Architecture Design Studio 4 + 6
International Studio 18/19- University of Alicante
THE THINKBELT
The TRAM experience
ON SAFEFY PINS AND OTHER GOOD DESIGNS
Many changes have been in the architecture profession since Journey to the East was written: A diary of Le Corbusier’s trip in 1911. This book is a collection of visual notations, or impressions perceived by Le Corbusier as a visitor to a number of cities in Southeast Europe. Later, the acquired disciplinary knowledge acted as an inspiration for his architecture.
This year we have organized an integrated course travelling to the unknown: to places that have awakened in each of us a need to learn from the local, its technology, culture and society; consolidating links of specialisation. It is also an experience to empathize Architecture as a Comparative Study, learning as a trip, a journey as an experience.
We will discuss and go with our proposals and designs in our trips by Tram along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, redefining the limits of architecture by working with the unknown as a way to build up a research.
Professors: Joaquín Alvado Bañón / Javier Sánchez Merina
1. Design is concerned with the conscious distortion of time, distance, and size. If it achieves none of these distortions, it is unlikely to be more than the elaboration of the “status quo.”
- The apparent but unreal inevitability of the design of the safety pin is my definition of “good” design. It is the recognition, in time, of the usefulness and delight of the object (or system) that really establishes a consensus of the quality of the design.
- It does not matter who designed the safety pin – we should just be delighted that they did.
- The value of permanence must be proven, not merely assumed.
- Why don’t umbrellas disintegrate in sunshine – or at least grow in the rain?
- The house is no longer acceptable as a pre-set ordering mechanism for family life. Housing is rapidly becoming a consumable commodity. This is a major motivational force in the individual’s and family’s use of the house.
- While increasing the world’s food supply or developing automation can be seen to be beneficial, there is little evidence to support the view that new houses or new towns, as we now know them, would increase human happiness.
- Central to the activital shortfall is the inability of architects and planners to concentrate with sufficient expertise on the environmental servicing of people.
- “How little need be done?” should be the designer’s first question. Then perhaps we would no longer have to pay people to paint TURN LEFT underneath arrows on the roadway.
- The second question might be, “For how long is this successful?” The acceptance of the redundancy of design by the designer is essential. At present, it is left to the rest of the community to do this. However, until the designer becomes concerned with determining the rate of redundancy of his design – not merely the life of the product – we will continue to electrify the grandfather clock rather than hand out wristwatches.
- Shortage of time is likely to become an increasingly large element in the conscious design process: not merely in achieving a particular means but even in deciding whether there is time to bother designing such a means.
- No one should be interested in the design of bridges – they should be concerned with how to get to the other side.
Cedric Price. 12 design maxims
Bibliography:
https://032c.com/cedric-price-proclamations/
https://032c.com/2001/limited-life-span-of-cities/
| THE THINKBELT AGENDA | |||
| Week | Day | ||
| 1 | 14-sep | Presentation | |
| 2 | 21-sep | BENIDORM | |
| 3 | 28-sep | Workshop MAP | |
| 4 | 05-oct | EL CAMPELLO | |
| 5 | |||
| 6 | 19-oct | ||
| 7 | 26-oct | Presentation MAP | |
| 8 | 02-nov | Workshop TRAM | |
| 9 | 09-nov | Workshop TRAM | |
| 10 | 16-nov | ALTEA | |
| 11 | 23-nov | Presentation TRAM | |
| 12 | 30-nov | Workshop THE THINKBELT | |
| 13 | 07-dic | Workshop THE THINKBELT | |
| 14 | 14-dic | Workshop THE THINKBELT | |
| 15 | 21-dic | Exhibition | |