Este artículo presenta una reflexión sobre qué es educar y sobre cómo incorporar asuntos ecológicos en nuestras prácticas arquitectónicas. Analiza la experiencia de un curso de arquitectura que simula procesos de cohabitación interespecie como intentos de bio-remediación en territorios deteriorados, donde cada artefacto diseñado no es un simple objeto sino una materia vibrante que coopera con cierta capacidad de respuesta en el grupo. El método explora estrategias de codiseño, incorpora el juego como modo de “entrar” en el paisaje, explora la relación entre técnica de fabricación y diseño, y aplica principios cinéticos para “animar” los modelos creados. Las especies compañeras resultantes son valoradas desde la ecopoiética propuesta por Puig de la Bellacasa. Se destaca el valor del aula como marco donde coproducir desde perspectivas aprendidas de los estudios de ciencia y tecnología, el feminismo y las humanidades ambientales.

In this study, I address how graphic objectives, in an architectural drawing course, can be visualised from the moment students start to acquire certain digital representation skills and a minimum level of fluency in speculating on what they wish to communicate. Thus, the main contribution of this work is a method for comparing the results based on interpreting pairs of opposing concepts, for example, in procedural questions such as "colour used real/colour used not real". This method adopts Osgood's semantic differential technique to collect the evaluator's opinion. Subsequently, three categories are selected and converted into axes in a Cartesian topological space. I show how the Osgood's technique is applied in three cases: an architectural work by Rogelio Salmona; another by the Oopeaa studio; and another by Patiño and Peña. The procedure ends up with a final graphic for a group of ten works (the 3D map, a visual framework), and reveals whether the drawing course objectives follow any trend or whether the proposed meta-image system can extrapolated to other graphic production domains.

Based on the concept of ‘interpretive community’, it is possible to trace how humans can become interpreters (or decoders) of their own reality through, say, written excerpts and architectural works. This paper is intended, therefore, to report on an interpretive-community workshop where students of three different disciplines (namely, Architecture, Sociology and English Studies) were assigned specific chapters of literary works with the goal of making a collective interpretation through a process of rewriting and restoring architecture. These projects allow students (or any participant, in fact) in their recognition of salient concepts that are not necessarily ascribed to a specific domain; for instance, the understanding of architecture not solely as a construction process, but as a mechanism intended to protect traces of life that are naturally perceived through narration and the use of metaphors.

This text address the advantage of incorporating contemporary issues into formal and spatial representation, exploring the issue of who we are drawing with and how we explain the process. Experts in "minor" contents or multispecies theory, among others, advance interpretive clues to sort the results into conceptual frameworks called: ecological entanglements, metaphors of the global, the green dream, the activist role, or what occurs after disruptive events. The naming system can be understood by other disciplines, thus facilitating a crossed conversation. This text is also an incitement for the teaching staff to update references, case studies, frameworks and methods even when teaching early formative stages, in order to produce the best stimuli for those curious minds that join our classrooms each year.

Based on the concept of ‘interpretive community’, it is possible to trace how humans can become interpreters (or decoders) of their own reality through, say, written excerpts and architectural works. This chapter is intended, therefore, to report on an interpretive-community workshop where students of three different disciplines (namely, Architecture, Sociology and English Studies) were assigned specific chapters of literary works with the goal of making a collective interpretation through a process of rewriting and restoring architecture. These projects allow students (or any participant, in fact) in their recognition of salient concepts that are not necessarily ascribed to a specific domain; for instance, the understanding of architecture not solely as a construction process, but as a mechanism intended to protect traces of life that are naturally perceived through narration and the use of metaphors.

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, a discipline at the intersection of digital art and science explores how natural and artificial species are affected, coexist, and feed back to humans based on multi-scalar hybrid models.They embody types of surveillance entities or non-human custodians, and serve as inspiration for another generation of designs produced ten years later, the case studies that are presented here.This paper explains the design and parametric fundamentals of a digital architecture installation at the University of Alicante (Spain 2021) using CNC models and the TouchDesigner programming environment.The installation contains a clan of technological-virtual hybrid species, non-human custodians, which: (a) strengthen the Proposal's discourse on the recognition of legal identity of the Mar Menor lagoon (Southeast Spain); (b) incorporate reactive designs; (c) help raise awareness of the effect of human actions on the lagoon's ecology and nearby streams.The viewpoint is not anthropocentric, because it adopts the perspective of the foraging fish species or the oxygen-seeking algae species, among others, in order to reveal the deterioration processes.In most cases, the result is a sort of synaesthetic conversation that interweaves light, sound, movement and data.

Esta comunicacion resume una experiencia educativa del primer cuatrimestre del curso 2020-2021 orientada a encontrar argumentos de diseno para arquitecturas que tienen que ver con cuidados de salud, crianza y naturaleza iniciados desde relatos literarios sobre epidemias historicas o aislamientos voluntarios, pensados para que puedan funcionar en un valle fluvial cerca de la poblacion de Sella (Marina Baixa). Gestionando las medidas covid-19 lo mejor que se ha sabido, en la experiencia ha participado alumnado de los grados en Estudios Ingleses, Sociologia y Arquitectura de la Universidad de Alicante. Cuatro son las tecnicas implementadas compartidas entre los grados (linea de tiempo, inventario de seres, escenarios de futuro y reescritura) y dos son los instrumentos usados para evaluar la experiencia. Del primer instrumento, una encuesta online, se deducen alcances y mejoras (las mas evidentes, relacionadas con las disfunciones de la modalidad online o con horarios no coincidentes). Del segundo instrumento, un grupo de discusion, se obtienen respuestas para seis subtemas, tanto conceptuales (como la relacion entre ficcion y realidad) como metodologicos (como la proporcion entre analisis y prospectiva), abriendo una discusion util sobre como la ficcion introduce mecanismos de distancia con la realidad para suavizar su impacto cuando el relato tienen tintes distopicos; o sobre como los procesos de uso de metaforas o imagenes son comparables en arquitectura, sociologia y literatura.

Inclusiveness can be considered a requirement for contemporary statements in urban and landscape design referring to age, condition, gender or nature. But how is inclusiveness influenced by spatial design? Can this relation be measured or proven? And more precisely, which interactions are considered across different generations or between human and non-human agents? This paper describes student’s work evaluation procedures through a methodology consisting of selecting picture-based content from initial reference materials provided by teaching staff, as well as graphic material designed and produced by the students, to further analyze these through data visualization techniques and the production of info-graphics. In a latter step, a gearing game – which is a type of sociogram used to understand agents and matters of interest – is utilized to drive a discussion about design statements for further stages of development concerning students’ design projects. The first stages of the methodology are strongly influenced by how the students perceive elements from reference materials and represent these in their own design productions. A literature review further investigates the dichotomy between representation and perception, and the generation of subjective images. As a final consideration, this work aims to create combined methodologies by incorporating participatory observation methods (e.g. photovoice and flow charts) from the social sciences into urban and landscape design, as they are understood through an accurate design of the learning experience. Similarly, non-representational design and dataviz diagrams from urban and landscape design could potentially be implemented in the teaching of social sciences.

The development of automation in construction is opening up a whole field of research on how to optimise movements and manoeuvres.

Este trabajo presenta el diseno de una experiencia empirica interdisciplinar con alumnado de tres grados distintos en la Universidad de Alicante: Arquitectura, Sociologia y Espanol: Lengua y Literaturas. A partir del trabajo con textos literarios de autores canonicos anglosajones del siglo XX, el alumnado ha podido realizar un proyecto interdisciplinar con el fin de ofrecer soluciones arquitectonicas satisfactorias a situaciones homologables con las tierras inundables del Bajo Segura, aunque inspiradas en el condado ficticio Yoknapatawpha, creado por William Faulkner. La fase critica de construccion de enunciados se ha llevado a cabo mediante las tecnicas del tetralema (procedente de la linguistica estructural y utilizadas en Sociologia), el kinegrama y la aplicacion en las narrativas creadas de los conceptos teoricos de empatia y focalizacion segun los entiende la poetica cognitiva. El proyecto redundo en un alto grado de satisfaccion por parte del alumnado participante, que destaco sobre todo la creatividad adquirida en el contacto con otras disciplinas, y en la realizacion conjunta de proyectos arquitectonicos que atienden a una dimensionalidad poco frecuente en este tipo de practicas academicas.

Inclusiveness can be considered a requirement for contemporary statements in urban and landscape design referring to age, condition, gender or nature. But how is inclusiveness influenced by spatial design? Can this relation be measured or proven? And more precisely, which interactions are considered across different generations or between human and non-human agents? This paper describes student’s work evaluation procedures through a methodology consisting of selecting picture-based content from initial reference materials provided by teaching staff, as well as graphic material designed and produced by the students, to further analyze these through data visualization techniques and the production of info-graphics. In a latter step, a gearing game – which is a type of sociogram used to understand agents and matters of interest – is utilized to drive a discussion about design statements for further stages of development concerning students’ design projects. The first stages of the methodology are strongly influenced by how the students perceive elements from reference materials and represent these in their own design productions. A literature review further investigates the dichotomy between representation and perception, and the generation of subjective images. As a final consideration, this work aims to create combined methodologies by incorporating participatory observation methods (e.g. photovoice and flow charts) from the social sciences into urban and landscape design, as they are understood through an accurate design of the learning experience. Similarly, non-representational design and dataviz diagrams from urban and landscape design could potentially be implemented in the teaching of social sciences.

Esta comunicacion relata el contexto de aprendizaje de ejercicios compartidos por estudios en humanidades, ciencias sociales y arquitectura en 2018-2019, los cuales exploran metodologias a priori exclusivas pero con una cierta capacidad de vehicular conversaciones y debates. El punto de partida han sido los relatos llamados “Journeys. How travelling fruit, ideas and buildings rearrange our environment” editados por la Canadian Centre for Architecture (Borasi, 2010). El contenido y sus formas de escritura han favorecido maneras abiertas de encarar estudios de sociologia urbana y la emergencia de nuevos programas de proyectos arquitectonicos. La primera parte de la comunicacion explica el modo de interpretar la arquitectura y como esta va evolucionando en clave de tipologias adaptativas, reforzado por estudios de movilidad realizados desde las ciencias sociales y humanidades que ponen el foco tanto en cuestiones locales y regionalismos como en fenomenos de transculturalidad y globalizacion. Por ejemplo, en Guggenheim y Soderstrom (2009) se da valor a la movilidad de ideas, tipos, imagenes y materiales y su relacion con la forma de ir mutando arquitectura, cultura y ciudad. La comunicacion termina explicando dos de las dinamicas docentes y tres de los casos de estudio, postproducidos por los docentes integrantes de la red Viceversos usando flujogramas situacionales y un interface digital llamado “Migrant Matters” que incluye todos los materiales producidos.

Comunicacion presentada en 5th International Conference of the Association of Architectural Educators, University of Westminster, 24-26 April 2019.

Viceversos es un tiempo de vida universitaria que se atreve con practicas docentes interdisciplinares. Es una fisura en los planes de estudio (se necesitan dos grados como minimo) para ensayar habilidades en un perfil academico complementario. Es un laboratorio de experiencias en los margenes regulados. Introducido el marco, la Red ha explorado este curso modos de implementar metodologias participativas a traves de una experiencia empirica compartida por tres grados en el primer semestre. Los estudiantes de sociologia ayudaron a debatir controversias usando la tecnica del tetralema; los de filologia compartieron su saber para detectar en la focalizacion de unos relatos que perfiles narrativos ayudaban a crear una historia de manera eficiente con la cual poder proyectar arquitectura sobre un paisaje; los de arquitectura ofrecieron unos modelos de intermediacion que iban acompanando cada fase. Esta practica ha ensayado estrategias de creacion de imaginarios referidos a un paisaje fragil, comparable con aquellos territorios-granero para nucleos urbanos y grandes metropolis, los hinterlands, empezando por proponer un territorio ficcional entre lo conocido y lo inhospito, entre lo racional y lo distopico observado en unos relatos de autores anglosajones. Al leer acerca de sus modos de existencia, ciertas condiciones de espacialidad y relacion social acabaron cristalizando en un proyecto de paisaje rural renovado, espejo del condado Yoknapatawpha de William Faulkner en el Sur de los Estados Unidos

Este trabajo explica como comparar fuentes documentales y materiales graficos producidos por estudiantes de arquitectura a lo largo de un semestre de aprendizaje a partir de tecnicas de etiquetado digital, mejorando estandares de tecnicas basadas en la vision artificial de libre uso disponibles en la aplicacion Google Vision API. Se incluye una contextualizacion del objetivo respecto de la dicotomia representacion-percepcion (a); una explicacion de como se ha usado la herramienta ImageTagger disenada por el colectivo europeo SPIN Unit para simular la adquisicion de objetivos de dos talleres de arquitectura durante una jornada-taller llamada “If Only They Could See me Now” (Quien te ha visto y quien te ve) (9 marzo 2018) (b); una explicacion de como los resultados de la sesion anterior son llevados al interfaz RawGraphs, visor digital resultados inmediatos (c); asi como una discusion final acerca de si la herramienta ImageTagger es adecuada para validar la capacidad de un docente para escoger las fuentes de referencia o la capacidad del estudiante para adecuar sus enunciados a los requisitos iniciales del taller, a partir de preguntas sobre como representar espacio, funcion, contexto, cultura, relaciones humanas, etc. (d). En el fondo, esta investigacion propone una metodologia de aproximacion a un programa docente replicable en cualquier espacio de aprendizaje donde se pueda establecer una comparativa entre imagenes iniciales y finales.

In this paper, we address three contemporary issues currently being discussed in architectural education. The first issue is the hypothesis of domesticity as a suitable framework to acquire architectural abilities when students choose to focus their designs on ordinary issues from their childhood neighbourhoods. The second issue is that of shared authorship, whether it can make design more democratic and question the architect’s hegemony over other agents involved in the design process. The third issue is the use of new kinds of tools to understand the results and impact of architectural actions: a new user-friendly technological device, made as effective as possible, can replace sociologic satisfaction questionnaires, interviews or discussion groups. Sociological research applied to architecture offers us references, charts, rules of analysis and diagnosis. We describe two exercises performed in Alicante University. The first one was meant for a neighbourhood community that offered spaces, such as lobbies next to main doors and lifts, to install a shared wardrobe and other architectonic services including ironing, drying, and the folding of clothes. In the second one, housewives led a co-design process to redefine their homes and make them compatible with workshop activities. 1. Concepts from literature

La red Viceversos ha trabajado este curso con estudiantes de Arquitectura y de Derecho+Criminologia en el marco de la arquitectura intergeneracional y de los entornos cohabitados por no-humanos. Los primeros debian entender la naturaleza legal presente en cada una de las actividades (economicas, sociales, ecologicas) de los proyectos. Los segundos debian comprender las logicas de trabajo de sus iguales en lo que respecta a la construccion de dispositivos, maquetas y otros tipos de interfaces creativos. La estrategia de aproximacion, como en otras ocasiones, es la de proponer dinamicas y aprendizajes por experiencia que mezclen integrantes docentes y estudiantes. Asi, se ha llegado a producir una matriz de necesidades que incorpora tecnicas de fotovoice (24 de noviembre); un ensayo de comunicacion a la ciudadania que actuo como jurado popular (12 de diciembre); un ensayo de medicion de la capacidad de los docentes para respetar los objetivos propuestos al inicio de los cursos (9 de marzo); y un trabajo cooperativo entre estudiantes de Arquitectura y Derecho+Criminologia que se monitoriza durante semanas. En el fondo, son metodologias replicables en cualquier materia teorico-practica donde se pueda establecer una comparativa entre graficos finales y referentes visuales entregados al inicio.

This paper presents a method to generate free-form branched structures from a small number of different constructive elements, based on the postulates of discrete or combinatorial design. The research is based on the study of fractal growth as a generator of complex tree-like structures, using references from other scientific approaches in which the possibilities of the DLA (diffusion-limited aggregation) model have been explored. The proposed method uses the Grasshopper visual programming language, and incorporates new topological strategies to improve the performance or robustness of the system through tree-tree (inosculation) and tree-soil (aerial roots) cooperations. The simulation demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed method and its potential for the construction of structures with complex geometries from a discrete set of knots and bars and bioinspired strategies. The paper includes a review of the chosen design principles, the developed methodology and a recent physical test in Medellin (Colombia).