tom fryer

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Hans Hollein Transformations 08

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Jarmund/Vigsnæs AS Architects

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Claude Parent. Supermarket.

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Murmuration.

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ESdM

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Grafton. 

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As a postscript to Cartagena, I can't help but zoom in a little. The old city is full of buildings that seem to be slight adaptations of southern Spanish styles; formally,　massing is characterized by bulk and weight, and apertures are reduced to the bare minimum for ventilation, helping to negate the incredible heat and humidity of the city. These altered styles rise from the bedrock of the city - as coral. Church and cathedral facades offer sectional cuts through the detailed and directional structure of the coral, creating granular variations and movement in the material. But the most notable aspect of the tectonic is the direct translation of european architectural elements - all the orders, pediments, friezes and ornament - into this local material. The coral does not have the material characteristics to adapt these elements with the same resolution, but the effect is one of powerfully rusticated ornament, or a low-res proxy that works with a new dynamism in the intense Caribbean light.

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The Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas (1657) is Spain's largest and most sophisticated fortification in the new world. The faceted structure is a complete modification of an existing hill, with the form articulating clearly the four main defensive threats that the site faced. The seamless architecturalisation of the landscape strikes me as contemporary, and is reinforced by the ambulatories (now open to the public) that permit level changes and transition between the defensively separate sections of the complex.

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Preview. Thanks Camilo!

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Attended the Ambientes Urbanos; el reto de la sostenibilidad last week at Medellin's EAFIT University. Harvard Landscape Architecture's Christian Werthmann delivered a great talk on the new role that landscape design has in informal developments, like those that are so prominent and specific in Medellin. But the highlight was ARUP's Peter Head, who described a future where critical design improvements could be achieved by the adjacent positioning (even overlapping) of urban and agricultural precincts. His proposition was a welcome rejection of an idea I had become convinced of; extremely high density urban centres positioned in a sea of agro-monocultures. His concept acknowledged a model that values a patchwork of high density and agricultural landscapes. In the video you can see the same concepts at work retrofitting an English city center, from the block-scale up.

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Spent an excellent day with Carlos Pardo of Obranegra. Carlos has developed a cluster of residential projects at the high-altitude city limits of Medellin. By taking the role of developer, and by managing the construction side of the projects, he is able to closely control his outcomes. His Edificio Guayacan de Avinon exploits the climate of the city to become formally open in a sequence of public spaces, while articulating individual habitations by using the architectural gestures of the city's informal settlements.

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I was beginning to think that new Colombian urbanism was about public space fronting formal experimentation. Then I saw the economies of the Parque Bibioteca Belen - a Tokyo University Architecture Faculty/Hiroshi Naito collaboration. Crude boxes enclosing the strongly articulated structure of the interiors, and a huge reflecting pool that denies the pedestrian access so critical to the rest of Medellin's new projects.

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Playing detective.

An interview with Alejandro Echeverri, former director of urban projects in Medellin under Mayor Sergio Fajardo. Transformative political figures and their architects.

How it happened here?

Courtesy of Innovations for Successful Societies.

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4 Escenarios Desportivos, Plan B + Mazzanti Arquitectos