The binary structure of the dual seems to have lost its status. Too simple to hold the complexity of our current world, too attached to the dichotomist schematism that splits positions into for and against. However, the implicit symmetry of the dual should not make us overlook the advantages of taking things in pairs.
Comparison is at the base of any intellectual activity committed to the production of knowledge, because meaning mostly stems from the observation of difference. As a primary scientific device, it generally addresses the task of confirming or refuting a certain hypothesis or theory. By pointing out the coincidence or divergence between the two terms of the comparison, it tends to rely on a logic of causality in order to proceed towards a generalization. Yet, in its barest form, comparison can also pursue a purely interpretive goal. Such is the case of analogy, based on the premise that the two terms paralleled are not at all equal, except from a specific point of view. Analogic reasoning proceeds from the particular towards the particular. From a formal logic stance, it lacks any demonstrative capacity because it relies, not on the probable, but on the plausible. The establishment of a causal relationship, a de facto link between the couple considered, is not as relevant as the things that can be learned when looking at each one in the light of the other.
The pairing of images has a long tradition in the history of art. Pendant paintings consist of two pictures that are compositionally and iconographically related as a pair but are not attached to each other the way hinged diptychs are. They hang or stand side by side but separately and autonomously. The term derives from the French phrase faire pendant, adopted to express the idea of one hanging or depending from the other, and evolved into ‘pandam’ to designate the dual nature of any disposition consisting of two fundamentally similar art pieces but different in detail, which both rely on each other to make full meaning of one another.
Meaningful arguments dealing with a dual structure of the subject matter need to address resemblance and coincidence as well as dissimilitude and divergence. Correlation is always a question of proportion: How much of ‘this’ is present in ‘that’?
The confrontation of two objects, concepts, authors or works does not necessarily imply an oppositional choice. When put into practice by exemplifying exclusionary terms, comparison might only lead to the confirmation of previous convictions and the enunciation of value judgements. Instead, we suggest that placing two things face to face can be both systematic and remain open to unexpected results. A procedure clearly related to the practice of dialogue.
Any dialogue implies two logoi or reasons that agree at least to discuss a disagreement. Plato took this technique to its highest level as a means to push any argumentation forward. Such a dialectical mode of thinking always implies a sense of transformation. Therefore, dialectics raises as a self-conscious process which, by confronting the consequences of the simultaneous affirmation and negation of a proposition, achieves a certain explanation for this contradiction through a synthesis. Today, even if this ‘resolutive’ approach might be questioned, we must still acknowledge one real effect of dialectics: it forces us to remain critical towards reality.
We propose to carry out a critique based on a duality that avoids the oscillatory pendulum of alternative sides as much as it avoids the need to supersede this opposition with a third term. An exercise in sheer comparison, in the midst of today’s growing complexities and multiplicities, that might lead to a deeper understanding of our discipline.
The 4th edition of the Critic|all Conference welcomes contributions that critically address coupled case studies in a way that brings about a new meaning for any of the two terms compared. We expect interpretive work that draws new relations between things. The most basic structure should present the cases, explain the reasons that justify the comparison, support them with arguments in the main body and bring the paper to a conclusion.
Papers must be limited to 5000 words, written in English and preceded by a 300-word abstract. Peer reviewing will be carried out in two phases.
Abstract deadline: 10 March 2020 Full-paper deadline: 10 June 2020
Critic|all is an initiative lead by the Architectural Design Department of Madrid ETSAM–UPM. The current edition of this two-day conference is organized in collaboration with FAU–USP and will be held in São Paulo on the 24–25 September 2020. This research event aims to bring together both young and established scholars from every discipline dealing with architectural thought, including approaches from history, historiography, theory or design.
All accepted contributions will be included in the digital proceedings of the conference, a publication with ISBN that will be given to the registered participants and also be available online. Depending on the amount of works submitted, the Scientific Committee will carry out a selection of papers for presentation during the conference.
You can download the full Call for Papers here.
To prepare your contribution, please download the abstract template here.
Once your abstract has been accepted, you can download the full paper guidelines+template here (no more than 5,000 words, excluding notes and bibliography) and follow these instructions:
1. Authors / Registration.
Each author can submit only one work but can be co-author of others.
To submit an abstract it is not necessary to be registered. If the abstract is accepted after the blind peer review, every author must register in order to send the full paper.
2. Drafting standards and format
Abstracts should be no longer than 300 words, and must not contain illustrations, footnotes or block quotes
Only abstracts and full papers formatted on the model of the downloadable template will be considered.
3. Submission.
For the submission of the abstract, it is necessary to attach an independent file to an email sent to the Scientific Secretariat sec@criticall.es. It should be named as follows:
A_threewordsofthetitle_namesurname.doc
Only those emails received before 24:00h (local time GMT-3) March 10, 2020, will be considered.
For the submission of the full paper, it is necessary to attach an independent file to an email sent to the Scientific Secretariat sec@criticall.es. It should not exceed 2Mb and be named as follows:
B_threewordsofthetitle_namesurname.doc
Only those emails received before 24:00h (local time GMT-3) June 10, 2020, will be considered.
Any changes to the scheduled dates will be reported through the conference website.
4. Language.
Abstracts and full papers should be written in English.
5. Anonymity.
To ensure anonymity during the blind peer review process, any personal data will be removed by the organizers, and a code will be assigned to each submittal before sending the material to the reviewers.
6. Blind peer review.
After the reception of abstracts, and in light of the 2 reports by the reviewers, the Scientific Committee will invite authors to submit a full paper. This requires that at least one report is positive. Abstract acceptance and registration ensures the publication of the full paper in the digital proceedings, a CD with ISBN that will be given to the participants. Depending on the quality of the full papers, the Scientific Committee will invite some authors to present their work orally during the Conference.
7. Notification of acceptance
The acceptance or rejection of the abstracts will be communicated to the authors by email.
March 10th, 2020 Deadline for abstractsApril 20th, 2020 Communication of abstract acceptanceJune 10th, 2020 Oct 5th, 2020 Deadline for full papers June 10th, 2020 Oct 5th, 2020 Deadline for early-bird registrationJuly 20th, 2020 Jan 15th, 2021 Announcement of invitations for oral presentationsSeptember 15th, 2020 March 20th, 2021 Deadline for standard registrationSeptember 24 th -25th, 2020 March 25th – 26th, 2021 Celebration of the conference
10:45 “`Disprogramming`, `Plan-less`, `Non-movement`, `No Style`: Dialectic Strategies in the Shinkenchiku Residential Design Competition (1965–2019)”. Cathelijne Nuijsink (ETH Zürich. Switzerland)
11:00 “(Post) Studio architecture: Buren VS Warhol”. Guillermo Lockhart (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, ETSAM, Madrid, Spain)
11:15 “A Filter to the Frame – from the fenêtre en longueur to the finestra arredata”. Angelica Ponzio (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Su, Porto Alegre. Brazil). Andrea Machado (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Su, Porto Alegre. Brazil)
11:30 “Between a house and a museum: Redefining an emerging typology of exhibition”. Bárbara Salazar (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Santiago. Chile)
11:45 Discussion. Conducted by: Vanessa Grossman (TUDelft)
13:00 “Trust in brick: parallels between Dieste and Benítez/Cabral”. Suelen Camerin (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil)
13:15 “The In-between practice. La Fragua and Previ by Germán Samper Gnecco (1958-1969)”. Juan Alejandro Saldarriaga Sierra (Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Medellín. Colombia).
13:30 “The Sesc Project: A Tale of Two Units”. Carlos Eduardo Comas (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil)
13:45 “Traveling Dome. Claims and climbs over Lebanese and Brazilian domes”. Fernanda Carlovich (Columbia University. New York. EEUU)
14:00 Discussion. Conducted by: Marina Correia (UFRJ)
14:45 “Being Public in Private Spaces and Vice Versa: Brazilian Art and Architecture in the Late 1960s”. Guilherme Wisnik (São Paulo State University, USP. Brazil)
15:00 “(Dis)continuities in the treatment of the public-private interface in social housing produced in Brazil and Portugal”. Luana Cavalcante (University of Porto. Portugal). Raquel Paulino (University of Porto. Portugal). Ricardo Paiva (Federal University of Ceará. Brazil)
15:15 “Blurring the map: Depicting the city of Curitiba as both Spectacle and Experience”. Daniela Moro (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil)
15:30 “Urban Predation: the symbolic economy of the pixo”. Alice Queiroz (Universidade Estadual de Minas Gerais, Minas Gerais, Brazil). Eric Crevels (Technische Universiteit Delft, Delft, Netherlands)
15:45 Discussion. Conducted by: Nelson Mota (TUDelft)
16:30 «The Dialectics of National and International in Oscar Niemeyer’s career: on his connections in the United States of America (1938-1947)». Rafael Urano Frajndlich (Unicamp. Campinas. Brazil). Gabriel Romero (Unicamp. Campinas. Brazil). Fernando Cavichioli (Unicamp. Campinas. Brazil)
16:45 “Adaptation: Ubiquitous and Monofunctional Modernist Residential District”. Adriana Pablos (GSD Harvard. Cambridge. EEUU)
17:00 “From one Louvre to another: cultural constructs of the self through the other”. Jale Sari (Yasar University. Turkey)
17:15 “Åzone Futures Market. Insert Cåin to Start Playing”. Jesús Utrillas Acerete (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain)
17:30 Discussion. Conducted by: Marcos Rosa (FAUUSP)
10:45 “Speculations on (Con)temporary Domestic Architecture: Politics, Domesticity, and the Irrelevance of Architecture in Two Rolling Projects”. Marco Salazar (Universidad Central del Ecuador. Quito. Ecuador)
11:00 “Learning by comparing”. Magda Mària, (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. Barcelona. Spain). Silvia Musquera (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. Barcelona. Spain)
11:15 “The architect’s book as self-promotion and self-production: contrasting Rem Koolhaas S, M, L, XL and Bjarke Ingel’s Yes is More”. Gabriel Elias de Souza (Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro. UFRRJ. Brazil)
11:30 “Spatial representation and architectural critique: the case of Roberto Rossellini and Centre Pompidou”. Nikola Matevski (University of São Paulo. Brazil))
11:45 Discussion. Conducted by: Sergio Martín Blas (ETSAM-UPM).
13:00 “USA Neighbourhood Unit vs USSR Microrayon: A Cold War battle for the ultimate urban project of the twentieth century”. Martin Cajade (Facultad de Arquitectura, Diseño y Urbanismo. FADU. Universidad de la República, Montevideo, Uruguay)
13:15 “Nature and Reversed Mimesis in Toyo Ito’s Architecture”. Silvana Castro Nicolli (Pontificia Universidade Catolica do Rio de Janeiro. PUC-Rio. Brazil)
13:30 “Decomposition of the hierarchical system: dualities in SANAA architecture” Sergio Motomura (State University of Londrina. Brazil). Rovenir Duarte (State University of Londrina. Brazil)
13:45 Discussion. Conducted by: Guiomar Martín (ETSAM-UPM)
14:45 “Elements of Architecture and Choreographic Objects: a new critical viewpoint”. Maria Paula Recena (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil)
15:00 “Eisenman e Reich: confluences and divergences between formal operations”. Felipe Ferla Da Costa (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil). Maria Paula Recena (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil)
15:15 “A Radical Dual-ectics of Urban Formulation. Dashilar as a Heterotopic Partner to the Forbidden City”. Peng Xue (University of Edinburgh. United Kingdom)
15:30 “Corset and Domestic Space: Ortho-architectural Exoskeletons in the Disciplinary Era”. Daniel Movilla (Umeå University. Sweden)
15:45 Discussion. Conducted by: Ignacio Senra (ETSAM-UPM)
You can visit the section critic|others to access previous editions.
Critic|all International Conference on Architectural Design and Criticism is organized by:
Departamento de Proyectos Arquitectónicos / Architectural Design Department Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura / ETSAM School of Architecture Universidad Politécnica de Madrid / Polytechnic University of Madrid
In collaboration with: Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo da Universidade de São Paulo FAUUSP
With the support of: Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo
Directors: Silvia Colmenares (ETSAM-UPM) Leandro Medrano (FAU-USP)
Scientific Committee coordinators: Luis Rojo (ETSAM-UPM) Luiz Recaman ((FAU-USP)
Assistant team: Sálvora Feliz (PhD candidate DPA-ETSAM) Mariana Wilderon (PhD FAU-USP) Raphael Grazziano (PhD FAU-USP) Akemi Morita (PhD candidate FAU-USP) Alessandro Muzi (PhD candidate FAU-USP) Jaime Solares (Msc candidate FAU-USP) Tatiane Teles (Msc candidate FAU-USP)
Silvia Colmenares
Silvia Colmenares is a PhD Architect and Assistant Professor of the Architectural Design Department at the ETSAM (UPM), where he currently serves as Sub-Head for Research and Publishing well as a member of the Academic Commission of the PhD Program. She is a member of the ARKRIT Research Group, devoted to architectural criticism, having contributed to research projects on collective dwelling and public space. She has been responsible for the three previous editions of Critic|all International Conference on Architectural Design and Criticism, and editor of its associated publications. Her academic research focuses on a critical re-reading of the terms with which modern architecture has been commonly described, in the light of the concepts of functional indifference and formal neutrality. She has lectured or been invited critic at KTH Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan Stockholm, ISCTE Instituto Universitario de Lisboa, UEL University of East London, IE University, Universidad San Pablo CEU and Universidad de Alcalá de Henares. Since 2001, she co-directs the architecture office Colmenares Vilata Arquitectos.
Leandro Medrano
Leandro Medrano is a PhD Architect and Associate Professor at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, University of Sao Paulo, FAUUSP. Graduated from FAUUSP where he also obtained a PhD degree. Completed his master’s degree in Universitat Politécnica de Catalunya. He is the coordinator of the research group Critical Thinking and Contemporary City (PC3), member of the Council of USP’s Science Museum and Editor-in-Chief of the Revista da Pós of FAUUSP. He has lectured in several universities, such as TUDelft, GSD Harvard, KTH, CCNY and ETH Zürich. Leandro coordinates the research project ‘Architecture and Urbanism’, addressing the social space in the 21st century: segregation strategies and appropriation tactics (FAPESP). Theory of architecture and urbanism, comparative urban studies, urban space, collective housing and social housing are some of the fields involved in his recent research. He has published several articles in internationals academic journals and is the author of the books: Vilanova Artigas: Habitação e Cidade na Modernização Brasileira and As Virtualidades do Morar: Artigas e a Metrópole.
Luis Rojo (Coordinator of the Scientific Committee)
Luis Rojo is a PhD Architect and Assistant Professor of the Architectural Design Department at the ETSAM (UPM), where he currently serves as MPAA Master Program Academic Secretary, as well as a member of the Academic Commission of the PhD Program. He has been Visiting Professor at the Harvard School of Design and the B&S School of Architecture at the City College of New York, and Visiting Professor of History and Theory at the School of Architecture of the University of Navarra. He has been co-editor of the journal CIRCO COOP since 1992. Together with Begoña Fernandez-Shaw founded Rojo/Fernández-Shaw architects, an architecture office based in Madrid. Their work has obtained 2019 COAM Prize, and has been selected for the Spanish Architecture Bienale, the Biennale di Venezia and the FAD prize.
Luiz Recamán (Coordinator of the Scientific Committee)
Luiz Recaman is a PhD Architect and Urbanist and Associate Professor of the History and Aesthetics Department at the University of São Paulo, where he coordinates PC3 research group, devoted to contemporary architecture and urbanism criticism. He has lectured in several universities, as ETSAM-UPM and KTH. He is an assistant editor at ARA and his writings include “Space and society in the 21st century: the case of São Paulo” (Bitacora Urbano Territorial, 2018), “On triangles and houses: conjectures on space and the city in relation to some of Vilanova Artigas’ houses in São Paulo” (Space and Culture, 2017), and Vilanova Artigas. Habitação e cidade na modernização brasileira (2013).
Juan Herreros
Juan Herreros is Full Professor of the Architectural Design Department at the ETSAM (UPM) and Director of the Advanced Design Program of Columbia University in New York GSAPP. He has lectured at other American universities such as Princeton and IIT Chicago, and at several European institutions, such as the Architectural Association in London, the EPFL in Lausanne, the Faculty of Architecture of Ljubljana (ULFA) and the University of Alicante. Juan Herreros founded Abalos&Herreros in 1984, the LMI (Liga Multimedia Internacional) in 1999, Herreros Arquitectos in 2006 and Estudio Herreros in 2014. His works have been published, awarded prized and exhibited, and among these, highlights are Light Construction-1995, Groundswell-2004 and On Site-2006, carried out in MOMA, NY.
Carmen Espegel
Carmen Espegel is a PhD Architect and Full Professor of the Architectural Design Department at the ETSAM (UPM) and member of the GIVCO research group. Her investigation focuses on three fields: collective housing, architectural critique and woman-architecture. She has been invited to lecture at AIA, TU Delft and FAU USP among others. Her book Heroinas del Espacio (2008) is a technical and theoretical synthesis of women’s roll in modern architecture. In the professional field she started her career in 1985 and, together with Concha Fisac, she set up Espegel-Fisac Architects in 2003.
Andrés Cánovas
Andrés Cánovas is a PhD Architect and a Tenured professor in Architectural Design Department at ETSAM (UPM) since 1989, where he is the Head of the Architectural Design Department since 2016 and an active member of the consolidated research Group GIVCO, focusing on Collective Housing. He has supervised several Degree projects, Master’s and Doctoral Theses. He counts on more than 200 publications and conferences, more than 70 projects of R&D&I, and more than 40 supervisions, having an outstanding experience. He co-founded Temperaturas Extremas Office in 1987 with Atxu Amann and Nicolas Maruri, having won more than 100 awards, especially with projects related to housing. Their work has been exhibited at London AA, Rotterdam NAI, Chicago IIT, Arizona CAPLA, Venice Biennale, as well as the Cervantes Institute in Río, Sao Paulo, Paris, Rome and New York.
Nicolás Maruri
Nicolás Maruri is a PhD Architect and Associate Professor of the Architectural Design Department at the ETSAM (UPM), where he coordinates ARKRIT research group, devoted to architectural criticism. He has lectured at various universities including AA London, San Sebastian, Segovia SEK, Valencia and Navarra. Since 1987 he develops his professional practice with Atxu Amann and Andrés Cánovas. Their works have been exhibited in the AA in London, in the NAI of Rotterdam, in IIT of Chicago, in Arizona CAPLA, in the Venice Biennale, in the Cervantes Institute in Río, Sao Paulo, Paris, Rome and New York.
Nelson Mota
Nelson Mota is a PhD Architect and an Assistant Professor at TU Delft, and also collaborates as a guest scholar at The Berlage Center for Advanced Studies. He is production editor and member of the editorial board of the academic journal Footprint, and a founding partner of the architectural office comoco arquitectos. His writings include A Arquitectura do cotidiano (2010) and the co-edition of The “bread & butter” of architecture: investigating everyday practices (2015).
Jesús Ulargui
Jesús Ulargui is a PhD Architect and Tenured Professor of the Architectural Design Department at the ETSAM (UPM), where he currently serves as Sub-head for Educational Innovation. In 1995 he founded dMPU with Sergio de Miguel and Eduardo Pesquera González, and from 1999 to 2012 he worked with Eduardo Pesquera González in UP Arquitectos. In 2013 he founded Ulargui Arquitectos, his current office through which he pursues his professional, teaching and researching activity.
Marta Caldeira
Marta Caldeira is Lecturer and Critic in Architecture at the Yale School of Architecture. Before teaching at Yale, Caldeira worked as an architect in Lisbon and in New York, and taught at Columbia University. Her writings on architecture and the city have appeared in several international journals as well as recent anthologies on modern and contemporary architecture, including “The Education of an ‘Architect-Urbanist’: Manuel Solà-Morales and Urban Pedagogy at the ETSAB”, (FA Magazine, 2016) and “The Building is the City is the Building” (The Building, 2016).
José Aragüez
José Aragüez is an architect and writer, and an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Architecture at Columbia University. He holds a Ph.D. in the History and Theory of Architecture from Princeton University; a post-professional M.Sc. AAD degree and a Graduate Certificate in Advanced Architectural Research from Columbia GSAPP; and a Master of Architecture and Urbanism from University of Granada, Spain. Besides Columbia, he has taught at Cornell, Princeton, Rice University in Paris, and University of Granada. His recent five-year project (2014-2019) culminated in the publication of The Building (Lars Müller Publishers). His writings have also appeared in e-flux, LOBBY, Flat Out, European Architecture History Network Proceedings, Pidgin, and The Routledge Companion to Criticality in Art, Architecture and Design (Routledge, 2018).
Fernando Lara
Fernando Luiz Lara is a PhD Architect and Full Professor at the School of Architecture at the University of Texas at Austin. He has lectured at the Federal University of Minas Gerais and at the Lawrence Technological University. His latest publications include Excepcionalidad del Modernismo Brasileño, Modern Architecture in Latin America (Hamilton Award runner up 2015), and Quid Novi (ANPARQ best book award 2016).
Jesús Vassallo
Jesús Vassallo is a PhD Architect and he is currently an Assistant Professor at Rice University. His research focuses on the problem of realism in architecture, dealing with a series of collaborations and crossovers with other visual arts. He is the author of Seamless: Digital Collage and Dirty Realism in Contemporary Architecture (Park Books, 2016) and Epics in the Everyday : Photography, Architecture, and the Problem of Realism (Park Books, 2019).
Maria José Pizarro
María José Pizarro is a PhD Architect and Assistant Professor of the Architectural Design Department at the ETSAM (UPM), where he currently serves as Academic Secretary. Her doctoral thesis obtained an honorable mention in the IX Bienal Iberoamericana de Arquitectura y Urbanismo, and was shortlisted for the Arquia Tesis competition in 2013. She has been professionally associated with Óscar Rueda since 1996 and together they run Rueda Pizarro Arquitectos S.L.P.
Marina Correia
Marina Correia is a PhD Architect and Professor of the Architecture Department at the School of Architecture and Urbanism of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro since 2018. She coordinates the National Museum: Design Action and Counter-Visualizations initiative, is a member of the Board for the Nucleus of Research and Documentation of FAU-UFRJ (NPD), and a member of the research group Critical Thinking and Contemporary City of FAU-USP. She recently co-edited the book «Ecological Urbanism in Latin America» (Harvard Graduate School of Design and GG, Barcelona, 2019). Since 2013, her professional practice as an architect supports actions for the democratization of culture and education and develops projects in the fields of architecture, urban design, interiors and exhibition architecture.
Fernando Rodríguez
Fernando Rodríguez is a PhD Architect and Assistant Professor of the Architectural Design Department at the ETSAM (UPM). In 2007 he founded FRPO Rodríguez & Oriol with Pablo Oriol. In 2015 he received the doctoral thesis extraordinary prize with his thesis “An infrastructural understanding of the architectural project”.
Ruy Sardinha Lopes
Ruy Sardinha Lopes is a PhD Philosopher and Associate Professor at the Institute of Architecture and Urbanism of the University of São Paulo, in São Carlos. He is director of NEC research group, devoted to the criticism of contemporary transformations in space, culture, and art, and collaborates with the research group Communication, Political Economy and Society, of the Federal University of Sergipe. Sardinha is editor-in-chief of the academic journal Eptic. His main writings include the “Cultura e desenvolvimento: conceitos revisitados” (Eptic, 2019) and the book Informação, conhecimento e valor (2008).
Sergio Martín Blas
Sergio Martín Blas is a PhD Architect and Assistant Professor of the Architectural Design Department at the ETSAM (UPM). Since 2009 he has coordinated the NuTAC research group in UPM, and he currently is the academic secretary of the PhD Programe of the DPA. He has been a lecturer and visiting researcher in IUAV, TU-Delft, TU-Berlin and Cooper Union.
Ricardo Fabbrini
Ricardo Fabbrini is a PhD Philosopher and Associate Professor of the Department of Philosophy at the College of Philosophy, Literature and Human Sciences of the University of São Paulo. He is member of the deliberative council of the Museum of Contemporary Art of the University of São Paulo. Fabbrini wrote O espaço de Lygia Clark (1994) and A arte depois das vanguardas (2002), and essays as “O fim das vanguardas” (2006), “A altermodernidade de Nicolas Bourriaud” (2012), and “A atualidade da Tropicália” (2018).
Nieves Mestre
Nieves Mestre is a PhD Architect and Associate Teacher of the Architectural Design Department at the ETSAM (UPM). She has taught and given lectures in Syracuse University, London Architectural Association, IUA Venezia, Nottingham University, the Sapienza Universitá di Roma, TU Munich or Budapest University of Technology. She combines teaching and research with her professional activity based in COMBO LAB.
Claudia Piantá Costa Cabral
Claudia Cabral is a PhD Architect and Urbanist and Full Professor at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, directing the research group Studies of Latin American Modern Architecture. She is a former coordinator of Docomomo Brasil. She has lectured at Universidad Nacional de Rosario and Pontificia Universidade Católica de Chile. Her writings include “Niemeyer and the Portuguese landscape: notes on the Algarve” (OASE, 2017) and Grupo Archigram, 1961-1974: uma fábula da técnica (2004).
Ignacio Senra
Ignacio Senra is a PhD Architect and Associate Teacher of the Architectural Design Department at the ETSAM (UPM)– He graduated from ETSAM in 2006 and Master from Columbia University in 2009, where he received the Honor Award for Excellence in Design. Since 2010 he shares an architectural office with Elisa Sequeros, focusing his research on contemporary housing. He is co-editor of the magazine VARIA (Association of Historians of Architecture and Urbanism)
Maria Cristina Nascentes Cabral
Maria Cristina Nascentes Cabrail is an Architect and Urbanist with a PhD in Social History of Culture, and Adjunct Professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. She was enrolled in a research internship at École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (2001) and executive secretary of ANANPARQ (National Association for Research and Postgraduate Studies in Architecture and Urbanism, mandate 2010-2012), member of the board (2013-2014), and coordinator of the Research Group Architecture, City and Culture (2014).
Otavio Leonidio
Otavio Leonidio is a PhD Architect and Urbanist and Associate Professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro. He was enrolled in a postdoctoral research at Stanford University (2012) and is a cofounder of Casa de Lucio Costa Association. Leonidio’s writings include Risky space (2017), Carradas de razões. Lucio Costa e a arquitetura moderna brasileira (1924-1951) (2007), and the co-edition of Um modo de ser moderno: Lucio Costa (2004).
Eduardo Roig
Eduardo Roig is a PhD Architect and Associate Teacher of the Drawing, Analysis and Creation at the ETSAM (UPM) and Architectural Design (ESNE). As scientific expert evaluator he is contracted by EU Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions. He has taught and given lectures in Sapienza Universitá di Roma, Technical University of Munich, New York SID, Hong Kong Raffles International College, American University of Sharjah and BGD Beijing University. He combines teaching and research with his professional activity based in COMBO LAB.
Ivo Girotto
Professor at the Department of History of Architecture and Aesthetics of the FAUUSP, where he also obtained a postdoctoral degree granted by FAPESP (Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo). He holds a Phd and a master’s degree at UPC (Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya/Spain), and is graduated from Universidade Estadual de Londrina (UEL/Brazil). His current studies deal with culture and architecture in Latin America focusing on contemporary cultural buildings and equipment. He is a researcher at the ODALC (Observatory of Contemporary Latin American Architecture).
Juan Elvira
Juan Elvira is a PhD Architect and Assistant Professor of the Architectural Design Department at the ETSAM (UPM). He also holds a Master Degree in Advanced Architectural Design in Columbia University of New York (MSAAD ’00), under the Fundación La Caixa fellowship program. The manuscript, entitled “Ghost Architecture. Space and the production of Ambient Effects” has been awarded with 1st mention at Arquia/Tesis foundation in 2015 and at the Bienal Iberoamericana de Arquitectura 2016. He has also taught and given lectures at the IE University, University of Alicante, ESARQ Universidad Internacional de Cataluña, Architecture and Fine Arts NTNU Trondheim and Istituto Europeo di Desing. He is co-founder and head of the architecture office Murado & Elvira along with Clara Murado.
Katrin Rappl
Katrin Rappl is a PhD Architect from Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, University of Sao Paulo, FAUUSP (2019). She obtained a master’s degree from University of Campinas in 2015, with a research internship at the ETSAM (UPM). Katrin is a Professor at Paulista University since 2019 and a member of the research group Critical Thinking and Contemporary City (PC3) of FAUUSP. Her research focuses on: social and collective housing; urban design; projects’ analysis and evaluation methods; urban and housing policies.
Guiomar Martín
Guiomar Martín is an Assistant Professor of ‘History of Architecture and Urban Planning’ and ‘History of Art and Architecture’ at the ETSAM (UPM). She holds a PhD from IUAV and UPM, and a MA degree in Architectural History from the Bartlett School. She has been visiting researcher at TU Delft and ENSA Belleville and she is currently a member of the NuTAC research group (UPM). Her research work is mainly focused on processes of form generation and the evolution of modernist architecture since the 1950s.
Lizete Maria Rubano
Prof. Dr. Lizete Rubano. Mackenzie University- A&U´s Reader Professor. Graduated by FAU Mackenzie, with University of São Paulo´s postgraduate-level studies, researching collective housing´s subject in cities and inhabit on the European continent. She is a FAUMackenzie´s Rubano was also the research´s coordinator of the Collective housing: the urban live. Published several articles and she is the author of books devoted to Vigliecca architect´s work: “Hypotheses of the real. The A&U´s contests from 1971 to 201” and “Third Territory. Collective housing and the city.
Enrique de Teresa
Enrique de Teresa is an Associate Professor of the Architectural Design Department at the ETSAM (UPM), coordinator of «Theory and Criticism of Modern and Contemporary Architecture» research group and editor of the «Cuadernos de Proyectos Arquitectónicos» journal. He has been guest lecturer in different universities in Spain and South America and has published several books and articles about modernist architecture. Since 1983 he has developed his professional practice and his works have been awarded several prizes in international competitions, among them the «Torre del Agua» in Zaragoza.
Marcos Rosa
Marcos L. Rosa is an architect and urban planner (University of São Paulo), he holds a doctorate degree in Regional Planning and Urban Design (Technical University of Munich). His investigation focuses on the relationship between the planned and the lived space, inquiring agency and the coproduction of space to nourish an analysis of infrastructural space and collective housing. His books include Microplanning: Urban Creative Practices (2011), Handmade Urbanism (2013) and Codesigning the City (2017). He was the curator of the 11th São Paulo Architecture Biennial (2017-2018).
Enrique Encabo
Enrique Encabo is a Ph D Architect and Assistant Lecturer at the Department of History and Theory of ETSAM (UPM). Since 2007 has worked as editor, writer, researcher and curator in partnership with Inmaculada Maluenda. Between 2009 and 2014, they directed and presented the weekly radio talk show PlanetaBETA (VIII BIAU Prize, 2012), with more than one hundred editions. Both have worked on curating teams for the Spain pavilion at the 2012 and 2014 Venice Biennale, published more than 20 volumes, and written in various specialized architecture publications such as El Croquis, Arquitectura Viva, Domus or L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui. Their work in mainstream publications for broad, non-specialized audiences since 2012 includes articles as independent critics El Cultural/El MUNDO, for which they have received, among others, the 2015 COAM Prize and the 2016 Ibero-American Biennial Publications Prize.
Vanessa Grosman
Vanessa Grossman, PhD, is Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment of the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft). Grossman`s research is focused on architecture’s intersections with ideology, power, housing, and governance, with a special focus on global practices in Cold War era Europe and Latin America. Grossman has published a number of books, and her work has also appeared in edited volumes, encyclopedias and journals worldwide. She was the co-curator of the 12th International Architecture Biennale of São Paulo, entitled Todo dia/Everyday (2019), among other exhibitions.
Javier Maroto
Javier Maroto is a Ph D Architect and is Full Professor of the Architectural Design Department at the ETSAM (UPM), also serving since December 2016 as coordinator of the Ph D program. Co-founder of the UPM research group New Techniques, Architecture, City, which explores contemporary collective housing case studies with the use of new design tools. He has been visiting professor and visiting scholar in a number of Schools of Architecture, like the University of Frankfurt and Berlin in Germany, Milan and Venice in Italy, Lund in Sweden, the University of Hong Kong and the Rhode Island School of Design, RISD and the GSD Harvard in the United States. He has been Ruth & Norman Visiting Professor at the Sam Fox School of Architecture. Washington University in St. Louis He has been a permanent member at the «Villard D´Honencourt» within the International Ph D in Architecture at the IUAV University of Venice.
Alberto Nicolau
Alberto Nicolau is a PhD Architect and Associate Teacher of the Architectural Design Department at the ETSAM (UPM). Especially interested in conception design, he is the author of a doctoral thesis on the use of concepts as a creative tool. This research analyses three key strategies to generate architectural concepts and shows how the best contemporary architects apply them in their professional work. His work has been published in professional journals and has been selected to participate in several exhibitions in Spain, Germany, Holland, Switzerland and Italy, including the Venice Biennale of 2002. Among his most outstanding works, it is worth mentioning Suburban Loop for Almere (Europan winning entry), Social Housing for Young People in Seville or the Spuimarkt housing Complex in The Hague. His public work, Valdemoro Swimming Pools, received the A-plus Prize for the best sports architectural work in 2010.
FAU Cidade Universitária Rua do Lago, 876 – São Paulo – SP – Brasil
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Keynote lectures are open to general public for free. You just need to make a reservation through this link > tiny.cc/wuautz
Standard fee: R$ 380,00 Early-bird fee: R$ 240,00 Post-graduate students: R$ 240,00
Registration fee includes:
Accepted papers will be included in the proceedings of the conference, a publication with ISBN that will be given to the registered participants, which will also be available online.
Depending on the amount of works submitted, the Scientific Committee will carry out a selection of papers for its oral presentation during the conference.
It will be necessary to be registered for the full paper to be included in the proceedings and considered for oral presentation.
The deadline for early-bird registration is June 10th, 2020 Sept 10th, 2020 The deadline for standard registration is September 15th, 2020 Feb 24th, 2021
Payment is available through this link.
In addition to payment, it is necessary to send the completed registration form by e-mail to admin@criticall.es
Post-graduate students must also attach proof of payment of current tuition fees.
General: conference@criticall.es Scientific secretariat: sec@criticall.es Administration: admin@criticall.es Communication: press@criticall.es
The 2018 Critic|all Conference is the third edition of a biennial program started in 2014. Here you can see what happened in the previous editions:
The third edition of Critic|all Conference took place on the 26th and 27th of April 2018 at the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid.
While Theory is produced, the History of Theory has to be constructed. Such an ambitious scope has been achieved by many different means but, among those, Anthology stands out as an effective instrument to present and connect apparently autonomous discourses in a way that actually describes a time-lapse situation. It performs a diagnosis.
The act of collecting –flowers, poems or architectural theory pieces [1]– is not innocent. Being the written equivalent of the museum, Anthologies curate knowledge, providing meaning for a collection of fragments. Not only Anthology is a genre that, as Sylvia Lavin once pointed, creates a genealogy for the present [2], but also this kind of selected inventory of the past always claims a certain agenda for the future.
Paradoxically, the advent of what has been called ‘the end of theory’ in the late 90’s ran parallel to the publication of the two most significant anthologies that can be identified until now. The edited volume by Joan Ockman [3] was born as seminar material and covers the period from 1943 to 1968. The one compiled by Michael Hays [4] starts precisely at that point and, despite the openness implied in its title, concludes around 1993. Both anthologies largely differ in scope and purpose: while Ockman interest lays in the unveiling of modernism continuities under the more general concept of ‘culture’, Hays collection is a clear call to the critical function of ‘theory’ as a mode of resistance to, and mediation with, the sociopolitical context in which it is produced.
Certainly there are some other architectural text compilations that could be cited here, but only to load the scale towards the American commanded construction of the History of Theory, and in any case, none of them go hardly beyond the turn of the millennium. This would be the case of Kate Nesbit’s volume advocating for a ‘new’ agenda or the one edited by Neil Leach [5] providing source texts form outside the discipline. The same could be stated of the two-volume collection curated by Francis Mallgrave [6] that unfolds in a holistic manner from Vitruvius to the first years of the 21st Century. The only exception to these western-anglo-saxon oriented compilations is The SAGE Handbook of Architectural Theory [7], which addresses many contemporary debates from a wide variety of geographical and cultural points of view, resulting in a complex structure that nevertheless cannot be called an anthology, strictly speaking.
Amid this panorama, we put forward the following question: Is Anthology an obsolete instrument for current times or does it contain some kind of purpose? In front of the globalized flow of information, whether generated or consumed in endless forms of exchange and heterogeneous media, which parameters should we apply to handle relevance, content or completeness?
The construction of the next index of Theory will have to deal with the very idea of its usefulness, either as a classifying device, an editing instrument or the enhancement of an agenda. The impossibility of covering the whole spectrum of strands urges to confess partiality before taking the first step, loosing therefore the aspirations of encyclopaedic completeness that anthologies usually claim. It would be an impossible collection: never finished and, for this very reason, carrying out a critical stance towards the genre as an academic chimera.
Therefore, if we were to compile such an alternative Un-thology, which criteria should be implemented to make the choices of relevant texts? Should we dive into the endless ocean of officially indexed papers that grows exponentially in a monthly base? Are editorial statements still capable of identifying the new directions in architectural thought? How to deal with amateur writers in relation to institutionalized research conduits? What would be the rate of practicing architects authors vs other scholarship profiles?
[1] The etymological origin of the word ‘anthology’ comes from ἄνθος (ánthos, “flower, blossom”) + λόγος (lógos, “account”). [2] Lavin, Sylvia. “Theory into History, or The Will to Anthology”, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians. Vol. 58, No. 3, Architectural History 1999/2000 (Sep., 1999), pp. 494-499. [3] Ockman, Joan. Architecture culture 1943-1968: a documentary anthology. New York, NY: Rizzoli, 1993. [4] Hays, K. Michael. Architecture Theory, Since 1968. Cambridge, Mass: The MIT Press, 1998. [5] Nesbitt, Kate. Theorizing a new agenda for architecture: an anthology of architectural theory 1965-1995. New York: Princenton Architectural Press, 1996. [6] Mallgrave, Harry Francis. Architectural Theory. Vol. 1, An anthology from Vitruvius to 1870. Malden: Blackwell, 2006. Mallgrave, Harry Francis, and Christina Contandriopoulos. Architectural Theory. Volume 2. An anthology from 1871-2005. Malden: Blackwell, 2008. [7] Crysler, C. Greig, Stephen Cairns, and Hilde Heynen. The SAGE Handbook of Architectural Theory. London: SAGE, 2008.
The 3rd edition of the Critic|all Conference welcomes contributions that critically address these and other questions related to the proposed topic. We expect to receive two types of materials:
Short introductory essays that provide a context for a text dated between 1993 and the present and that is credited to be a significant spot in the recent history of architectural theory. In addition to the necessary review of what has already been said about the text, the paper should develop original arguments and clearly state the reasons why it should be included in a hypothetical Un-thology. We do not expect mere laudatory comments, but new insights on already published material.
The original text must not exceed 5.000 words, and should accompany the submittal. Justified excerptions are allowed. Papers should be 2.000 words length and must be written in English, unless the language of the source text is Spanish. Papers dealing with originals in any other language must provide a translation of it into English and should also be written in English.
No abstract is needed. Peer reviewing will be carried out in a single phase taking into consideration the full-paper submittal.
Full-paper Deadline: 1 February 2018
Well constructed essays than engage with the problematization of the concept of Anthology, whether confronting two opposite discourses, analyzing the structure of previous compilations or discussing the procedures of architectural ideas dissemination. We expect interpretive work that draws new relations between things. The most basic form of this type of manuscript should present a thesis, back it up with arguments in the supporting body paragraphs and then bring the paper to a conclusion.
Papers should be 5.000 words length and must be written in English and will be preceded by a 300 words Abstract. Peer reviewing will be carried out in two phases.
Abstract Deadline: 8 November 2017
Length: 5.000 words max.
Length: 2.000 words max.
11:00 – 13:30con-texts [this section will take place in Spanish]
11:00 “Teóricos francotiradores. La posibilidad de un pensamiento dibujado como práctica específicamente arquitectónica” | Lina Toro, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Departamento de Proyectos Arquitectónicos, Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura, Madrid, Spain and IE School of Architecture and Design, Dep. Projects, IE University, Segovia, Spain
11:08“Poché. Historia y vigencia de una idea” | Raúl Castellanos, Universitat Politècnica de València, Departamento de Proyectos Arquitectónicos, Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura, Valencia, Spain
11:16 “Ways of seeing” | Jorge Borondo, Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña, Departamento de Proyectos Arquitectónicos, Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura, Barcelona, Spain
11:24“Notas sobre una arquitectura líquida” | Alvaro Moreno, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Departamento de Proyectos Arquitectónicos, Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura, Madrid, Spain
11:32“Aftermath” | Rodrigo Rubio, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Departamento de Proyectos Arquitectónicos, Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura, Madrid, Spain
11:40“Artefactos energéticos: la energía como parámetro proyectual” | Martino Peña, Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena, Arquitectura y Tecnología de la Edificación, ETSAE, Cartagena, España
11:48“Paradoxes of Domesticity and Modernity” | Elena Martínez Millana, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Departamento de Proyectos Arquitectónicos, Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura, Madrid, Spain
11:56“Play to the Gallery” | Esteban Salcedo, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Departamento de Proyectos Arquitectónicos, Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura, Madrid, Spain
12:04“Rincones de la función” | Damián Pluganou, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Departamento de Proyectos Arquitectónicos, Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura, Madrid, Spain
12:12“Con P de Pragmatismo” | Luz Carruthers, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Departamento de Proyectos Arquitectónicos, Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura, Madrid, Spain
12:20“Martha Stewart. A contemporary icon” | Luis Moreda, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Departamento de Proyectos Arquitectónicos, Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura, Madrid, Spain
12:28“Proyectos encubiertos: entrevistas entre arquitectos” | Antonio Cantero, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Departamento de Proyectos Arquitectónicos, Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura, Madrid, Spain
12:36“Estímulos y reacciones, deseos y afectos, fibras e hilos intencionales” | Luis Navarro, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Departamento de Proyectos Arquitectónicos, Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura, Madrid, Spain
12:45 Discussion
14:30 “Anthology is ontology. The power of selection and the ‘worldmaking’” | Alessandro Canevari, Università degli Studi di Genova, dAD, Genova, Italy
14:45“Anthology as collection: Althusser vs. Benjamin” | Marcos Pantaleón, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Departamento de Proyectos Arquitectónicos, Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura, Madrid, Spain
15:00 “Theorem. A case for an Anthology today” | Giacomo Pala, Institute of Architectural Theory (Architekturtheorie), Innsbruck, Austria
15:15“Historicizing the desire to historicize” | Carlos Tapia Martín + Jorge Minguet Medina, Grupo de Investigación OUT_Arquías. Departamento de Historia, Teoría y Composición Arquitectónicas. ETS Arquitectura, Universidad de Sevilla, Spain
15:30 Discussion | Moderators: Ignacio Borrego, Full Professor at the Technische Universität Berlin. Sergio Martín Blas, Associate Teacher. Architectural Design Department, ETSAM (UPM)
16:30 “Reassessing Spanish Modernity Discourses through Mass Media” | María Antón Barco + Verónica Meléndez, ESNE, Madrid, Spain
16:45“Architectural theory anthologies from a Spanish perspective” | Aida González Llavona, Universidad de Castilla La-Mancha, Escuela de Arquitectura de Toledo, Departamento de Proyectos Arquitectónicos, Área de Historia y Composición, Toledo, Spain
17:00 “Writings on Photography and Modern Architecture in Spain. A critical reading of a Contemporary Anthology” | Amparo Bernal + Iñaki Bergera, University of Burgos, Graphic Expression Department, Polytechnic School, Burgos, Spain / University of Zaragoza, Architecture Department, School of Engineering and Architecture, Zaragoza, Spain
17:15 Discussion | Moderators: Carmen Espegel, Tenured Professor Architectural Design Department, ETSAM (UPM). Jesús Ulargui, Tenured Professor Architectural Design Department, ETSAM (UPM).
10:00 “Space and the otherness. An anthology” | Leandro Medrano + Luiz Recamán + Mariana Wilderom + Raphael Grazziano , University of São Paulo, Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, History of Architecture and Project Aesthetics Department, São Paulo, Brazil
10:15 “Practical theorization in the digital era” | Belén Butragueño + Javier Raposo + Mariasun Salgado, UPM, Department of Architectural Graphic Ideation, School of Architecture (ETSAM), Madrid, Spain
10:30 “Catching glimpses. The fragment-anthology as a strategy for architectural research” | Mattias Kärrholm + Paulina Prieto + Rodrigo Delso, Lund University, Architecture and the Built Environment, Lund, Sweden, and Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid, Spain
10:45 “Towards a (new) Historiography of Architecture for a Digital Age” | Guido Cimadomo + Vishal Shahdadpuri Aswani + Rubén García Rubio, Universidad de Málaga, Departamento Arte y Arquitectura, ETS Arquitectura, Málaga, Spain and Al Ghurair University, College of Design, Dubai, Emirates Arab United
11:00 Discussion | Moderators: Juan Elvira, Assistant Professor Architectural Design Department, ETSAM (UPM). Lluis J. Liñán, Teacher at the Master in Advanced Architectural Projects, ETSAM (UPM)
11:30 – 12:30 Coffee Break
“Configuring a discipline. Anthologies in architectural theory” | Hilde Heynen, Full Professor Architectural Theory. University of Leuven. KU LEUVEN. Belgium.
Direction Silvia Colmenares Luis Rojo
Scientific Committee Juan Herreros Sylvia Lavin Hilde Heynen James Graham Valéry Didelon Federico Soriano Milla Hernández Pezzi Carmen Espegel Carmen Martínez Arroyo Nicolás Maruri Jesús Ulargui Juan Elvira Maria José Pizarro Fernando Rodríguez Sergio Martín Blas Diego García Setién Nieves Mestre José Aragüez Jesús Vassallo Juan Ruescas Ignacio Senra Ignacio Borrego
The second edition of Critic|all Conference took place from the 20th to the 22nd of June 2016 at the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid.
In its second edition, Critic|all proposes as subject matter the reflection on the considerations that architectural specificity has kept in relation to the architectural discipline itself. Faced with a vision that believes that architecture cannot be an isolated medium, that is, autonomous – not only regarding social culture but above all, the social, political and economic environment of the world in which it is immersed, – we find those visions that, in the opposite way, consider that the architectural discipline is strictly about herself, and therefore employs a self language whose confirmation is determined by a collection of very defined historical forms.
However, there is only one set of facts, ideas, forms and styles that over time grows larger. All of them belong to us and any of them can be interpreted or seen as an architectural event. And there are infinite paths of interpretation of those facts, ideas, shapes and styles. There are those which make use of critical tools outside the own instrumental of the architectural discipline, inheritors of other intellectual and scientific fields. Others, instead, claim the delimitation of the discipline itself to be the main scope of the critical task.
We propose the term out-tomy as a new framework to overcome this classic dichotomy. Discipline is no longer a place, or reserve that the ‘academy’ defines, setting a boundary between the self and the alien. It is a gaze, a reading or modification. It is a glance that is both outside and inside at the same time, which is stranger to the architectural discipline but also understands it.
The autonomy of architecture is not in its technologies or methodologies. It is a capacity of thought to respond freed from pre-established theories, critically untethered to specific techniques, exclusively catering for the systematic managed and chosen for each time. That autonomy requires us to put ourselves out of the matter we want to analyze, manipulate or produce. At the same time we know we cannot make decisions without being directly involved in that matter. It does not act on things but between things, right in the heart of the matter.
The term out-tomy combines an internal autonomy, described from within as the preservation of certain discipline that is memory, is history and it is also specific technique, with an external autonomy, that is defined from the outside and influenced by other fields and cultures, attentive to society, politics and economy, the forces that rule the world. Anyone overrides the other but both have merged into a specifically contemporary gaze.
Between the desire of ‘unit’ and ‘self-referral order’ as a translation of the concept of discipline and the pursuit of ‘fragmentation’ and ‘autonomy of the parts’ as translation of the importance of the accurate and current, the dichotomy is perfectly solved as long as we recognize that both visions have created a situation where they no longer confront each other but simultaneously blend.
This double condition of placing ourselves at both sides of the limit, seeing interior and exterior at the same place, of being outside because of looking from the inside and vice versa, is a contemporary feature that we want to collect, display and confirm at this conference.
10:00 – 11:40 Accreditations & Welcome Pack
12:00 – 12:30 Welcome and Presentation Luis Maldonado, Director de la ETSAM + Federico Soriano, Director de DPA.
12:30 – 14:00 Key-note speaker Anthony Vidler “Architecture Exposed: From Panoptic Discipline to Global Heteronomy” Professor of Architecture School of Architecture The Cooper Union Vincent Scully Visiting Professor of Architectural History, Yale University, (Spring)
14:00 Lunch time
16:00 – 20:00 panel #1 [ disciplinary debates ]
16:00 “A World Apart. Architectural Autonomy as Artistic Freedom” Rafael Gómez-Moriana Korn University of Calgary, EVDS, Architecture term-abroad program, Barcelona, Spain.
16:20 “Revisiting the debate around autonomy in architecture. A genealogy” Marianna Charitonidou University of Paris Ouest Nanterre, Laboratoire «Histoire des arts et représentations»+National Technical University of Athens, School of Architecture.
16:40 “Disciplinary Out-Tonomy. On the Hermeneutics of Architectural Translation” Giacomo Pala University of Innsbruck, Institute of Urban Design, Innsbruck, Austria + Scuola Politecnica di Genova, Dipartimento di Architettura, Genova, Italy.
17:00 “Between autonomy and heteronomy. A critical inquiry into the grid of folies at Parc de La Villette” Guiomar Martín Domínguez Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid
17:20 “The Formal Basis of Modern Architecture: Peter Eisenman’s Analytical Method” Francesco Coppolecchia + Luca Guido Independent scholars, Molfetta, Italy.
17:40 “Architecture on Architecture. Autonomy as a transformative competence” Karen Olesen Aarhus School of Architecture, Aarhus, Denmark
18:00 Break
18:30 Invited speaker and panel leader Francesco Marullo. “Architecture as Theme. Rationalism and Abstraction in Oswald Mathias Ungers’ Grossformen.” Architect, Researcher, Ph.D. TUDelft | The City as a Project
19:00 Discussion
10:00 – 14:00 panel #2 [ side effects ]
10:00 “Interferencias del arte en la escala doméstica” Ángela Juarranz Serrano Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid
10:20 “El arquitecto como editor. Influencia del comisariado artístico y la crítica literaria en Delirious New York” Ignacio Senra Fernández-Miranda Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid
10:40 “Sobreexposición. El “curator” como montador del pensamiento arquitectónico contemporáneo” Felipe Reyno Capurro FADU, Facultad de Arquitectura Diseño y Urbanismo, Montevideo, Uruguay. ETSAM, Departamento de Proyectos Arquitectónicos, Universidad Politécnica, Madrid, España
11:00 “Pactos ficcionales con la arquitectura. Los videojuegos (y su teoría) como herramienta para desmantelar las ficciones de la arquitectura cotidiana” Gaizka Altuna Charterina Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid
11:20 “Pas de deux: an attempt to define architecture’s specificity and out-tomy” Susana Ventura Faculdade de Arquitectura da Universidade do Porto (FAUP),Portugal
11:40 Break
12:00 Invited speaker and panel leader Marina Otero Verzier “Circulating Borders: The Architecture of Global Cultural Institutions” Head of Research and Development, HNI Chief Curator with the After Belonging Agency, OAT’16
12:30 Discussion
Lunch time
16:00 – 20:00 panel #3 [ redescriptions ]
16:00 “Prácticas representacionales críticas. Límite y ruptura de la autonomía arquitectónica” Felipe Corvalán Tapia Universidad de Chile, Departamento de Arquitectura.
16:20 “Antifragilidad. La entropía operativa” Borja Lomas Rodríguez Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid
16:40 “Copyright en el rastro. De la protección del dibujo a la globalización de la imagen” Lluis Juan Liñán Rice University, School of Architecture, Houston, TX, EEUU.
17:00 “Metamodernismo. La última dialéctica” Luis Bretón Belloso Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid
17:20 “El desprecio del estatuto de la arquitectura: La transgresión funda la regla” Jorge Minguet Medina+Carlos Tapia Martín ETSA Sevilla. Grupo de Investigación OUT_Arquías. Dpto. de Historia, Teoría y Composición Arquitectónicas.
17:40 Break
18:00 Invited speaker and panel leader Carlos Arroyo “Redescripciones, artealizaciones y otras sesquipedalias” Profesor en la Universidad Europea de Madrid
18:30 Discussion
10:00 – 20:00 panel #4 [ Dealing with reality ]
10:00 “La política del Frente Popular francés en la arquitectura de Charlotte Perriand y Eileen Gray” María Pura Moreno Moreno Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena. Departamento de Arquitectura y Tecnología de la Edificación.
10:20 “Ciudad accidental: La distancia contemporánea entre proyecto y experiencia” José Ignacio Vielma Cabruja Universidad de Chile, Departamento de Arquitectura, Santiago, Chile
10:40 “Is Dashilar a Paradigm? Re-appraise the notion of autonomy in architecture” Xue, Peng The University of Edinburgh, ESALA (Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture), UK.
11:00 “Critical roles of Architecture. The endemic of labour in the favela dwelling system: Towards a critique on its architectural autonomy” Ana Rosa Chagas Cavalcanti TU Delft, Architecture and the Built Environment, Dwelling, Delft, Netherlands
11:20 “El diablo viste de Prada. Economía de mercado, globalización y arquitectura” Gonzalo Basulto Calvo Laboratorio de Paisajes Arquitectónicos Patrimoniales y Culturales, Dpto de Teoría de la Arquitectura y Proyectos Arquitectónicos, ETSA Valladolid Lucía de Blas Noval Instituto Universitario de Urbanística, Departamento de Representación y Urbanismo. ETSA Valladolid
12:00 Ponente invitado y responsable de panel | Invited speaker and panel leader Luis Rojo “Yes, but is reality given or constructed?” Profesor Ayudante Doctor. Dpto. Proyectos Arquitectónicos. Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid.
16:00 – 17:30 Conferenciante invitado | Key-note speaker Sarah Whiting “Looking Good” William Ward Watkin Professor and Dean of the Rice School of Architecture
18:00 – 19:00 Final debate (Key-note and Invited speakers)
Closing cocktail
Organizers Direction: Federico Soriano General Coordination: Silvia Colmenares Assistant to General Coordination: Sálvora Feliz
Scientific Committee Amadeu Santacana Federico Soriano Luis Rojo Luz Paz Agras Nuria Álvarez Lombardero Rafael Pina
Reviewers Alejandro Virseda Almudena Ribot Ana Fernando Magarzo Ángel Martínez García de Posada Antonio Miranda Ariadna Perich Arturo Blanco David Archilla Debora Domingo Emilia Hernández Pezzi Fernando Casqueiro Fernando Rodríguez Francisco García Triviño Ginés Garrido Ignacio Borrego Iñaki Carnicero Jacobo García-Germán Jesús Vasallo José Jaraiz Maria Teresa Muñoz Marta Pelegrín María Hurtado de Mendoza Mª José Pizarro Nicolás Maruri Paloma Gil Raul Castellanos Raúl Del Valle Santiago de Molina Verónica Meléndez
Click to read a preview of the book
The first edition of Critic|all Conference took place from the 12th to the 14th of June 2014 at the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid.
As we approach the present, the ambiguity of the real escapes traditional historiographical classifications. In recent years, the difficulty involved in working in an increasingly ambiguous environment has resulted in an atlas multiplication that has awakened our desire to become collectors, whilst returning the leading role to history and encouraging examination of the taxonomies of the present. On his particular journey, the architect has become a curator, a historian, an analyst, and an observer. Whilst we acknowledge both the necessity and the interest of the architect as an expanded figure, we must be aware of the risk entailed in pushing certain boundaries that may radically transform the ways in which architecture has traditionally approached its relationship to the real- that is, the tension generated by the project.
Today, and tomorrow, we discover radical action upon the everyday using the tools of the ordinary, the trivial, and the infra-ordinary. We understand that the best intellectual stance is that which adopts the most chimerical ideas when they interfere with ordinary, everyday life, disguised as normality.
Seeking to transcend the dichotomy between pragmatism and utopia, the 1st International Conference on Architectural Design and Criticism makes an appeal for criticism, a critical call whose aim is to examine and work on the ambiguous field of possibilities that emerge from the intersection of the concepts of pragmatic-utopianism and utopian-pragmatism. In order to do so, three main research areas have been defined.
TOPICS
#1 POSITIONS
Positions aims to approach the main critical positionings that configure the current intellectual landscape, identifying both their pragmatic aspects and their utopian aspirations. Which authors have been able to operate significant change on architectural practice in the past and the present? What is the current relevance of the areas of interest defined by their texts?
#2 METHODS
Methods seeks to identify different approaches to architectural criticism and practice from a purely disciplinary approach, as well as its comparison to other areas of knowledge. Could the theoretical definition of architectural research be dependent on such a methodological differentiation?
#3 FORMATS
Formats investigates the means by which architectural criticism is both disseminated and assimilated, understanding that the way in which thought is transmitted needs to be followed by an individual project. To what extent can potential, new formats of thought generate a real debate where both positionings and approaches can be contested or reasserted?
09:30 – 10:00 Welcome and Presentation SALÓN DE ACTOS Luis Maldonado . Director de la ETSAM + Federico Soriano. Director de DPA.
10:00 – 12:30 positions #1 [ utopias and manifestos ] SALA 1 working-table leader: David Cohn
10:00 “Transferencias desde el manifiesto a la teoría arquitectónica contemporánea” Beatriz Villanueva Cajide Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid
10:25 “Yona Friedman: utopías realizadas desde la Ville Spatiale” Ramón Durántez Fernández Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid
10:50 “Revisiting the encounters of the social concern with the utopian aspirations: is pragmatist imagination or utopian realism the way to follow?” Marianna Charitonidou National Technical University of Athens, School of Architecture
11:15 “Utopías de reconstrucción” Enrique Fernández-Vivancos CEU-UCH, ESET Valencia
11:40 Debate | Discussion
12:30 – 13:00 Coffee-break
13:00 – 14:30 Key-note speaker SALÓN DE ACTOS Joan Ockman
14:30 – 16:30 Lunch
16:30 – 19:00 methods #1 [ analogical vs. digital ] SALA 1 – working-table leader: David Archilla
16:30 “Methods of representation. A clarification of Critical Terminology” James Heard Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
16:55 “Arquitectura en la era de la máquina digital. Don’t be my mirror” Polyxeni Mantzou + Graziella Trovato DUTH, School of Architecture, Xanthi, Greece; ETSAM
17:20 “Sobre el problema de la Atmósfera en el proyecto arquitectónico” Rafael Beneytez Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid
17:45 Discussion
16:30 – 19:00 formats #1 [ visual culture and media ] SALA 2 working-table leader: Paula V. Álvarez
16:30 “Marcel Duchamp. Rompiendo las reglas del espacio.” Luz Paz Agras Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de A Coruña. The Bartlett School of Architecture.
16:55 “Acciones invisibles detrás de S,M,L,XL. Distracción, Ensayo e Infiltración” Verónica Meléndez Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid
17:20 “Herramientas audiovisuales para explorar escenarios arquitectónicos contemporáneos” Ramiro Losada Universidad Europea de Madrid
17:45 “El ensayo visual como método crítico en arquitectura” Ariadna Perich Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Barcelona
18:10 Discusión
23:00 – Welcome drink
10:00 – 12:30 methods #2 [ design methodology ] SALA 1 working-table leader: Manuel Gausa
10:00 “Los puntos críticos: un estudio catastrófico de la arquitectura” Luis Bretón Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid
10:25 “The possibilities of “architectural re-enactments” as a critical architectural practice” Alice Haddad Vrije Universiteit, Research Master in Visual Arts, Media and Architecture, Ámsterdam
10:50 “Arquitectura hacking. El error como mecanismo de intrusión en sistemas arquitectónicos existentes” Francisco García Triviño Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid
11:15 “Star-quitectura y Magia de Cerca” Oscar Pedrós + Sonia Vázquez + Juan I. Prieto Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de A Coruña
11:40 Discussion
10:00 – 12:30 methods #3 [ criticism methodology ] SALA 2 working-table leader: Paloma Gil
10:00 “ ‘Negatives Denken’. Contraespacios e impolítica para una revisión (¿crítica?) del estatuto de la arquitectura.” Carlos Tapia + Marta López Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Sevilla
10:25 “Eficacia perezosa” José Manuel López Ujaque Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid
10:50 “Debajo del puente. Introducción a los secretos de lo genérico para producir condiciones urbanas deseables” Iago Carro Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de A Coruña
11:15 “Collapsed City” Ignacio Ruiz Allen Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid
13:00 – 14:30 Key-note speaker SALÓN DE ACTOS Fernando Casto Flórez «De vuelta a las cárceles. Algunas cuestiones fronterizas de la arquitectura y el arte contemporáneo»
16:30 – 19:00 methods #4 [ criticism methodology ] SALA 1 working-table leader: Santiago de Molina
16:30 “Cruces de caminos que se saludan. Herramientas en la arquitectura de Miralles-Pinós” Arturo Blanco + Antonio Juárez + Aurora Fernández Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid
16:55 “La crítica instrucciones de uso” Ana Fernando Magarzo Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid
17:20 “El mundo escondido de C. Price. Claves para el entendimiento de utopías factibles” Marcela Aragüez Bartlett School of Graduate Studies. Bartlett Faculty of the Built environment.
17:45 “El arquitecto como coleccionista” María Antón-Barco Universidad San Pablo CEU, Departamento de Arquitectura y Diseño, EPS
18:10 Discussion
16:30 – 19:00 formats #2 [ visual culture and media ] SALA 2 working-table leader: Almudena Ribot
16:30 “¿Y tú cómo lo ves? Hacia una crítica visual de la arquitectura” Jesús Marina + Elena Morón Facultad de Filosofía. Universidad de Granada + ETSA Sevilla
16:55 “Architectural criticism in the age of social networks” Davide Tommaso Ferrando Politécnico di Torino
17:20 “El cine de Jacques Tati como herramienta de crítica de la arquitectura moderna” Helia de San Nicolás Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid
17:45 “Crítica gráfica: la práctica de un ensayo visual” Yolanda Ortega Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Barcelona
19:00 – 20:00 MPAA L4 Exhibitions opening VESTÍBULO PRINCIPAL | MAIN HALL
10:00 – 12:30 positions #2 [ the post-critical ] SALA 1 working-table leader: Françoise Fromonot
10:00 “The prospect for architectural criticality after the fictitious Post-Critical stalemate” José Antonio Aragüez Princeton University
10:25 “The Challenges of Urban Activism in the New Neoliberal Context” Jon Geib Chalmers University of Technology, Department of Architecture, Gothenburg, Sweden
10:50 “Post-critical China: There is no Author, just Content!” Christopher Brisbin University of South Australia, School of Art, Architecture and Design
11:15 “The «heterotopias» as cult of capitalism” Pedro Bustamante Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid
10:00 – 12:30 positions #3 [ the urban condition ] SALA 2 working-table leader: Jacobo García-Germán
10:00 “La Ciudad Utópica en los Centros Históricos” Cristina Jódar + Ana Irene Jódar ETSA de Alicante + ETSA Murcia
10:25 “Iconic Buildings and City Marketing: Strategies for the Central Area of São Paulo, Brazil” Leandro Medrano + Geise Pasquotto FAU-USP. São Paulo, Brasil.
10:50 “Infraestructuras para una revolución” Fernando Rodríguez Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid
11:15 Discussion
13:00 – 14:30 Key-note speaker SALÓN DE ACTOS Reinhold Martin » Horizons of Thought: The Realism of Utopia «
14:30 – 16:30 Closing cocktail
Organizers Direction: Federico Soriano General Coordination: Silvia Colmenares
Organizing Committee Nicolás Maruri Rafael Pina Fernando Casqueiro José Antonio Ruiz Esquiroz Esperanza Campaña Gustavo Rojas Sálvora Feliz Marcos Cortés Elena Romero
Scientific Committee President: Antonio Miranda
Almudena Ribot Antonio González Capitel David Archilla Emilia Hernández Pezzi Federico Soriano Fernando Casqueiro Françoise Fromonot Horacio Torrent Javier Frechilla Joan Ockman José Pérez de Lama Juan Miguel Hernández de León Manuel Gausa María Teresa Muñoz Nicolás Maruri Paloma Gil Paula V. Álvarez Rafael Pina Santiago de Molina
12-04-2021
17-03-2021
08-03-2021
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03-10-2017
26-09-2017
