International summer course (update) | Urban design and sustainable architecture

The international summer course in Alicante we presented a couple of months ago is finally going to happen!

So far, 14 international – from quite diverse places like the US, Ucrania, Lebanon or South Corea – and 8 local students have already registered, and the University of Alicante just extended the registration period over June, so you still have a chance to join!

Sustainability is not just an environmental issue but, and above all, a social, cultural and economic one. This course about URBAN DESIGN and SUSTAINABLE ARCHITECTURE proposes a complex incursion within the subject of sustainability understood not only as a problem but as an opportunity to meet new approaches to the city in a creative, innovative, playful and unprejudiced way.

Sustainability in an international environment: Experts in sustainability, teaching and design from all around the world meet in Alicante.
Learning by the sea: Meet friends from all around the world and enjoy the Mediterranean culture, a different way of understanding architecture, the city and life.
Challenging yourself: A fresh and playful approach to sustainable design.
Finding your way: We offer a wide variety of thematic contents as well as plenty of activities for your free time.

We will be taking part with PLAYstudio – the organizers –, Transsolar and Urban Think Tank. Looking forward to meet you there!

Place and date: University of Alicante, Alicante, Spain. 15-26th July 2013
Learn more: International summer course (by the sea) – Versión en español
Official website: summercourse.morethangreen.es

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Estudio Whitney / LOT-EK Architecture & Design

LOT-EK fue el encargado de diseñar un nuevo espacio de arte dentro del Museo de Arte Americano Whitney. El proyecto del Estudio Whitney incluye un espacio para la realización de clases de arte y charlas informales,además de funcionar como una galería para exposiciones.

© Danny Bright

Durante su traslado al nuevo edificio, el Museo Whitney tuvo la necesidad de abrir un nuevo espacio educativo. Con la intención de genera una sinergia significativa entre estas actividades y el museo, el departamento de educación pidió a los arquitectos de LOT-EK diseñar una estructura que encaje dentro del espacio existente.

© Danny Bright

El proyecto se compone de 6 contenedores de acero apilados en dos niveles para formar un cubo conciso y minimalista. La estructura se ubica en el lado sur del puente de entrada, complementando y contrastando con el interior de hormigón del museo. El volumen se corta en dos planos diagonales que crean una perforación continua – y una ruptura visual – que se extiende a lo largo de los lados hasta el techo, creando un gran tragaluz. El diseño de las ventanas permiten a los visitantes observar las actividades que se realizan en el interior. El interior de la galería es un espacio abierto, de doble altura, que incluye un altillo triangular para la producción y exhibición de obras de arte.

© Danny Bright

Los seis contenedores se modificaron, reforzaron y pintaron en una fábrica de Nueva Jersey. Los módulos fueron transportados al Museo Whitney, donde fueron encajados cuidadosamente en el mismo lugar para conformar este cubo del arte.

Corte

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Philharmonie de Paris: a design turned £300m 'bottomless pit'

A model of the Philharmonie de Paris concert hall, designed by the French architect Jean Nouvel. Photograph: Jean Ayissi/AFP/Getty Images

Just as François Hollande's cash-strapped government pulls the plug on a score of expensive French state arts projects launched by his rightwing predecessor, one exorbitant aluminium structure has bucked the trend.

Paris's futuristic new classical concert venue, the Philharmonie de Paris – a vast metal construction which promises to transform the northern Paris skyline – is on track to become one of the world's most expensive concert halls despite attempts by some politicians to block it because of its spiralling price tag.

State auditors have also expressed gripes, but the government has decided the building work is so far advanced that nothing can halt the cultural juggernaut. It is likely to open its doors, two years late, in 2015, after delays, suspension, rows and rocketing budgets – and after having more than doubled in cost to a staggering €387m (£316m).

The 2,400-seat concert hall will sit in the Parc de la Villette, on the north-east edge of Paris, near the city's peripheral ring road and the grey dual carriageways that lead to the rundown suburbs.

Its creators argue that it will not only end Paris's long-running shame about its lack of purpose-built classical music venues to match Berlin or London, but it will revolutionise attendances by attracting, young, "non-elitist" classical concert audiences.

The extravagant metal-encased building, likened to a stack of giant paving stones reflecting the city, is the latest Paris creation by the French "starchitect" Jean Nouvel, whose previous designs include the Institut du Monde Arabe and the controversial Quai Branly ethnographic museum.

He has described the Philharmonie as "the most prestigious project" of his career. The planned metal-clad roof is likened to a hill which visitors can climb. The 52m (170ft)-high aluminium slab at the top, which will have the concert listings projected on it, will be visible from the ring road so people sitting in traffic on the famously drab, grey motorway can see what's on.

But French state auditors have warned of the "exorbitant inflation in costs" of the project that is publicly funded by the state and the city of Paris. Another senate report complained of a "worrying drift" in the budget, asking whether the project really had to be so "grand" and did Paris really need it?

The green party in Paris angrily abstained from a vote to grant more city cash, warning of a "bottomless pit" for the public purse in a time of financial crisis. Paris city hall defended the project as "more than just a concert hall", calling it a daring and necessary bid to renew classical music audiences.

While several other cultural projects are to be shelved, including Nicolas Sarkozy's controversial pet project for a new national history museum, the Socialist Hollande might now end up having to borrow Sarkozy's own cultural catchphrase uttered in defence of the criticised exorbitant state funding of the Philharmonie: "Who can argue that in this time of crisis we don't need music?"

• This article was amended on 10 January 2013 because the original said Philharmonie de Paris is on track to become the world's most expensive concert hall. This has been corrected to say one of the world's most expensive concert halls.

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Silla ENEA / MUT Design

Esta silla mecedora ha sido creada por el español Alberto Sánchez, del estudio de diseño MUT Design. Para ellos, la artesanía y las costumbres locales son la base conceptual del proyecto, que le imprimen al producto un carácter único y genuino, combinando el trabajo hecho a mano -capaz de transmitir la cultura propia de un lugar- con formas estructurales contemporáneas.

Cortesía de MUT Design

ENEA busca el bienestar del individuo tanto en su funcionalidad, como en el componente emocional y placer percibido, como el recuerdo y añoranza.

Cortesía de MUT Design

ENEA es una alegoría a la naturaleza y a lo tradicional, que nos transmite bienestar, armonía, cultura y tradición…

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