Envisaged as an architectural prototype based on the equalization of the Form/Matter/Flow relationship, the PLANTA project is organized in thermodynamic key to achieve a triple program: museum, thermal machine, and observatory, simultaneously display
This public facility houses an adult education center, a language standardization consortium, and a hotel on a triangular plot in the Les Corts district. Two of the three sides of the site are defined by the heritage-listed frontage of the former Pla
The aim is to eliminate the character of ‘building,’ reducing its image to that of a ‘machine’ in the landscape. A concrete ‘cap’ covers the buried elements (two wells and the atrium); to the exterior only a fissure of 1 meter in height is visible on
The city of Almere, within the metropolitan area of Amsterdam, is on the verge of experiencing a large population growth geered by urban plans like that of Oosterwold or Almere 2030, which foresees the construction of 60,000 new homes. In this contex
Far from being an aggressive presence in its neighbordood of the district of Vallecas, in the city of Madrid, the e-chimneys of this factory for the production of energy by cogeneration tries to give shape to what is a public space in every sense, so
The lack of detail maps of the most populous city of Nigeria and the second in Africa, being as it is under constant transformation, prompted to develop a map reflecting the relationship between the local conditions and the specific urban context.&nb
On the same plot where the Vallès School of Architecture goes up, the project won a competition in which three challenges were posed: to provide accommodation for architecture students, to achieve the Minergie Swiss energy certification (staying belo
All the urban activity that Avenida Diagonal concentrates in its long itinerary through Barcelona’s Ensanche was trapped, transformed and outstretched towards the sea by (as it was tagged during the celebration of the Forum of Cultures) the‘esplanade
Para llevar la Diagonal hasta el mar se tiende una alfombra de difícil geometría que salva la Ronda litoral y oculta parte de la depuradora existente tras sus bordes plegados. Hacia el puerto, la plaza se desfleca en varios dedos miradores rematados
Net energy gain indicates technology could provide an abundant zero-carbon alternative to fossil fuels. The fusion reaction at the US government facility produced about 2.5 megajoules of energy, which was about 120 per cent of the 2.1 megajoules of e
In this TED talk the Brazilian influencer Isabelel Boemeke debunks the principal objections to nuclear energy and explains how it is the safest and cleanest source of power, as well as a way to fight climate change... TED: Nuclear power is our best h
The US film director's documentary, which premiered at the recently concluded Venice Film Festival, advocates nuclear energy as the solution to end the climate crisis. "Nuclear" was one of the many environment-related films featured at the 79th Venic
There are major parallelisms between the generic 27ºC ceiling imposed by the Spanish government and the current Technical Building Code that regulates energy use (as against regulating temperature) in constructions, much of which echoes Germany’s Pas
Around 83% of global energy is generated by burning fossil fuels. So, the transition from our predominantly dirty production of energy to one which is clean is at the very heart of our combating global warming. There is also a moral dimension to the
Helen Thompson is Professor of Political Economy at Cambridge University, and Disorder gives a history of the 21st century where both the terms of her chair are interpreted from the prism of energy. As in her work of 2017, Oil and the Western Economi
While we discuss the price of electricity, the ghost of famine hovers over the world. It is energy we are talking about in both cases, but while exosomatic energy depends on social organization, endosomatic energy has biological boundaries. Alfred Lo
Record results announced today are the clearest demonstration in a quarter of a century of the potential for fusion energy to deliver safe and sustainable low-carbon energy. Researchers from the EUROfusion consortium – 4,800 experts, students and sta
The Ukrainian crisis has to be tackled with perspective. This is precisely what Daniel Yergin does in The New Map, subtitled ‘Energy, Climate, and the Clash of Nations’ because the confrontation between nations is explained from the angle of its ener
Humanity faces three tragic transits: the geopolitical transit, from the hegemony of the West to the struggle between the United States and China; the energy transit, from fossil fuels to renewable sources, to mitigate the impact of climate change; a
But for now, a square meter of the building material holds roughly the energy of two AA batteries. Concrete, after water, is the world's most used material. Because it already surrounds us in the built environment, researchers have been exploring the
On july 16th Royal Dutch Shell, an oil and gas company, and Scottish Power, a subsidiary of Iberdrola, a Spanish electricity utility, made an announcement. They were, they said, jointly submitting proposals to the British authorities to build, off th
World’s Largest Fusion Reactor Begins Assembly. The pieces are finally coming together on the long-delayed ITER experiment to create nuclear fusion. Humans are an energy-hungry species, and our current sources of power are not cutting it. Nuclear fus
City air makes us free; city air kills us; and city air saves us. Urban humanity lived a drama in three acts: the bourgeois revolution ended feudal or class servitude, because as the medieval German saying goes, Stadtluft macht frei; the industrial r
Ice cracks, and so does our future. The polar regions control the planet’s weather system, and the gradual loss of marine or glacial ice is altering significantly the global dynamics of climate. To the lower reflection of solar radiation we must add
The measurement of architecture’s energetic and enviromental impact depends on complex analyses having to do with thermodynamics, but also with economics.
Harquitectes is a collective that represents well a way of doing in today’s context. A small collective with a clear focus on an issue at once broad and narrow, and that we could sum up in two words: matter and air. Their work includes an interesting
A well-known Barcelona architect, when introducing Harquitectes during a recent seminar, referred to the new aesthetic proposed by “that school of Vallès.” That “vallesana” imagery is not coincidental, but in fact emerges from an approximation to for
Although climate-change-denier recently assumed power in the USA, all knowledgeable sources agree that the planet has entered a new geological phase, defined by Paul Crutzen as the ‘Anthropocene.’ After two centuries of intense human-produced gases r
The energy crises of the seventies left their mark on the generation which entered the architectural profession then, and the current climate crisis is having a similar effect on architects starting their practice in the first decade of the 21st cent
Climate change and fossil fuels are two key factors of the contemporary crisis, so ‘sustainability’ and ‘energy’ have become essential terms in the current debate. Three recent books help to define these concepts and emphasize their relevance. Ian Mo
What is the significance of energy for architecture? What might an architectural agenda for energy be? Unfortunately, these are difficult questions for architects because, in architectural discourse, energy is a vague term with imprecise denotations.
Cheap oil is at once temptation and opportunity: the temptation to preserve a land use and technical model that consumes huge amounts of energy, because the incentives associated with scarcity and shortage have vanished; and a historic opportunity to
Helen Thompson Hard Times in the 21st Century
Vaclav Smil
Barcelona 2021
Arpa - 640 Pages
Daniel Yergin Energy, Climate, and the Clash of Nations
Jorge Cortina Evolución de la tecnología eólica en España
Luis Fernández-Galiano Lisa Heschong
Tallinn 2018
Eesti Kunstakadeemia - 64 Pages
Kent E. Portney
2015
MIT Press - 235 Pages
Kiel Moe
2013
Routledge - 301 Pages