In 1797 the Spanish artist Francisco de Goya produced a series of 80 etchings collectively titled Los Caprichos, of which plate 43, El sueño de la razón produce monstruos (The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters), became its most emblematic. Each print offered a condemnation of different factions within eighteenth-century Spanish society, from the ignorance of the ruling class to the mysticism of the clergy – caricatures so grotesque and uncompromising that in 1799 Goya was forced to retract the series from the art market.

More than a century and a half later, the Italian architectural collective Superstudio produced their own series of collages titled Il Monumento Continuo (The Continuous Monument) as a critique of what they considered two prevailing falsehoods. As defined by Superstudio’s Adolfo Natalini, ‘The first maintained that technology was going to solve everything, and the other that the monument was the most powerful way for society to express itself. So in order to demonstrate that both ideas were false, we put them together and pushed them to reveal their extreme consequences.’ But in contrast to Los Caprichos, the resulting collages turned out to be so beautiful that rather than understanding them in the way they were intended, as an anti-utopia, architects fell in love with them to the extent that they became a new architectural typology. As Natalini joked in 1970, after first seeing Cesar Pelli’s US buildings, he could immediately stop making collages of continuous monuments because reality had far surpassed his dystopian fantasies.

Given this pre-history, we may well be too late with our own O’Mighty Green critique. This began as a virtual attack on the green demagogy that has been spreading so rapidly in the name of sustainability, but which more recently has been overtaken by the opulent, fecund green coats that so many buildings seem to physically sport these days. These new green archi-creatures have become caricatures of the sustainable ideology they so noisily champion. But look closely, and all that glitters is not gold, and all that is green is not sustainable. Architecture needs to wake up from the cosy naturalism of its dreamy sustainability. The sleep of reason produces monsters; very green and hairy monsters.

↑image above: The Sleep of Reason Produces very Green Hairy Monsters, Goya, 1797

(Download O’ Mighty Green FULL text in English, Spanish and Dutch HERE)

Video 1: In Dreams

Video 2: Bein’ Green

O’ Mighty Green
Complete text 2011

0. Introduction
Sustainability currently shares many qualities with God; supreme concept, omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient; creator and judge, protector, and (…) saviour of the universe and the humanity. And, like God, it has millions of believers. Since we humans are relatively simpleminded and suspicious and need evidence before belief can become conviction, Green has come to represent sustainability; has become its incarnation in the human world. But sustainability, like God, might not have a form, nor a colour…

1. Emancipation
1.1 The word Sustainability has been raped, abused, and insulted by architects, politicians, advertisers …in essence, by everybody. The musical harmony in the perfect trio – the social, the environmental, and the economic – is eclipsed by a simplistic solo performance of the environmental, entitled the Green.

1.2 In a desperate attempt to give shape to an all-encompassing ideology the Green proves to work as the quickest and easiest representation of sustainability. The Green is the only symbol able to keep pace with today’s lack of patience and hunger for images; a Lady Gaga-Sustainability: effective, noticeable, creative, sensationalist. In a persistent effort to become the allegory of Sustainability, Green has been emancipated as its caricature.

1.3 The simplification of the initial idea is so extreme that Green does not even need to be nature, or natural, it may just as well be plastic and painted. Look around… you’ll see a green facade, green embellishments, walls painted green, a green McDonald’s sign, a green website, a green papier-mâché shop window; the Green City is here.

Berlin Eco-Wall, 1989

2. Function
2.1 If the Iconic buildings simply needed to be iconic, the Green buildings simply need to be green. The situation could not get more superficial: Green as a function. Green allows sustainability to be bought per m2, or to be painted on, or glued on. Sustainability is a Photoshop filter in CS6: Ctrl+Green.
Similar to the Icons, the Green is also providing identity, generic identity.

2.2 Although the thought initially came with the best of intentions, as every good idea these days, it needed to be simplified by a factor of a hundred to be stripped of any meaning in order to be successfully commercialized. Only then could it be digested by the masses. Somehow it looks very democratic… Just as a fake Prada bag allows every woman to feel the sensation of Prada and carry its status.

2.3 The repeated-until-it-hurts pretext that at least people are aware of sustainability had an effect; but the attention was diverted from the main concern. People are more likely to buy Green products, juries in competitions are delighted by Green epic stories, and politicians know that playing the Green card is always safe; impeccable demagogy.

2.4 If all the visions for city design and all the architecture competitions won with the powers of Green were realized the city would be turned into a sophisticated version of the current Chernobyl Alienation Zone (See Pripyat in spring).

2.5 Green walls are being commercialized as interior space dividers too. They are made of Norwegian reindeer moss (the stuff for the trees in model train sets) as a huge cemetery of nature, with excellent natural acoustics. These dust collectors can be produced in 20 different colours; a white Green Wall, a red Green Wall, a violet Green Wall, to match with the other decorations.

Il Monumento Continuo e Sostenibile, NewYork      © Original Superstudio, courtesy of Adolfo Natalini

3. Style
3.1 Modernism, Postmodernism, Deconstructivism… We have now definitely entered Sustainabilism. Unlike in previous movements every architect can be a Sustainabilist: whether avant-garde, commercial, young, established… It can be even combined with other styles: Eco-Deconstructivism, Green Postmodernism… It is the democratic style. Architectural magazines and commercial brochures found a common language: the Green. Green is also the point on which the architect, the client, the developer, the politician, and the user agree. It is fantastic. Green flattens out the differences; it is the saviour of the Tower of Babel; we will finally reach the Heavens.  For the first time ever we have a genuine International Style; from Madrid to Copenhagen, to Dallas, to Istanbul. The Green is so superior that it works everywhere; it is the wining style, the global victor – though this could make it terribly unsustainable. Unlike other styles – imagine an entire city planned on Deconstructivism – it is possible to have an entire city built on Green. It can be implemented everywhere and on every scale; a skyscraper or a small private house, even an interior space – all is possible. It can accommodate any taste: Green can be applied and treated as a hairstyle: long and fluffy, thick and compact, partly shaved creating ornaments.
3.2 Green buildings can be Ducks or Decorated sheds, and there are some interesting cases of being both at the same time: the Decorated Ducks.

3.3 Green should be added as the sixth principle to Le Corbusier’s five points, and as the fourth quality to Vitruvius’ triad: Venustas, Utilitas, Firmitas and Sustinebilitas

3.4 The built … product of Sustainability is not sustainable architecture but Green. Green is what remains after Sustainability has run its course or, more precisely, what coagulates while Sustainability is in progress, its fallout…  (Taken from Rem Koolhaas text: Junkspace, and substituting: Modernity for Sustainability and Junkspace for Green)

3.5 Green is the new Black.

Environmentally Friendly Nuclear Power Plant, Dukovany

4. Religion
4.1 Green works as faith. The Catholic Church will need to add Saint Green to its Roman Calendar. Saint Green will watch over the sustainable architects, and will guide them in the green direction. If we pray to him every day Saint Green will compensate our veneration: politicians obtain more votes, architects win more competitions, and companies sell more products…

4.2Green works in mysterious ways…Architects who are not really sustainable call themselves Green, while the architects that seriously care don’t like to be called Green.

4.3 Oh Lord, blessed be the Daltonics who will see more green than others… and help those who see Red where there is Green.

4.4Green works as confession. The guiltier we feel, the greener we try. The green-looking is usually indirectly proportional to its sustainability achievements. Green has the capacity of reducing all that matters to one single problem, and one single solution: Green. Green is able to absolve all our sins.

4.5Green is double-miraculous. As if trying to heal cancer with aspirins, Green is the phenomenal formula that turns sustainable everything that it touches. It can also hide graceless designs. ‘When all candles be out, all cats be gray’. Ugly Green buildings are more readily accepted than ugly buildings.

4.6 Green is able to enlighten us retroactively. We architects rewrite our full history according to sustainability; what we did once with common sense, we now brand as sustainable; back then, we were already unconsciously under the influence of Green…as real visionaries.

5. Ambiguity
5.1 But the Green also hides a perverse dimension… As in a David Lynch movie; everything appears to be calm and harmonious but there is something disturbing… rotting… The Green is the common lie, the secret consensus, the perfect crime; everybody knows that it cannot be that good, that it cannot be that easy, but why bother? It sells, and there is enough Green for everybody.  A new kind of (friendly) intimidation: Green terrorism.

5.2 Green suffers from split personalities; Green gurus, Green followers, Green saviours…. preaching contradictory statements. But this seems not to be a problem, as long as it is Green, because everybody likes – has to like - Green. If not, he is considered a horrible human being.  The exponential need for public approval makes Green the instrument par excellence. Green: I Like.

5.3 The Microsoft dictionary for Word in Spanish offers the following synonyms for Green: Obscene, indecent, improper, dishonest, free, and gross. In English, apart from those referring to the colour, it offers: immature and inexpert.

5.4 Here we are now, entertainers.

6. Appendix
The relation between some architects and Green reminds us of the “discovery” of the Americas, not only was the “New World” always there; but these architects  will remain as happily mistaken as Christopher Columbus was… convinced that he had landed in the East Indies.

Parable
A long time ago in a not so faraway land, a deep economic crisis and a need for identity accelerated the creation of the Green City. In the Green City all companies changed their logos to Green or to vegetable motives. They only provided green products and eco-friendly services. Its inhabitants lived in healthy competition with one another to be the greenest of them all. In the Green City, Nuclear Power Plants were eco-friendly. Black and white movies were green too. In the Green City the powers of Green were so strong that they could alleviate the shame of the past: concentration camps, Berlin walls…, any moment of history could become sustainable retroactively. Green acquired confessional status and could absolve any sins. In the Green City military uniforms were the ultimate fashion, the Hulk was a superhero, and Chernobyl’s Zone the most booked green holiday destination. Architects were overexcited in their use of the Green. Facades, roofs, partition walls… everything that could be clad, was clad by Green. But behind the scenes the Green Bubble was growing out of control… Nobody dared to mention it and in an attack of greed, fearing the end of this cash cow, they started using Green psychotically. The Green City turned into a seemingly boundless golf course. The confusion was colossal and in a Saturnial act the Green City started devouring its inhabitants. But then, and only at that point, a second Age of Enlightenment began to flourish… The surviving inhabitants slowly awakened and did no longer need to see the Green to believe in Sustainability – as they did not need to see the pillars to believe in structural stability – and the Green City began to fade away slowly…The Green mucus was cleaned away, the Green parties were obsolete and McDonald’s became red again.
The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, very Green Hairy Monsters.

Eco-friendly Villa Savoya, Poissy – Le Corbusier, 1929

O’ Mighty Green
Summary, 2011

0. Introduction
Sustainability currently shares many qualities with God; supreme concept, omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient; creator and judge, protector, and (…) saviour of the universe and the humanity. And, like God, it has millions of believers. Since we humans are relatively simpleminded and suspicious and need evidence before belief can become conviction, Green has come to represent sustainability; has become its incarnation in the human world. But sustainability, like God, might not have a form, nor a colour…

1. Emancipation
In a desperate attempt to give shape to an all-encompassing ideology the Green proves to work as the quickest and easiest representation of sustainability. The Green is the only symbol able to keep pace with today’s lack of patience and hunger for images; a Lady Gaga-Sustainability: effective, noticeable, creative, sensationalist. In a persistent effort to become the allegory of Sustainability, Green has been emancipated as its caricature.

2. Function
If the Iconic buildings simply needed to be iconic, the Green buildings simply need to be green. Green as a function. Green allows sustainability to be bought per m2, or to be painted on, or glued on. Sustainability is a Photoshop filter in CS6: Ctrl+Green.

3. Style
Modernism, Postmodernism, Deconstructivism… We have now definitely entered Sustainabilism. Unlike in previous movements every architect can be a Sustainabilist: whether avant-garde, commercial, young, established… It can be even combined with other styles: Eco-Deconstructivism … Architectural magazines and commercial brochures found a common language: the Green. Green is also the point on which the architect, the client, the developer, the politician, and the user agree. For the first time ever we have a genuine International Style.
-Green buildings can be Ducks or Decorated sheds, and there are some interesting cases of being both at the same time: the Decorated Ducks.
-Green should be added as the sixth principle to Le Corbusier’s five points, and as the fourth quality to Vitruvius’ triad: Venustas, Utilitas, Firmitas and Sustinebilitas
-The built … product of Sustainability is not sustainable architecture but Green. Green is what remains after Sustainability has run its course or, more precisely, what coagulates while Sustainability is in progress, its fallout… (Taken from Rem Koolhaas text: Junkspace, and substituting: Modernity for Sustainability and Junkspace for Green)
-Green is the New Black.

4. Religion
-Green works as faith. Saint Green will watch over the sustainable architects, and will guide them in the Green direction.
-Green works as confession. The guiltier we feel, the greener we try. The green-looking is usually indirectly proportional to its sustainability achievements. Green has the capacity of reducing all that matters to one single problem, and one single solution: Green.
-Green is double-miraculous. As if trying to heal cancer with aspirins, Green is the phenomenal formula that turns sustainable everything that it touches. It can also hide graceless designs. Ugly Green buildings are more readily accepted than ugly buildings.

5. Ambiguity
But the Green also hides a perverse dimension… As in a David Lynch movie; everything appears to be calm and harmonious but there is something disturbing… rotting… The Green is the common lie, the secret consensus, the perfect crime; everybody knows that it cannot be that good, that it cannot be that easy, but why bother? It sells, and there is enough Green for everybody.
 

Sustainable Concentration Camp Auschwitz I, 1940

Eco-Pantheon, Rome 126AD

Sustainable Cenotaph for Isaac Newton – Boullée, 1784

Sustainable Santo Spirito, Florence

Berlin Eco-Wall, 1989

Berlin Eco-Wall, 1989

EcoHouse for Josephine Baker

Eco-friendly Villa La Rotonda, Vicenza – Palladio, 1566

Sustainable Wind Turbines

Barcelona, Green City

Sustainable Catholicism: Green Crucifixion (Corpus Hypercubus) – Dali 1954

Saint Green, Patron Saint of the Sustainable Architects

Sustainable Barcelona Pavilion

 
- – -

Title: O’ Mighty Green / Oh Verde Todopoderoso
Project Name: O’ Mighty Green / Oh Verde Todopoderoso
Date: September 2010 – April 2012
Type: Self-initiated study
Location: -
Site: -
Programme: Critical study about the abuse of Green in Architecture
Surface: 2500 words + 19 images + 2 videos
Status: Published – Exhibited
Client: Self-Initiative
Budget: N/A
Awards:
- HONORABLE MENTION in EME3 festival 2011
- SELECTED for ARQUIA-PROXIMA 2012
Publications:
- eVolo #04 United States, May 2012
- Panorama Arquitectura #2, Spain, April 2012
- AAfiles #64, United Kindom, April 2012
- Abitare#15, Bulgaria, February 2012
- ADA Architecture Design Art #17, Pakistan, January 2012
- BU Bouw+Uitvoering  #1-2012, the Netherlands, January 2012
- SPACE magazine, Philippines, January 2012
- Plot #6-2011, Argentina, December, 2011
- Yapi # 361, Turkey, December, 2011
- Revista AIA #116, Paraguay, November 2011
- Architect and Interiors India #8-vol.3, November, 2011
- 90×60 – Revista Experimental de Arquitectura, Mexico, November, 2011
- Revista AIA #116, Paraguay, November, 2011
- Domus #16 (Israel Edition), Israel, November, 2011
- Namas Ir As #122, Lithuania, November, 2011
- Architektur #07 Nov, Austria, November, 2011
- MONU magazine on urbanism #15 Post-Ideological Urbanism, the Netherlands, November, 2011
- PIN-UP #11, United States of America, November, 2011
- Hinge #194, Hong Kong, November, 2011
- Miradas Para Un Cambio De Paradigma vol.1, Spain, November 2011
- Architecture+Design #150, India, October, 2011
- Horizonte #4, Germany, October, 2011
- АрхИдея – Archidea, #10 (85), Ukraine, October, 2011
- Ecologik #23, France, October November 2011
- Revista Trama #108, Ecuador, October November, 2011
- Zeppelin #98, Romania, October, 2011
- Leven op Daken #15, the Netherlands, October, 2011
- Diseño Interior #230, Spain, September, 2011
- Architectuur NL #06, 2011, the Netherlands, September, 2011
- Arhitekton #11, Serbia, September October November, 2011
- The Architectural Review #1374, United Kingdom, August, 2011
- CASABELLA #804, Italy, August, 2011
- Tuin&Landschap #16, the Netherlands, August, 2011
- RUM, Sweden, July 2011
- PI.MAG Peachvelvet International Magazine, Portugal, July August September, 2011
- Eme3_2011  #6th International Architecture Festival, Barcelona, Spain June/July, 2011
- La Vanguardia #02-07-2011 Barcelona, Spain, July, 2011
- Casa 24 Plus, Il Sole 24 Ore, Milan, Italy, June, 2011
Exhibitions:
- Eme3 International Architecture Festival, COAC Barcelona, Spain. July 1-3, 2011
- ARQUIA-PROXIMA 2012, Travelling Exhibition in Spain (places and dates to be confirmed)
STAR Team:
Idea, concept, texts: Beatriz Ramo
Development and production images 2011: Beatriz Ramo, Francesca Rizzetto with the help of Milou Wijsbeck in  Eco-friendly Villa La Rotonda and Barcelona, Green City and Babak Jabery in Eco-friendly Villa Savoya from AAS Tilburg.
Development and production images 2012: Sustainable Santo Spirito, Sustainable Barcelona Pavillion and EcoHouse for Josephine Baker: Beatriz Ramo, Ahinitze Errasti Echebarria and Beatriz González Lazo
Proofreading: Maarten Doude van Troostwijk
Videos: Beatriz Ramo, Francesca Rizzetto
Thanks to: Bernd Upmeyer, Ana López -Angulo, Ana Ramo
Collaborators: Thomas Weaver (Editor AA files) for the article for AA files #64, April 2012
Consulting: -
Extra: -

In July 2009, STAR won a competition for a project located next to a UNESCO World Heritage Site – or maybe inside it… nobody is entirely sure yet as different maps display different boundaries. That was just the first of many confusions we encountered in the rules for preservation.
STAR had always looked at the past as a source of inspiration; now this ally of old was trying to put a stop to our project. But our case was not an isolated one; many corpses of projects had been left behind by the unfounded assumption that injections of life into World Heritage Sites may actually destroy them.

Why should every act of preservation imply an act of sacrifice?
In this study we describe some of the frustrations, absurdities, directions, and criticisms that we collected since the beginning of our study in 2009. The first part is entitled Complexity and Contradiction* and gives a general overview; the second section is called The Monument Series** and presents individual statements of criticism and hope.

*Complexity and Contradiction contains the following chapters:
-The Problem of the Definition;
-Preserving Life and Death;
-The New Green; Clandestine Preservation;
-Nostalgia and Fear: the New Planning Tools;
-Exalting the Past to Purge our Present Guilt;
-Self-Destruction;
-I Had a Dream.

** The Monument Series contains the following chapters:
I _ The Lonely Monument
II _ The Lucky Monument
III_ The Future Monument
IV_ The Never Ever Monument
V _ The Would-Be Monument
VI _ The Iconic Monument
VII _ The Digital Monument
VIII _ The Unsustainable Monument
IX _ The Botoxed Monument

Read full article in pages 68-80 in MONU #14 Editing Urbanism
See the publication here
- – -

Excerpts:

Complexity and Contradiction in Preservation:

The Problem of the Definition
Two of the synonyms that the Microsoft Word dictionary offers for the word Preservation are: I-Conservation and II-Continuation. It is absurd that when applied to the Past these synonyms can represent complete opposites: Conserve the past or Continue the past is at the core of the conflict inherent in preservation.
Preservation, as in Continuation, benefits the enrichment of a city. It has been proven over 2000 years of history that cities can live with their past. However, the Conservative approach of preservation ignores the fact that cities cannot live without their future.
We need to protect Preservation from the contradiction that it has become.

Preserving Life and Death
Preserving a Buddhist temple on a far-away mountain, or the lifeless ruin of the Acropolis in Athens, is very different from preserving the fully inhabited canal-area in the centre of Amsterdam. Yet, each of these examples is assessed by the same criteria in order to be listed as a World Heritage Site and all of them are subject to the same examination. This fact results in overprotective rules governing inhabited WHS causing irreversible damage to the cities, whose only future is to be what they were, turning into self referential caricatures.
The main body of our work focuses on the preservation of urban and living sites. We took the UNESCO World Heritage Convention as the preservation regime and we revised the overly restrictive and inflexible rules of its advisory boards.

The New Green
A bad preservation decision will compromise the future of a city. Cities are irresponsibly using UNESCO WHS as a branding tool to attract tourism. “World Heritage Tours” are booming business. Preservation starts to become a banal and opportunistic trend, just as previously the Iconic Building fashion, or the Sustainability trend. The big difference is that the superficiality of a green façade or the harmless Calatravas did not have any influence on the halting of the development of a city. However, this may change as we may very soon be witnessing a massive addition to the WHS of iconic buildings which will find their precedent in the 2007 inclusion of the Sydney Opera for being a world famous iconic building. Bilbao’s Guggenheim Museum, Porto‘s Casa da Musica, or Valencia’s Calatravas may soon be entering the VIP Club. Besides, we also fear – with morbid curiosity – that the necessary blending of Preservation and Sustainability will result in painful effects where the possibility of the one can only exist through the death of the other. However, this disaster will encourage the need for intelligent reflection on both.

Clandestine Preservation
There are 911 sites included in the UNESCO paradise of World Heritage; 1511 are waiting patiently for approval on the tentative list, and countless thousands more are preparing their nominations. As of that moment, the sites are expected to behave according to UNESCO Convention rules: as if they were on the list already. Advisory boards such as ICOMOS -much more restrictive than the UNESCO Convention – are judging whether these sites will qualify for a nomination. This means that the current – unofficial – surface of the preserved area is much bigger than we think, impossible to frame, and terribly difficult to plan as it is in limbo with no clear policies, and thus the rule of freezing-the-old+stopping-the-new seems to be the safest bet.

Nostalgia and Fear; the New Planning Tools
Unclear general criteria for preservation, the biased judgements on potential threats, the hidden reasons to become WHS, the large number of unofficially protected areas, the elasticity of the buffer zones, and the vagueness of definitions of preservation – all this guarantees in most cases a disappointing future for the city.

Exalting the Past to Purge our Present Guilt
The confusion is colossal. Keeping hold of the past was never meant to freeze it. The past was always changing. Which past do we keep? How arrogant to think that this or that time is the ideal moment to be preserved. If current preservation policies had been applied back in time, most of the World Heritage Sites would not exist today. The past was never as static as it is now. The past could still be part of the present. Who said that the old has to be static?
The Preservation mania is spreading as quickly as the use of Botox. Abusive and uncontrolled use of both can expose the user to a great risk, even death.
Full taxidermies are carried out in many sites. Scary illusions of life that in actual fact represent death.

Self-Destruction
Ultimately, preservation will stop preservation; there will be nothing left to protect and nothing else will be allowed to be built. Or maybe it happens earlier since so many sites are listed that the WHS lost its supposed added value. However, preservation alone will be its own end as in an act of self-immolation.
The Lonely monument will be the shape of the preserved city. The enormous buffer zones isolating the WHS will generate a heartbreaking landscape of monument sprawl. Why does the best of the past have to be situated in a gated community?
As an urgent counteraction to preservation we propose the imminent designation of Urban Reserves. These areas are protected from preservation and will always be dedicated to activity, change, and freedom.

I Had a Dream
But there is a place where everything can be preserved – there are no limits -, where every moment of history can be kept, where there is no need for sacrifices, where there is no decay, no threat, where the past is accessible for all… This place is the Digital.
Let’s trust the digital when the real cannot deliver. Total recreations are possible.
Let the digital save our cities from the tyrannical rules of nostalgia.

The Monument Series:

I _ The Lonely Monument
The Tyranny of the Buffer Zone Produces Monument Sprawl

left: Forum during the Ancient Roman Empire – right: Roman Forum according to current preservation rules and buffer zones.

II _ The Lucky Monument
If UNESCO had existed in the 11th Century most of the World Heritage Sites would not exist today.

Piazza del Duomo, Florence – if UNESCO had existed in 1059

left: Basilica di San Pietro if UNESCO had existed in 1450, drawing by H.W. Brewer – right: Basilica di San Pietro, Rome

III_ The Future Monument
Preserving Ideas to Ensure their Implementation.

IV_  The Never Ever Monument
Protecting from Protection; the Authentic Urban Reserves.

V _  The Would-Be Monument
STAR Nominations for the World Heritage List

VI _  The Iconic Monument
World Heritage Icons. The Sydney Opera House: a Dangerous Precedent.

VII _ The Digital Monument
Saving the City from the Cruelty of Nostalgia; Could Digital World Heritage Sites become the utopia of preservation?

Colosseo, Roma – WHS since 1990, ©Assassin’s Creed* Brotherhood, 2010
*Assassin’s Creed is an award-winning historical video game series released in 2007

Madonna before and after Photoshop

VIII _  The Unsustainable Monument
Cain and Abel: Preservation and Sustainability, Who will Kill Whom?

Cain and Abel I: Sustainable Pyramids

Cain and Abel II: Sustainable Acropolis

Cain and Abel III: Sustainable Pantheon

IX _  The Botoxed Monument
The Pact with the Devil: if There is Botox, There is Hope.

left: Nicole Kidman before and after Botox  right: Sylvester Stallone before and after

Embalmed body of Vladimir Lenin

- – -
 
Title: In the Name of the Past: Countering the Preservation Crusades
Project Name: Critical study about the dangers of preservation
Date: December 2010 – April 2011 (First Phase: August – December 2009 + August – December 2010)
Type: Self-initiated study
Location: World Heritage Sites
Site: World
Program: Study about Preservation and intervention in UNESCO World Heritage Sites
Surface: N/A
Status: on going
Client: Self-initiative
Budget: N/A
Publications:
-Casabella #812, Milan, Italy, April 2012
-MONU magazine on urbanism #14, Rotterdam, the Netherlands, April 2011
STAR Team: Beatriz Ramo, Philip Vandermey (Feb 2011)
Collaborators: Maarten Doude van Troostwijk (text editing)
Extra: See First phase of the Study called Preservation + UNESCO Study

- – -

Title: Paseo de la Estación
Project Name: Reurbanization of the Station Avenue in Elche / Reurbanización del Paseo Histórico de la Estación de Elche
Date: February – August 2010 (Construction Drawings Phase) + October – December 2009 (Concept Phase)
Type: Commission after FIRST PRIZE in Open Competition
Location: Elche, Alicante, Spain
Site: Avenida del Paseo de la Estación
Programme: Public Space Sequence: Promenade area + New square + Green zones
Surface: Area 15.000 m²
Status: Approved + Tender – Construction expected in spring 2011
Client: Ajuntament d’Elx – City of Elche
Budget: € 3,5 Mill. Financed by Spanish Central Government
Awards: FIRST PRIZE in Open International Competition
Publications: See Mirador del Palmeral Publications
Exhibitions: See Mirador del Palmeral Exhibitions
STAR Team:
Construction Drawings Phase: Beatriz Ramo, Xiana Méndez, Elia Salcedo, Daniel Díez, Anna Dzierżon + last-week CAD assistance: Elena Barrigón
Concept Phase: Beatriz Ramo, Guadalupe Hernández, Jean-Vianney Deleersnyder
Collaborators: Installations: Grupo JG: José María Sancho; Architectural Techologist: Estudio M2 Oficina Técnica: Luis F. Perona, Francisco de Asís Pérez; Consulting/Support: Madhoc: Juan Tur, Carmen Pérez; Visualizations: Sander Lap + STAR
Consulting: Structure Advice: BOMA (Barcelona, España): Agustí Obiol, Lluis Moya
Extra: STAR won the competition for Mirador del Palmeral on July, 2009. The Reurbanization of the Paseo was one of the plans that STAR proposed as part of a full strategy for the redevelopment of the area.

This research analyzes many current and past interventions on World Heritage Sites; the process under a property becomes a World Heritage Site itself, as in the case of Elche’s Palm Grove, the site of the STAR Mirador proposal.
The study analyzes the rationale behind the chosen site, its height, and even the need for the existence of the Mirador in Elche.

↑ Image above: The Expulsion from Paradise 1508-1512, Michelangelo

- – -

Ambiguity of the Selection Criteria

890 listed World Heritage Sites (2009)

Properties in the Red List

2 Properties deleted from the list since 1972

Intervention in WHS Toledo by Lapeña&Torres

Intervention in WHS Zeche Zollverein by OMA

Piazza dei Miracol if UNESCO had existed in 1063

Piazza dei Miracoli: Battistero, Duomo, and Campanile

WHS area in London – Elche –Santiago

Huerto Torre de Vahillos in Elche

Elche: protected area in green; buffer zone in yellow

Wheel Shadow study

Current status of the protected huertos in Elche

Las Vegas: potential WHS under criteria I, II  and IV

- – -

Title: Preservation + UNESCO Study
Project Name: Mirador del Palmeral Preservation Study
Date: August 2009 – March 2010
Type: Commission after Self-Initiated Study
Location: World Heritage Sites + WHS: Elche’s Palm Grove (Palmeral del Elche)
Site: Avenida del Paseo de la Estación + Roundabout with Avenida del Ferrocarril
Program: Study about preservation and intervention in UNESCO World Heritage Sites
Status: On going
Client: Self-initiated + Ajuntament d’Elx – City of Elche
Budget: N/A
Publications: (Parts of it) MONU magazine on urbanism #14, Rotterdam, the Netherlands, April 2011
STAR Team: Beatriz Ramo, Jean-Vianney Deleersnyder, Guadalupe Hernández
Collaborators: Maarten Doude van Troostwijk (text editing)
Consulting: Lina Gracia Toro, Jerónimo Guilabert Requena
Extra: In July 2009, STAR won the competition for Mirador del Palmeral located next to a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The difficulty of intervening in a protected area, the large gaps within the preservation rules and the enormous political and social interest around the concept of World Heritage made it urgently necessary for the office to start a study of preservation. Afterwards the Municipality commissioned the office a development of the study focusing on the case of Mirador del Palmeral.

Elche´s Wheel
The Design of an Oxymoron.
Thousands of words have been written on the influence of the current economic crisis on the construction business. However, we think that this event has accelerated the birth of a new form of architectural thinking that – when applied to architectural production – will generate intelligent and substantial ideas, and leave behind the sensationalistic architecture of quick consumption. We believe more than ever that strategies, rather than shapes, are the only valid answers to the demands of the city of today.
The Mayor of Elche organized the competition with the requirement that the project should “provide the city with an EMBLEMATIC element to contemplate and promote the Palmeral of Elche” (quote from the competition brief). This raised the challenge of designing a humble icon, which is a true oxymoron. How to design an icon with the purpose of diverting attention towards something else?
In our careers as architects, the competition for the Mirador del Palmeral was our first chance to create an emblem for the city in which the landscape plays a crucial role, whereby evoking admiration for this landscape is the raison d’être of the icon.
Moreover, in this period of financial collapse and extreme preoccupation with sustainability, it would be hypocritical to close our eyes and produce another icon similar to all the previous ones. Let’s take this chance to think profoundly; to focus our intelligence on a strategy rather than on the egocentric and frozen architecture (icon) so characteristic of recent times.
The cultural landscape of palms that constitutes the Palmeral of Elche dates back to the 10th century, when much of the Iberian Peninsula was under Arab rule. This great patchwork of agricultural plots (huertos) was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the year 2000. The palm grove extends over approximately half of the area of the city. Due to the loss of its original use, it is becoming more difficult to integrate the Palmeral into city life. Apart from some huertos that were transformed into parks (losing their initial configuration in the process), remain empty and are deteriorating. Most of the Palmeral, mainly the most authentic parts, passes unnoticed to inhabitants and tourists, who misunderstand that the real value of the palm grove is not in the palm tree itself but in the ordered system of its plantation. There is not a single viewpoint in the city where the huertos system of palms can be seen and understood. The highest public point is the tower of the Basilica, but viewed from there the Palmeral is mistakenly understood to be a random forest of trees.
Within certain restrictions that apply to acting on a World Heritage Site, UNESCO supports interventions that enhance the universal value of the site. We believe that by building this viewpoint, tourists and inhabitants will be able to understand the Palmeral of Elche for the first time as a system of huertos, and recognise its strong presence in the city. Although the intervention should not eclipse or even compete with the importance of the Palmeral, it should be significant enough to attract tourism and regenerate the economy of the City.
Thus, we searched for an atemporal emblem; intelligent and flexible; capable of fulfilling these requirements within a budget of €10 million. We need an imaginative solution.
We propose a wheel for Elche. The wheel is a strategy. The wheel is resistant to fashion, style, and time. Its assembly is completely reversible and therefore the wheel has no permanent impact on the points where it touches the ground. As the wheel does not consume the total budget, we can also invest in the creation of adjacent public spaces. Moreover, with money made by selling tickets for the wheel, it is possible to recover the initial investment in less than three years. The wheel is an intelligent and rational structure; representative and beautiful, powerful and transparent.
The Wheel is the perfect union between FORM and FUNCTION.

Maximum Potential:  Mirador + Station, the greatest welcome to Elche
To explore the full potential of the intervention we propose three scenarios with different levels of investment. They range from the initial requirement of a single Mirador (viewpoint) project to a common building, housing the Mirador and railway station, with a connection to the platforms and the underground parking.
Our design places the Mirador at the former site of Elche’s Railway Station, which was demolished in the 1970s. The new railway station was built on the same avenue, 100 metres to the East. The spatial quality of the building leaves much to be desired, and it is in poor condition. There is an investment of €6 million for its renovation already in place. We believe it does not make sense to invest in that building; rather we propose a much more efficient and comprehensive operation. We plan to make a common investment of €16 million, including the budget for the Mirador, for a new common building where both programs can benefit from shared functions. This idea is feasible because the project is located within the double platform area of the train tunnel. In this way, the Railway station comes back to its original place: at the end of the Paseo it is named after. The Mirador and the Palmeral will be the image of arrival in the city.

Strategy in the immediate surroundings: Re-creation of Elche’s Palmeral
As we don’t consume the entire initial budget with the Mirador we propose to invest the remainder on the creation of a large public space in the current Paseo de la Estación, and a big square in place of the current traffic roundabout in front of the new Mirador-Station.
From the beginning of the 20th century until the 1960s this avenue was an elegant elevated Paseo Salon where the inhabitants of Elche enjoyed walking. It formed the main connection between the Railway Station and the City centre. With the prominence of the car in the 1960s, the elevated Paseo was demolished and transformed into a three lane road. This, together with the displacement of the railway station, damaged the character of the Paseo as a civic public space.
After studying the current traffic patterns in the area, we propose restricting vehicular access to public transportation and bicycles.
Once the Paseo is free of cars not only do we improve the sequence of public spaces on the North-South axis, the spaces between the city and the new Mirador+Station, but we also link the two parks that are currently disconnected on the East-West axis. Both parks are former palm huertos. This operation will unlock the enormous potential of the area as a public space right in the centre of the city. The construction of the Mirador-Station to the North of the Paseo will frame the views and will relocate the station in its former location.
We propose to keep the Paseo as a “hard” surface so it may host a large number of events, which would be impossible in a green area. Moreover, due to the dry weather of Elche, a green Paseo would require a significant amount of maintenance.
We have minimized the Paseo’s design to avoid compromising its potential. This design will only affect the surface; we have created a great carpet of tiles representing a pixelated aerial view of the Palmeral.
This large mosaic will be visible from the wheel as an enormous piece of urban art.

 
- – -
 

El chapuzón – Museo Escolar Agrícola de Puçol
 
East view of palmeral 

Site within the Palmeral  – UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2000
 
Brief demands:

 
Contradiction:


Current phenomena of Superstar architects / Iconic buildings

 
Invited architects for phase II:

 
Dilema: compromise?

Solution: Form+Function

Wheel vs. Traditional viewpoint typology

Wheel vs. Iconic Building






 
We undertsand the wheel as a programme, not as a design. We will develop option 3, to test its feasibility

View from Altamira Palace
 
 

The square determines the maximum dimension of the wheel
 

 

 

 

 

Elevation from the Paseo

 €4 million to invest in the creation of new public spaces

New public space
 
Maximum potential:


In red: current location of Elche Railway Station
 

Elche Parc – Elche Railway Station
 

Current arrival at Elche’s station

Proposed arrival at Elche’s station

Proposed building: Mirador + Station + Parking

Station elevation
 

 

Shading study
 

 


With the wheel, it will be the firts time that Elche will be able to see its most famous view from a public place:

 

  

 
- – - 
 
Title: Mirador del Palmeral
Project name: Mirador del Palmeral de Elch
Date:
First phase: February 2009 – results March 23, 2009
Second phase: May 2009 – results July 17, 2009
Type:
First phase: Open International Competition, selection of two teams from 56 participants (145 registrations).
Second phase: Invited Competition (2 teams from first phase + 5 invited teams: SANAA, MVRDV, Foster & Partners, Lapeña & Torres, Ábalos & Sentkiewicz + Teresa Galí-Arquitectura Agronomía)
Organizer: OCOA – Oficina de Concursos Comunidad Valenciana
Position: FIRST PRIZE
Location: Elche, Alicante, Spain
Site: Avenida del Paseo de la Estación + Roundabout with Avenida del Ferrocarril
 Programme: View point + Reurbanization + Proposed: Railway Station, Parking, Cultural Centre, Strategy for the reintegration of the Palm Grove in the city
Surface: 15.000 m² of public spaces + 1200 m² of exhibition rooms + Mirador –Viewpoint + Railway Station 1.100 m² + Parking 7.800 m²
Status: Construction Public Spaces expected spring 2011
Client: Ayuntamiento de Elche (Elche City Council)
Budget: € 10 Mill. + € 6 Mill. – Already reserved for the Railway Station
Awards: FIRST PRIZE
Publications: Selection:
- Arquitectos Movilidad, Madrid, Spain, June, 2011
-A New Generation in Architecture. West Arch vol.1, Berlin, Germany, September, 2010
-Met Stip 2010, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, June, 2010
-Architectuur NL #06, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, May, 2010
-TC Cuadernos, Concursos #94, Valencia, Spain, May 2010
-AV Proyectos #35, Madrid, Spain, March 2010
-AWM – Architectenweb Magazine #31, Bussum, the Netherlands, February 2010
-Arte y Cemento #2109, Bilbao, Spain, December 2009
-Paisajismo #31, Barcelona, Spain, November 2009
-Mark Magazine #22, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Sept/Oct 2009
-A10 magazine #29, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Sept/Oct 2009
-Cyan Magazine #5, (Spain), Sept/Oct 2009
-a+u. Architecture and Urbanism #468, Tokyo, Japan, September 2009
-Space Magazine #502, Seoul, Korea, September 09
-Design ReportMagazine # Spanien, Leinfelden, Germany, September 2009
-AD Algeem Dagblad #230709, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, July 2009
-Diario La Verdad #180709, Elche, Spain, July 2009
-Diario Información #180709, Elche, Spain, July 2009
-Diario Información #050609, Elche, Spain, June 2009
-Diario La Verdad #050609, Elche, Spain, June 2009
Exhibitions: Selection:
-West Arch – A New Generation in Architecture at the Ludwig Forum für International Kunst, Aachen, Germany, September 12 – November 14, 2010
-Traveling Exhibition Elche, Spain June 29–17 July 2009
-Lonja del Ayuntamiento, Elche, Spain June 5 – 29, 2009
-Solo Presentation at Menage a Trois in Matadero, during the Madrid Architecture Week, October 5, 2010
-Solo Presentation at FITUR 2010, IFEMA, Madrid, Spain, January 20, 2010
STAR Team: First phase: Beatriz Ramo, Jean-Vianney Deleersnyder, Simone de Iacobis
Second phase: Beatriz Ramo, Jean-Vianney Deleersnyder, Jordi Milà, Albert Perez, Luca Vandini
Collaborators: Competition phase: Logistics: Javier Ramo, Ana López – Angulo, Bernd Upmeyer (BOARD) Model: Vincent de Rijk + STAR; Text Editing: Maarten Doude van Troostwijk; Model 2011: Vincent de Rijk + STAR (Philip Vandermey, Francesca Rizzetto, Genoveva Carrión)
Consulting: ARUP España, Project director: Ignacio Fernández Solla (Associate Director) Coordinator: Fernando García Colorado, Structure: Patricio García Hernández, Kayin Dawoodi; Sustainability: Ramón Rodríguez Cabezón (Associate), Albert Hassan, Susana Saiz Alcázar; Electrical installation: Pablo Checa Sanz (Associate), Valentín García Rasero
- – -

The Current Situation
Strong competition among cities in Europe has started. The battlefield for these cities has widened from the national to the international stage. This process of global integration is reorienting the political, social and economical urbanism.  It generates the need in these cities for incorporating certain elements that directly define the European City of today. They seek for identity. The aim is to establish relations between the cities, based on communication and representation, to belong to the spatial structure of corporations, and to create public initiatives to attract foreign investment and tourism. A beautiful square or an impressive cathedral are not enough for the city today. To be recognized as ¨A European 21st century City¨ a big portfolio of projects needs to be assembled. This portfolio will address strategies of city developers and multinational companies rather than the rules of architects. We witness how at one and the same time similar elements appear in very distant European cities, transforming them enormously, positioning them on the European map, or giving them a new identity.

Secondary Cities: The Rising Urban Stars*
Yet the most radical changes are not taking place in capitals like Paris or Madrid, but in smaller and less important secondary cities that need to compete for their position in Europe. The last decades were the era of the megacity. Nevertheless, in the coming years we are going to talk much more about the smaller ones, as most of the urban populations live in these secondary cities. They have the possibility and opportunity to change. Paris will always be Paris. Today it is easier for Secondary Cities to build self-sustaining economies, independent of the big cities, as firms and workers look to avoid the problems of these major centres. Regional hubs, resort towns, provincial capitals… are booming! **

* Term used by the real estate service firm Jones Lang LaSalle on its report ‘Rising Urban Stars – Uncovering Future Winners’, May 2003.
**Foroohar, R 2006, ‘Unlikely Boomtowns’, Newsweek.com, 3-10 July↑image above: Matrix of necessities throughout history

Zaragoza, the Urban Star
Zaragoza (Spain) is one of these “Urban Stars”. Situated between Madrid and Barcelona, it is the fifth biggest city in Spain, with 650.000 inhabitants. Until now, Zaragoza was no more than a regional centre but it is currently developing an unprecedented number of ambitious projects. The position of Zaragoza both in the national and international context – specifically in the European – will totally change. In a couple of years, Zaragoza will have taken one of its biggest steps in its history.
In 2008, Zaragoza will host the next International EXPO. It has just completed Plaza, the biggest logistics platform in Europe. Ryanair has been operating services to the city since 2004, adding a new destination every year. Ikea just opened a store last May. Since 2003, the high-speed train connects the city with Madrid in less than an hour and a half and it will connect with Barcelona in 2008. Zaha Hadid and Herzog & de Meuron are building in the city. The football stadium will be completely renovated. Global brands like H&M have shops in the city since the year 2001. It is a candidate for the European Capital of Culture in 2016. It works on its rebirth as a “City of Knowledge’’ and it has created a committee of experts, including Manuel Castells and Saskia Sassen, to implement their theories in the city.
These elements are significantly changing Zaragoza; from its position in Europe to the way the population will furnish their living rooms.

Urban Shopping List for Secondary Cities
1-Superstar Architect                                       
2-Ikea                                                                                                                    
3-Low-cost airlines
4-High-speed rail connection                            
5-Big events
6-European Capital of Culture         
7- Re-baptism
8- New football Stadium
9- Information Society
10- Global brands

All cities, consciously or unconsciously, try to collect them all. The more they obtain, the closer they get to being ideal cities. With the help of these urban elements, secondary cities can be successfully promoted and can become attractive locations for business and living. Such effect would never take place in A-list cities, where one element would never mean so much, as they already have strong and fixed identities.
In the history of European Cities, we have always found some common urban elements that establish coherence among the different cities in every epoch: the agora, the market square, the gothic cathedrals, etc. It would also be possible to draw up an “urban shopping list” for each historical period.
Zaragoza is the only city in Europe that is developing the entire “urban shopping list” at the same time, understanding it as a sum of elements. This has allowed Zaragoza to re-create itself from a provincial capital into the new “European City” in a record time of just 8 years.
 
(…)
 
Ten elements, ONE operation: The Re-Creation
Zaragoza has created Plaza, its logistics centre, connected it to the high-speed train and located it right next to the future new airport terminal, injected with activity by Ryanair, which tries to link the city with various additional destinations before the International Expo in 2008. The Expo is pushing this and other infrastructure developments like the closing of the main ring where Ikea just opened. Based on the Expo theme of “Water” a complete regeneration of the riverfront is being carried out, where the new football stadium may be built. The Expo site will be connected to the high-speed train station by a bridge by Zaha Hadid, at the end of the “Digital Mile”, a project in collaboration with MIT as a “Zaragoza City of Knowledge” initiative guiding the city into the Information Society. This, and the Herzog &de Meuron project for the new Goya museum, will support Zaragoza’s candidature for the European Capital of Culture in 2016. The partnership with MIT started a logistics masters program set up in Plaza, where Zara, one of the biggest retail brands, took the biggest lot to built one of its Spanish logistics centers.

Hardware and software
To talk about a contemporary “European City” is to talk about these elements. Today the main differences between, and the similarities among, European cities are measured by the non-existence or the presence of these elements. Sofia in Bulgaria feels very “European”, very familiar to many places such as Barcelona or Vienna.  Bucharest reminds tone of Madrid or Paris, but there is a huge difference between Sofia and Bucharest and Barcelona, Madrid o Vienna. The “hardware” may look the same, recognizable…but the “software” – the urban shopping list – accounts for the differences. The collection of these elements determinates the European City of today. The hardware is static. The software activates the hardware and the construction of it. (On the other hand, cities in the Middle East, with very different hardware, like Dubai and Kuwait are getting the same software as our cities do. The Superstar architecture phenomenon is even getting more intense there. Ikea has opened stores in both Dubai and Kuwait, as have H&M and Zara, etc…)
Within the rich diversity in the history of Europe, we were always able to find similar elements in these cities, within the limits of the territory, in each historical epoch. Each polis in the Greek Empire had an agora; the inhabitants of the cities in the Roman Empire entertained themselves in similarly designed theatres. We recognize a Roman theatre in Algeria or Italy, and a Gothic cathedral in Spain, France or Poland.  This coherence remained throughout history and extended to the creation of city networks through roman roads, medieval sea routes, etc.
Ikea has created a new activity centre in Zaragoza. Ryanair does not make the city more beautiful, but it is raising the number of visitors. Zaragoza is 2000 years old, but the Expo 2008 or the Superstar Architecture of today will present it to Europe for as if “the first time”.

The “Urban Shopping List” is a tool to approach the city. It reveals how close the city is to its ideal condition.

Fully published in MONU 7  2nd Rate Urbanism
 

Urban Shopping Matrix applied to some cities

Renaissance ideal city of Palmanova. (from universutopia.net)
 

21st century ideal city

Zaragoza

1-Superstar Architect

Superstar Architects in Spain – 2007

The Colossus of Mount Athos, Macedonia, by Johann Bernhard Fischer Von Erlach

 Zaragoza Mayor with Zaha Hadid
 
2-Ikea

Ikea in the Peninsula Iberica – 2007

Ikea in Coventry 
 

“Ikea will help to fix the identity of Zaragoza” (…) – Mayor of Zaragoza

 Ikea in the area of Spijkenisse (The Netherlands)
 
 3-Low-Cost Airline
Brussels is full of monuments to the `builders of Europe´. It may now be time for a Stelios square or a Boulevard O’Leary, the two pioneers of Europe low-cost airlines (EasyJet and Ryanair), who have done more to integrate Europe than any numbers of diplomats and ministers
From: The Economist January 29th 2005 Low-cost founding fathers. How cheap air flights are bringing Europeans together

Low – Cost Airlines in Spain -2007

4-9 High-Speed Rail Connection; Big Events; European Capital of Culture; Re-baptism; New football Stadium; Information Society

Big Events, High-Speed Train, ECOC and Re-Baptism in Spain – 2007
 
10- Global brands
 

h&m in Spain – 2007

 
10 Elements- Spain 2007

Sofia and Bucarest

View of Zaragoza, Diego Velazquez XVII century

View of Zaragoza, Diego Velázquez + STAR
 
- – -

Title: The Re-Creation of the European City – Urban Shopping list for Secondary Cities.
Project name: The Re-Creation of the European City – Urban Shopping list for Secondary Cities.
Date: December 2005 – On going
Type: Self-initiated
Location: Europe
Site: Europe
Programme: Study about Secondary European Cities
Status: on going
Client: Self-initiated (Parts of the study were supported by the Government of Aragon and the City Council of Zaragoza, Spain)
Budget: N/A
Publications:
- Met Stip 2010, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, June, 2010
-A New Generation in Architecture. West Arch vol.1, Berlin, Germany, September, 2010
-Architectuur NL #06, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, May, 2010
-Blauwe Kamer #2, Wageningen, the Nethelands, April 2009
-MONU, magazine on urbanism Second Rate Urbanism #7, Rotterdam, the Netherlands, October 2007
-The European tradition of Urbanism and its Future – International PhD conference, Delft, the Netherlands, September 2007
Exhibitions – solo Presentations:
-Lecture at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, April 23, 2009
-Lecture at the 4th ISSU Congress “The European Tradition of Urbanism – and its Future”. TU Delft, the Netherlands, September 26, 2009
STAR Team: Beatriz Ramo(2005-…) with (collaboration in some phases): Simon Davis (2006), Andreas Kofler(2006), João Prates Ruivo(2006), Theo Deutinger(2006), Joana Garcia Oliveira (2007), Astrid Rovisco Suzano (2007)
Collaborators: (Collaboration in some phases) Bernd Upmeyer -BOARD (2007)
Extra: Thanks to:
Ana Beatriz López -Angulo– Angulo for giving the inspiration of this work; Government of Aragon and the City Council of Zaragoza: Carmelo Bosque Palacín, María Teresa Perez Esteban, Olga Roldán Laguarta, Jesús Sánchez Farracés and Javier Velasco Rodríguez.; Conversation or/and interview with: Jerónimo Blasco, Pablo de la Cal, Miguel Angel Jiménez  and Francisco Javier Monclús from Consorcio Expo Zaragoza 2008, Juan Carlos Trillo from the Government of Aragón, Enrique Uldemolins and Angela López from the University of Zaragoza, and Floris Alkemade from OMA.

- – -

 - – - 
 

Title: Cadrete House
Project name: Cadrete House
Date: May – September 2007 / January – September 2008 / on going
Type: Commission
Location: Cadrete, Zaragoza, Spain
Site: Ramon y Cajal
Programme: Private House (transformable in two houses in the future) + Commercial Space
Surface: Lot: 111 m²; house: 135 m²; commercial space: 110 m²; cellar: 109 m²
Status: On going
Client: E. P. A
Budget: € 230.000
STAR Team: Beatriz Ramo, Joana Garcia de Oliveira, Astrid Rovisco Suzano; model 1:50: Iñigo Paniego
Collaborators: Rodrigo Núñez Carrasco (Structure), Ana Rodríguez (Drafting support), Alfonso Soria (Architecture Technologist)