In Between

In between - Proyecto, Teoria y Construcción1
Gonçalo Furtado

I
A nuestro modo de ver, la autónomia-teorica del Arquitecto, es dicir, la posibilidad de que el y su Arquitectura
hablen algo de nuevo hoy, es bastante residual.
Esto inscribe una cierta jerarquía, entre la Construcción, el Proyecto y la Teoría, que puede que haya estado
sirviendo como motor de la instrumentalización de la disciplina.
Frente a esta eventualidad se sugeriría que la disciplina desarrollase también, además de otros, un tipo de
“proyectos te’orico”, destinados a continuar el debate interminable sobre su papel cultural, antes de que tuviera
lugar un qualquer simulacro. Tal vez ya lo estemos viviendo, un simulacro en el que se instrumentaliza la teoría
y el proyecto para simplesmente servir al mundo de la construcción, y donde cualquier contributo cultural se
desvanece en su propia ritualización.
II
Se proponeria aqui debatir (más allá de la simples deconstrucción de definiciones) el enclausuramiento que la
Arquitectura ha estado asumiendo en sus versiones moderna o posmoderna iniciales más “mainstream”. Se
terminararia proponiendo la posibilidad de un Proyecto Crítico que medie la teoría y la construcción, y
contemple un papel que la primera puede asumir en la práctica proyectual de la Arquitectura Posmoderna - un
motor que permanentemente problematice el potencial proyectual y asegure una dinámica de autocrítica
disciplinar.
Para llevar a cabo esto, se poderia hacer un recuento del siglo XX... que resaltaria el desvío necesario de una
Teoría de “prescripción” para la práctica de la construcción a una “dinámica autocrítica” del Sistema
Arquitectónico en sí mismo. Una narrativa que podría empezar en las complejidades Modernas, en dónde la
Teoría operaba hacia la legitimización de una proyectación y práctica constructiva genérica, pasando a la duda
y la incredulidad, que desde la cultura del criticismo de los 60 problematizó el propósito de la práctica
arquitectónica, enfocándose en la conceptualización de formas de habitar que esta inscribe.
III
De hecho, a nuestro modo de ver, las proprias definiciones de “Arquitectura” convencionalizadas, pueden
también inscribir un atrofiamiento conceptual, tanto por lo que enfatizan como por lo que excluyen, y por eso
deben motivar una discusión.
Arquitectura? Proyecto? Teoria? Cosntruccion?
La práctica de la arquitectura a la que nos referiremos ahora y propomos no está restringida a una simple
organización de espacios, bla, bla, bla...; supone una redefinición disciplinar que reubica el papel de la teoría y
el propósito de la construcción, y se opera mediante aquello que denominamos “Proyecto Crítico”, proyecto que
es Arquitectura, que puede ser realizable constructivamente o no y cuya esencia es la discusión teórica al
interior de la disciplina con el propósito de enriquecer la disciplina misma y sus “proyecciones”.
A decir verdad, creemos que el contexto contemporáneo que confina la práctica de la arquitectura no sólo
suscita sino que hace urgente la construcción de esos proyectos críticos —disciplinar y culturalmente
pertinentes— para afrontar el futuros atendiendo las potencialidades del presente (“virtus”).
Tal esperanza es necesaria sobre todo cuando se constata, en muchas de las prácticas proyectuales y de la
crítica de la disciplina, un distanciamiento entre producción e contributo cultural.
VI
En resumen, la práctica de la arquitectura debería evitar el hecho de convertirse en un instrumento de simples
reproduccione de convenciones. Volver a debates individuales criticos, asumiendo el progresismo de toda la
producción cultural, manejando cautelosamente un programa de multiplicidade.
Claro que el éxito de estos proyectos críticos en el mainstream profesional (mas interessado en el espectaculo
pop) está castrado desde el comienzo por su invisibilidad. Los proyectos resultantes algunas veces surgen
imbuidos de una abstracción no representativa dictada por el discurso interno de la auto-referencialidad
disciplinar. Ellos son movidos por una teoría de reflexion-crítica mas que por una de prescripción.
Muchos critican este deseo de autonomía proyectual (que es algo distinto a una autonomía discursiva
disciplinar), argumentando que ella dificulta el desarrollo de una base profesional que permita involucrar y
comunicar a la arquitectura con la sociedad o cliente. Esto casi pareciera un eco de llamado por la
recuperación de un papel quasi-heroico que se perdió con los pressumidos senores “genios” de la arquitectura
moderna...(risas)
VII
La realidad es que la arquitectura en general ya demonstra hoy haber perdido la capacidad de asumir cualquier
papel distinto a reproducir el status quo. En suma, está a su servicio mis senores! Desafurtunadamente! En
razón a esto ¿no debería la arquitectura contemporánea, antes que tener un propósito misionero, criticarse a sí
misma primero que todo? Construir un espacio en el interior para la re-problematización sobre el sistema-
Arquitectura y el papel y propósito contemporáneo de la Arquitectura, y con ésto tornarse mas operativa en el
‘ambito cultural.
Se trata de una elección válida que no ambiciona difusión hegemónica ni que tampoco defiende el
hiperindividualismo actual, sino que observa el simples consenso-servico como algo problemático frente al
legado historico disciplinar y su resultado contemporáneo. Tampoco defiende la exclusión nihilista, porque está
a favor de la idea de que las transfromaciones se hacen dentro de la academia, del mundo de la construcción,
etc..
VIII
Es cierto que la excesiva reclusión en una supuesta independencia puede a veces conducir a una
responsabilidad cultural débil. Pero esa responsabilidad debe precisamente ser reconstruída hoy también (y
desde luego) desde el interior de la disciplina. (Y es por esto que necesitamos de la presencia más fuerte de
una teoría relfexiva postestructuralista en la práctica proyectual).
IX
Asi, más allá de las formas intrascendentes contemporáneas, el proyecto crítico, autónomo o constructivamente
actualizado, debe cuestionar el mundo de la construcción, los efectos de la negligente construcción moderna y
posmoderna inicial, los resultados inscritos en las convenciones teoricas, encargos y aquelo a que da expresión
física.
Parece urgente hoy diseñar estos proyectos como construcciones que sean disciplinarmente críticas mediante
lecturas subjetivas y “otras historias”, que pongan en relieve la necesidad de revalidar la intervención cultural de
la disciplina. Especulaciones heterogéneas que se resistan a cualquier totalización de ideas-convenciones y
que muestren perspectivas marginalizadas por el Aequitectura mas mainstream.
X
La Arquitectura debe permanecer simpre auto-crítica. Y projectos Críticos en nuestra postmodernidad o postmodernidad-
post deben asumir la duda en la prescripción y privilegiar el papel de la teória en la práctica del
projecto, como un motor permanente de auto-reflexino crítica y beneficio disciplinar.
Ellos buscan, desde detrás del lápiz, incubar-originar otros proyectos posibles para la disciplina de la
arquitectura en tanto creación de formas de vivir y alternativas culturales. Mas que prescrebir o meramente
reproducir, ellos simplemente pretenden contribuir a un debate que nunca debería estancarse: sobre lo que ha
venido siendo el papel y propósito cultural de la arquitectura.
G.F.






Footnote:
1 Traducción por Emma Cristina Montaña con revision de Andres Rodriguez. (version resumida en Londres sobre original de 2003/04 para publicación Express PEI).

Extra:
Para o leitor interessado em estudar a posmodernidade se sugiere la leitura de: Hal Foster (ed.), La posmodernidad, Editorial Kairos, Barcelona, 1985.
Para leituras generales en el campo de la Teoria de la Arquitectura se sugiere:
K. Michael Hays, Introduction, in: K. Michael Hays (ed.), Architecture Theory since 1968, Columbia Books of Architecture;
Neil Leach (ed.), Rethinking Architecture, London: Routledge, 1999;
Josep Maria Montaner, Arquitectura y Critica, Gustavo Gili, Barcelona, 1999; Kate Nesbitt (ed.), Theorizing a New Agenda for Architecture: An Anthology
of Architectural Theory 1965-1995, Princeton Architectural Press, New York, 199;
Joan Ockman, Introduction, in: Joan Ockman, Architecture Culture 1943-68: A documentary anthology, Rozzoli International Publications Inc., New York,
1993.
Aunque la allusion al “simulacro” sea muy indirecta, se sugere que se ves: Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and simulation, University of Michigan Press, Ann
Arbor, 1994; y Jean Baudrillard, Simulations, Semiotext(e), New York, 1983.

Technoetic Arts

Gonçalo Furtado, Cedric Price’s Generator and the Frazers’ systems research (1), in: Technoetic Arts: A Journal of Speculative Research Volume 6 Number 1, pp. 53–70.

"Keywords:
Cedric Price
John and Julia Frazer
Generator
Intelligent Architecture

Abstract:
From 1976 onwards, Cedric Price engaged in a project called Generator. This
paper focused on Cedric Price and John and Julia Frazer’ work and their
exchanges during the Generator project. The project ended up being acknowledged
as the first Intelligent Building.

Introductory Note:
This paper is based mainly in material from the Cedric Price Archives held at
the Canadian Centre for Architecture. The following abbreviations were
used: GDF for Generator Document Folio; CPA-CCA for Cedric Price Archives –
Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal; CPA for Cedric Price Architects;
C.Price for Cedric Price; J.Frazer for John Frazer, H.Gilman for Howard
Gilman. The paper is dedicated to Neil Spiller who supervised my PhD
Dissertation and to Roy Ascott who examined it. I am grateful to Oporto’s
University FAUP for their support for the realisation of the documents
“Towards a Responsive Architecture: Cedric Price’s Generator and Systems
Research (FAUP, March 2006) and “Envisioning an Evolving Environment:
The Encounters of Gordon Pask, Cedric Price and John Frazer (FAUP,
February 2007). A Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia’s scholarship fund
made this research possible (Co-financiamento do Programa Operacional
da Ciência e Inovação 2010 e do Fundo Social Europeu).
The 3 images are from John and Julia Frazer’s personal archive and
reproduced with their permission."

(1). Submitted March 2007.

IJUP 2008

IJUP 2008

20-22 Fevereiro 2008, Faculdade de Arquitectura da Universidade do Porto


"Com esta iniciativa pretende-se fomentar a participação dos alunos em eventos de índole científica, permitir que os seus trabalhos sejam divulgados junto da comunidade científica da UP e dos restantes alunos desta Universidade e incentivar a discussão interdisciplinar entre as diferentes vertentes de investigação que são desenvolvidas na UP."
Veja-se: http://ijup.up.pt

Comissão Organizadora
FAUP Prof. Gonçalo Furtado
FBAUP Dr. Dinis Cayolla Ribeiro
FCUP Prof. Jorge Teixeira Botânica
FCNAUP Dr. Hugo Valente
FDUP Dr.ª Lígia Afonso
FADEUP Prof.ª Mª Paula Santos
FEUP Prof. Luís Miguel Madeira
FEP Prof.ª Manuela Aguiar
FFUP Prof.ª Georgina Correia da Silva
FLUP Dr.ª Helena Pereira Madureira
FMUP Dr.ª Elisa Keating
FMDUP Dr. Pedro Sousa Gomes
FPCEUP Dr. Albino Lima
ICBAS Prof.ª Laura Oliveira
EGP Prof. Daniel Bessa
CEQUP / REQUIMTE Prof. Mª da Conceição Rangel
CIIMAR Prof. João Coimbra
IBMC / INEB Prof. Alexandre Quintanilha
INESC Porto Dr. Filipe Abrantes
IPATIMUP Dr.ª Maria José Oliveira
LCM-FEUP Dr. Dr. Adrián M.T. Silva
LSRE Eng.ª Sofia Rodrigues

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 20

9.00-9-30 Welcome session
Prof. Doutor José Carlos D. Marques dos Santos (Reitor da U.Porto)
Prof. Doutor João Sentieiro (Presidente da Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia)
Prof. Doutor Barata Fernandes (Presidente do Conselho Directivo da FAUP)
Prof. Doutor Gonçalo Furtado (Representante da Comissão Organizadora)


9:30-11:00 Interdisciplinary Oral Session I

11:30-13:30 Interdisciplinary Oral Session II

14:30-16:00 Workshop I
Prof. Doutor João Sentieiro (Presidente da Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia)
Dr.ª Maria João Souto (PortusPask)
Dr.ª Bárbara Costa (Fullbright na U.Porto)
Prof. Doutora Maria Fernanda Borges (FFUP, Serviço de Química Orgânica)
Prof. Doutor Dirk Elias (Fraunhofer Center de Portugal)
Dr.ª Maria Oliveira (UPIN/U.Porto)

16:00-17:00 Posters

17:00-18:30 Parallel Oral Sesion I
1.1. - Life & Helath
1.2 - Territory & Network
1.3 - Modelling & Automatic Systems

THURSDAY, FEB. 21

9:00-10:30 Parallel Oral Sessions 2
2.1 - Food & Health
2.2 - House & Living
2.3 - Nano & SUpramolecular Chemistry

11:30-13:00 Parallel Oral Sessions 3
3.1 - Life & Health
3.2 - Environment & Technical Aspects
3.3 - Architectural Perspectives

14.30 - 16.00 Workshop II
Prof.ª Doutora Maria Angélica Miglino (Universidade de S. Paulo, Brasil)
Prof. Doutor Jeffery Rankin (Rutgers - The State University of New Jersey, EUA)
Prof. Doutor Erivaldo Silva (Universidade Estadual Paulista, S. Paulo, Brasil)
Prof. Doutor Alírio Rodrigues (Director do LSRE, FEUP)
Prof.ª Doutora Lynda Gonzales (University of Texas at Austin, EUA)
Prof. Doutor José Carlos Brito (CIBIO, FCUP)
Prof. Arq Nuno Portas (FAUP)
Prof. Doutora Maria de Lurdes Correia Fernandes (FLUP, Vice-Reitora da U.Porto)
Prof. Doutora Raquel Seruca (IBMC)

16:30-18:15 Parallel Oral Sessions 4
4.1 - Green Chemistry & Environment
4.2 - Life & Work & SOciety
4.3 - Life & Health 3

18.15-18.30 - Closing Session of the Scientific Activities
Prof. Doutor Jorge Gonçalves (Vice-Reitor da U.Porto)

The shift and “Systems Thinking”

The shift of the 60s and 70s and the Acknowledgment of New Attitudes:
Notes about “Systems Thinking”
in the Language of Architecture

Gonçalo M.Furtado C.L.

Forthcoming

(in: Arq./a, Nº-"Intervenções informais", September 2008 (Forthcoming)

Cybernetics of Cybernetics

19 th European Meeting on Cybernetics and Systems Research
University of Vienna
25-28 March 2008

EMCSR 2008 Schedule

Symposium C: The Cybernetics of Cybernetics: Cybernetics, Interaction and Conversation
R. Glanville, UK
Wednesday, March 26, a.m. Room 46
11:00-11:30
Conversing with Cultural Information Systems and Reflections on the Cybernetics of Adaptive Knowledge Systems
G. Mallen, System Simulation Ltd, London, United Kingdom
11:30-12:00
Artstations Practice and a Cybernetic Canon
G. Davidson, A. Hayes, N. Tresilian, Artstation Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom
12:00-12:30
The Mechanical Homunculus
S. Gage, C. Leung, The Bartlett University College, London, UK
12:30-13:00
Holistic Cybernetics Conceived as the Result of a Gradually Lessened "Detachment of the Observer"
L. Loefgren, University of Lund, Sweden
Thursday, March 27, p.m. Room 46
14:00-14:30
"Betweeness" Developments in Conversation Theory
P. Medina-Martins, Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal
14:30-15:00
Cybernetic Contributions to a Theory of Communication: the Case of Donald M. MacKay and Gordon Pask
A. Mueller, Universitaet Wien, Austria
15:00-15:30
Understanding Interactivity: Artistic Reflections on Cybernetics
D. Galkin, Tomsk State University, Russia
15:30-16:00
Coffee Break
16:00-16:30
Analysing and Representing "Conversational Domains"
B. Scott, C. Cong, Cranfield University, Defence Academy, UK
16:30-17:00
Cedric Price and Gordon Pask: The Japan Net Experience (1986)
G.M. Furtado, Universidade do Porto, Portugal
17:00-17:30
Dangerous Gap between Culture and Nature
A. Rosicky, University of Economics Prague, Czech Republic
17:30-18:00
Conversational Environments Revisited
R. Glynn, Bartlett School of Architecture, London, UK
Friday, March 28, a.m. Room 46
11:00-11:30
Anthropic Construction of Social Systems
R. Jung, Center of Systems Research, Kutna Hora, Czech Republic
11:30-12:00
Underspecified Architecture Performatives
O. Khan, University Buffalo, NY, USA
12:00-12:30
An Intentional Reflection: The Designer Versus Variety
R. Roberts, The Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, United Kingdom
12:30-13:00
Pask at the Center
R.S. Glanville, CybernEthics Research. United Kingdom.

Cedric Price and his Engineers

UCD-University College Dublin
Centre CESUGA
IV curso - Historia y Teoría de la Arquitectura


A Coruña
25 de Febrero de 2008


Cedric Price and his Engineers: The Construction of the Critical Project

Palestra por
Professor Gonçalo Furtado
autor de:
"Generator and Beyond: Encounters of Cedric Price and Generator" et alts

cover of the old book

TWO INFINITE SCALES

MetaSpaces

“Today we live in a reality marked by digital information phenomena and, more recently, by the bio-technological […] imagination. If the first has already been evidenced, the second leads us to speculate, within the interface, upon the merging of body, technology, space, and infor-mation. In parallel, it inspires the idea of generative and mutant spaces and architectures – a future environment which, beyond a mere mechanistic responsiveness or VR imagery, is endowed with the capacity to engage crea-tively with the inhabitant and to evolve dynamically. […] The present reality, carries influences […] to the concep-tualization of the meta-territory [ie physical + digital space] itself. There are few discourses regarding the space-reality in which we are progressively living. […] In my understanding, imagining the performance of [… the] new contemporary meta-territory, inhabited by hu-mans at the convergence of the spatial and temporal, the physical and the digital, requires, in fact, some new foci. Productive hypotheses may arise from a systemic and quasi-philosophical focus, which understands the com-plexities and non-linear dynamics and the emergence that can be present in its performance (one recalls, for exam-ple, the productiveness of systems theories - beyond the equilibrium; chaotic, fractalized, and catastrophic). It seems plausible to put into perspective the Meta-territory, over all as a complex entity of interconnected components, marked by interactions and feedback in an oscillating hybrid reality between the real and the virtual. This is a system which acts beyond equilibrium, where semi-stable material and visual forms continually emerge from the dynamics of its components, interactions, fluc-tuations, and inputs. Its performance will be marked by feed-back and bio-feedback, emanating from various components, including, for instance, architecture, visual representations, the body-user, etc., and through the dy-namics of real-virtual self-organization This systemic performance, seen as an evolutionary dimensional con-tinuum, would involve innovative interfaces constituted by technologies of diverse natures, which would ensure a permanent connectivity and circularity. We perceive the possibility of an interface centered on a minute-infinitesimal scale between biotechnology and nanotech-nology and, which eventually (in limit situations) ap-proach a post-biological hybridization But, in our view, a vision that permits, and indeed requires the debate of various technologies – from nano to genetics; should safeguard our condition as human beings, instead of understanding ourselves as a mere processes of informa-tion as occurred in the past decades with some computa-tionalist perspectives in artificial intelligence. We will proceed by confronting the limit of the known with a Godelian consciousness of the incompleteness of our knowledge about our present future.”

IN:
Gonçalo Furtado, “Brief Notes on Two Infinite Scales”, in: Technoetic Arts, V.5, N.2, 2007, pp.87-96.

Arch Design

Arch. Design“The interference of the digital and the appropriation of the new technologies as a means and a support are equally being felt at the level of the environment of the project (that is, at the very level of the architec-tonical conception), which is showing the strain of the pressure of information technology and informatiza-tion that it has been undergoing for two decades now, to the extent that new instruments, methodologies and organizational practices are appearing in the carrying out of the architectural project. Architecture which has a parallel history to that of the instruments it tames is presently appropriating the new technologies. Even if diverging opinions may be aroused, it is doing without traditional instruments in favor of an efficient envi-ronment of computerized machines that plan to evolve into a ‘self-generative and self-referential’ system – a new digital environment that offers methods and ap-plications whose aim is to enable architectural activ-ity. […] In that process the development of the CAD sector should be pinpointed, understood as an instru-mental development but, most of all a methodological one, which holds the promise of an environment pro-vided with intelligence and intervention, able to pro-vide imaginative models, generative procedures (in-corporating dynamism in representation) and systems of thought based on casuistry. The new technological paradigm [also] affects working practices, which are now real networking collaborations, but also the way buildings are built and even how they function. With three-dimensional modulation supported by interfaces of instant visualization and experimentation, as well as management and manufacturing software (the ‘para-metric CAD’ and the ‘CADCAM’), the frontiers be-tween conception and production, collapse. […]. Ar-chitecture is also reconfiguring itself […] It is moving towards coexisting with new forms of human interac-tion and incorporating technologies that make possible connections to the telematic environments […]. Today we are beginning to focus on the idea of an Intelligent Architecture and to reflect upon the limits of architec-tural prosthesis. The new building valorizes the incor-poration of technology, self-regulation, interactivity and connection to cyberspace, pointing to a profound reformulation of architectural practice which, accord-ing to Ted Krueger, is centered on the behavior and the interfaces of the intelligent and interfaces of the intelligent and interactive environment. […] Ted Krueger, for his part, in “Metadermis as a second skin” claims […]: ‘Instead of an architecture that ar-ticulates intelligent impulses, we can imagine an ar-chitecture that articulates intelligent impulses, we can imagine an architecture that possesses intelligence”: Real intelligence, far from being a mere optimized management of the building. It also seems legitimate to affirm that, in a particular sphere of architecture that is not indifferent to the range of new possibilities, [in Krueger words] ‘the core of the project is moving away from shape to concentrate on the behaviors and interfaces required by intelligent and interactive envi-ronments’.”

IN:
Gonçalo Furtado, Notes on the space of Digital Technique, Oporto: Mimesis, 2002, pp.


(See also:Ted Krueger, Metadermis as a Second Skin”, in: Gonçalo Furtado and Rui Afonso (eds), Architecture-Machine and Body: Notes on the new technologies in Architecture”, Oporto: Faup Publicaçoes, 2006, pp.91-102)

the Frazers

"[...] Price placed architecture in an entirely new perspective generating models for a future architecture as yet unrealised. His astonishing range and output of projects served to explore his generic ideas about new ways of making environments responsive to the needs and desires of their users. This timely book highlights the Generator, and all Price’s projects the Generator may indeed come to be regarded as his most significant proposition."

Professor John Hamilton Frazer
Julia May Frazer

FAUP EDITORIAL

Gonçalo M. Furtado C. L.,

"Cedric Price's Generator: The History of the Project",
Oporto: Faupeditorial,
2008 (Forthcoming.)


Contents:


0 - Introduction: The first intelligent building

1 - The rise of Generator and its initial design studies
1.1. - The Gilman Paper Company
1.2 - The briefings and establishing the feasibility study
1.3 - The research continues: towards a responsive architecture
1.4 - The project validation
1.5 - Assessments and preparing a press release

2 - Consultancies and further design definition
2.1 - Fuelling technical cooperation and the soil survey
2.2 - The products survey
2.3 - The “just one” menu and the (spatial) regeneration process
2.4 - The first “Menu”
2.5 - The American front
2.6 - Specifying the building components
2.7 - The technical Reports
2.8 - The architectural drawings
2.9 - The first service systems

3 - Envisioning the building and the announcement of its suspension
3.1 - The first experience with a residence
3.2 - Setting the grid, difficulties and revisions
3.3 - The prototype and alike
3.4 - The last efforts and trip
3.5 - The service systems and last detail
3.6 - The paper simulations and a temporary break

4 - Frazer’s systems research
4.1 - Requiring Frazer’s systems consultancy
4.2 - The computational proposals and programs
4.3 - The Frazers’ research and techniques
4.4 - The Generator computer programs, models and perspectives
4.5 - The Generator’s acknowledgement as the first intelligent building and its repercussions
4.6 - The Frazer’s further research and correspondence concerning the Generator

5 - The Generator revisited
5.1 - Insights
5.2 - Design, Architecture and the Information Society

6 - Conclusion - The envisioning of an evolving environment

7 - Archival and bibliographical sources


See also:
Gonçalo M. Furtado C. L.,
"Generator and Beyond: Encounters of Cedric Price and John Frazer",
Coimbra: Semear Palavras,
2008.

IJUP 2008

IJUP 2008

20-22 Fevereiro 2008, Faculdade de Arquitectura da Universidade do Porto


"Com esta iniciativa pretende-se fomentar a participação dos alunos em eventos de índole científica, permitir que os seus trabalhos sejam divulgados junto da comunidade científica da UP e dos restantes alunos desta Universidade e incentivar a discussão interdisciplinar entre as diferentes vertentes de investigação que são desenvolvidas na UP."

Comissão Organizadora
FAUP Prof. Gonçalo Furtado
FBAUP Dr. Dinis Cayolla Ribeiro
FCUP Prof. Jorge Teixeira Botânica
FCNAUP Dr. Hugo Valente
FDUP Dr.ª Lígia Afonso
FADEUP Prof.ª Mª Paula Santos
FEUP Prof. Luís Miguel Madeira
FEP Prof.ª Manuela Aguiar
FFUP Prof.ª Georgina Correia da Silva
FLUP Dr.ª Helena Pereira Madureira
FMUP Dr.ª Elisa Keating
FMDUP Dr. Pedro Sousa Gomes
FPCEUP Dr. Albino Lima
ICBAS Prof.ª Laura Oliveira
EGP Prof. Daniel Bessa
CEQUP / REQUIMTE Prof. Mª da Conceição Rangel
CIIMAR Prof. João Coimbra
IBMC / INEB Prof. Alexandre Quintanilha
INESC Porto Dr. Filipe Abrantes
IPATIMUP Dr.ª Maria José Oliveira
LCM-FEUP Dr. Dr. Adrián M.T. Silva
LSRE Eng.ª Sofia Rodrigues

Veja-se:
http://ijup.up.pt

Thank you Joseph

After my last lecture,

I recently received an email of an american student called Joseph expressing gratitude for my (in his words)"inspiring lecture".
Joseph worked with Acconci Studio and he presents himself as "a computation based researcher focused on new emerging architectural consequences, by means of morphological design machines". I wnat to retribute his kind gesture by suggesting a look at the work of architectuREdefined.

Tracinbg Portugal at Architectural Association

GONÇALO FURTADO E PEDRO CASTELO,
NOTAS SOBRE A PRODUÇÃO ARQUITECTÓNICA PORTUGUESA E SUA CARTOGRAFIA NA ARCHITECTURAL ASSOCIATION (2004-7),
available at: http://www.artecapital.net/arq_des.php?ref=26&PHPSESSID=c106297f36861d80b734c03e3bf5f65f, acessed Fev. 2008.




TRACING PORTUGAL: Emergent Architectural Practices

Posfácio

Em finais de 2004, realizava-se na Architectural Association – a importante escola Londrina reconhecida como um dos mais activos centros de produção e disseminação da cultura arquitectónica - uma exposição centrada na produção arquitectónica portuguesa recente. Sob o explícito título “Tracing Portugal”, esta exposição realizada pelo Exhibition Team da AA com o suporte comissarial e teórico dos autores deste artigo e apoio da Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, operava uma cartografia cuja visibilidade se extendia de Inglaterra à comunidade internacional relacionada com a AA. Paralelamente, previa-se a publicação de um livro (bilingue) que incluía um enquadramento teórico pelo comissariado, pequenos textos sobre os arquitectos e projectos expostos tal como a transcrição de entrevistas sobre as suas abordagens projectuais, e uma extensa conversa com Álvaro Siza conduzida por Gonçalo Furtado sobre a arquitectura portuguesa. Embora todo o material tenha sido produzido e editado, e a sua tradução para inglês concluída, tal livro infelizmente nunca (ainda?) chegou a ver a luz do dia. Este artigo baseado no texto de enquadramento de 2004, aproveitando o convite enderessado por um dos editores da “Artecapital”, visa partilhar a supramencionada cartografia com uma audiência especificamente composta por artistas, arquitectos e outros produtores culturais portugueses.

Notas sobre a produção arquitectónica portuguesa e sua cartografia na Architectural Association

“The work of three contemporary practices: AUZProjekt, Atelier de Santos e Pedro Maurício Borges will come under the spotlight in the AA’s Front Members Room. Addressing the current directions of Architecture in Portugal and highlighting the continuities and ruptures of the architectonic production, the exhibition focuses on a new generation of architects and brings their work into a wider European context.
The exhibition is curated by Portuguese architects Pedro Castelo and Gonçalo Furtado and is supported by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.”
(in: Press release text for the “Tracing Portugal” exhibition at the AA, 2004)

Price Japan Net and Generator

SHORT V.
Gonçalo Furtado, "Cedric Price and Gordon Pask: The Japan Net Experiment (1986)", in: .
A 2007 submittion to the European Meeting on Cybernetics and Systems Research (University of Vienna, 2008)

Abstract:
This paper focus architect Cedric Price and cybernetician Gordon Pask collaboration around the almost unknown Japan Net project (1986). I state that Price’s architectural premises had a unique expression in this project due to Pask’s effort. The proposal envisioned the city as an ample evolving system, expressing Pask’s own second-order ideas and advancing a unique contribution to today’s I.S. debate on an evolving hybrid environment.
The paper is based mainly on primary sources examined in the course of my 2005 PhD research of the Cedric Price Archives held at the Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal. It benefited from a Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia’s grant (Cofinanciamento do Programa Operacional da Ciência e Inovação 2010 e do fundo social Europeu)....

SEE ALSO:

SHORT V.
Gonçalo Furtado, "The Japan Net Experience('Cedric Price, Gordon Pask and John Frazer: Generator, Japan Net and Other Responsive and Evolving Environments': Part A)",
in: Luis Borges Gouveia (ed.), “Digital Cities Summit: From Virtual World to Human World (2007)", .


Gonçalo Furtado, "Generator and Beyond: Encounters of Cedric Price and John Frazer", Coimbra: Semear Palavras, .



Gonçalo Furtado, "Cedric Price's Generator and the Frazers' System Research 1".
A 2007 submission to Technoetic Arts 6.1 edited by Roy Ascott..

"Abstract: From 1976 onwards, Cedric Price engaged in a project called Generator.
This paper focused on Cedric Price and John and Julia Frazer’ work and their exchanges during the Generator project. The project ended up being acknowledged as the first Intelligent Building.
Key words: Cedric Price, John and Julia Frazer, Generator, Intelligent Architecture."

LECTURE AT METROPOLIS

METROPOLIS
2008 EVENING LECTURES
at CCCB


Lectures 2008

08 May - OLE BOUMAN
The Urgency of Architecture = the Architecture of Urgency

15 May - MARTÍ PERAN
Post-it Cities

May - GONÇALO FURTADO
Architecture and Systems research since WWII: Encounters of Cedric Price, Gordon Pask and John Frazer and the Envisioning of Generator, Japan Net and other responsive and intelligent environments

4 June - SANTIAGO CIRUGEDA
Urban Situations. Executive Units

12 June - REINHOLD MARTIN
Multi-National City

16 June - ANTONI MUNTADAS
Spaces of Translation




Director
Xavier Costa

Head of Studies
Suzanne Strum

Founding Academic Committee
Ignasi de Solà-Morales
Hubert Damisch
Kurt W. Forster
Rosalind Krauss
Tomàs Llorens
Rafael Moneo
Werner Oechslin
Joseph Rykwert
Carl E. Schorske
Georges Teyssot
Eugenio Trías
Anthony Vidler

Presentation at XM 2003

XM EventosMimesis
+ Gonçalo Furtado 26/04 Plastic 01/05 flirt + v_ludo ... Sessão com Fausto Cruchinho, Gonçalo Furtado, Mário Vairinhos e Alexandra Beleza Moreira ...
www.xm.com.pt/eventos/eventos_2003.html

Train, Pangaro, Avery

Returning to Manhathan.
Visiting Paul at his flat and quick coffe with Reynold at Avery coffe.

Lecture in NY on Cedric Price et alts - 30 01 2008

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
30 January 2008, 6 pm
Lecture Hall


Architecture and Systems research since WWII: Encounters of Cedric Price, Gordon Pask and John Frazer and the Envisioning of Generator, Japan Net and other responsive and intelligent environments
Professor Gonçalo Furtado

"[...]Gonçalo M Furtado C Lopes [...] work is of interest to us as it is the first comprehensive scholarship to tie together the work and interrelationships between [...] three key figures in the development of British Architecture [...]. Its importance lies not in it's historical interest alone but because of the relationship of this work to key initiatives [...] that focuses on the design and development of new technologies and processes that are adaptative and responsive to environmental and programmatic transformations. [...] Gonçalo M Furtado C Lopes [...] lecture would inaugurate to the School's lecture series in 2008. It would take place in the school's lecture hall and will be open to the students, faculty of the school, the University, the Profession and the general public". (TK - RPI, New York, 14-1-2008).



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lunch with EDP in NY

speaking about my friend's collaborations with john cage.