Collage 02: Concept & Ideas

Collages by EMBT: Enric Mirailles Benedetta Tagliabue Architects:

Collage is simple technique of cutting, placing and sticking, yet in the process one is selecting and discarding and (wittingly or unwittingly) remembering and forgetting. The process of selection fine tunes what you are really interested in; it will help you figure out and then communicate what is at the core of your project... 

Miralles: 'Collage of Ideas'

"a collage is a document that fixes a thought in a place, but it fixes it in a vague way, deformed and deformable; it fixes a reality in order to be able to work with it."  Enric Miralles 

EMBT: Bremerhaven College

EMBT: Capriccio Romano, Spanish Academy, Rome 

EMBT: Rome Parochial Centre Proposal, 1994

EMBT: Buggerru Tourist Village Project, 1994

EMBT: Parc Diagonal Mar

EMBT: San Giacomo Church in Ferrara, Italy

EMBT: San Giacomo Church in Ferrara, Italy

EMBT: Barajas Social Housing

All images courtesy © Miralles Tagliabue EMBT

Read more about EMBT and their collaging techniques, development and theory here: http://collageandarchitecture.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/SBuell_EMBT_CollageMonograph.pdf

How to study a public space?... ask William H. Whyte the father of public space analysis

The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces - LINK TO FILM - WATCH ME!

The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces - LINK TO BOOK

Today there were many conversations on public space, how to analyse it, how to know if it is successful, loved, used, or not working well enough... and what ingredients make a public space successful. We discussed developing criteria for this kind of analysis; desire lines, demographic  routes, opportunities to sit, sunlight, activation, overlooking, play,.... the list could go on and on.... This is the sort of thing William Whyte tackled over many years studying public spaces in NYC. 

The book is very well structured and will give you great advice on how to analyse public spaces. The film too.. I highly recommend this to anyone! 

Draw EVERYTHING: ScanLAB Projects

Check out ScanLAB Projects for some beautiful 3D drawings, animations and models which they create by scanning spaces using the latest 3D laser scanning technology to conduct point cloud surveys. In their own words; "This allows us to digitally map the world in 3D: everything from large scale cityscapes to small industrial components" 

I've put some images from their website below, but do go to their webpage for more information on what they do and how they do it.. it is fascinating. 

http://scanlabprojects.co.uk


Arctic climate impact tour: 

 

Noise: Error in the Void:

3D Building Surveys: 

All the images are for reference only, copyright ScanLAB Projects. 
Refer to their website for more information. 

Some samples of Georges Perec's wonderful writing...

Yesterday we mentioned Georges Perec whilst discussing the possibility of drawing everything that happened in the square during the whole of Cinema Paradiso or the lifetime of the space... Perec has written some wonderful texts in which he tries to capture absolutely everything that happens in a space over a huge expanse of time... 

Check out "Life a Users Manual" 

"In this ingenious book Perec creates an entire microcosm in a Paris apartment block. Serge Valene wants to make an elaborate painting of the building he has made his home for the last sixty years. As he plans his picture, he contemplates the lives of all the people he has ever known there. Chapter by chapter, the narrative moves around the building revealing a marvellously diverse cast of characters in a series of every more unlikely tales, which range from an avenging murderer to an eccentric English millionaire who has devised the ultimate pastime..."

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Life-Users-Manual-Georges-Perec/dp/0099449250

And "Species of Spaces and Other Stories" for some mind-blowing reading: