RICARDO DEVESA

En la década de 1990 emergió en la arquitectura española una cierta voluntad colectiva de cambio decidida a propiciar una nueva mirada teórica y práctica sobre una realidad en transformación. Con una contundente vocacion de compatibilizar accion arquitectonica y reflexion teorica, en estos años un grupo de autores construyo a traves de diversos medios, soportes y plataformas de difusion otra mirada hacia la arquitectura que, lejos de narrar y documentar cronicas, defendio y argumento nuevos posicionamientos. Este libro recoge el corpus textual generado en esos años por algunos de los protagonistas de esta corriente teorica de naturaleza heterogenea e hibrida, que combino la vocacion proyectual con la inquietud intelectual: Iñaki Abalos, Jose Alfonso Ballesteros, Xavier Costa, Fernando de Porras-Ysla, Manuel Gausa, Vicente Guallart, Juan Herreros, Jose Morales, Luis Moreno Mansilla, Willy Muller, Luis Rojo, Federico Soriano, Jose Antonio Sosa, Emilio Tuñon, Alejandro Zaera-Polo. De la seleccion de textos de Manual Gausa y Ricardo Devesa emergen aquellas cuestiones que preocupaban a los entonces jovenes arquitectos españoles -hoy con trayectorias ya maduras- acerca de la ciudad, el espacio domestico, el paisajismo, las teorias del caos o nuevas concepciones de la realidad, entre otros temas. Un conjunto de aportaciones que puede englobarse en lo que los editores han denominado una accion critica. Esta antologia ofrece las aportaciones de algunas de las voces mas representativas de la reflexion arquitectonica de España de los ultimos años, convirtiendose, por tanto, en un documento de extraordinario valor para conocer y entender el panorama intelectual que ha cimentado la practica arquitectonica reciente de este pais.

This guide brings together the most important andinteresting examples of modern and contemporaryarchitecture in Barcelona. It covers the emergenceof Modernisme and Noucentisme, creative periodsfor which Barcelona is known the world over:the emblematic German Pavilion by Mies vander Rohe (1929), rationalist works conceivedfrom the 40s and 50s, large housing projects ofthe 70s, the Olympic architecture of the late80s, post-Olympic architecture, examples of theongoing urban redefinition from the 90s, and theiconic architecture of the 21st century. Each entryhas a brief description that includes planningand completion dates, a summary explanatorydescription, and subsequent restorationand alterations with a graphic coding system. This updated edition features the most recentarchitectural production (up until 2012), includinglandmarks such as Jean Nouvel''s Agbar tower, the2004 Forum building by Herzog & de Meuron,the Media-ICT building by Enric Ruiz Geli,the Santa Caterina Market by EMBT and theDiagonal ZeroZero Telefonica Tower by EMBA

The first part of this publication is to present a collection of exemplary five houses that evinced explicit relationships with preexisting trees. The five twentieth century projects are: La Casa (B. Rudofsky, 1969), Cottage Caesar (M. Breuer, 1951), Ville La Roche (Le Corbusier & P. Jeanneret, 1923), Villa Pepa (J. Navarro Baldeweg, 1994) and Hexenhaus (A. & P. Smithson, 1984-2002). The second part of the book is to contribute with three theoretical concerns for the contemporary project, those ones which are established in the process, with respect to time, place and outdoor domesticity in modern western housing.One of these theoretical contributions establishes that any house located on a site finds a significant place in conjunction with the preexisting trees. The second contribution describes the effects in terms of time, in addition to spatial considerations, which trees can contribute to the architectural project. Finally, the establishment of these connections between architecture and trees enlarges the idea of the house: the tree serves to draw the surrounding environment into the house and, as a result, becomes an intrinsic part of the house itself.