Technical Architects : María del Hierro, Luis García Cebadera
Sponsor : Ayuntamiento de San Martín de Valdeiglesias
Courtesy of Riaño+ arquitectos
La Coracera Castle, in San Martin de Valdeiglesias, was declared Historic Heritage Site by the Comunidad de Madrid. It was built in the mid-1400s by Don Alvaro de Luna, Constable of Castile and favorite of King John II. Today it is part private and part public property. In order to revitalize it, it was planned to transform it into a multiple use space, to hold exhibitions, lectures, chamber concerts and activities relevant to its potential use as a Museum of Wine of Madrid.
Site Plan
A basic project was developed with the aim to set the standards to follow in the future restoration, protecting its lands, the nearby surroundings and the areas that could spoil the views from the fortress. The final goal was to turn it into a prime touristic and cultural facility, beyond local and regional limits. A project of this scale, financed with public funds, required very distinctive phases.
Courtesy of Riaño+ arquitectos
The keep is the outstanding volume of the castle, with a virtually square floor plan and three turrets on the east wall. The average width of the walls is more than 3 meters. Its height, from the ground to the upper terrace is around 20 meters.
Courtesy of Riaño+ arquitectos
The previous state was the product of a renovation implemented 60 years ago. It had a ground floor transformed into a wine cellar, with an access through an entrance from the same period, before the first courtyard and on the south façade. This ground level had a solid brick barrel vault completely plastered.
Por razones defensivas, las entradas se fijaron en huecos elevados. El primero por el muro de poniente,
For defensive purposes, the entrances were in high positions. The first one was on the west wall and the access was through a removable ladder that could be withdrawn in times of danger. The second was on the northeast cube, at the first floor level, and it connected with the so-called “albarrana” tower through a drawbridge.
al que debía accederse mediante escalera desmontable, que permitiera su retirada en momentos de peligro. El segundo por el hueco situado en el cubo nordeste y nivel de planta primera, que mediante puente levadizo conecta con la llamada torre albarrana.
Courtesy of Riaño+ arquitectos
The two noble floors are reached trough the stairs along the south flank. Halfway there is a small landing from which there is access to the “chemin de ronde” on one side and to the first floor on the other. On this level is what must have been the main hall, probably divided in several rooms. Following the stairs, through a flight of overhang steps of an uncertain date, we arrive to the upper room. This vaulted second floor, which combines medieval openings and more recent ones, had important water damages on the cracks along the curved surface. On this level there is a staircase inside the central turret that leads to the rooftop. The curved hall where it finished is one of the most atrocious interventions implemented in the 1940s, with poorly made mullioned windows along its perimeter, which had to be corrected with less picturesque proportions.
Sections
The solution for the former wine cellar is remarkable. Now it is a sample and wine tasting room with independent access from the outside. A metal structure, that reminds of the old metal wine racks still present in some homes, was designed a separate piece of furniture, set apart from the walls, to allow a full view of the vaulted room. The ceiling was used for a small lecture hall, with an entrance from the “plaza de armas”.
Courtesy of Riaño+ arquitectos
The stone structure is not covered when its quality and authenticity deserve it. It was cleaned and repointed with a finish similar to that of the exterior walls. A similar criterion was applied to the brick arches and vaults which, against some theories, were never un-plastered and even it they were, its state of superficial deterioration did not allow its recovery.
Courtesy of Riaño+ arquitectos
Las fábricas pétreas, se dejan vistas, siempre que su calidad y autenticidad lo aconsejen, limpias y rejuntadas con acabado similar al de los paños exteriores. Los arcos y abovedados de ladrillo pasan por un criterio similar, definiendo un revoco para las dos bóvedas de cañón, que en contra de algunas teorías, debe decirse que nunca estuvieron vistas, y aunque así hubiese sido, su estado de deterioro superficial no permite la recuperación.
Los huecos exteriores se cerraron con perfilería de acero inoxidable, tratada al chorro de arena, siempre practicables y con sección de mínimo impacto que permita la completa percepción del hueco medieval. Las dos salas principales quedan directamente conectadas por escalera de caracol metálica con tablero continúo de madera curvada en barandilla. A todo esto se accede por una nueva escalera exterior de peldañeado metálico, envuelta en dos planos paralelos de chapón de acero corten.
Courtesy of Riaño+ arquitectos
The exterior openings were closed with stainless steel profile, sandblasted, always accessible and with a minimum impact section to allow the full perception of the medieval opening. The two main halls are directly connected by a spiral staircase with a solid curved wood frame as a banister. The access to this whole area is through a new exterior staircase with metal steps, wrapped in two parallel COR-TEN steel plates.
Badlands National Park in South Dakota can seem like a formidable and forbidding landscape, but with proper planning and a sense of adventure, the park is a nature lover’s paradise year round. The spires, pinnacles and ravines, which frustrated earlier travelers, provide a visual “gateway to forever” with views that can stretch over 50 miles. Winter scenes, like this, are particularly impressive. Photo by Mike Pflaum, National Park Service.
What better way to live than having fun and being productive at the same time? Fun productivity techniques enable you to both enjoy the moment and be more productive for the rest of your life.
I’ve tried out a lot of productivity techniques and all of them ended up boring, even for productivity nerds like me. These 4 are the exceptions, though.
Here are 4 fun ways to improve your productivity and focus:
Make Everything Into a Challenge to Motivate You
This is my favorite technique when I’m going through a huge list of chores or boring work stuff. I make the list into a fun challenge — a game.
Do you say it’s impossible to turn your drudgery into entertainment? Not so. We just need a goal, a reward, and competition.
First, define the goal and the time you have to complete it in. Set a timer showing a challenging amount of time and then start the clock.
Next, you need to identify the reward to get you going. Some rewards may include:
– Watching a guilt-free movie
– Eating a snack
– Spending an hour on your hobby
After you’ve done it a couple of times, you can set out to beat your previous high score. See? It became almost as fun as a real game.
Look at Cute Baby Animals to Improve Focus
Yeah, this was a real study. Researchers presented pictures of baby animals to test subjects. The participants who looked at pictures of baby animals outperformed the ones who didn’t in tasks requiring attentional focus.
So, it isn’t a simple waste of time to look at baby animals. Before doing any work that requires focus, glance at some photos of baby animals in blogs or Reddit.
Learning to type faster (touch typing) can save you thousands of hours in your career. The average typing speed is about 40 words per minute (WPM). Increase that to 80 WPM and it halves your typing time. I’ve done that very thing with TypeRacer.
TypeRacer is an online game where you race against other players also trying to increase their writing speeds. You are using cars but it instead of fuel, they’re powered by typing. The faster you can type the quote shown, the more likely you are to win. For gamifying email, I suggest The Email Game.
TypeRacer is addictive because you want to beat the other players, your high score, and get into the top list. When I introduced it to my friends, they didn’t even think it was a productivity technique. A dozen people started playing when they had their break!
Spend More Time on Your Favorite Things by Taking Breaks
I probably don’t have to convince you that it’s fun to do whatever you find really fun. It’s actually extremely productive to take a break doing just that when your work performance starts to drop. The break then lets you recharge and get back to your desk focused. And there are even more benefits.
As long as you don’t do pseudo-work *cough* email *cough* you can spend time on your favorite hobby, gossip to your colleagues, or read an awesome book. My personal favorite is to relax by taking a walk outside. My favorite tools for scheduling those breaks are the chrome extension Toggle and the iPhone app Focus Keeper. Set the timer, work, and break when it rings.
Living an enjoyable and productive life is one of the best things you can do and I think these techniques can help you do that. Make everything into a challenge, look at baby animals, play the TypeRacer game and spend more time on hobbies by taking breaks. I hope you have a lot of fun improving your productivity.
MINIMOD CATUÇABA is a primitive retreat with a contemporary reinterpretation, which more than an object aims to become an every-remote-landscape experience.
MINIMOD presents an alternative to traditional construction: based on prefab plug&play logics, it incorporates the benefits that a newly-born industry has to offer. Quiet but not shy, its unique-in-Brazil CLT Wood-Technology combines industrialized products`efficiency and new technologies` sustainability with the sensitivity of the natural material par excellence.
MINIMOD exploration started in 2009 and still goes on. It`s very first prototype was constructed in Porto Alegre and installed near a lake in the southern wild landscapes. Happily, since then, quite a lot of new places have been explored. Both projects here presented belong to a new MINIMOD generation which inquires the idyllic Fazenda Catuçaba.
Isometric
This old Fazenda is located in the east of São Paulo Estate surrounded by a chain of coastal mountains. With undulating landscapes and dense vegetation, its captivating views invites to be explored.
Catuçaba`s MINIMODs move away from the old central house and seek the perfect terrain for being introduced. On top of a hill, on the edge of a small pond, near a stream or on the bottom of a valley; each adapts to its new landscapes to empower them.
Both MINIMOD Catuçaba have been built in a factory in an industrial town near São Paulo metropolis. They were transported separated by modules for over 150km, before being installed on site with the help of crane trucks.
Geographically, this two MINIMOD Catuçaba first units are located in different places 1.000m away from each other. So they adopt different spatial configurations as a response for each situation.
The first one, is located in a strategic position on top of a hill, taking a cross disposition on plan. Thus, each space of the shelter looks at a different cardinal point permitting a circular experience of the surrounding nature: dawn, day, sunset and night.
The second one, it`s placed turning their backs to the road and opening itself to a small pond in the south of the fazenda, the retreat is hidden among the vegetation of the place. Using the same amount of modules that the cross, but organized in a linear way, it stays parallel to the hill slope which integrates through an expansion deck.
Rafael Araujo is a Venezuelan architect and illustrator who at the age of fifteen began to observe intelligent patterns in nature, giving rise to his interest in the golden ratio located in our natural environment.
More than 40 years later, the results of this hobby is a collection of beautiful illustrations of nature made entirely by hand, equipped with a pencil, a compass, a ruler and a protractor.
The artist’s illustrations give his ability to represent the mathematical brilliance of the natural world, inciting the reunion of humans with nature.
Illustrations that seem to come from a technological team, are made entirely by hand, mixing mathematical perfection with the artistic performance of Araujo. Most of us observe a simple butterfly flutter, the artist visualizes a complex mathematical framework that regulates movements subtle flight.
Courtesy of Rafael Araujo
Through the application of growth patterns governed by golden ratio’s geometric formulas, the secrets of carefully detailed designs of natural spirals, sequences and proportions unfolds.
Courtesy of Rafael Araujo
Butterflies, sea shells, leaves, and snails, frame the lines of construction that stand out from this mathematical picture.
Through this meticulous work, which can take up to 100 hours to complete a single composition, we are able to observe the application of golden ratio that traces the pi number throughout our environment, repetitively, over and over again, with designs which clearly gravitate around this mathematical framework.
Courtesy of Rafael Araujo
Rafael Araujo has presented at CNN World, Wired Magazine, WWF, and exhibited at Stanford University and many other prestigious galleries.
Following our favorite Architecture Documentaries to Watch in 2015, our top 40 Architecture Docs to Watch in 2014, and our favourite 30 Architecture Docs to Watch in 2013, we’re looking ahead to 2017! Our latest round up presents a collection of the most critically acclaimed, popular and often under-represented films and documentaries that provoke, intrigue, inform and beguile. From biopics of Eero Saarinen, Frei Otto and Laurie Baker, to presentations of Chinese “palaces” and the architecture of Africa, Cambodia and India, these are our top picks.
Links to watch or pay-to-stream the documentaries presented have been provided where available. In some cases the films have been embedded in this article.
Building Africa: Architecture of a Continent / BBC
60 minutes (2005) / Narrated by David Adjaye
This BBC film, which originally aired in 2005, is a journey from the “eerily beautiful” mud buildings of Mali to Italian dictator Benito Mussolini’s experiment in Modernism in the State of Eritrea. Narrated by British architect David Adjaye, the film poetically untangles the cultural and imperial influences which have shaped African architecture over centuries of vernacular, colonial and post-independence architecture. From Rwanda to Ghana and South Africa, Building Africa has increasing relevance even over a decade since it was first shown.
Courtesy of BBC
Life is a Blow [A vida é um sopro] / Fabiano Maciel
2010 / Brazilian (English Subtitles)
This is the story of the great late Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer – his architecture, his passion for the opposite sex, his political turmoil and struggles, and his extraordinary biography. Filmed for almost a decade—from 1998 to 2007—Life is a Blow features appearances from the likes of José Saramago (Portuguese writer and recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature), Ferreira Gullar (a Brazilian poet, playwright, essayist and art critic) and Chico Buarque (a Brazilian singer-songwriter).
The Human Scale / Andreas Dalsgaard
77 minutes (2012) / English/Danish
This film sets out to “question our assumptions about Modernity” by exploring what happens when architects, urbanists and designers put people into the center of their equations. The Danish architect Jan Gehl has systematically studied human behavior in cities for four decades. Using his methods, thoughts and conclusions as a starting point the film takes the viewer to Melbourne, Dhaka, New York, Chongqing and Christchurch – all of which are now being inspired by Gehl’s work and by the progressive developments in Copenhagen as a result of it.
The Man Next Door [El hombre de al lado] / Mariano Cohn, Gastón Duprat
110 minutes (2010) / Spanish (English Subtitles)
Leonardo, the protagonist of The Man Next Door, is noted as “a distinguished and important industrial designer” who lives with his wife Ana, his daughter Lola, and their maid Elba. The house they live in is the only villa that Le Corbusier built in the Americas – in La Plata, Argentina. One morning, the film outlines, the routine tranquility of Leonardo’s house is interrupted by the loud noise generated by construction work beginning next door. A neighbor, Víctor, has decided to build an illegal window between the two homes – a decision which begins to obsess Leonardo until, one day, “a fortuitous event presents a controversial solution to the problem.”
Block by Block: The Men Who Built India’s Tallest Building / Landmarc Films
23 minutes (2013) / English
This is a short documentary film about the life of a unique team of Indian construction workers who are building the nation’s tallest building: the Palais Royale in Mumbai. It asks what happens to construction workers when they migrate from other parts of the country to the major metropoli. How are they housed? What are their living conditions? How do they work together as a team? According to Landmarc Films, “the objective is to make others realize the grave atrocities and unfair [and] inhumane treatment of the people who build our homes so humbly, providing them with a benchmark to follow.”
Built on Narrow Land / Malachi Conolly
64 minutes (2013) / English
Built on Narrow Land captures a particular moment in Cape Cod when “the spirit of European Modern architecture inspired a group of bohemian designers (professionals and amateurs both) to build houses that married principles of the Bauhaus to the centuries-old local architecture of seaside New England.” In 1959 however, with the establishment of the Cape Cod National Seashore, the future of these houses were unexpectedly put at risk. This film “documents an period in the history of Modern Architecture through the lens of one of the most beautiful places in the world.”
Within Formal Cities / Abe Drechsler, Brian Gaudio
2016 / English
Within Formal Cities is a film about the role of design in addressing the global housing crisis – no small ambition. “By 2050,” the directors argue, “one fourth of the global population will live in informal settlements. Many people,” they continue, “will lack adequate housing and infrastructure.” Five South American cities serve as studies: Lima, Santiago, São Paulo, Rio De Janeiro, and Bogotá. Here the filmmakers visited projects and interviewed over thirty designers, government officials, and residents in order to put together the most complete of picture of where things are, and where things are headed, to date.
Uncommon Sense: The Life and Architecture of Laurie Baker / Vineet Radhakrishnan
Forthcoming Release / English
Laurence Wilfred Baker (known as Laurie Baker) was a renowned British-born Indian architect and humanitarian. Alongside that, he was also an accomplished cartoonist, artist and innovative designer. Among other professions, he was also an architect. He once said: I think I am subconsciously often strongly influenced by nature, and much of nature’s ‘structural work’ is not straight or square. A tall reed of grass in a windy, wild terrain is a long cylinder or a hollow tube; tree trunks and stems of plants that carry fruit and leaves are usually cylindrical and not square. Curves are there to take stresses and strains and to stand up to all sorts of external forces. On top if it all, they look good and beautiful and are infinitely more elegant than straight lines of steel and concrete.” You can follow updates about the film’s forthcoming release, here.
The Man Who Built Cambodia / Christopher Rompre
Forthcoming Release / English
This is a film exploring the life and work of Vann Molyvann, an architect whose projects “came to represent a new identity for a country emerging from independence, and whose incredible story encompasses Cambodia’s turbulent journey as a modern nation.” In Cambodia’s post-independence period, Molyvann was at the center of a building renaissance, and developed a distinctive architectural style—known as New Khmer Architecture—that, according to the film, “completely changed the face of Cambodia.” Narrated by Matt Dillon, the film studies Molyvann’s “lifelong engagement with the identity of the Khmer people, and his attempt to create a unique architectural style that gives modern expression to that identity.”
The Land of Many Palaces [宫殿之城] / Adam James Smith, Song Ting
60 Minutes (2016) / English
In Ordos, China, thousands of farmers are being relocated into a new city under a government plan to modernize the region. The Land of Many Palaces follows a government official whose job is to convince these farmers that their lives will be better off in the city, and a farmer in one of the last remaining villages in the region who is pressured to move. The film “explores a process that will take shape on an enormous scale across China, since the central government announced plans to relocate 250,000,000 farmers to cities across the nation over the next twenty years.” You can stream the film, here.
Frei Otto: Spanning the Future / Simon K. Chiu, Michael Paglia, Joshua V. Hassel
2015 / English
Frei Otto: Spanning the Future is a documentary about the life and work of German architect and engineer Frei Otto – 2015 Laureate of the Pritzker Prize for Architecture. He “laid the foundation for contemporary lightweight architecture,” and his ideas remain fascinating today – decades after he first revealed them. still awe inspiring decades after he revealed them. In one of the final interviews given before his death, Otto explains how “coming of age in the years surrounding the Second World War influenced his work in tensile architecture.” The film, in its own words, “takes architecture fans on a journey through a history of architecture that inspires the world of tomorrow.”
The Destruction of Memory / Tim Slade
2016 / English
This is a film about “the war against culture, and the battle to save it.” Over the past century cultural destruction has wrought catastrophic results across the globe – and these have been increasing in frequency. “In Syria and Iraq, the ‘cradle of civilization’,” for example, “millennia of culture are being destroyed. The push to protect, salvage and rebuild has moved in step with the destruction.” Based on a book of the same name by Robert Bevan, The Destruction of Memory “tells the whole story—looking not just at the ongoing actions of Daesh (ISIS) and at other contemporary situations—revealing the decisions of the past that allowed the issue to remain hidden in the shadows for so many years.” Find out more, here.
Second Nature: A DocumentaryFilm About Janne Saario / Yves Marchon
18 Minutes (2010) / English
Second Nature is a 20 minute-long documentary film on budding Finnish landscape architect and skateboarder Janne Saario. It provides “a glimpse of Saario’s thoughts and dreams, which float between design, art and skateboarding.” Through this lens, it also reveals “the important concurrence of post-industrial areas, sustainable concepts and natural environments, and unfolds the demanding obligation, towards today’s generation and those to come, to create positive and inspiring local communities.”
Eero Saarinen: The Architect Who Saw the Future / Peter Rosen
70 Minutes (2016) / English
“A renewed interest is emerging in mid-20th Century architects and artists, who exploded the comfortable constraints of the past to create a robust and daring Modernist America.” Eero Saarinen: The Architect Who Saw the Future examines the life of an architectural giant who, in the words of Peter Rosen, “envisioned the future.” He also died young, aged only 51, leaving behind a body of pioneering work that still informs and inspires architects and designers to this day.
The Complete Living Architectures Collection / Bêka and Lemoine
10 Films / English
Renowned architectural filmmakers Bêka and Lemoine have, over the course of the Living Architectures project, developed films about and in collaboration with the likes of the Barbican in London, the Fondazione Prada, La Biennale di Venezia, Frank Gehry, Bjarke Ingels, the City of Bordeaux, the Arc en Rêve centre d’architecture, and more. Their goal in this has always been to “democratize the highbrow language of architectural criticism. […] Free speech on the topic of architecture,” Bêka has said, “is not the exclusive property of experts.” This year they have released two DVD box-sets of their entire œuvre,which was acquired by New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in 2016. Find out more, here.
While a little dated in format, Alvar Aalto: Technology and Nature is particularly interesting to watch in a time period almost ‘beyond’ mechanisation. Filmed in Finland, Italy, Germany and the USA, this documentary analyses Alvar Aalto’s “uniquely successful resolution of the demands and possibilities created by new technology and construction materials with the need to make his buildings sympathetic both to their users and to their natural surroundings.” You can stream the film, here.
If you’re like most people, the sight of an airport security line stretching all the way to the door makes your stomach drop.
In the past, you could show up a couple of hours before your flight and still have time to grab lunch before takeoff. Now, you’re left daydreaming about chips and salsa while waiting in a standstill line.
While long airport lines are an annoyance when you’re traveling for pleasure, they can be truly detrimental when you’re flying for business. After all, you don’t want to miss an important client meeting because you got held up in security. So what’s going on, and how can you avoid the worst of it?
Waiting for Trouble
Lines are expanding for a number of reasons . People are flying more than ever before, security threats are at their most public, and problems within the Transportation Security Administration itself (including management, strategy, and staffing) have prevented an adequate response so far.
In spring 2016, TSA reported a shortage of labor and more intensive searches because of increased security risks, causing lines at airports around the country to swell. Some airports have gotten so frustrated with the agency that they’re actually threatening to terminate their contracts and return their security procedures to private contractors. Lines that used to be unusually terrible have become routine, and rush hour at the airport today can take hours to navigate.
The bigger the airport, the worse the blockage seems. If you’re flying out of LAX, take along a snack. This airport averages 40-minute waits, and the longest delays last nearly two and a half hours. Not everywhere is terrible, of course. Places like Palm Beach International and Tampa International in Florida whisk their travelers through security in about 10 minutes.
Still, that doesn’t help someone flying between LAX and LaGuardia for business, so the question remains: What can savvy travelers do to avoid the longest lines?
Work Around Rush Hour
Friday afternoons are especially bad for airport security: Waits can double when business travelers head home and leisure travelers head out. Start your trip a day earlier, if possible, or grab dinner in your departure city before catching a later flight. With the lines as long as they are, you’ll probably get home around the same time anyway.
Get Prechecked
Two primary programs exist for frequent travelers: TSA PreCheck and Global Entry. TSA PreCheck puts you in an expedited line that typically takes less than five minutes. One pass is good for five years and costs just $85. If you fly with any frequency, having one will make life much easier.
If business is across the pond, Global Entry is the way to go. Not only does it include all the benefits of TSA PreCheck, but it also lets international travelers skip most of the lines when returning to the country. Global Entry costs $100 — just a bit more than TSA PreCheck.
No one ever accused airport terminals of being comfortable. However, an airport lounge can make any airport wait feel at least semicomfortable. Some premier credit cards offer lounge passes as perk to members, or you can purchase a one-day pass if you don’t travel frequently enough to justify a long-term membership.
Go Against the Flow
If you’re near a major airport and a smaller one, see whether you can route through the smaller one. Long Island MacArthur Airport in Islip, New York, doesn’t have all the amenities of JFK, but the security lines are significantly shorter on most days. It’s probably not worth it to work out a complicated route just to go through a different airport, but if all else is equal, going small can save a lot of time.
Utilize Social Media
Airport Twitter feeds and crowdsourced sites like WhatsBusy are a godsend when it comes to dodging lines. If your local airport recommends arriving earlier today, listen. You never know when arriving an hour earlier could be the difference between a 30-minute and a 90-minute wait. And wouldn’t you rather spend that extra hour sitting down?
Frequent travelers should already have game plans for going through security, but it never hurts to evaluate your routine. Slip-on shoes, easy-open backpacks, and mostly empty pockets go a long way to ensure a smooth trip through the metal detector. If you’re not sure whether something will be admissible as carry-on luggage, check online before your flight and save yourself the hassle.
You can’t get rid of security lines entirely, but these steps can eliminate most of the headache and keep you sane before takeoff. Hopefully, things will return to normal soon, but until then, follow this advice to make your trips through security as short and simple as possible.
Ethereal House is a private residence designed by Brain Factory. The 484-square-foot apartment is located in Rome, Italy. Ethereal House by Brain Factory: “Essential architectural element of this apartment located in the historic district of Pigneto in Rome is the use of the white, understood as a concept of pure intimacy and hospitality. This is the starting point in designing a contemporary space in a historic palace, mediating between the..
Sig Nordal 