ce8c99/1--SITE--BEST-FOREST-BUILDING--RICHMOND--VA-1979--gen.overview.250.jpg" /> BEST FOREST BUILDING, RICHMOND, VA 1979 But I have been very fortunate to have good art collectors as clients, they h courageous. I remember when I had a meeting with Sydney Lewis, a client, and he brought in the representatives of his company because he thought he should let them know what he was planning to do. Every one of them said "if you build a building like that, no one will go in it. A building like that will drive us to bankruptcy." At the end of the meeting, Sydney whispered “James, stay a little longer, I want to talk to you." As soon as all his colleagues left, he said "OK, James, when do we get started?" He clearly had a broader vision than his colleagues. Going back to what I mean by economy of means I must say that when I start something, I try to think "how can I do this in the simplest way?" Again, SITE has had quite a big influence with a lot of other work that has been done. But I have noticed that almost every time someone tries to elaborate on it, they just make everything more complicated. It seems always less about the essence of the idea and more about formalism. I have even found buildings called and designed like High-rise of Homes, our project. What they often do is design a façade with lots of details to look more homey, more accommodating, more like a house. My idea was the total opposite. You would build a matrix and then let the people fill it like a collage. The result would be more arbitrary, more spontaneous, more reflective of the residents. It is economy of means but a completely different way of doing it, a whole different point of view. Today developers have a lot of money and want to make buildings using unlimited material resources and computing power. They seem to think things like “if I make my building with a lot of undulations, everybody will notice it.” But they do not. When you think about it, all buildings nowadays are undulated and are not distinctive anymore. Interestingly, art is different. At least my view of art is very different. I was a sculptor and I spent ten years from my early life making shapes and volumes, looking at it as though that was the end in art. I was perfectly successful as a sculptor until I met Frederick John Kiesler, the famous Austrian architect, who kept saying that he liked my architectural inclinations, even in sculpture. He was a mentor to many artists. He was not only an incredible brain; he was a real conceptual architect in the fullest sense MQ- Before we started the conversation, you mentioned that you had a long friendship with artist Gordon Matta-Clark, and that you both developed works rooted on the idea of economy of means. You argued, however, that you approached it from completely opposite directions, even if both arrived at similar places. Can you elaborate on that? JW- I would say I emerged from the environmental art movement. I was living in SoHo and every environmental artist lived on my street or the street after. And it was SoHo because it was all very cheap loft spaces. Believe it or not, I rented a five thousand square feet loft on Queen Street for $200 a month. All the manufacturing was moving out of Manhattan and there were these vacant lofts that nobody was supposed to live in them, but we did. And the more and more artists took advantage of those spaces, the more opportunities to work on a bigger scale and show your own work in your loft or the street. Artists began to take their works to the streets and questioned why show their work only on little precious art galleries. That is exactly what Duchamp violated, he violated your expectations. If you walk into an art gallery and there is a urinal sitting on a stand, you have to question where you are. Is that art? Or is that not art? Is this an art gallery? Or is this not an art gallery? It was Duchamp who set up that questioning factor. And that was what I think all environmental artists were doing. We were setting up a questioning factor. Why not use the streets? Why not use the landscape? Why not use another context? Why depend on art galleries to compete? To your question, I think Gordon was working from a particular interest in buildings, and I started working from an interest in context. I, for example, was working with an audience and went to the kind of junk world. Gordon went to the suburban world or the factory world. But there were lots of people with similar attitudes. For example, Bob Smithson went to the land and the water. All of us had an objective that could not be developed in, or for, an art gallery. I always say that Ghost Parking Lot, a very early project, could not be taken away from its context without a total loss of meaning. You could put pictures in an art gallery, that was all you could do. But you could not put the art itself. It was totally intrinsic to the context. A parking lot of cars asphalted over is not only a commentary on fossil fuel and cars and everything else, but it is also a kind of art that you cannot put anyplace else. So that was the way we all got started. Almost every artist today is working with context in some way, they are really making context. I am glad that I was part of that beginning and the fact that we did it with great economy of means and, in some cases, combined with ecological interests. I think we did a lot of things that made of this economy of means a good precedent, something that should be continued. Architecture now is looking at excessive means and excess in general, and the whole paradox is going to have to change once the Coronavirus is over. <img width="3500" height="2305" width_o="3500" height_o="2305" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/85031a6aa1ae30ca7e7e473c7dff99f2ebcd0f3498b73d87997575282d4f8224/7-SITE--BEST-PARKING-LOT--1977-model-overview-300.jpg" data-mid="89810735" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/85031a6aa1ae30ca7e7e473c7dff99f2ebcd0f3498b73d87997575282d4f8224/7-SITE--BEST-PARKING-LOT--1977-model-overview-300.jpg" />BEST PARKING LOT, 1977, model overview Fredy Massad (FM)- Do you think this is a good moment to change the way things are happening? Rem Koolhaas’ exhibition in the Guggenheim already talks about moving out to the countryside and the countryside being the future. This move, you have mentioned, brings another set of new problems.&nbsp; JW- For every argument, like the argument for tall buildings, there will be a problem as a consequence. For example, the success of the city as an idea attracted, by today’s estimates, almost 80% of the world’s population to live in them. Now, suddenly, there is this new rush to the suburbs which is equally damaging, if no more so, from an ecological perspective. In terms of environmental interest, suburban growth and suburbia have always been the enemy. Architectural criticism for the last 30 years has been against the proliferation of suburbia because it takes too much energy and it ruins land; it consumes territory, consumes forest, consumes vegetation. Changing the paradigm is going to take an awful lot of thinking. Changing the way we live, if you are looking at architecture through this perspective, is going to take a lot of thinking and a lot of effort, as well. MQ - Maybe I can pick up on a word that you just used: “vegetation.” In your projects in the late 70s and 80s you truly conceptualized using vegetation as an architectural material. I think that attitude shows an incredible economy of means; vegetation is free, quickly grows into building mass and performs well in many aspects that go beyond the environmental. But nowadays it seems that vegetation is used, more often than not, to green-wash urban projects and buildings. And the technologies that are implemented to introduce vegetation in buildings are extremely expensive not only in terms of cost but also in terms of energy consumption... JW- That is what I have always said. We are turning vegetation into décor. Designers are using vegetation just because it makes architecture look green. It is like that funny cartoon said “why don’t we just paint our buildings green?” I think that if a project is in an environment with lots of trees and vegetation, you should keep it -&nbsp; at least as much as humanly possible. That is mainly what we did with our projects. A few of them are green, green buildings. Also, why do you have to always spread parks by land? Why can’t we build parks upwardly? We should enjoy the parks in the sky just as we enjoy them on the land. I guess that what I am really saying is that we have a lot of thinking to do. That was the nice part of SITE in the early days. We always sat around a lot to talk and really discussed options and values and self-criticism. Self-criticism is the hardest of all. Going back to Kiesler, he said one day “James, you are making all these architectonic sculptures but you know, they are abstract art. Abstract art is dead, that is old fashioned.” I said “well, everyone does something that is probably already dead!” Kiesler was a really harsh critic but he was this incredible person to listen to, talk to, because he believed in the integrated arts. He really believed in the fusion of art, architecture, context, vegetation, which is something he imparted to me and I have spent my life believing that it is right. The more integrative a thing is, usually the better it is and the more information there is. MQ - In the past you have also used the word frugality, which I think could be instrumental to our current times... the term is close to economy of means but it seems to carry a different meaning, imply a different attitude, somehow it is seems less tactical and more profound... JW- I think it was Picasso who said that constraints are great because you cannot foresee how inventive you will become when you use that as your starting point. And that is really true. It really is true. Even with the early BEST buildings, the client was not going to spend a lot of money doing them. We had to think of something that was intrinsic to the context, something that would make people think or talk or wonder and we had to do it with practically no money. Frugality is a very good word these days, I agree. I think the problem in the architectural profession is that many bad habits come from the paradigm of excess and nobody wants to give them up. Nobody wants to do the necessary rethinking because it is going to be a painful process, there is no question about it. But I think the younger generation are going to do it. MQ - I also found, in one of your older texts, what I thought was a rather interesting architectural plot twist: “we need to go from form, space and structure to idea, attitude and context”. Do you still think that? JW- I still believe that. It is interesting how once you say something, like I am saying today, people hold you to it for the rest of your life! There are buildings that we have done that are very functional. In fact, they all were and most of the time the economy was driven by that functionality, by their simplicity. But still I always found, having a collage sensibility in my mind, that almost everything can be added to any context. If you have an idea, and a certain attitude, then the context usually gives you the information you need. With the parking lot project, there were cars and asphalt, and that was all we had. That is what we worked with. You do not want to build a huge bronze sculpture. Thinking that way, but not letting it destroy your creativity, I think that is the catch. A lot of people use economy in not such great ways. For example, Sixth Avenue is probably the worst place in the world. Upper Sixth Avenue has more bad buildings than anywhere I can think of. They are all built on a Miesian idea but none of them have Mies’ proportions or concepts. None of that. They are just sleek, glass buildings. They are awful. When I think about my life, living in New York, unless I had an appointment, I would never go to Upper Sixth Avenue. I would never go there for pleasure; I would never go there for any other reason. A part of a city should not look like that. It is like everything else, there are parts of the city that have been wonderfully thought and other parts that are very hostile. <img width="2619" height="1878" width_o="2619" height_o="1878" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c3d2e68b7ee78981c5ce7a4be72678ee9b2b92bb0539be41cb75b8be98145f0a/RESIDENCE-ANTILIA_05.jpg" data-mid="89810787" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c3d2e68b7ee78981c5ce7a4be72678ee9b2b92bb0539be41cb75b8be98145f0a/RESIDENCE-ANTILIA_05.jpg" />RESIDENCE ANTILIA, 2003 Álvaro Rojas (AR) - Can I ask a question then? What do you think about Brasilia then, James? JW- I never liked it that much, not even in school. It is derivative of Le Corbusier without understanding what Le Corbusier was about as an artist. It is a “Corbusier-esque” complex, but so spread out and so grim, that it resisted people. It resisted occupancy. But interestingly, people started adapting to it. They inserted their own ideas into it and it became enriched; similarly to the theory behind the High Rise of Homes, it became enriched by people’s additions. It became quite livable and a hospitable place after time. That is an interesting story. And that will not happen to Upper Sixth Avenue, it is hopeless. You cannot do anything. At least in Brasilia there was a possibility for insertion, for adaptation and changing. AR- I am not sure if you have been to Brasilia but I believe you will find it to be a horrendous experience. I actually prefer Upper Sixth Avenue. JW- Well, I only went there once but when I got there, there were lots of interventions, there were lots of things. But yes, the overall thing, the overall concept, is just awful. It is. And it is a good demonstration of what imitation of someone else’s talent is, without understanding those talents at all. That is exactly what it is. It is an imitation of Le Corbusier without any understanding of Le Corbusier. It is really fascinating. FM- Talking about monumental architecture, the age of the star-architects and iconic buildings, do you think they are solely the celebration of global capitalism? What do you think our period is a consequence of? JW- It is a difficult question because, historically, monumental were the civic or religious buildings, and they all had iconography. They had symbolism, they had sculpture on their surfaces, they had a rich reservoir of materials and ideas to include that were not oppressive or overwhelming. The reason Brasilia looks so awful is because there is no iconography, there is nothing to read. Just compare it to the Chartres Cathedral, there we are talking about one of the most readable buildings in the world. I always say that Chartres Cathedral is the most functional building in the world. It achieves exactly what it went out to achieve in the first place. It wanted to communicate, it wanted to overwhelm you with the power of the Lord, it wanted to impress you, it wanted to make you think. Actually, it is much more functional than a Miesian building in many ways MQ- James, your comment comparing Sixth Avenue and Brasilia made me think about this editorial project and its ambition to have global scope and impact. It is really interesting because these two worlds – never mind others – seem to move at a completely different speed and to be administered by a completely different set of rules. Interestingly, today, the Russians claimed to be the first to have a working vaccine against the Coronavirus. It is speculated that the only reason they could have done it this fast is, of course, by avoiding the legal hurdles and international controls that govern the rest of the initiatives. This is a dangerous example, but it did make me think that there is something thought-provoking about developing and testing alternatives to a problem and the relationship it has to diverse cultural and political systems. JW- What you are doing is bringing up all issues. We are still discussing what to do on matters that need a lot of attention and I do not know what the solutions are. I have no idea, sitting here today, what I would do if I had to do a City Hall or the White House. I have no idea where I would start because I do like to communicate and most of the things that I have been involved with have lent themselves to that kind of communication. What, for example, would Marcel Duchamp done for a social mural given his commitment? He would have to do some kind of funny inversion and I think I would do the same thing. There is something ridiculous about politicians and governments anyways, but I am also sure that no civic organization wants to be joked with or made fun of... MQ- ...with their own money, on top of that… JW- I know; it is just hard. It really is very difficult. I feel more dedicated to the world of Oscar Wilde than I do of Shakespearean tragedy. There are different worlds and we occupy them to the extent that our talents allow us to. But I think a lot of architects do not care. They just have all the clichés in the bank. I think that is the excuse for these massive buildings shaped like a corkscrew. I will keep saying it: “no sculptor on earth would make some of those shapes, they are just so awful.” And yet architects jump right in. No abstract artist would do that kind of thing. It was not that great when it was going strong, and it is even less great now. It is less inclusive.&nbsp; Like the Henry Moore in the plaza. MQ- That is funny... I actually live in Toronto and they just moved a Henry Moore to a plaza. JW- When in doubt, put a Henry Moore in the plaza! It is so meaningless. You have this big amebic shape sitting there on a box or in a pool. You are starting something that I think has a great promise. Because forcing people to think in the first place is one thing, you have to do that. Opinions and solutions are two different things. I am sitting here giving opinions, but I do not have a solution to some of your best questions. AR- I like your apprehensions that you just mentioned about how to think a project or a city. How do you do it, as you said before, conceptually, how do you respond environmentally, so on and so forth. I think that the problem with architects is that most do not think about those issues, they do not have those apprehensions that you just mentioned. That seems to be the problem. And for most architects, and you mention this all of the time, the only concern is the form and shaping. JW- Yes, absolutely. For whoever worked on Chartres Cathedral, that was not the only thing they had in mind. It is unbelievably complex. Architectural, creative, humanitarian, ethical, religious, social, all kinds of issues in mind. That is what makes it so eternal. I remember going to Chartres for the first time, you cannot help but have a religious experience. It overwhelms you, it is masterly conceived and over an extended period of time. You mentioned time to think? I think the Cathedral is that good because it was thought over a long period of time and they kept bringing on the good ideas. But I do not think we currently have much time. Given the coronavirus, and the nature of cities and suburbs, no, I am not sure how much time nature is going to graciously give us. National Geographic keeps calling us the “scourge of the earth.” We are the scourge of the earth. And the earth is going to fight back, it always does. And there have been civilizations that have disappeared and old species that have disappeared. There have been entire revolutions in the earth’s history. We may be the shortest one of all, given our inclinations. It is ironic because we can in fact think amazing things. The genius of the human brain is just mind-boggling.&nbsp; I always quote some anthropologists and scientists that were talking on a TV show about the human brain and one of them said “the problem of the human brain is that the gap between the brain of an Einstein and an average human being is much greater than the average human being and a dog”. And it is true beyond belief! And we have witnessed it with the Trump generation. The Trump generations is proving that it is an absolute fact, not a supposition. I cannot believe that people actually value the things he says and does. They are so stupid and so mindless that you cannot believe that a standing human being could say them. I personally feel he is naturally deranged. I do not know why more psychiatrists do not go after him. Now I am talking about my least favorite subject. FM- We are talking about all these subjects but one of the most successful buildings in New York is Calatrava’s building. What is your opinion about his train station? JW- Well, I am not sure. Again, it is that kind of shape making thing but it does not make me think. If I did that as a table top sculpture you would hate it. He does it as monumental architecture, and there it is. It is actually funny because it is right where our office was and we looked at those big points every day. I guess that the only thing that sort of works about it is that big open space inside. But I have heard that even the enterprises that have joined, all those posh stores, are not doing very well. Good news is that is so far to walk, it is so spread out, that all of this is probably good for social distancing. Maybe its singular greatest contribution is social distancing. AR- It was ahead of his time! JW- He is ahead of his time, yes! He says that. Our world, the thinking world, has a lot of thinking to do. MQ- Now, that is an instant motto; “Our world, the thinking world, has a lot of thinking to do.” We will hold you to that. JW- You can quote that one. But it really is. I am so glad you are doing this. I think having a concise dialogue of this nature will start to produce good ideas. I had a dialogue with Dan Wood, who also does not build giant structures but he is doing a lot of remedial work. Taking existing situations and improving upon them. Making them better. I think innovation and remedial architecture is going to be a big field. I think that the emphasis, or were the money is going to be spent, is going to shift around. But remedial is not handling what we already have. I mean, we have a lot of buildings that are pretty unlivable and are not going to rent if people move out. And how do you get rid of them? How do you get rid of some of the new buildings in New York? The World Trade Center is just awful. That is really one example that no self-respecting sculptor would do. I think it is so bad as a shape, so trite, that you cannot conceive somebody doing that. And it is a giant edifice with a giant space inside. Even the original World Trade Center had to be taken over by New York State offices because it never rented efficiently. Think about it, the original World Trade Center did not rent sufficiently, it had to be patronized, basically, by New York State offices. What we are going to do with this thing now? Some of these big questions arise from the madness of developers, or the madness of big money or money itself in excess, and they are really going to have to face the music. They are really going to face some very critical questions. You cannot tear down these buildings easily. Demolition is probably for smaller buildings. I do not know how you demolish a building like that. In a way, the original World Trade Center was demolished, miserably, but this one, if it does not rent and it is not profitable, what do you do with it? They talk about urban farming, but so many buildings are built that they would not be in any way useful for that kind of transformation. I have always been a little suspicious of urban farming because, from what I know about farming, it is so complex and seasonal, and so reliant on rain and sunshine, that I do not see it working very well in a city. And especially in a city under the shade of skyscrapers. There are a lot of thing like these, an almost endless session of subjects we could talk about that need thinking. Anything you want to talk about, I am willing at least say something. <img width="1720" height="1336" width_o="1720" height_o="1336" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/da37977ea5f180f8a1d3a3879cd3d360434f2563cdd76d69d0d152996da95a31/Peekskill-Melt-Apts.model-from-above.300.jpg" data-mid="89810772" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/da37977ea5f180f8a1d3a3879cd3d360434f2563cdd76d69d0d152996da95a31/Peekskill-Melt-Apts.model-from-above.300.jpg" />Peekskill Melt Apts model, 1971 AR- I just wanted to perhaps, tempt you James to say a few words about your friendship with Michael Sorkin, whom we all knew and loved. JW- Michael was an awful lot of brain. He certainly had one. He was the Einstein of this vision, I guess. I miss him terribly. I miss him every day. We were always coming to each other, having dinner together, doing something. He was definitely interested in urban centers and was part of that generation that considered them as a much better solution to suburbia. I believe that in this post-pandemic world he would be changing his mind. He advocated with building tall buildings, but he also advocated with public space and cities with much great variety. That was the main thing he advocated for and the area we agreed on. This was not necessarily about economy of means, because it depended on being committed to a big development. But in terms of big development, he was certainly the most humanistic of all, beyond any developer I have ever met. I wish he would live, if for no other reason, just to realize some of his dreams and some of his projects have him a victim of this pandemic. It is such an irony because he believed in clustering and people coming together, meeting in public spaces, having conversations; he truly believed in that. It is a cruel act of history that he perished as a result of his conviviality and his nature. If Michael had lived how would he have changed his mind? MQ- James, maybe to wrap up we can go back to the first question. Given the arch of your professional experience and the crises that you have witnessed, do you think we are living a “this too shall pass” moment, or do you think we are facing the greatest challenges ever? JW- I think this is a sink or swim moment, especially if we do not do something pretty fast. That is for sure. It is written on the wind.&nbsp; I think that is inevitable. My life has been paused, basically. Everything on our office is stopped. Everything that was on the drawing board, or prospects, have all been stopped or suspended. And I would assume every office is having that problem. Ours probably more than others because our main product is aesthetic and aesthetic is not lifesaving. But I do not want to think of myself as irrelevant because it will come back. It is interesting how much of culture is still plunging on because people absolutely need it. Without culture our psychologies would collapse. We have to perform, dance, sing, paint, sculpt. It is in our DNA. But I do not want to do it on a suicidal basis, I do not want to achieve social aesthetics and do it with the kind of buildings that are just absolutely absurd. The last ten years more absurd buildings have been built than ever before. They are incredibly difficult to maintain, incredibly difficult to use. I still think that the best used spaces are literally big boxes. Phillip Johnson said that, going through all of history, the best spaces, the ones that are continued to be used forever, are literally big boxes. Chartres Cathedral is a good example of a big box. We should all remember that Shakespeare’s times saw the most pandemics and they were evidently catastrophic. And yet, they produced Shakespeare. They produced middle age art, churches. There were still incredible things being done. I just hope we are as smart once again . Interview date: 12 August, 2020 https://mondonostrum.center/2-Ahmed-Hossam-Saafan Thu, 15 Oct 2020 20:03:03 +0000 www.mondonostrum.center https://mondonostrum.center/2-Ahmed-Hossam-Saafan Nostrum Habitat: Africa Text by Fredy Massad Ahmed Hossam Saafan <img width="2320" height="2928" width_o="2320" height_o="2928" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9e0272c6033a4ea7a830a31ed09be054f6da6b7ea9a82ea52bd5f405f5e86c7a/P-1.jpg" data-mid="89827223" border="0" data-scale="71" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9e0272c6033a4ea7a830a31ed09be054f6da6b7ea9a82ea52bd5f405f5e86c7a/P-1.jpg" /> Ahmed Hossam Saafam graduated as an architect from the Misr International University (Cairo, Egypt) in 2014. Issues such as identity, heritage and urban development are at the core of his architectural practice. He has participated in the projects Cairo Urban Sketchers and Cairo Urban Research Community (2018). He is currently working on the development of a narrow street in Ezbet Khaillarah, the creation of Bent El Shate’e Public Space and Ezbet El Borg Women Friendly Space. His project for the Dawar El Ezba Cultural Centre earned the Cairo Design Award in 2019. DAWAR EL EZBA CULTURAL CENTER El Cairo (Egipt), 2019 The Dawar El Ezba Cultural Center is a bright yellow building nestled in a decaying and neglected red brick neighborhood. Its glowing color becomes a metaphor for the change that this small construction brings to this place. Located within a plot of only 81m2, this building designed by Ahmed Hossam Saafan brings a renovation, not only with its austere and solid construction, but above all because of its social mission, which inoculates a neighborhood in need of infrastructure of this nature with the possibility of gradually leaving marginality behind. The project has been built for Dawar Arts, an independent cultural organization that employs a wide variety of art-based processes to generate dialogue, reparation and social change. Artists, educators, social workers, doctors and health experts work as a team to propose psychosocial interventions for individuals and communities suffering the consequences of poverty, war and other adversities. The pedagogical activity they offer includes workshops, classes and professional training programs in applied and therapeutic theater and community arts. They also offer cultural events such as live concerts, literary readings and theatrical performances. <img width="3391" height="2261" width_o="3391" height_o="2261" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/da8e531c4d5ae029d3baef70d144c24c8cfffbb9963b51395bcf0d6c607eec56/PANORAMA-UPDATED-2.jpg" data-mid="99639626" border="0" data-scale="96" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/da8e531c4d5ae029d3baef70d144c24c8cfffbb9963b51395bcf0d6c607eec56/PANORAMA-UPDATED-2.jpg" /> Virtual presentation of the renovation project of the Cultural Center Dawar El Ezba The developed proposal was based on the existence of Dawar Kitchen, a social organization located in Ezbet Khairallah, one of the largest informal areas of Cairo, whose population rounds 850,000 people, and through the provision of catering and other food services provides decent employment and training for Egyptian immigrants, refugees and women. The project developed by this young Egyptian architect proposes an extension of this kitchen, to be able to integrate within this existing structure a whole series of new spaces: a study for the practice of art, a meeting space, an administrative office and a theater room. The general objective of the project was to turn this new architectural entity into an interactive platform for all the inhabitants of the place, which could improve the quality of life for the entire community. "We pride ourselves on having fair working conditions and a participatory approach that ensures worker participation in basic decision-making and business planning." The abundant number of workshops dedicated to wood and metal working in Ezbet Khairalla defined the use of the construction resources to be employed, in order to turn the building into a living agent within this context. <img width="2619" height="1740" width_o="2619" height_o="1740" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4653e9b6bda4a9d5281a58af1a2f6984cc66bee23b853a3b94e3eda6351c6d26/KIDS-IN-WINDOWS.jpg" data-mid="99639624" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/4653e9b6bda4a9d5281a58af1a2f6984cc66bee23b853a3b94e3eda6351c6d26/KIDS-IN-WINDOWS.jpg" /> Detail of the facadeThe developed proposal was based on the existence of Dawar Kitchen, a social organization located in Ezbet Khairallah, one of the largest informal areas of Cairo, whose population rounds 850,000 people, and through the provision of catering and other food services provides decent employment and training for Egyptian immigrants, refugees and women. The project developed by this young Egyptian architect proposes an extension of this kitchen, to be able to integrate within this existing structure a whole series of new spaces: a study for the practice of art, a meeting space, an administrative office and a theater room. The general objective of the project was to turn this new architectural entity into an interactive platform for all the inhabitants of the place, which could improve the quality of life for the entire community. "We pride ourselves on having fair working conditions and a participatory approach that ensures worker participation in basic decision-making and business planning." The abundant number of workshops dedicated to wood and metal working in Ezbet Khairalla defined the use of the construction resources to be employed, in order to turn the building into a living agent within this context. In the same way that there was an impact on articulating a design based on sustainability principles, it was also understood that a fundamental feature of the project should be to emphasize the architectural character of the kitchen given its important role as a revitalizing agent in this area. This emphasis would be reflected not only in the construction strategy itself, but also in the subsequent occupation of the building, since residents and local construction materials were taken into account in order to emphasize the impression that the building is erected to serve the people from that community, not as an isolated element. In the same way, its construction has wanted to be a demonstration that it is possible to transform architectural malpractice and doing so by using existing resources, rich in aesthetic and functional value, and introducing a new architectural language in the place. This introduction of a new language is carried out through the approach of the different spaces that the building houses. The interior layout of the space creates a fluid environment that seeks to inspire a sense of solidarity and union, allowing each individual to express and applaud the diversity among the collective. The windows have a particular role and function in the art workshop, since they give expressiveness to that space as well as an urban experience among those who live on the street in front of the building. An open format was chosen for the theater in order to provide the actors with as much space as possible for their performances. This decision is evident in gestures such as the sloping roof supported by a steel structure, pitched towards the east in order to the east side in order to allow the solar panels to have a prolonged exposure to the sun.<img width="14400" height="9600" width_o="14400" height_o="9600" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/269893139166ccece52325a09a7940922ae66b362aeee4aab6a73d4cae0c0995/10.jpg" data-mid="99640355" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/269893139166ccece52325a09a7940922ae66b362aeee4aab6a73d4cae0c0995/10.jpg" />Exterior view. The predominance of yellow as a color option is a way of conferring luminosity as well as offering a feeling of warmth and serenity for users. The building also aims to change deteriorated architectural malpractice and show the possibility of using existing resources to imply a more aesthetic and functional value. Architecturally, the building is intended to provide an interactive platform for the people of Ezbet Khairallah, encompassing children, youth and adults through community-conscious design strategies that aim to improve their quality of life. Internally, the building aims to create a perfect environment that suggests solidarity, allowing each participant to be provided a platform to support and celebrate diversity. January 2021 https://mondonostrum.center/3-Monica-Bertolino Thu, 15 Oct 2020 20:05:31 +0000 www.mondonostrum.center https://mondonostrum.center/3-Monica-Bertolino Nostrum Habitat: Latin America Text by Mónica Bertolino <img width="1205" height="887" width_o="1205" height_o="887" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a3201dcf44ba0a4c81bd3477f74b903d6ef05aa1b4fcb8bc0be400d4078e7fbd/foto-monica-bertolino.jpg" data-mid="89827334" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a3201dcf44ba0a4c81bd3477f74b903d6ef05aa1b4fcb8bc0be400d4078e7fbd/foto-monica-bertolino.jpg" />Monica Bertolino is an architect from the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba on FAUD. She is a researcher in projects related with architecture and urban design. Since 1982 she has been a partner in the Studio Bertolino+- Barrado, which was awarded several distinctions such as Diploma of Merit, Architecture 2002-2006 in Visual Arts by Premios Konex (2012). Her most notorious works are Jardín Botánico de Córdoba, which has won Premio Vitruvio del MNBA and an honored mention in Bienal Panamericana de Quito (2002). Territoy, place, context, resources; economy of means, challenge to creativity. Economy of means and use of resources have represented a true fate for our work and experiences in a context crossed by a constant ups and downs. They certainly carry a permanent challenge to wit; and this prompts us to think that innovation does not lie in what is “strange” or overlooked, but maybe on the different ways we can look at what we usually see, at what surround us. Thus, understanding and deeply interpreting the complex context, developing comprehensive perception, critical reflection and taking advantage of reality, it becomes strategies to promote processes that allow us to face these challenges. I understand architecture as a Phenomenon of time, place and context, as well as personal restlessness. As a phenomenon of time, I refer to Time throughout history and “epochal” Time, that promotes common standards and values. I share the fact that as Latin Americans we are defined more by geography and territory than by history. But the history of our territories, with their marks and scars, opens a unique debate about our own and other’s validation of our cultural production, which has been based on hegemonic models that have defined what is credited and what is not, and where precisely the incidence of our Territory in that production has been absent. The notion of the centre and periphery of the world has accompanied us. <img width="3008" height="2000" width_o="3008" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/de2c28dcff3e36f92373c410fbb64ffe3c5a65db6e9c147db886ea9af2464d25/Granja-Educativa-.JPG" data-mid="89825675" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/de2c28dcff3e36f92373c410fbb64ffe3c5a65db6e9c147db886ea9af2464d25/Granja-Educativa-.JPG" /> Learning Farm in Capilla del Monte. Sierras de Córdoba. 2008 Pabellón de dulces y pan, Pabellon of animal farm. Concrete structures, that safeguard native vegetation setting aa section which general perimeter resolves with water ditches and a reservoir that it's included in a forestal fire plan of the area. Photo: Carlos Barrado. As a phenomenon of place and context, I refer to the physical and political, economic and socio-cultural. That is, what frames us and largely determines the problems to be faced, the ways of acting, the ways of buildings; and that also, from our perspective as an architecture studio, operates as a source of reflection and inspiration; that both limits us and stimulates potential searches. As a personal phenomenon, -as a studio- I refer to the particular concerns that go through Time and Place. To a particular view, we cast upon them. Territory and Context Writers and artists offer us views on the territory and context. Provocative and inspiring: the “vastness” and “horizontal vertigo” with which Jorge Luis Borges refers to the Pampa; or the unfathomable condition “outside the anthropometric scope” mentioned by Alejo Carpentier; or the “generous exuberance” and “the land with the origin perfume” of which Juan José Saer speaks. All are qualities of a common identity, not exempt from diversities, where the notions of nature, matter, time, space, beauty, show traits of belonging. But this Territory, which was also “of utopias and promises”, is also one of “inequalities and imbalances”. In our singular context, we inhabit an “unfinished” landscape, which is built in a slow time of successive crises and stagnations, where spasmodic and equally unfinished gambling episodes appear that many times become ruins before they even existed; as abandoned and empty fragments of old and “fictitious” riches. This complex panorama forces us to rethink the keys and values on which we act and produce the supports for living in our American/ Latin American continent. The “crisis”, the “scarcity”, the “unfinished”, the “imbalances”, the “economy” and consequent limitations, among others, alert us to the need to place value on our resources and means, both material and human, seeking better equations to conjugate them. It is from these reflections that we say -as architects- that we are interested in producing being conscious of the territory and context that contains and commit us; in the time that represents us; looking for poetry and opportunities in what surround us, to the sway of fluctuations and constant crises. Thus, we share the concern of investigating the current production of and from our latitudes, in the planes of thinking, doing, teaching… to enrich the debate and create a fertile climate for the construction of our discourses. It is in this framework of thought, of experiences and concerns, that we have sought to develop our work with simple technologies, materials and construction methods related to our productive environment, to the available workforce so frequently untrained by the lack of workflow, respecting the memory of the hands and adjusting to low budgets and limitations. This implied thinking of strategies capable of facing and reverting as a value to the conditions and possibilities of the management, production and construction context of the local work. Looking, perceiving, and adding value to what surrounds us, forms part of a process in this sense. Seeking to find the keys of beauty, of poetry, following the context; we often say that we seek beauty like dowsing; delving into reality. Perhaps a non-canonical beauty, but one that is glimpsed in the potential of the day to day and affordable. I quote some work that represents and trigger the reflections expressed. Works in the city and nature with different themes and scales, in which we appealed to maximize resources and available means. <img width="1280" height="960" width_o="1280" height_o="960" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5d1b96057d55b0c3faf2382bcf0107d88e1000563db7994ca3f2c3811876be33/yo-haciendo-fosiles.jpg" data-mid="89825652" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5d1b96057d55b0c3faf2382bcf0107d88e1000563db7994ca3f2c3811876be33/yo-haciendo-fosiles.jpg" /> Carekeeper's House. Capilla del Monte. Walls material from demolition, local stone and concrete, exposed concrete structure. In the City, urban strategies and interventions of various scales. Professional and academic works of participation and social projection where we sought to contribute to the system of public spaces.&nbsp; Within the framework of the Municipal management of Cordoba of the mayor Ruben A. Marti, between 1992 and 1999, we participated and promoted a Program for the Creation and Recovery of Public Spaces and an urban green system. Our strategy consisted of conquering Public Space by rescuing empty spaces, remnants of the city’s layout, spontaneous garbage dumps and converting them into spaces for collective living. With very low budgets, in many of the small interventions, we reused existing and surplus materials from other works, which were available in the Municipal deposit. The recycling and reuse of materials, in this case, had a playful sense related to the purpose of creating spaces for games and sports. But it constitutes a very interesting and necessary field of exploration, with references at a regional and global scale. <img width="3008" height="2000" width_o="3008" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/797add2d85d1de62ded78df291f998a76723d9d2819ef93e9f19b016233c6e42/02-Pasarela.JPG" data-mid="89825663" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/797add2d85d1de62ded78df291f998a76723d9d2819ef93e9f19b016233c6e42/02-Pasarela.JPG" />1 Repeatable pedestrian walkway. Las Varillas, Córdoba. 2005The idea of a repeatable metal basket is made of bent iron, with a structural core of iron profiles. Pedestrian walkway- Ciudad Las Varillas. Within the proposed general strategy which contemplated regulatory aspects, recovery of public spaces and enhancement of heritage buildings, we built this pedestrian walkway to cross a water channel that runs through the city. It materialized in soft iron rods, building a repeated metal basket along the canal. This walkway, as well as pergolas made with the same resource and language, were part of exploration still in force on this material -bent iron- that encompassed objects and structures that incorporate both the concept of “unfinished” as a value and the unconventional use of this material. This technique was also proposed in recent works such as the Headquarters of the Student Federation of the National University of Cordoba (UNC) 2018. <img width="2000" height="3008" width_o="2000" height_o="3008" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5694b0078b838e58d67a14e1df01280b1e1aae94eb598c773e0e068fb38d6c3b/Sede-del-Estudiante-UNC.JPG" data-mid="89825646" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5694b0078b838e58d67a14e1df01280b1e1aae94eb598c773e0e068fb38d6c3b/Sede-del-Estudiante-UNC.JPG" /> Students' House. Homage to the University Reform of 1918.Metal pavilion, free plan; Structure of normal profiles and bent iron work. (2018) Work in public spaces had its transfer to the academic plane, through Social Projection Programs, where we sought to contribute to improving the quality of collective spaces in a destitute neighbourhood, thus strengthening the link between University, city, society and reality. This was achieved through participatory strategies that maximized the use of the material and human resources in the neighbourhood. For the Botanical Garden of Cordoba (1996-1999) the proposal included the recovery of the land of an old spontaneous garbage dump, to link the natural reserves between a stream and the River Suquia, that runs through the city, forming the “Parque del Infiernillo-Jardin Botanico” as a new link in the urban green system. Conceptually, we understood that architecture had to become the support of a sensory experience through which one could appreciate the natural, the cultivated and the built landscape. A “poverty aesthetic” was proposed as a strategy capable of facing and reverting as a value the conditions and possibilities of management, production and construction context of the local work. Thus, we decided to reduce resources by integrating them into a construction strategy of local technology; where the details bet on the character of the resistant structure and expression of the materials. Natural stone, bare concrete -with board formwork- that exalts its plastic qualities, simple metallic structure and laminated glass for the greenhouse. Natural light becomes a variable of complexity for space and form. A natural ravine was used to propose a water mirror, which receives the building, and as it incorporates aquatic flora and fauna, serves as a regulator of temperature. <img width="4724" height="3543" width_o="4724" height_o="3543" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b6ff045d520c1e07135546d7816953bc0b77cece1595f778cf6b29c59b0cedb0/Botanico-Crdoba.JPG" data-mid="89825673" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b6ff045d520c1e07135546d7816953bc0b77cece1595f778cf6b29c59b0cedb0/Botanico-Crdoba.JPG" />Cordoba Botanical Garden. Exhibition halls, Greenhouse, walkway <img width="2048" height="1536" width_o="2048" height_o="1536" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/73844c1efa91a038315be7854348c177c25c29e7c0e86e09c3f3748cf9393ee0/Botanico-2.JPG" data-mid="89825672" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/73844c1efa91a038315be7854348c177c25c29e7c0e86e09c3f3748cf9393ee0/Botanico-2.JPG" /> Córdoba Botanical Garden - Laboratory (1999), herbarium and library building, local stone walls, exposed concrete with slab formwork. The aim was to associate structure, morphology and language and to value local technologies and means, thinking about the reality and context of belonging The works in the mountain landscape of Cordoba represented once again the opportunity to re-look and perceive natural context and its singularities and to explore new construction technics with local and recycled materials and local labour. The Proposal in “44” in Capilla del Monte, consisted of a landscape and architectural intervention with educational, recreational and service programs, within a tourist complex already intervened, belonging to a gas station union. In the technical offices, workshop and warehouses, we decided to reuse the remains of demolitions that were collected in a sector of this large property, for the walls, using formwork of tables to combine the remains of bricks, demolition, local stones and cement.<img width="1280" height="455" width_o="1280" height_o="455" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f0f02fd993f782055f03299679d6a5bb209ed70bb2f6fac468720226458ce497/04-Obrador-CM.jpg" data-mid="89825668" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f0f02fd993f782055f03299679d6a5bb209ed70bb2f6fac468720226458ce497/04-Obrador-CM.jpg" /> Workshop and technical offices. Capilla del Monte. Córdoba Mountains. 2005 Walls of demolition material, local stone and concrete. At the Educational Farm, also located in the mountains, we worked integrating and helping to create a landscape with the nature of the place. We proposed two concrete structures, appealing to the interplay between light and shadow by altering the distances between beams, and leaving open spaces to allow existing trees to pass through. A water perimeter was included employing ditches to delimit this space in the crop canyon. The water contributes to the fresh rumour that is scarce in these places and becomes part of the necessary water storage to fight the fires that besiege this mountain area. <img width="3008" height="2000" width_o="3008" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/de2c28dcff3e36f92373c410fbb64ffe3c5a65db6e9c147db886ea9af2464d25/Granja-Educativa-.JPG" data-mid="89825675" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/de2c28dcff3e36f92373c410fbb64ffe3c5a65db6e9c147db886ea9af2464d25/Granja-Educativa-.JPG" /> <img width="7087" height="4712" width_o="7087" height_o="4712" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2b4a59636cec8d7a17e16be42ef92e795f09ac901334a41d6b4dff95e0dce798/05-Granja-Educativa.JPG" data-mid="89825669" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2b4a59636cec8d7a17e16be42ef92e795f09ac901334a41d6b4dff95e0dce798/05-Granja-Educativa.JPG" /> Educational Farm in Capilla del Monte. Sierras de Córdoba. 2008 Simple materials provided in an abstract structure contrast with the natural pique stick structures and the inclusion of adobe kilns. It is thus an abstract and impure whole. In the case of houses, depending on their location, we use local stones, concrete, brick. The stones, used in various ways, in stonework or masonry or cyclopean concrete, are sometimes combined with fragments of bricks. In all cases, we seek to improve the equation between material resources and labour. From a position of taking advantage of the minimal, not protected by the impossibility, neither suffocated in a folkloric regionalism as banal as it is inoperative, nor detained in the setback, or trapped in a discourse of poverty as a style. Rather, seduced by the “complexity and contradiction” of our contexts, in a broad sense; aware of time as age and the universal values of the culture. Perhaps the complexity lies in the deep understanding of the different landscapes, be they social, urban, or natural; of the Landscape as a whole. And to produce the “supports” of our “situated” living. Today, when reality challenges all the usual, in a dystopian setting foreshadowed in literary and cinematographic fiction where we go from hyper connection to hyper-borders, and the spaces of collective life are in check, it is imperative to rethink our role, and the ways to use resources with an awareness of their finitude, and seek better balances, territory, society, culture, resources, environment. Córdoba, Argentina(Spring 2020) https://mondonostrum.center/4-Jiat-Hwee-Chang Mon, 23 Nov 2020 17:44:29 +0000 www.mondonostrum.center https://mondonostrum.center/4-Jiat-Hwee-Chang Nostrum Habitat: Asia Interview with Jiat-Hwee Chang <img width="3024" height="4032" width_o="3024" height_o="4032" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5257d3df4c32d141ca5c968de158504eaea6f0a24879a281b305dbb7f21f65f4/20190206_074617463_iOS.jpg" data-mid="99646706" border="0" data-scale="80" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5257d3df4c32d141ca5c968de158504eaea6f0a24879a281b305dbb7f21f65f4/20190206_074617463_iOS.jpg" /> Jiat-Hwee Chang (PhD, Berkeley) is Associate Professor and Deputy Head at the Department of Architecture, National University of Singapore. He is the author of A Genealogy of Tropical Architecture: Colonial Networks, Nature and Technoscience (2016), which was awarded an International Planning History Society Book Prize 2018, and shortlisted for the European Association for Southeast Asian Studies Humanities Book Prize 2017. He recently completed a book manuscript (with Justin Zhuang and photographer Darren Soh) tentatively titled Everyday Modernism. Jiat Hwee is also co-editor of a few books and special journal issues. Jiat Hwee’s research has been supported by institutions in North America, Britain, Germany, Australia, Cyprus, Qatar and Singapore. He was recently a Carson Fellow at the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society in Spring 2020, a Manton Fellow at the Clark Art Institute in Fall 2019, and a Canadian Centre for Architecture – Mellon Foundation Researcher, 2017-19. He currently focuses on two areas of research: transnational histories of the colonial and postcolonial built environment in Asia during the 19th and 20th Century, and the socio-cultural histories and techno-politics of air-conditioning and climate change in urban Asia. Interviewed by &nbsp;Álvaro Rojas CONVERSATIONS ON THE TROPIC Álvaro Rojas (AR)- The Portuguese first arrived in Singapore in the early 16th. Century? Jiat-Hwee Chang (JHC) - Yes, the Portuguese came to Malacca, today's Malaysia. Malaysia and Singapore were once the same colonies and the same country, but then we finally split in '65. Malaysia is very close to us; we have a lot of people moving between the two countries. Technically you are not correct, but historically you are right. AR- What kind of architecture or settlements, towns, or villages did the Europeans find in Singapore and the region when they first arrived? JHC- The British only came to Singapore in 1819, but the Europeans had been in southeast Asia since the Portuguese were there in the 16th century. At that time, what they found was a very common indigenous architecture, a simple architecture, raised on stilts. It usually is one story, with a high pitch roof and a porous envelope, so I suspect it is a kind of indigenous architecture that you find in many places throughout the tropics. I'm not that familiar with Latin America. Still, when I look at the vernacular architecture of Latin America, there are some commonalities; they are really designed in a way that is, maybe, very common to the tropics. Porous, lightweight, timber construction. .<img width="2048" height="1536" width_o="2048" height_o="1536" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ac04890ab565c8684d06d868486157a3cc712f432e40dc7b65ecd274705c5cc5/01_malay_house.jpg" data-mid="96646283" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ac04890ab565c8684d06d868486157a3cc712f432e40dc7b65ecd274705c5cc5/01_malay_house.jpg" />The Rumah Penghulu Abu Seman, a traditional Malay House conserved at the compound of the Heritage Trust of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur. With its deep overhanging roof, porous walls, louvered windows, and volume elevated on stilts, the house has some of the climatic features of vernacular architecture of the Southeast Asia. Source: Jiat-Hwee Chang’s photograph. AR- I suppose one could define the indigenous architecture of Singapore and other areas in the hot climatic zones as tropical. JHC- Yes. Many anthropologists have looked at indigenous architecture throughout the region. Some give a functional explanation, which is that they are designed in response to their environment. But the indigenous architecture of the Southeast Asian region has great diversity. You could say that some of the region's indigenous architecture might not fit so well into our understanding of climatic design. There is always the cultural and the symbolic dimensions that influence the design of any architecture. A famous argument by Amos Rapoport is that we cannot look at vernacular architecture through just the climatic or the functional lens. Still, we have to look at it as primarily being shaped by culture. But of course, culture, the environment, and climate are very difficult to separate as they are deeply entangled. <img width="3872" height="2576" width_o="3872" height_o="2576" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/258eb622556500f2924e6a842f34ff3c3c3d5c77579b4114bb2a605269ea6c78/02_colonial_vernacular.jpg" data-mid="96646282" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/258eb622556500f2924e6a842f34ff3c3c3d5c77579b4114bb2a605269ea6c78/02_colonial_vernacular.jpg" /> A colonial bungalow in Singapore built around early 1900s for British civil servants. The current building has been retrofitted for an air-conditioned interior but one can still see certain climatic design features, such as the verandah at the lower floor and the louvered openings above the windows at the upper&nbsp; floor. Source: Jiat-Hwee Chang’s photograph. AR- When the first Europeans arrived in Southeast Asia, do you think they learned or took advantage of what they discovered in indigenous or vernacular architecture? JHC- Definitely. We can generalize and say yes, indeed, the Europeans have learned from the region's vernacular indigenous architecture. But the Europeans are a really big group. In Southeast Asia alone, there were the Portuguese, then the Spanish, then the Dutch, and then, of course, the British and the French who came later. And they were in the region for 400-500 years. There are definitely long periods of history where the Europeans were trying their best live, eat, and dress like the locals. Then there are certain segments of the Europeans that tried to acclimatize by acculturation for a very long time. But there are also periods where the Europeans were very conscious that they wanted to differ from the locals and live differently. Especially during the 19th century, when the notion of race became very important. During that time, they were trying to have a social and cultural distance between themselves and the indigenous population. They also had certain ideas in public health in much of the 19th century and perceived the tropical environment in a rather negative manner. In the broad sweep of history, I think it is not unreasonable to say that the Europeans have indeed learned from the indigenous architecture and culture. But there are different moments when they tried to distinguish themselves and impose their way of building and living in the environment. <img width="3264" height="2448" width_o="3264" height_o="2448" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2170efae5c72f6a5b02c92103f4a088a01f47bdd3d8016eeb51608a9b3c11b3e/03_colonial_barracks.jpg" data-mid="96643003" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2170efae5c72f6a5b02c92103f4a088a01f47bdd3d8016eeb51608a9b3c11b3e/03_colonial_barracks.jpg" /> A colonial military barrack in Singapore built in the 1920s-30s. The building was recently renovated to become a hotel but one can still see the tall ceilings and deep verandah. Source: Jiat-Hwee Chang’s photograph. . AR- You already mentioned that you are not as knowledgeable about the Central American and Caribbean tropics, but do you see any similarities between tropical architecture by colonization in Singapore and Central America or other tropical areas of the planet? JHC- Historically, there are, in fact, very real connections, as I have recounted in my book A Genealogy of Tropical Architecture. The British established colonies in the West Indies and the Caribbean region since the 17th century. In those regions, there have been systematic records of the military engineers trying to build in a particular way in response to the climate and what they saw as the unhealthy aspects of the tropical environment. The first military barracks that the British came up with for the tropical climate, in a very systematic manner and through the use of pre-fabricated components, were in the Caribbean. That was in the early 19th century. Subsequently, that model influenced how the British designed in India and in the other parts of the British Empire. That connection between the Caribbean tropics and the Asian tropics was very clear. In terms of the planning of banana plantations, Frederick Upham in The Conquest of the Tropics writes about the United Fruit Company in Central America. There's a clear mention that when they were setting up these banana plantations, the United Fruit Company engaged the help of British public health experts who previously had experience in India and in Africa to advice them. In the 19th and the 20th centuries, the connections are very clear. What is slightly less clear, in terms of historical documents, is what a number of scholars--who look at the architecture of the Caribbean and the American South--note about the multicultural influences on the regional architectural feature known variously as the verandah, piazza, and gallery. It was brought to the region through the complex interactions between the Spanish, the British, and the local population. These are not so much textual records but material cultural evidences. When we look at the architecture and architectural features, the similarities are undeniable. There are definitely, some kinds of connections that brought about these similarities. <img width="2048" height="1536" width_o="2048" height_o="1536" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2b4ffa55382906347b8e59b0e77587717890540bac388b39d3a0ca8df34a2129/04_modern_arch.jpg" data-mid="96643004" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2b4ffa55382906347b8e59b0e77587717890540bac388b39d3a0ca8df34a2129/04_modern_arch.jpg" /> A ventilation-brick-wall at a modernist building built by the colonial Public Works Department in the 1950s. Source: Jiat-Hwee Chang’s photograph AR- If we go back a couple of hundred years before the United Fruit Company, maybe even earlier, to the middle of the 16th century, there are several cities that the Spaniards founded in Latin America like Havana or Granada. In general terms, the Spaniards imported some of the elements of the way they built in Spain's southern parts, using things like "bahareque" and "adobe" houses. Many of these houses were made of mud and clay tile roofs with short overhangs, high ceilings, and mostly flat facades with small openings. And that persisted in Costa Rica. But that's a different condition than the one the Americans brought to the banana plantations. It seems that the Americans tended to understand the climate and the conditions better than the Spaniards. When you did your research for this book or any other article or writing that you have produced, regarding the tropics and architecture in the tropics, were you able to make comparative studies of how architecture has evolved in the different zones in the tropical regions? JHC- When we use the phrase "tropical architecture," we are influenced by a few books that were first published in the 1950s and 60s. For instance, Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew's famous book Tropical Architecture in Humid Zone (1956). At that time, it was very much a late-colonial project. They both worked in Africa right after the war and then were planning consultants to the British government in west Africa. They were looking at the tropics as a common zone. They didn't just look at one single territory but at multiple territories of the British Empire. When I was doing my research for my book, what I did was to explore connective history. Connective so as to see the British Empire as a larger whole, how certain ideas moved from one part to another part of it. I tried to understand how Singapore was influenced by the other parts of the tropical territories in the British Empire. During the colonial era, engineers and architects didn't just stay in one place. They moved around through the different parts of the tropics. Because of their experience of designing in different parts of the tropical territories in the British Empire, they were able to take some of the ideas from one place to another. The colonies did not have full autonomy. Very often, when they wanted to build something, they had to consult the colonial office headquarters in London. And very often someone there would actually correspond with them and say "Why don't you look at the example from -let's say- the West Indies or India?" or, "Why don't you look at examples from Barbados and study what they did in the past?" The period I was looking at, the 19th and 20th centuries, colonies like Singapore did not exist in isolation; they were very much connected. Regionally, sometimes the British would also look at what the Dutch were doing. The Dutch Empire had a different geography. Their major colony was the Dutch East Indies, today's Indonesia, and they were also in the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa. They also had some other minor territories elsewhere. There was a lot of what we today call a multicultural movement of ideas and influences between one group and another. Furthermore, Singapore, and maybe to some extent Latin America are migrant societies. We have people coming from the southern part of China, India, and people who are part of the indigenous community. When we say indigenous, we are also referring to people coming from today's Peninsular Malaysia and the Indonesian islands. We also have Arab traders. In migrant societies, it's very common for migrants to bring their own practices to the region. As you mentioned earlier, the Spanish were building in adobe and mud bricks in Latin America, which might not be very suitable for but yet they adapted&nbsp;the material and constructional methods in one way or another. Likewise, the Chinese brought houses from South China that might not fit the climate here, but then they adapted as well. There's a lot of this kind of interesting cross-fertilization of ideas that led to a hybrid architecture, and this is something that I'm very interested in as well. How different cultures come together and influence one another. In that sense, maybe South East Asia is very similar to Latin America. <img width="2293" height="3024" width_o="2293" height_o="3024" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/36e2b9a016b33ee31620bbe7fa64d4805a184282ceb48ac5e3d3e9c891d2fdc6/05.jpg" data-mid="96646264" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/36e2b9a016b33ee31620bbe7fa64d4805a184282ceb48ac5e3d3e9c891d2fdc6/05.jpg" />Brise-soleil, screens, and deep horizontal overhangs at the House of Alfred Wong, a pioneer post-independence architect, completed in 1968. Source: Jiat-Hwee Chang’s photograph. AR- It seems that the British were a big connector in the development of tropical architecture, right? JHC- Yes, at the peak of the British Empire, which is the late 19th, early 20th century, they controlled one-quarter of the world's territory, and also one-quarter of the world's population. AR- Amazing! Of course, it makes a lot of sense now to me. My family emigrated to the United States in the early '60s, so I did most of my education, and I went to architecture school in New York. My first experiences designing projects in Costa Rica were highly influenced by the ideas that I had been exposed to in the school in New York. My own first house, which I built in 1976, was a white house. I made a few attempts to provide shade and shadow, but soon, the house was full of mold. I became really concerned with this situation and with the question of responding to the realities in a local environment. I started designing projects that were more about protecting the exterior walls. All the openings and longer overhangs, and I started theorizing about that, about how architecture in the tropics, in my tropics, should express itself. What do you think about architectural expression? What would you tell students in tropical areas on formal architectural elements, shape, aesthetics of houses, and buildings, that could send a clear message that such architecture is tropical? JHC- Your experience is something that is common to many of the older architects in Singapore. The first architecture school was only established in Singapore in the late 1950s. Before that, residents of Singapore had to go overseas to study architecture. Many of them went to England because we were a British colony. Quite a few went to Australia. A familiar story recounted by many of them is that they didn't learn how to design for the tropical climate. As you can imagine, during the '50s, there were even fewer books on architecture in Asia or Latin America. They were learning about keeping the houses warm because cold weather was the problem in places like London, Manchester, Melbourne and Sydney where they were studying., not hot weather. And upon returning to Singapore, they had to adjust and learn how to design for the tropics. The first major conference on tropical architecture was organized in 1953. At that time, a Nigerian student in Manchester realized that he wasn't being taught how to design in Africa by his teachers. He found Otto Koenigsberger, who had the experience of designing for many years in India, and he said to him, "I'm not being taught how to build for the climate in Africa, and what am I going to do when I go back there?". So, Koenigsberger said, "why don't you organize a conference, then?" It was from that conference that Koenigsberger established a department of tropical architecture. They realized that they had all the students from the former colonies, or at that time, the de-colonizing colonies who were studying in England because there were very few architecture schools in the tropics at that time. They weren't being taught anything about how to build in their homeland at all. The other issue is that many architects in Southeast Asia have been and still are interested in discussing how to design in the tropics. Many of them would know the technicality of how to design for the tropical climate, especially when the focus on sustainability in recent years has re-emphasized the importance of climatically-appropriate design. I think they're also interested in the aesthetic question of design for the tropics. Tay Kheng Soon, a well-known Singapore architect, came up with these three words that encapsulate for him the aesthetics of tropicality: line, edge, and shade. He was responding to the modernist architects' obsession with plane, volume, and light. Le Corbusier famously talked about how architecture is the interplay of masses under the light. Different architects at different times tend to think about this question of an aesthetic for the tropics very differently. Some architects looked to indigenous architecture and then tried to learn from it. There are a number of architects who, since the 1980s, have been attempting to articulate an aesthetic of tropical architecture for the region. AR-&nbsp; Our first school of architecture here opened in 1971; before that, all of us graduated abroad. Most of our architects, before the local architecture school opened, went to study in Mexico. A few went to schools in the United States or in South America, Chile, perhaps, Brazil. But very soon, more schools opened in Costa Rica. How do you imagine that tall buildings should be designed in the tropics? How should we approach the design of tall high-rise buildings or even mid-rise buildings in our area? JHC- This is a question that many Asian cities actually face, and these cities, probably like some Latin American cities, are very dense. Besides the well-known research in eco-skyscrapers by the Malaysian architect Ken Yeang, there's been earlier attempts of trying to build tropical high rise. In Singapore, 80% of us live in public housing, and since the 1960s public housing has always been quite tall. Every building would be 12 stories high, and now, the public housing is very commonly at 30-40 story high. The design strategies adopted in the past were quite basic and modest. What they did was getting the orientation correct, having the building's long elevations facing north-south rather than east-west and then having a shallow building section to facilitate cross ventilation. Those were the basic things done, but since then, with Ken Yeang and then&nbsp;the Singapore-based architecture firm WOHA, and the interest of having tropical greenery, there have been different innovations. There are many younger architects that have been producing really interesting work for the past two decades. One of them is WOHA. They have been trying to reinterpret the high-rise and have adopted strategies different from Ken Yeang and Tay Kheng Soon. They have built quite extensively in the region, including Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, India, and China. They rethink the volumetric aspect of the high rise in relation to the climate, and they have introduced certain types of vertical articulations of green spaces in the sky in a high-dense environment. One of the major problems that we face in many Asian cities in the tropics is traffic congestion, noise, and air pollution. In the traditional devices of design in the tropics, if one wants ventilation, one has to open the windows. But when you open your window today in one of these cities, you get not just the breezes but also the noise, dust, and polluted air. Some of the older methods of building with the tropical climate might not work so well for a dense city that is polluted and noisy. These other new challenges that we face have to be addressed at not just the architecture level. They depend on better planning, better provision of public transport, or better mixed-use zoning to minimize the need to commute. What WOHA seeks to address is at the architecture level, for instance, the creation of a new elevated ground level with greenery. That is essentially to try to cut the building off from the very noisy ground and the noisy road. <img width="3774" height="2440" width_o="3774" height_o="2440" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7b223bb4b97393fca58f154207387697d35852a2175d7817363726742a130075/06_tropical_modern.jpg" data-mid="96643007" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/7b223bb4b97393fca58f154207387697d35852a2175d7817363726742a130075/06_tropical_modern.jpg" /> A lush landscaped space underneath the elevated volumes of the Modern Tropical House, designed by Tay Kheng Soon of Akitek Tenggara, completed in 1992. Source: Jiat-Hwee Chang’s photograph. AR- Don't you think that a body of critical and theoretical thinking should be developed for architecture in the tropics, and indeed- for each architectural typology? Is this feasible? Do you know if there are people who are engaged in this sort of thing? JHC- There have been, over the years, a number of global architects who have tried to do that. In fact, my knowledge from Costa Rica came from a book that I read about Bruno Stagno, edited by Bruno Stagno, Alexander Tzonis, and Liane Lefaivre. When a colleague and I were editing a special themed section of the ABE (Architecture Beyond Europe) Journal on "Entanglements of Architecture and Comfort beyond the Temperate Zone", we realized that what we knew about Costa Rica was primarily through that book. I guess that is partly because the world is sometimes divided into different language spheres. The knowledge produced in Latin America, I imagine, is primarily in the Spanish language, which the rest of the world might not be able to access. But I think, fortunately, or unfortunately, the world today is dominated by the English language. English is also becoming the new global language that, in a way, connects different parts of the world. I don't think historically there has been any moment whereby such a big percentage of the world's population share a common language. Some people may not be very proficient in English because it's not their mother tongue, but at least, many people have English as a second language now in most parts of the world today. So, the possibility of a common discourse might increase. <img width="2460" height="3633" width_o="2460" height_o="3633" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/960a21716b0c0cac087ab916df00dfb304047a7ab2fcbda79b2de3a8e7536cfb/07.jpg" data-mid="96643008" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/960a21716b0c0cac087ab916df00dfb304047a7ab2fcbda79b2de3a8e7536cfb/07.jpg" /> Skyville at Dawson, a public housing project designed by OHA, completed in 2015. Source: Jiat-Hwee Chang’s photograph. August 18, 2020 https://mondonostrum.center/5-Rotor Mon, 23 Nov 2020 17:45:41 +0000 www.mondonostrum.center https://mondonostrum.center/5-Rotor Nostrum Habitat:&nbsp;Europe Text by Rotor <img width="922" height="565" width_o="922" height_o="565" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ba756b9d74fd1e409151a49bdcfa9d62d324d4d6992c83a2ac2178819b057032/benjamin-brolet_rotor-team.jpg" data-mid="96837126" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/922/i/ba756b9d74fd1e409151a49bdcfa9d62d324d4d6992c83a2ac2178819b057032/benjamin-brolet_rotor-team.jpg" /> Rotor is a team of researchers, designers, architects, builders that&nbsp; was set up in Brussels in 2005. Their prime focus is on fostering&nbsp; reuse in our contemporary economies, primarily the reuse of building materials. Text originally published at the issue “Second Hand” curated by Flores &amp; Prats Architects, 2019 Mechanics of rejuvenation The building sector is a major consumer of precious material&nbsp; resources and is responsible for the production of more waste than any other sector (construction and demolition waste amounts to 34.7% of all waste materials in the EU). While recognized as a strategy to prioritize above recycling and incineration as wastemanagement approaches, reuse in the building sector is hampered by a vast array of obstacles, that are not only logistic or technical, but also of an administrative and legal nature. Rotor, incorporated as a no profit since 2006, has developed a portfolio of projects that, each in their own way, try to help overcome some of these obstacles. After many years of activity as researchers, designers, consultants, exhibition-makers, ... the team decided to explore a new field: building deconstruction. In 2016, they incorporated Rotor DC (for Deconstruction and Consultancy) a spin-off co-op acquiring expertise in the selective disassembly, for ulterior reuse, of building parts in properties slated for demolition or heavy renovation. Being established in Brussels, Rotor DC’s focus is on the kind of real estate most likely to undergo changes in the capital of Europe: large-scale buildings in the tertiary sector, more often than not projects that are only a few decades old. <img width="1236" height="800" width_o="1236" height_o="800" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c5492a630f437b9347d4627b76cc2e75ad958cd5def2e277a6509b82dc535e37/Lucas_Cranach_-_Der_Jungbrunnen_Gemldegalerie_Berlin.jpg" data-mid="91336319" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c5492a630f437b9347d4627b76cc2e75ad958cd5def2e277a6509b82dc535e37/Lucas_Cranach_-_Der_Jungbrunnen_Gemldegalerie_Berlin.jpg" /> Fountain of Youth, Lucas Cranach (1546) The elements are carefully taken apart before conventional demolition works begin, prepared for reuse and sold before reentering new building projects. Since the start of its activities in 2013 (before the incorporation), DC has dismantled and resold more than 1,275 tons of reusable materials that would have been scrapped, crushed, or otherwise destroyed. They employ now 6.5 FTE’s that are active either on the deconstruction sites, or in the warehouse/workshops of Rotor in Anderlecht, close to the Brussels city center, where the team rents a 2,500 sqm building that functions as a storage, workshop and showroom/shop for both Rotor and Rotor DC. In the following text, two young collaborators of Rotor DC, Victoria van Kan and Camille de Jerphanion give their insider’s account of the treatment materials at Rotor DC go through. They assimilate the operations to a rejuvenation process, the stages of which they will describe in detail below. As an assemblage of thousands of joint pieces, in general the building itself constitutes the last step in the construction chain. In the case of Rotor DC’s practice, the life of a large number of pieces is extended through the deconstruction process. <img width="1753" height="1240" width_o="1753" height_o="1240" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d8aa953ed8cafa8ed24b3159b769842bb6df29059ebc3a3ab9821794210598eb/cerabati_catalogue_PDF3.jpg" data-mid="96648535" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d8aa953ed8cafa8ed24b3159b769842bb6df29059ebc3a3ab9821794210598eb/cerabati_catalogue_PDF3.jpg" /> Spread from the 1940 commercial catalog of Cérabati, French manufacturer of quality ceramic tiles. The moment of deconstruction is the disassembly of these thousands of parts.The multiple modes of junctions are then challenged and the materials that were part of the building as a whole are dismantled one by one. Before demolition takes place, a preliminary inventory of potential re usable materials is established. Those materials are evaluated according to their heritage and symbolic value but also by their method of fixing, size, weight, and their ability to be stored and transported on a pallet.&nbsp; Every deconstruction begins with an experimental phase. Any element to be detached from its original position is first subjected to a disassembly test. Depending on the material and its extraction difficulty, the experimental phasecan be very long. The first batch of dismantled materials is often damaged and cannot always be resold. Once the dismantling technique is set, the movement of deconstruction led by the human body begins. Deconstruction is an immersive physical experience. During their lifetime, buildings undergo transformations spread throughout several years. The original components and the fastening systems are replaced, different layers are tinkered with. It is necessary to be attentive and constantly adapt the way of dismantling. The materials are then stacked and strapped on pallets and make their way to Rotor DC’s warehouse where counting and sorting has to happen a second time. Once the deconstruction stage is over, the material goes through&nbsp; a process of cleaning, revalorizing and reworking. Deconstruction and reuse are not only about a sort of art of destruction; they are also about the art of regeneration which includes several stages of adjustments necessary for a straightforward reuse.&nbsp; The process can be compared to a fountain of youth, in which material enters old and sometimes unusable, and exits regenerated and ready for use. While the surface of the water is smooth, its unseen bottom is in perpetual motion. The practice of deconstruction leaves materials with traces of their previous life. In some cases, these traces are to be removed in order to revalorize each component. The cleaning process requires above all technical knowledge in order to maintain or enhance its value. The human hand is essential. Regeneration is an irregular process, essentially unfit for mechanization. The aim is therefore to remove the residues of a prior fixation without necessarily removing traces of wear that often add value to the material. This delicate operation in some cases is the repetition of a caress, a friction that may also leave traces. Cleaning contributes to the alteration. Once the materials, extracted from their previous state, they will be first subjected to an inventory. As accurately as possible, each element is measured, counted and examined for defects or particularities. It is at this precise moment that a broader and more accurate understanding of the recovered components emerges. First grasping how to dismantle the element and how it previously functioned, we then learn how to treat it and start considering it as it is, isolated from previous context or function. In this way, a radiator-cover, an emblematic furnishing in 70’s office environments, becomes a curved plywood panel again. An idiosyncratic marble floor becomes a batch of marble slabs again. Each component starts to exist as an individual entity and differs from one another. This results in a vast number of lines and columns in an excel file. The task of making an inventory is a complex mental exercise. It requires constantly juggling between the particular vision of an element and the global vision of the lot. This task cannot be dissociated from the watchful human eye which at the slightest glance could miss the detail that characterizes the piece. The repetitive labor of the inventory becomes fine grained labor the sum of dozens of small inventories specific to each element of the batch of material. This human eye is not infallible, almost every time, an inventory mistake is discovered during the resale of materials. The difficulty in achieving accuracy is probably due to the fact that the inventory must be made quickly, the material must be available for sale faster and its sale does not always cover the cost of an exhaustive inventory work. From one task to another, when in a hurry, we forget what is important and what was planned for the future: the tasks are multiple. Things then remain motionless and unfinished in a corner of the workshop. In an atmosphere of multiple specific cases at the same time, communication between collaborators is of prime importance to avoid the loss of precious knowledge. The unforeseen interferes with pure economic thinking. The irregular, slow temporality of the inventory contradicts the logic of maximum efficiency. Reuse can hardly be systematized and stands in between two opposite worlds : the pressure of the cost of labor and the embrace of a caretaking approach. <img width="3334" height="3334" width_o="3334" height_o="3334" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/10a21448f063826c4a5fcc8ef3d77264985e4adff532760322a943fbc7c6f76e/P1250693.jpg" data-mid="96648502" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/10a21448f063826c4a5fcc8ef3d77264985e4adff532760322a943fbc7c6f76e/P1250693.jpg" /> Photo studio at Rotor DC’s workshop in Brussels. Efforts are being made to erase the troubles of the previous steps. This is an attempt to mask the complexity of the process and it is in fact nearly the only option for spreading the use of reused building elements. It is a question of smoothing out the surface of the water. The smoother, no-hassle and simpler reuse (or at least reinstallation) looks the more it will be acknowledged. One of those tools for this smoothing is the website, which gives a ‘live’ inventory of every product, thus providing considerable reassurance. The materials are photographed in our workshop. The representation of the component must be attractive and must at the same time expose defects and particularities. The smoothed image negates the irregular process through which the material has gone. This simulation of an optimal material leads to a series of recurrent questions contesting the value of the resale price. In addition to that, the online sale of second hand materials is obviously problematic due to this altered image. Each unmentioned quality entails direct consequences and generates a considerable number of emails that need to be answered one by one. We must then simultaneously reconsider the process of preparing for re-use. Deconstruction has significant visibility due to the seductive nature of the images it produces, while the regeneration phase remains almost invisible. Questions about what happens underneath the surface, inside the workshop, and the issues this all entails are seldom shared. The knowledge of the whole process is an incentive for second hand initiatives. After all, not all materials reemerge from the water. They get stored somewhere and then just keep moving around to make place for new materials. Gradually pushed back to the back of the depot, they get forgotten and reappear only when there is an urgency for space again. Some materials also will never enter. It is a matter of taking decisions. It is at this point that the reuse value of a material can be reevaluated, which is complex to anticipate. What to store, what to refuse, what to throw away after a long time of storage (useless warehousing). It is easy to fill a warehouse with second hand materials. It is far more complex to assure the redistribution and the constant renewal of the stock, otherwise those materials end up being nothing more than a meaningless pile of trash. Ceramic Tile Produced by a number of Belgian companies from the 1920s onwards,&nbsp; ceramic tiles are worth salvaging on demolition and renovation sites. With a hammer and chisel they are removed line by line (counting on a percent for breakage). The unbroken tiles, still holding a thick layer of mortar, are put in crates and transported to be reprocessed. The thick layer of mortar is first removed with a pneumatic drill, tile by tile. Back in their crates they are dropped in a bath of organic acid, where they rest for a few days,leaving the tiles intact but dissolving the mortar leftovers. The tiles are then cleaned with a high pressure water jet, dried, inspected and sorted. They are packaged (strapped in packs of 20 tiles) counted and inventorised. One of each sort of tile gets photographed in the studio and put online (along with the quantity available in square meter units). Freed from their mortar they are very easy to re-install in a thin mortar bed or even with cementglue. Cooked at very high temperatures, they require a lot of energy for production. <img width="2048" height="1363" width_o="2048" height_o="1363" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b86cef1f2fbd3d3c90e6a87bb64e4ef7c29b0861d92d043a628c926b111446b3/SPI_Val_Benoit_Genie_Civil_Rotor_Dmolitions_Copyright_OPhoto_OBeart-9.jpg" data-mid="96648554" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b86cef1f2fbd3d3c90e6a87bb64e4ef7c29b0861d92d043a628c926b111446b3/SPI_Val_Benoit_Genie_Civil_Rotor_Dmolitions_Copyright_OPhoto_OBeart-9.jpg" />Deconstruction of ceramic tiles in a 1930s university complex, prior to a renovation, Liège.&nbsp; Photo: OBeart <img width="1363" height="2048" width_o="1363" height_o="2048" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/fab78392d382f1a154aa38834a06a553ae4a828771fca74a69d80648b4b53a00/SPI_Val_Benoit_Genie_Civil_Rotor_Dmolitions_Copyright_OPhoto_OBeart-12.jpg" data-mid="96648555" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/fab78392d382f1a154aa38834a06a553ae4a828771fca74a69d80648b4b53a00/SPI_Val_Benoit_Genie_Civil_Rotor_Dmolitions_Copyright_OPhoto_OBeart-12.jpg" />Deconstruction of ceramic tiles in a 1930s university complex, prior to a renovation, Liège. Photo: OBeart <img width="5472" height="3648" width_o="5472" height_o="3648" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2492f41e556ab50c642e0cb484e35a396cc612770e9da1ed81f2a04c10989b1b/DSC02330-2.jpg" data-mid="96648540" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2492f41e556ab50c642e0cb484e35a396cc612770e9da1ed81f2a04c10989b1b/DSC02330-2.jpg" /> These ceramic tiles, extracted from a 1940 office of the national Telecom company, are being reinstalled on-site after cleaning at Rotor DC. The offices have now become apartments. Tivolibuilding, Brussels. Photo: Rotor Marble Slab Several hundred square meters of marble were dismantled from the iconic North Station in Brussels and prepared for reuse by Rotor DC. The slabs are sealed together with joints. When the joints are soft the slab can be extracted with only a crowbar. If the joints are more solid it is necessary to use a side-grinder to split the slabs. The floor-slabs were laid on a noncement base, which makes removing easier. The wall-slabs are attached with brackets and must be cut free. They are then palletised and strapped for processing at Rotor DC. In the workshop they pass one by one through a rotating stone grinder. The remaining joints are scrubbed away from the side and the edges are straightened out. They are cleaned and classified according to quality. A, B, C. A quality refers to an exceptional surface and straight sides, with no damage to the edge (3mm margin). B slabs surfaces are damaged but their unpolished side (down facing surface) is in good condition and can be used in the final placement. The marble slabs are stored outside in the courtyard, separated from each-other by battens. They are then inventorised, usually per square meter. <img width="5472" height="3648" width_o="5472" height_o="3648" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5ef012149d26840c5d5ded73be01150443d2ca991e081e9abb21a109aeab559e/DSC01368.jpg" data-mid="96648477" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5ef012149d26840c5d5ded73be01150443d2ca991e081e9abb21a109aeab559e/DSC01368.jpg" />Removal of marble slabs at the North Station in Brussels during a 2018 revamp. Photo : Rotor <img width="4608" height="3456" width_o="4608" height_o="3456" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4055f2987b377dab69d01792c1875bba396082caadee9a5496e6b6635ee91532/P6210636.JPG" data-mid="96648482" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/4055f2987b377dab69d01792c1875bba396082caadee9a5496e6b6635ee91532/P6210636.JPG" /> Photo studio at Rotor DC’s workshop in Brussels. Photo: Rotor <img width="2064" height="3096" width_o="2064" height_o="3096" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/efa17042b918a3b2777cccc16eadc7b0ee256a395270a2043a815cd3a6284db9/DSC05427.jpg" data-mid="96648479" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/efa17042b918a3b2777cccc16eadc7b0ee256a395270a2043a815cd3a6284db9/DSC05427.jpg" /> Photo studio at Rotor DC’s workshop in Brussels. Photo: Rotor Curved Plywood Panel The WTC (World Trade Centre) towers in Brussels, built in the 70’s are being stripped for renovation. Rotor DC dismantled a part of its materials and extracted 2620 radiator covers. They are relatively easy to deconstruct without damage. The panels are unscrewed, detached, inspected, stacked according to their quality, placed on pallets and strapped. Each pallet is labelled and transported to Rotor’s warehouse. While the truck gets unloaded the pallets are counted, inventoried and stored. A few single panels are brought to the workshop for closer inspection. The general state of the material is determined,(the panel will be sold uncleaned in two qualities (A, B). A price is given per panel. The panel is photographed in the studio and published for sale indicating the quantities. Because of the panels curved, the element stands on its own and it is an easy material to work with. Rotor reused the curved plywood panels to make a bookshelf in the Abattoirs de Bomel project. <img width="4608" height="3456" width_o="4608" height_o="3456" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2703f394710e9892c22f4cce0859675aa689571233839c7dec7a12165b36acff/P1301430.JPG" data-mid="96648480" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2703f394710e9892c22f4cce0859675aa689571233839c7dec7a12165b36acff/P1301430.JPG" />Radiator covers on site at the WTC towers in Brussels, 2019. Photo: Camille de Jerphanion. <img width="4608" height="3456" width_o="4608" height_o="3456" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7f09e56503df6033fcefd87fac3f99e6f3e0b77156d457ffcbf3f7db07bad6e4/P1301330.jpg" data-mid="96648504" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/7f09e56503df6033fcefd87fac3f99e6f3e0b77156d457ffcbf3f7db07bad6e4/P1301330.jpg" /> Dismantled curved plywood panels at the WTC towers in Brussels,2019. Photo: Camille de Jerphanion. <img width="1577" height="2362" width_o="1577" height_o="2362" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/cf3225895511607802cb614d13a9d141e3979704a3dfbde0179acbc8264b6c43/BOMEL-as-built-par-Jean-Franois-Flamey_JeanFrancoisFlamey_31102014_4137-copie.jpg" data-mid="96648501" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/cf3225895511607802cb614d13a9d141e3979704a3dfbde0179acbc8264b6c43/BOMEL-as-built-par-Jean-Franois-Flamey_JeanFrancoisFlamey_31102014_4137-copie.jpg" /> Reuse of curved plywood panels at the old slaughterhouses of Bomel. Project by Rotor, 2014. Photo: Rotor https://mondonostrum.center/6-Pineda-Frantzeskaki Mon, 23 Nov 2020 17:48:20 +0000 www.mondonostrum.center https://mondonostrum.center/6-Pineda-Frantzeskaki Nostrum Habitat: Oceania Text by Melissa Pineda &amp; Niki Frantzeskaki &nbsp; <img width="4129" height="3840" width_o="4129" height_o="3840" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/98d31a17cac0f8c5fe2fc11085a34bc88c81c7431e596deffe3ee4e7bfbf67f6/niki-melisa.jpg" data-mid="96684932" border="0" data-scale="94" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/98d31a17cac0f8c5fe2fc11085a34bc88c81c7431e596deffe3ee4e7bfbf67f6/niki-melisa.jpg" /> Melissa Pineda Pinto is a PhD Candidate at the Centre for Urban Transitions, Faculty of Health, Arts and Design, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia. Her research focuses on just cities transitions and cuts across the fields of environmental planning and design, urban sustainability, and human-nature relationships. To explore diverse urban topics, she draws from perspectives such as environmental ethics, ecological justice, and animal geographies. Niki Frantzeskaki is a professor of urban sustainability transitions and the director at the Centre for Urban Transitions at Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia. She holds a PhD on ‘Dynamics of Sustainability transitions’ from Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands. Her interests range from environmental governance, urban sustainability transitions, and innovating cities with nature-based solutions. Charting nature-based urbanism: Designing with and for Nature for a sustainable urban planet Abstract Envisioned as agents of change that can materialise sustainable environments, cities have the potential for accelerating the transformations needed to live within planetary boundaries. Confronted with the complex reality of cities as the habitat of the future, being simultaneously places of opportunity and forces of ecological destruction, we propose that to design and regenerate cities with and for nature, urban planning and design have to take a social-ecological justice perspective. We conceptualise nature-based urbanism as an alternative and transformative approach that by expanding our notion of justice to the natural world, seeks to restore, regenerate, and create urban nature for humans and nature. We present four pillars for charting nature-based urbanism: integrative frameworks, data interrogation, inclusive co-governance, and inter/transdisciplinary science. Using the economy of nature through these pillars, we offer an ethical and responsible solution to ensuring social-ecologically just futures. Transforming our cities with a planetary scope within means For accelerating the transformations needed to live within planetary boundaries, the potential of cities as places, spaces for sustainability to happen and as agents of change, needs to be seized and capitalised. Cities are hubs for innovation, places of opportunity, which inspire visions and ideals of a better life. As complex adaptive systems, cities are shaped by interconnected dynamic technical, social, and ecological components (McPhearson et al 2016). Cities have large ecological footprints which in turn obstruct the planet’s capacity to regenerate and result in geographies of devalued social-ecological systems; where usually the most vulnerable, including nature, are the ones that suffer the burden of impacts. Confronted with the complex reality of cities as the habitat of the future, being simultaneously places of opportunity and forces of ecological destruction, we ask: how can cities add value, rather than devalue the local-global geographies that support, sustain, and nourish them? We argue that for supporting a sustainable biosphere and for living within planetary boundaries in a rapidly urbanising planet, it is paramount to transform our cities to places and spaces that use the economy of nature as a model. The economy of nature as an urban regenerative approach implies that conserving and restoring urban ecosystems, enhancing peoples’ relationship with nonhuman nature, and creating environmental stewards that actively protect and rehabilitate social-ecological dynamics, are the driving and guiding principles. Using nature as a model requires designing with an expanded notion of justice that seeks to restore social-ecological injustices with and for humans and nature. Our conceptual proposition therefore is: to design and regenerate cities with nature, urban planning and design have to take a social-ecological justice perspective as foundational.&nbsp; Approaches to this problem Whilst sustainable solutions to halt biodiversity loss (such as ecosystem-based adaptation), curb resource exploitation, and deal with pollution exist, their implementation appears ineffective given that they cannot shift economies away from the current unsustainable model of endless economic growth that is at the heart of the planetary destruction (Cristiano et al 2020; Pellow 2019). To address structural injustice in cities caused by the devaluation of social-ecological systems, more radical,&nbsp; transformative urban agendas that challenge economic growth models are required to move beyond ‘city branding with green’ or ‘green-washing’. With the aim to regenerate the biosphere by minimising consumption patterns, creating more with less, increasing social-ecological value, and creating closed loops that mimic and adapt to natural processes (Cristiano et al 2020), nature-based urbanism comes to the forefront as a systemic and integrated strategy to rebuild capital, resilience, and capabilities of nature in cities. Against this background we ask: how can we ensure that these life-supporting conditions are sustained intra and inter-generationally, both for human and nonhuman species, whilst adding value, reversing degradation, and enhancing the capacities of urban social-ecological systems? We propose designing with and for nature guided by a social-ecological justice framework. With this framework we are able to shift from (or balance) the traditional human-centred focus of justice and nature benefits to people, and instead position nature-based urbanism within non-anthropocentric philosophies, where inclusivity, relational human-nonhuman values, and social-ecological worldviews are central to designing and developing new pathways to sustainable and just urban transitions. <img width="855" height="870" width_o="855" height_o="870" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/69c508a9e96da6b37507416f09af53a3160be7695b9782a5d4fdde25fc2d0452/NBS_Brasil.png" data-mid="96683907" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/855/i/69c508a9e96da6b37507416f09af53a3160be7695b9782a5d4fdde25fc2d0452/NBS_Brasil.png" /> Benefits and services of nature-based solutions (Source: Frantzeskaki 2016 – EU-Brazil dialogues brief on nature-based solutions presented in UN Habitat III, Quito, Equador) Designing with and for nature to repair social-ecological injustices&nbsp; Planning and designing with and for nature is, in its most fundamental sense, the essence of using one means for delivering multiple functions and benefits to society and nature. Nature-based solutions, which harness, enhance, and restore ecological processes and functions, can be cost-effective, with long-term beneficial implications and reductions in water, carbon, energy, and material footprints (Raymond et al 2017; Frantzeskaki et al 2019). This strategy indicates a reduction or complete elimination of the use of extracted materials to create infrastructure – infrastructure that is used to for example manage stormwater or process waste, and is replaced by natural infrastructure that delivers all these functions in a cyclical economic and efficient way. These solutions can be purely nature-based, such as the restoration or conservation of nature reserves and waterbodies, to those that have a hybridization of technology and infrastructure and ecological components and processes, such as green roofs, and water sensitive design strategies (e.g. rainwater gardens, bios wales) (Raymond et al 2017). Designing and delivering nature-based solutions is challenging and needs to be addressed from a systems’ thinking, inclusive, multi-actor, multi-level, requiring weaving of multiple knowledges, and a multidimensional approach (Frantzeskaki et al 2019; 2020). We propose addressing these challenges by using social-ecological justice as a guiding framework in charting the scaling up of nature-based solutions at city-level, or as we propose: a nature-based urbanism. Social-ecological justice brings a relational lens to issues of justice, considering not only justice to humans, but also to nonhuman nature. It also lifts the analysis of justice from only a distribution of harmful impacts and burdens on the most vulnerable groups, to one that values social-ecological systems, human-nonhuman capabilities and their interactions as active agents (Schlosberg 2013). Social -ecological justice is then framed under four dimensions: distribution, participation, recognition, and capabilities. This translates to the fair distribution of goods and harms amongst human and nonhuman nature, participation and inclusion of nonhuman nature as an active agent in socio-political processes, and the recognition of social and ecological interactions and capabilities of both human and nonhumans (Kortetmäki 2018; Schlosberg 2013).&nbsp; In line with this, we conceptualise nature-based urbanism as an alternative and transformative approach to not only exploring issues of justice in cities by expanding our notions of justice to the natural world, but also to rehabilitating, regenerating, and restoring urban nature with and for nature. <img width="3213" height="3826" width_o="3213" height_o="3826" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4854a84b14ce03aa3619906c093fe35ab9830072cdc8067f3e4d183a44aecf95/Diagram_SETS-Justice_07102020.png" data-mid="96683906" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/4854a84b14ce03aa3619906c093fe35ab9830072cdc8067f3e4d183a44aecf95/Diagram_SETS-Justice_07102020.png" />Figure 1. Diagrammatic representation of a transformative research proposal to nature-based urbanism (maps adapted from Pineda Pinto et al 2021; Victorian Planning Authority 2019 and&nbsp; types of nature-based solutions presented from Almenar et al 2021; Eggermont et al 2015). {Note: Regions in darker red expose high distribution of impacts, such as high levels of contaminated land&nbsp; and polluting uses, show low valuation or recognition of social-ecological systems, and low rates of representation of nature, for which we used indicators that are proxies for environmental care and stewardship.} Nature-based urbanism We propose four pillars for charting nature-based urbanism (Figure 1): First, for guiding urban design, planning and governance, social-ecological-technological systems approaches and justice thinking need to be weaved in together. Through its four dimension, social-ecological justice can inform and weave in the well-established social-ecological-technical systems framework (SETS), which looks at cities as an interlinked system of technical, social, and ecological components interacting and affecting each other (McPhearson et al 2016). Applying such an enriched SETs framework to on-going plans or urban regeneration programs, can result in identifying blind spots or untapped opportunities for urban planning to plan and design with nature, as well as target hotspots of injustice that require more transformative approaches (Pineda Pinto et al 2021). Second, for building a business case for nature, collected evidence and data have to be interrogated with a justice lens for more inclusive and just designs and plans. Such an approach can be instrumental for screening big data as well as for organising citizen science for designing and planning with and for nature in cities. For example, this will ensure that collected evidence and data include indigenous knowledge, practices and technologies to be part of the case for nature in cities. Third, for bringing designs and plans into implementation, an inclusive governance approach that enables co-creation with people and nature and co-management of nature in cities is important. A co-creation institutional space is instrumental for bringing together the knowledge and creativity in which a diverse range of stakeholders, from community activists, to environmental planners, designers and policy makers, collaboratively develop a roadmap of nature-based actions that respond to the diagnosed social-ecological injustices. Co-creation can result in actionable policy, planning, and design recommendations that can inform local governments and other stakeholders involved in the restoration and protection of social-ecological systems in their communities (Frantzeskaki et al 2019). All different types of NBS in cities (Almenar et al 2021; Eggermont et al 2015) have to be planned inclusively through co-creation with people and nature. Fourth, foundational to all these pillars is a science-policy-community-industry collaboration that supports and is supported by inter- and transdisciplinary research of urban social-ecological-technological systems, their innovations and transformations. A science-based and driven approach – a new form of science of cities (Batty 2003) - is important in further supporting evidence-based policy and the learning paradigm of urbanism (De Roo et al 2020). This extends to new modes of knowledge production and new sources of knowledge for positioning nature as integral in cities. Science is catalytic to paradigm shifts and urban transformations, especially for decolonising perceptions and valuing of nature and re-appreciation of urban ecologies of renatured or native landscapes (Ignatieva et al 2020). Conclusion The economy of nature, which harnesses energy from the sun, recycles materials in continuous regenerative processes, and self-balances and adapts to changes and shocks (Ricklefs 2008), provides the principles for designing our buildings, neighbourhoods, and cities. Rather than extracting, nature-based solutions add value and resources that restore, and improve ecological processes, foster long-term resilience, increase the quality of life for both humans and nature, and ensure ecosystems are sustained for future generations. Using the economy of nature, with its circular processing and regenerative capacities, we offer an ethical and responsible solution to ensuring social-ecologically just futures. This socio-ecologically justice way of envisioning cities as resilient and renourished social-ecological-technical systems, opens new opportunities for co-designing with and for nature – or as we envision, charting a nature-based urbanism for a sustainable urban planet. 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