::: VISIONS: Beyond Media Exhibition in Firenze, Italia :::

Nous Gallery a London based Gallery directed by Melissa Woolford, Paul Coates and Christian Derix invited us to be part of the 9th International Festival for Architecture and Media titled "VISIONS" to be held from July 9 to 17, 2009 at the Stazione Leopolda in Florence, Italy.

Nous Gallery exhibition will include two group installations.  One will be in the form of a film showing the responses to what Architecture will be in the future.  Another is called 'Blink and you'll miss it' designed by Tom Cecil in collaboration with Phil Langely and Shajay Bhooshan.  This installation aims to address the issue of representation through digital means by using a large image library to expose certain realities of our interests in images through subconscious response.

"The theme for the 9th edition of the BEYOND MEDIA festival is "VISIONS".

It seems as if contemporary architecture lost, in the last years, its ability to pursue broad visions, to collect with a wide outlook the complex transformations of the built environment, to lead its thoughts and conscience beyond that which is usual, empirical, and visible. 

The massive production and consumption of architectural images resulted in a greater vicinity, on the part of the general public, to design issues. But, at the same time, they produced an alteration in the way people conceive architecture, and affected the ability and the opportunity to generate visions, and hence theories, which are deeply rooted in our times but, at the same time, are receptive towards new possible scenarios.

With "VISIONS", the BEYOND MEDIA festival suggests to carefully think over topics of figuration and representation, and will put forward more effective visions which might be useful in tracing the outlines of our possible future."

At the exhibition we are addressing the present questions for the future of architecture and how these will impact the field of architecture. We will soon post a short video and some images submitted for the exhibition.

Special thanks to Melissa Woolford and all the team for selecting Rethinking Architecture : Rethinking Academic Series.

:::A new blog at Obras CNN -A Time Warner Company:::

(extracted from http://cnnexpansion.mediotiempo.com/revolucion-arquitectonica/ on Saturday 9 May, 2009 )

I've recently been invited to write and develop a blog at CNN Expansion group website- a Time Warner Company.

I named the blog R[e]volutionary Architecture (Revolucion Arquitectonica, from the Spanish version). Blog's core is running into logical and evolutionary processes that one's need to follow in order to generate revolutionary changes at the cognitive level, which in fact forms the very first steps in order to change a universal idea, create a new direction within a discipline or simply change the course of the world.

I would like to thank Hugo Salvatierra and Miguel Flores from Obras magazine and CNN interactive design for their support and for making this happen!

Though the blog v.1 will be written in Spanish, news, thoughts and ideas are welcome in order to create an international network behind it. I really look forward to your comments. Thanks!

Here the blog site: http://cnnexpansion.mediotiempo.com/revolucion-arquitectonica/

:::Talk at UAM - Azcapotzalco:::

[model designed and developed at the Digital Medium workshop  (Fall 2009), School of Architecture, Anahuac University in Mexico City]

I will give a talk on Tuesday, May 12 at 11:00 am at the Metropolitan Autonomous University at the Division of Architecture and Design Department in Mexico City. The talk will be based on the processes followed in order to generate evolution in the cognitive strategies for Architectural Design, Computing and Architectural Education.

I want to thank prof. MArch. Alejandro Viramontes for the invitation to participate in the symposium.

:::The 3rd Beijing Architecture Bienniale:::

Latin-America section curator Matias del Campo head and co-founder with Sandra Manninger of SPAN (Office based in Vienna Austria) invited R[e]thinking Architecture : R[e]thinking Academic Series as part of his selection for a total of six offices in Latin-America. This section included XerifoArch, PATTERNS, SUBdV, Pablo C. Herrera and SPAN. I am including some photographs from the opening ceremony, cover and index from the publication and some pictures from our entry.

(Im)material Processes: New Digital Techniques for Architecture: "Code, it would seem, is everywhere. We are beginning to understand that much of our natural environment is based on rule-based behaviors, from the emergent swarm intelligence of flocks of birds and schools of fish, to the complex patterns of snow flakes, ferns, sea shells and zebra skins. And nothing escapes. Not even the human body. The human genome is being mapped out and sequenced by scientist to provide a genetic blueprint of human life itself."[1].

R[e]thinking Architecture : R[e]thinking Academic Series work lies at the intersection of continuos information between computer science, through structural geometry and parametric design, to complex modelling, digital fabrication, material intelligence, evolutionary computation, physical computing and real-time interactivity. 

I want to extend my gratitude to Matias del Campo, Neil Leach and Xu Weiguo for the invitation and their enormous effort for making it happen!

http://abbeijing-emarch.com/

1. Leach, N., (Im)material Processes : New Digital Techniques for Architecture, China Architecture & Building Press, China 2008, 274 (a short extract from the introduction, p-7), ISBN 978-7-112-10395-9.

::: FFWD COAC EXHIBITION BARCELONA SPAIN :::

Here some pictures of the FFWD Genetic Architectures exhibition held at the Colleague of Architects in Barcelona Spain. The series of physical prototypes displayed at the exhibition are investigations from different architectural design studios at the Genetic Architectures master program at the ESARQ Technical School of Architecture UIC. The core idea of these physical models is to generate dynamic distribution of functions. Architecture should be considered as an evolutionary process of design, material capacities and physical topology. These transformational performances must be contained in a cognitive device either physical or digital.

::: EVOLUTIONARY COMPUTATION SERIES : AS PROGRAMMING :::

I am currently working on EC (Evolutionary Computation) by generation of genetic algorithms. The image below represents a series of studios that firstly started for the creation of an interactive, reactive and evolutionary exhibition for a private client in Beijing China.

Genetic algorithms lie in the creation of selection by environment in both intrinsecal and extrinsecal data information, then generation of reproduction, or in this case modifying the new data, and eventually creating a new population. Computer simulations of evolution started in the mid 50´s with Nils Aall Barricelli and then, in late 50´s by an Australian geneticist Alex Fraser by using artificial selection. 

It is call a genetic algorithm to the one used in computing science to figure out approximate solutions to optimization for an evolutionary species. Some concepts that feature genetic algorithms are based in mutation, selection, inheritance and recombination.

Evolutionary computation on the other hand is a branch of artificial intelligence in computer science. It uses interactive procedures such as growth and development of population. Then this population could be selected either random or with specific basis data functions. All of these concepts are inspired by biological systems in a logic and evolutionary development.

::: VITRO GLASS MUSEUM : EXHIBITION :::

The second edition of the Glass Biennial at Vitro Glass Museum has been opened yesterday night. The exhibition displays work that ranges from glass artist through performances, concept designers and R[e]thinking Architecture is showing a small piece of layered glass panels. The core idea of this investigation project is to generate evolutionary data information. One of the most well known concepts of time-space evolutionary information started in 1860 with a board game designed by Milton Bradley (1836-1911), as The Checkered Game of Life. Eventually this game will lead to the formation of Milton Bradley and Company in 1864. He was well known as an American game pioneer. A modern version of that was published in 1960. A rethinking aspect of what Bradley was conceived in 1860 was designed by a British mathematician in 1970 named John Horton Conway as The Game of Life. We will be posting more interactive information regarding technical and evolutionary computation formations.

::: BIAU BIENNIAL EXHIBITION IN LISBON PORTUGAL :::

I has been invited to display my work during the BIAU Lisboa 2008. The BIAU Iberoamerican Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism displayed the 2nd Exhibition for Young Iberoamerican Architects including architects and studios from Spain, Portugal and Mexico. This exhibition was organized by the Universidad Iberoamericana campus Ciudad de Mexico (Mexico City). 

I displayed general research from R[e]thinking Architecture and R[e]thinking Academic Series. Within the first line I presented the ABCD 4th Dimension research project and within the second research line I presented material developed as professor of the Metaphysics and Computation studio in the Postgraduate Master program at the ESARQ UIC in Barcelona.