EDUARDO RICO AND ALFREDO RAMIREZ LECTURE IN THE AA - WED 1ST FEB 2012 @ 6pm

Alfredo Ramirez and Eduardo Rico will be talking about the recent work by Groundlab and Plasmastudio, currently being exhibited in the AA Gallery. The lecture will describe the theoretical aspects underpinning the work in the context of a growing currency of Landscape Urbanism as design practice. The lecture shall make special emphasis on the tension between the aspirations of a Landscape Urbanism informed practice and the practical implications of working in the context of fast growing economies.

THE AA VISITING SCHOOL MEXICO CITY INVITES TO THE 13th ARQUINE CONGRESS IN MEXICO CITY

The AA Visiting School in Mexico City invites to participate in the 13th Arquine Congress an event that will bring leading voices of the Architectural scene to Mexico City:

Displacements refer to a change in position, the movement of an entity that changes its relative position in space.

The emotional experience that denotes the action of displacing oneself through a building or on the previous path before you reach it became one of the most relevant principles in modern architecture, reaching the point where it transformed these trajectories in rites that were then used to highlight the space and time surrounding the work.

Nowadays, ideas of change of position, transfer or dislocation gain value; displacing transcends the notion of movement and turns into a much wider term that ranges over many geographical concepts and their alterations, the foreigner condition in those that migrate from one place to another detaches itself, and from their experience, it makes a sum that emerges from its differences, by finding in the one that is being displaced not only the idea of he who is far from his place of origin, but also of he who sees himself forced to put himself in exile as a way of escape and survival when faced to the dramas of society.

Architecture is immersed in a world of constant crossings, a place where the active exchange of information and experiences generate new scenarios leaded by displacements, which transgress the own limits of the trade and localization, and at the same time transfer the actions into new spaces in spheres where own and foreign cultures converge, and are characterized by the overlapping of realities and actions that result in projects and opened, changing and multiple works.

The 13th Arquine International Architecture and Design Conference is looking to rescue the value of displacements as the dynamic that supports the action of architecture, of the city and its architects, investigating amongst new scenarios that reinforce the position, relationship and information changes of discipline and of current society.

More info HERE

GROUNDLAB AND PLASMASTUDIO AT THE AA

The Groundlab and Plasmastudio exhibition is now open at the AA Gallery
14.01.2012 - 11.02.2012
Private View Friday 13 January

Critical Territories presents the work of two practices, Groundlab and Plasma Studio, which share a transdisciplinary approach and operate at multiple scales, from product and building design to landscape and masterplanning. The installation has been conceived to immerse visitors in the systemic approach of the practices and their preoccupation with grids, ground and context. A plethora of conceptual and presentation models floating loosely within this grid communicate recurring aims, ideas and spatial and phenomenological effects. Among the projects on show will be the Xian International Horticultural Expo and the Longgang Masterplan.

Groundlab is an emerging international practice in Landscape Urbanism led by five partners: Eva Castro, Holger Kehne, Alfredo Ramirez and Eduardo Rico. Plasma Studio is a leading architecture and design practice founded in 1999 by Eva Castro and Holger Kehne.

LANDSCAPE AND CRITICAL AGENCY

AALU member Doulgas Spencer has collaborated int he organization of Landscape and Critical Agency.
What agency does landscape possess, as a means of territorial organisation and creative production, to engage critically with the conditions that define the collective aspects of our environment?

1-day single-panel symposium University College London
Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK

CRITICAL TERRITORIES: GROUNDLAB AND PLASMASTUDIO

Critical Territories presents the work of two practices, Groundlab and Plasma Studio, which share a transdisciplinary approach and operate at multiple scales, from product and building design to landscape and masterplanning. The installation – a site-specific grid arrangement of light boxes covered with technical drawings – has been conceived to immerse visitors in the systemic approach of the practices and their preoccupation with grids, ground and context. A plethora of conceptual and presentation models floating loosely within this grid communicate recurring aims, ideas and spatial and phenomenological effects. Among the projects on show will be the Xian International Horticultural Expo and the Longgang Masterplan.