EXHIBITION | Mario Romañach: "Do you love architecture?"

When: Monday, December 4, 2017— Monday, May 14, 2018

Where: Harvey & Irwin Kroiz Gallery, Architectural Archives | 220 South 34th Street, Philadelphia

Introduction from Architectural Archives

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A beloved teacher at the University of Pennsylvania and a visionary architect who transformed modern architecture in his native Cuba in the years before the Revolution, Mario Romañach (1917-84) saw architecture, not as an abstract phenomenon to be developed though analytical techniques, but rather, as a discipline which made full sense only when framed in terms of human experience. “Architecture...you’ve got to touch it,” he would say, and it was that sensuous, experiential connection to buildings, cities, and landscapes that animated his art and inspired his students. 

Marking the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Romañach’s birth, this exhibition presents a survey of his work, ranging from his groundbreaking residential designs in Havana to large-scale urban redevelopment plans for the West Side of New York City.

Born in Havana, Romañach, was educated in turbulent decades marked by prosperity, depression, war, and changing artistic sensibilities. His uncle, the painter Leopoldo Romañach, was a significant influence. Formal training in architecture came at the University of Havana. In the fourteen year period between 1945 and 1959, Romañach established a successful practice initially based on residential projects. These works, and his later large-scale urban planning, demonstrate his firm commitment to the ideals of the modern movement shaped and enriched by an understanding of local conditions and an interest in Cuban and Spanish culture. 

Exiled from Cuba, Romañach and his family arrived in the United States during the fall of 1959. The practice that had been the center of his artistic world collapsed, never to be fully regained. Teaching, at first, provided for his transition, but then became his life’s work. That energy - so tied to building - ultimately was channeled to his students; a love of architecture perpetuated.

via: Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania

Imprescindibles: No te mueras sin ir a Ronchamp (Sáenz de Oíza)

An essential documentary about the Achitect Javier Sáenz de Oíza

Sustainable Urbanism Bibliography

I attended to a Sustainable Urbanism class in University of Puerto Rico this semester with Dr. Gabriel Moreno Viqueira. Here the bibliography we have been working with:





The Sustainable Urban Development Reader by Wheeler, S.y Beatly, T.

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Publisher: Routledge; 2 edition (October 20, 2008)
Language: English
512 pages
ISBN-10: 041545381X
ISBN-13: 978-0415453813
Available on Amazon: US / ES /JP





Green Urbanism by Timothy Beatly

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Publisher: Island Press; 1 edition (December 1, 1999)
Language: English
491 pages
ISBN-10: 1559636823
ISBN-13: 978-1559636827
Available on Amazon: US / ES /JP









Once There Were Greenfields: How Urban Sprawl is Undermining America’s Environment, Economy and Social Fabric by F. K. Benfield, D.T.T. Chen, M.D. Raimi

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Publisher: Natural Resource Defense (March 24, 1999)
228 pages
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1893340171
ISBN-13: 978-1893340176

Available on Amazon: US / ES / JP






Transit Villages in the 21st Century by Michael Bernick and Robert Cervero

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Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies (October 1, 1996)
Language: English
Hardcover: 387 pages
ISBN-10: 0070054754
ISBN-13: 978-0070054752

Available on Amazon: US / ES / JP






Sprawl Costs: The Economic Impacts of Unchecked Development 

by Robert Burchell, Anthony Downs, Sahan Mukherji, Barbara McCann

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Publisher: Island Press; 1 edition (June 29, 2005)
Language: English
208 pages
ISBN-10: 1559635304
ISBN-13: 978-1559635301

Available on Amazon: US / ES / JP






The Next American Metropolis by Peter Calthorpe

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Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press, 1993
Language: English
176 pages
ISBN-10: 1878271687
ISBN-13: 978-1878271686

Available on Amazon: US / ES / JP



Aesthetics, Well-Being and Health: Essays Within Architecture and Environmental Aesthetics (Ethnoscapes) by Birgit Cold (Editor)

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Publisher: Ashgate Pub Ltd (March 2002)
Language: English
321 pages
ISBN-10: 0754618560
ISBN-13: 978-0754618560

Available on Amazon: US / ES / JP





The Smart Growth Manual by Andres Duany

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Publisher: McGraw-Hill Professional; 1 edition (October 15, 2009)
Language: English
240 pages
ISBN-10: 0071376755
ISBN-13: 978-0071376754

Available on Amazon: US / ES / JP






This Land: The Battle over Sprawl and the Future of America by

Anthony Flint

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Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006
Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press; Updated edition (August 1, 2012)
Language: English
312 pages
ISBN-10: 1421407817
ISBN-13: 978-1421407814

Available on Amazon: US / ES / JP




The Ethical Function of Architecture by Karsten Harris

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Publisher: The MIT Press (July 3, 1998)
Language: English
424 pages
ISBN-10: 026258171X
ISBN-13: 978-0262581714

Available on Amazon: US / ES / JP



The Death and Life of Great American Cities, 1960 by Jane Jacobs

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Publisher: Modern Library; 50 Anviversary edition (September 13, 2011)
Language: English
640 pages
ISBN-10: 0679644334
ISBN-13: 978-0679644330

Available on Amazon: US / ES / JP




Green Cities: Urban Growth And the Environment by Matthew Kanh

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Publisher: Brookings Institution Press (September 1, 2006)
Language: English
170 pages
ISBN-10: 0815748159
ISBN-13: 978-0815748151

Available on Amazon: US / ES / JP







Asphalt Nation: How the Automobile took Over America and How We Can Take It Back by

Jane Holtz Kay

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Publisher: University of California Press; Reprint edition (October 1, 1998)
Language: English
440 pages
ISBN-10: 0520216202
ISBN-13: 978-0520216204

Available on Amazon: US / ES / JP






The New Urbanism: Toward an Architecture of Community by Peter Katz

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Publisher: McGraw-Hill Professional; 1 edition (October 1, 1993)
Language: English
288 pages
ISBN-10: 0070338892
ISBN-13: 978-0070338890

Available on Amazon: US / ES / JP


Home from Nowhere: Remaking our Everyday World for the 21st Century by James Howard Kunstler

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Publisher: Touchstone Press; 1ST edition (March 26, 1998)
Language: English
320 pages
ISBN-10: 0684837374
ISBN-13: 978-0684837376

Available on Amazon: US / ES / JP






Urban Design: The American Experience by Jon Lang

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Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (February 25, 1994)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0471285420
ISBN-13: 978-0471285427
528 pages

Available on Amazon: US / ES / JP





Environmental Aesthetics: Ideas, Politics and Planning by J. Douglas Porteous

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Publisher: Routledge (August 19, 1996)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0415137691
ISBN-13: 978-0415137690
312 pages

Available on Amazon: US / ES / JP






Ecourbanismo by Miguel Rouano

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Publisher: Watson-Guptill Pubns (May 1998)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 8425217237
ISBN-13: 978-8425217234
192 pages

Available on Amazon: US / ES / JP





The City After the Automobile: An Architects’ Vision by Moshe Safde

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Publisher: Westview Press (October 9, 1998)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0813335450
ISBN-13: 978-0813335452
200 pages

Available on Amazon: US / ES / JP







Other readings:

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The Tragedy of the Commons by Garret Harding
Science vol. 16, 13 December 1968

“Environmental Ethics and the Built Environment” by Roger King
Env. Ethics, 22:115-131, 2000

William Moggridge Dies at 69

Bill Moggridge, director of the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum and an outspoken advocate for the value of design in everyday life, died September 8th, 2012, following a battle with cancer. He was 69. Designer of the first laptop computer and co-founder of the renowned innovation and design firm, IDEO, Bill pioneered interaction design and integrated human factors into the design of computer software and hardware.

via: http://www.cooperhewitt.org/remembering-bill/life-work

EAMES: The Architect and The Painter

A beautiful documentary about the brilliant design couple Charles and Ray Eames a completely a must-see for anyone interested in design. Official website.

Eames: The Architect and the Painter  Directed by Bill Jersey

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Studio: First Run Features
Format: Color, NTSC, Widescreen
Language: English
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
DVD Release Date: December 13, 2011
Run Time: 82 minutes

The film is already available on Amazon.
US / ES / JP

REM KOOLHAAS: A KIND OF ARCHITECT directed by Markus Heidingsfelder

I opened an account on Arquia Caja de Arquitectos "Architects bank" and they gave me as a present this film about Rem Koolhaas on DVD. As Rem himself describes: "It's the only film about me that I have liked." The edition I have is this one by Fundación Caja de Arquitectos. It's available on other editions in Amazon all over the world.

Rem Koolhaas. A kind of Architect

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Directed by Markus Heidingsfelder
97 minutes

US / ES / JP

Volkswagen Transparent Factory

Maple Hardwood Flooring...

IKEA small spaces

I was looking for some stuff in IKEA and I found this video on their site. What can I say about the Swedish company that hasn't been said before. Can we consider its catalogue, as the most read architecture magazine in the world? I think so.

PROMOTIONAL VIDEOS | 100X10

Starring in order of appearance: Dani Bas, Javier Alonso, Lucia Ordovás, Fabio Roberto Scorza, Roberto Garcia, Ricardo Santonja, Ildefonso Fernandez, Javier Seguí and Atxu Amann as Limoneti Visconti.

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100X10 is a kind of a summer workshop in which I collaborated as organizer together with  Borja Gómez, María Luisa de Miguel, Rodrigo Delso and Javier Argota. ETSAM professors and architects Marta Maiz and Enrique Herrada were so generous lettingt us their house in a small rural village a hundred or so kilometers away from Madrid called Martin Muñoz de Aylon, where we plan to organize activities for ten days. The first year students in architecture school will be able to learn while having fun this July in that beautiful location.

The idea is to invite different kinds of architects so that each of them teaches us their own abilities. Talented professionals such as Atxu Amann, Ignacio Borrego, Andrés Canovas, Sergio del Castillo, Eva Castiñeira, Enrique Herrada, Luis Diaz Mauriño, Victoria Fernández, Julián Fernández, Ramón Gámez, Paula García-Masedo, Martín Lejárraga, Marta Maíz, Fernando Morán, Gonzalo Pardo, Gema Parreño, Almudena Ribot, Marcelo Ruiz-Pardo, Luis Pancorbo, Javier Seguí, Joseba Sánchez, Álvaro Soto... among others are already confirmed. Stay tuned for more on the official website 100x10.com

I have been in charge of creating some promotional videos for the event and I need to thank everyone who participated on them, for being such imaginative and spontaneous. Now everything we need is people ready to learn and have fun in this adventure we have imagined.

Steve Jobs presents the new Apple Head Quarters

Architecture + McDonalds

Today I ordered thee great books from Amazon. The first two are  architecture related and the third one...well, it's also an architecture book, what the heck.

Eames House: Charles and Ray Eames (Architecture in Detail) by James Steele

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Eames House is the house that Charles and Ray Eames build and lived. This book collects the plans and pictures as well as the story behind the building. 

Phaidon Press  / 60 pages /  English
2002.04.24
ISBN-10: 0714842125
ISBN-13: 978-0714842127







Le Corbusier: Moments in the Life  by Arthur Rüegg (Editor), René Burri (Photographer)

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An awesome compilation of pictures of some of LeCorbusier' s most iconic buildings. Magnum photographer René Burri shows us the buildings the way magazines never do, once they are used and deteriorated, once people have lived in the buildings.

Birkhäuser Architecture / 181 pages / German & English

Publishing date: 1995.06.27

ISBN-10: 3764359994
ISBN-13: 978-3764359997

Grinding It Out: The Making Of McDonald's by Ray Kroc

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Ray Crock's biography that tells the story of how he met the McDonald's Brothers and took their restaurant to a globalized franchise as we know today.

St. Martin's Paperbacks / 218 pages / English

Publishing date:1992.04.15
ISBN-10: 0312929870
ISBN-13: 978-0312929879

DESIGN | Rafael Moneo lectures from 1995

DVD collection design for AAGRAFA from a series of lectures given by architect Rafael Moneo at Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid in the 3rd Biennial of Spanish Architecture that took place in 1995. 

Those are probably the DVD covers I'm most proud of, above all the ones I did all this years in AAGRAFA. This time we had to digitalize a bunch of old VHS tapes containing lectures given by Rafael Moneo at the III Biennial of Spanish Architecture in Círculo de Bellas Artes on 1995. Each of the lectures focused on a architect so I decided it would be cool to meld Moneo's face with each of the architects he was speaking about. If you really like architecture talks, all this six lectures are a are a must watch. Believe me, they are really, really interesting. Available now on ETSAM libary.  -Ioannes

III. Bienal  de Arquitectura española
Ciclo de conferencias en el círculo de Bellas artes
Principios diversos en seis arquitectos contemporaneos

DISC 1
Rafael Moneo: James stirling
1995-XI-14 / 110 min / Deposit number [V-808]

DISC 2
Rafael Moneo: Aldo Rossi
1995-XI-15 / 95 min / Deposit number [V-809]

DISC 3
Rafael Moneo: Peter Eisenman
1995-XI-16 / 118 min / Deposit number [V-810]

DISC 4
Rafael Moneo: Alvaro Siza
1995-XI-21/ 112 min / Deposit number [V-811]

DISC 5
Rafael Moneo: Frank Gehry
1995-XI-22 / 118 min / Deposit number [V-812]

DISC 6
Rafael Moneo: Rem Koolhass
1995-XI-23 / 121 min / Deposit number [V-813]

Vist the website: https://aaandnn.com/design/moneo/

Richard Rogers Box Set

The first time I learned about architect Richard Rogers' work was in my first year of college. I did a presentation work about Centre Pompidou building in Paris by architects Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers. I immediately got fascinated with the building and specially with the early seventies projects of those young architects.

There are various books collecting the works of Richard Rogers. I once borrowed from the school Library Richard Rogers+Architects a book published by Academy Editions in 1985. It was so used and deteriorated that I scan it to preserve it and try to restore it before bringing it back.

Another book I took home those days was Richard Rogers complete works volume 1 and volume 2. Both were thick hardcover books. Some years later a third volume was published and the three of them were collected as paperbacks in a fancy pink box. Now that this box is on sale in Amazon I just ordered it. 

Richard Rogers Complete Works - 3 Volume Set by Kenneth Powell

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Phaidon Press Inc / 960 pages / English
Publishing date: 2008.03.05
ISBN-10: 0714848662
ISBN-13: 978-0714848662

DESIGN | Souto de Moura

Portuguese architect Eduardo Souto de Moura visited MAdrid Architecture School November 7th and AAGRAFA team was there to record the lecture he offered. Now available in ETSAM library.

Eduardo Souto de Moura

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November 7, 2007 / 60 min. / Deposit number: [V-784]

DESIGN | Sáenz de Oiza

We have been digitalizing old tapes featuring Francisco Javier Sáenz de Oiza this days in AAGRAFA. Oiza was an Architect and Professor in Architecture School in Madrid. And one of his first buildings is the  Arantzazu Sanctuary in Oñati, my hometown in which he collaborated with artist such as Jorge Oteiza, nestor Basterretxea and Eduardo Chillida back in the fifties. We present here four discs collecting many lectures, classes and some tributes to his work. This is the list of the releases on DVD available now on ETSAM library. A good dose of nostalgia.

DISC 1

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Conferencia en la ETSAM

1992 / 90 min. / Deposit number [V-689]

DISC 2

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Conferencia centenario Le Corbusier

Salón de Actos COAM

December 18, 1986 / 84 min. / Deposit number [V-690]

DISC 3

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Sáenz de Oíza, Jerónimo Junquera

Los recintos feriales de Madrid

February 12, 1992 / 94 min / Deposit Number [V-691]

DISC 4

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Mesa redonda  En torno al museo del Prado

con Miguel Fisac, Sáez de Oíza, Javier Carvajal, Rafael de la Hoz, Luis Fdez-Galiano, M.A, Baldellou ...

June 29, 1995 / 17 min. / Deposit number [V-692]

Conferencia sobre la obra de Oíza por Antón Capitel

January 25, 1996 / 100 min. / Deposit number [V-692]

DESIGN | Architecture Week 2006

The Architecture Week is back once again, and there are events focusing on architecture all over the city as well as long hour lines to visit the most symbolic buildings in Madrid. The Architecture School has been organizing lectures from the beginning of October and the AAGRAFA team was there to record them all and make them available in DVD. Now you have the chance to revive them all from the comfort of your couch. Available in ETSAM library.

SEMANA DE LA ARQUITECTURA 2006

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1 | Joaquín Ibañes "El tiempo construido"
October 2, 2006 / 48 min. / Deposit number [V-680]

2 | Darío Gazapo + Concha Lapayese
"Hibridaciones, interferencias, arte y arquitectura"
October 3, 2006 / 120 min. / Deposit number [V-681]

3 | Antonio Juarez "Baukust"
October 3, 2006 / 53 min. / Deposit number [V-682]

4 | Jose Luis de Arana "La arquitectura como memoria"

October 4, 2006 / 46 min. / Deposit number [V-683]

5 | Alberto Morell "Miguel Fisac"
October 4, 2006 / 38 min. / Deposit number [V-684]

6 | Almudena Ribot
"Arquitectura sin titulo y unas pequeñas piezas parasitarias"
October 4, 2006 / 65 min. / Deposit number [V-685]

DESIGN | Luigi Prestinenza

We have reelased in AAGRAFA a new DVD with the conference by Luigi Prestinenza Puglisi, architect and professor in La Sapienza, called ¿Were is Architecture today? that took place the 4th of May in Madrid Architecture School. Available in the ETSAM library.

¿Hacia donde va la arquitectura hoy?

D. Luigi Prestinenza Puglisi - Arquitecto. Profesor La Sapienza, Roma

135 min. / Deposit number [V-631]

DESIGN | Espegel, Galvez + Wieczorek

We have finished a new AAGRAFA release, a talk that took place in Madrid Architecture School last May 3rd between architects Carmen Espegel, María Auxiliadora Galvez and Izabella Wieczorek. Available now in the ETSAM libary with the Deposit number [V-675].

DESIGN | IAU+S 2006

We have released a new AAGRAFA collection DVD set: IAU+S 2006, The Architecture, Urbanism and Sustainability convention that took place in the Madrid Architecture School for three days last February. The collection consists on  6 DVDs divided in three packs featuring each pack a whole day of conferences and lectures. Available now in ETSAM library.

DISCS 1 + 2 

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February 27, 2006 | 150+113min | Deposit number [V-785]

CONTENT:
Presentación / inauguración
Javier Uceda Rector UPM.
Juan Miguel Hernandéz de León Director ETSAM.
Jose Manuel Naredo Dr. en Economía, España.
Saskia Sassen Profesora de Sociología U. de Chicago, EEUU.
Lara Almarcegui Lic. Bellas Artes Psg Atelier 63 Rótterdam, Holanda.
Ekhart Hahn Arquitecto Urbanista, Berlín, Alemania.
Mesa redonda 1
Luis Jimenez Herrero Director Observatorio de la Sostenibilidad de España.


DISCS 3 + 4 

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February 28, 2006 | 140+132 min. | Deposit number [V-786]

CONTENT:
Ed Van Hinte Profesor de estructuras U. de Delf, Holanda.
Santiago Cirugeda Arquitecto y Activista Cultural. Sevilla, España.
Fernando Casás Dr Bellas Artes, escultor, profesor U. de Vigo, España.
Jose Manuel Moreno Dr. Biología, catedrático Ecología U. de Castilla la Mancha, España.
Mesa redonda 2
Luis Andrés Orive Director C. Estudios Ambientales Vitoria-Gasteiz, España.


DISCS 5 +6 

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Wednesday March 1, 2006 | 164+108 min. | Deposit number [V-787]

CONTENT:
Antonio Estevan Ing Industrial,  España. Planificación territorial y ambiental
Anne Whiston Spirn West Philadelphia Landscape Project, Profesora MIT, EEUU.
Phillipe Rahm Arquitecto, profesor ECAL Lausanne, Suiza
Susannah Hagan Arquitecta U. East London, Reino Unido.
Mesa redonda 3
Ramón Fernandez Durán Ingeniero de Caminos y Urbanista Madrid, España.
Clausura

DESIGN | IAU+S

On february 2006 IAU+S convention took place in our School. AAGRAFA proudly presents the first two DVDs. Available now on ETSAM library.


Rueda de prensa presentación IAU+S

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60 min. / Deposit number [V-795]


Conferencia Josep García Cors

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48 min. / Deposit number [V-796]