Critic|all 2014 Digital Proceedings

26 September, 2017

By hyperstudio

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Critic|all 2014 Digital Proceedings

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Critic|all 2014 Digital Proceedings
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Guidelines for authors
To prepare your contribution, please download the abstract template.

Once your abstract has been accepted, you can use the full paper guidelines+template (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+1) May 5, 2025, 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+1) September 15, 2025, 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. Depending on the quality of the full papers, the Scientific Committee will invite only 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.
Schedule
May 5th, 2025 Deadline for abstracts
July 10th, 2025 Communication of abstract acceptance
September 15th, 2025 Deadline for full papers
September 15th, 2025 Deadline for early-bird registration
December 1st, 2025 Announcement of invitations for oral presentations
January 19th, 2026 Deadline for standard registration
January 29th-30th, 2026 Celebration of the conference
Program
The detailed program of the Conference will be announced in early January 2026.
Digital Proceedings
The proceedings of the conference will be issued in January 2026 as a digital publication with ISBN that will be available online. Previous editions have already been indexed in CPCI (WoS).

In the meanwhile, you can visit the section critic|others to access all previous editions.
Organization
Critic|all International Conference on Architectural Design and Criticism is organized by:

Departamento de Proyectos Arquitectónicos DPA
Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura ETSAM
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid UPM

In collaboration with:

Department of Architecture and Design of the Politecnico di Torino PoliTO

Organizing Team

Silvia Colmenares (ETSAM-UPM)
Giovanni Corbellini (PoliTO)
Mariacristina D’Oria (UniTS)
Saskia Gribling (PoliTO)
Sergio Martín Blas (ETSAM-UPM)
Scientific Committee
Alessandro Armando

Alessandro Armando is an Architect and Associate Professor at the Politecnico of Turin. He is a founding member and editor of Ardeth magazine and coordinator of the Research Commission of SCIENZA NUOVA – Istituto Italiano di Studi Avanzati di Torino ‘Umberto Eco’. He has been a guest editor of Rivista di Estetica, Khorein and Land journals. He has been visiting scholar at the Collège des Humanités of EPFL-Lausanne in 2017, and Simon visiting professor at the University of Manchester in 2023. In his professional practice, he is a partner of DAR Architettura in Turin since 2013. Among his books: Critica della ragione progettuale (with G. Durbiano, Il Mulino, 2023), The Story of a Section. Designing the Shougang Oxygen Factory (with M. Bonino, E. Piccoli, G. Durbiano, Oro, 2022), Theory of Architectural Design (with G. Durbiano, Carocci, 2017), La soglia dell’arte (Seb27, 2009).

Mauro Berta

Mauro Berta is an architect PhD, Associate Professor of Architectural and Urban Design and coordinator of the School of Architecture and Design of the Politecnico di Torino. His research interests are mainly concentrated on urban regeneration, infrastructural urbanism, sustainable architectural and urban design. He is scientific responsible and visiting professor of the Dual M.Sc. in Urban Design Co-run by South China University of Technology of Guangzhou and PoliTO; and Adjunct Professor at the Far Eastern University of Manila, Philippines. He has been Visiting Researcher and lecturer in several Universities in China (Tsinghua, HIT, XJTLU) and Japan (KIT). He is member of the scientific board of PoliTO’s FULL Lab, fellow of PoliTO’s China Room and Japan Hub and he was scientific coordinator of the winning team of “Solar Decathlon China 2018”. He has been awarded in several international competitions of architecture and he authored and co-authored about 130 scientific works.

Ignacio Borrego

Ignacio Borrego is Full Professor at the Technische Universität Berlin since 2016, after 14 years of docent activity at ETSAM (UPM). His doctoral thesis Informed Matter, obtained in 2015 the X Arquia Tesis First Prize. His research is mainly focused on the intersection between design and industrialized processes. He founded the architectural office dosmasuno arquitectos with Néstor Montenegro and Lina Toro in 2003 and Ignacio Borrego Arquitectos in 2014. He has received 37 national and international prizes in architectural competitions and architectural awards, such as COAM Prize, AIT Award or A+ Prize.

Marta Caldeira

Marta Caldeira is an architect, architectural historian, and Assistant Professor in Architectural History and Theory at the New York Institute of Technology. Her research investigates transnational discourses of modern architecture and urbanism, with a particular focus on their intersection with politics and society in the areas of urban planning, housing, preservation, and urban pedagogy. Her writings have appeared in several international journals, including Perspecta, Log, EAHN Newsletter, Festival dell’Architettura, Jornal Arquitectos, Il Progetto, and Metamorfosi, as well as recent anthologies on modern and contemporary architecture.

Alejandro Campos

Alejandro Campos is an Assistant Professor at the Dept. of Architecture, TU Valencia, specialising in Modern Architecture and the colonial dynamics behind its universalising claims. Between 2021-2024, he worked as a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellow at TU Delft, Netherlands, where he developed the EU-funded research project Multiculturalism in the work of Aldo and Hannie van Eyck. He is also a Research Affiliate at the Jaap Bakema Study Centre within Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam, where he works in the research project Moving Materials: Architecture, Extraction, and Colonial Railway Infrastructures in South Africa with Meghan Ho-Tong. In 2024 he was the co-initiator of the XI Jaap Bakema Study Centre annual conference, Disentangling Coloniality and Architecture.

David Casino

David Casino holds a Master and a PhD with International Mention in Advanced Architectural Projects from the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM). He has been a lecturer in the Architectural Design Department at ETSAM School of Architecture since 2013 and has also taught at the IE School of Architecture and the UEM School of Architecture, Engineering and Design. His doctoral thesis entitled “Ground-Notations. Grounding Strategies in the work of Alison and Peter Smithson” obtained a cum laude, an international mention and the First Prize 13th Arquia Tesis in 2021. His research papers have been published in various specialist journals and he has acted as co-editor of REIA. Heading Zigzag Arquitectura, his built works and projects have been featured in various prestigious national and international publications and have won numerous accolades, among them the Architecture Prize at the 11th Spanish Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism.

Ana Rosa Chagas Cavalcanti

Ana Rosa Chagas Cavalcanti is a Postdoctoral Fellow from São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of the University of São Paulo (FAUUSP) and former Professor Collaborator III at FAUUSP within the Program of Attraction and Retention of Talents from USP. She authored the book Housing Shaped by Labour: The Architecture of Scarcity in Informal Settlements and has given talks at several universities in North America and Latin America, such as Harvard GSD, University of São Paulo and the University of Waterloo.

Silvia Colmenares

Silvia Colmenares is a PhD Architect and Associate Professor of the Architectural Design Department at the ETSAM (UPM), where she served as Deputy Director for Research and Publishing (2016-2024) as 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. She has been responsible for the five previous editions of Critic|all International Conference and editor of its associated publications. She directs the series Ensayos Críticos, published by the DPA. Her recent publications include the chapter “La vivienda como coartada” in the volume Huellas, encuadres, paseos devoted to Álvaro Siza (MITMA, 2022), the chapter “Más que cinco” in La cultura arquitectónica en los años de la Transición (University of Seville, 2023) and the book Lo neutro. Arquitectura por defecto in the collection La Cimbra (Arquia, 2023).

Giovanni Corbellini

Giovanni Corbellini is an Architect, critic of contemporary architecture and Full Professor of Architectural Design at the Politecnico of Turin. He has also taught in Venice, Ferrara, Milan and Trieste. His latest books in English are: Sayable space: Narrative Practices in Architecture (LetteraVentidue, 2021), Ex libris: 16 Keywords of Contemporary Architecture (LetteraVentidue, 2019), Telling Spaces (LetteraVentidue, 2018), Dr. Corbellini’s Pills (LetteraVentidue, 2016), Recycled Theory: Dizionario illustrato/Illustrated Dictionary (edited with Sara Marini, Quodlibet, 2016), Bioreboot. The architecture of R&Sie(n) (Princeton Architectural Press, 2009).

Íñigo Cornago Bonal

Íñigo Cornago Bonal is an Architect, Senior Lecturer at Central Saint Martins, London, and PhD Candidate at TU Delft in the ’Architecture and Democracy’ program, a collaboration with the Jaap Bakema Study Centre, at Het Nieuwe Instituut. He has practiced independently and collaboratively across art, architecture, and urbanism. His research focuses on the socio-political dimension of architecture and the agency of inhabitants, especially in housing. His latest publications include the Ahmedabad Cross Section (CEPT University Press, 2020), and the chapter “Open Building and User Agency” included in Housing and the city (Routledge, 2022).

Mariacristina D'Oria

Mariacristina D’Oria is an architect, PhD (Doctor Europaeus, University of Trieste and ETSAM, Madrid), and a research fellow at the University of Trieste, where she joins the research units Re.So.LAR and The New Friulan Deserts. She presented her work at international conferences (Ljubljana 2021, Delft 2022, Bath 2023, Naples 2025) and dynamically experimented with the exhibition medium. Awarded at the Europan 17 (2024), she works at the intersection of architecture, landscape, and urban practices. She has held postdoctoral fellowships at the Politecnico of Turin and Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid (UPM). She published Expost. Il riciclo dell’evento, l’evento del riciclo (Libria, 2021).

Begona De Abajo

Begoña de Abajo is Associate Professor at the Architectural Design Department at ETSAM (UPM). She is PhD architect from the Polytechnic University of Madrid and Master of Science in Advance Architectural Design from Columbia University where she studied as a Fulbright Fellow. Her professional work, together with Carlos García at DABG, has obtained several awards such as the Detail Prize, Bigmat, COACAN or COAM-Luís Moreno Mansilla mention and has been exhibited in international exhibitions and conferences at TU Berlin, AIA New York or Politecnico de Milan among others. Her professional, academic and pedagogical work focuses on systematic processes, strategic design and the construction logics of industrialization.

Filippo De Pieri

Filippo De Pieri is Professor of Architectural History at Politecnico di Torino, where he coordinates the PhD program “Architecture: History and Project”. His research focuses on the history of 19th- and 20th-century cities, planning and housing, observed from a plurality of methodological perspectives (micro-historical, environmental, public). Filippo has been a visiting scholar/professor at Harvard, EPFL, Tsinghua University, and SCUT. His publications include: Storie di case. Abitare l’Italia del boom (2013, with G. Caramellino, B. Bonomo, and F. Zanfi); Beijng Danwei (2015, with M. Bonino); Porter le temps. Mémoires urbaines d’un site horloger (2021, with F. Graezer Bideau); Tra simili. Storie incrociate dei quartieri italiani del secondo dopoguerra (2022).

Antonio Di Campli

Antonio Di Campli is Associate Professor in Urban Planning at the Politecnico of Turin. He has taught in various schools of architecture between Italy, Switzerland, Colombia and Ecuador. His research interests lie at the intersection of urban studies, urban design and social sciences and concern the question of ‘coexistence between differences,’ the conflict and interaction between multiple ecologies, practices of living and spatial production. Recent printed volumes include Debito e Spazio. La produzione popolare dell’habitat in Ecuador (with Cecilia Cempini, LetteraVentidue, 2024) and La differenza amazzonica. Forme ed ecologie della coesistenza (LetteraVentidue, 2021).

Juan Elvira Peña

Juan Elvira Peña, PhD Architect (ETSAM, 1997, 2014, Cum Laude), MSAAD Columbia University, 2000. With extensive experience in architectural design education, he is an Associate Professor at ETSAM. He has been a visiting professor at international universities such as UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design, Universidad San Francisco de Quito, and NTNU Trondheim, Norway. He is the author of numerous books, book chapters, and articles in specialized publications, including “Arquitectura Fantasma”, published in the Poliédrica collection of the Universitat Politécnica de Catalunya. He is a member of the TRANS research group (ETSAM, 2021) and the editor of Oeste architecture magazine. He is the founder and director of Murado & Elvira Architecture, alongside Clara Murado. Their works and projects have received both national and international awards.

Milena Farina

Milena Farina is a PhD Architect and Associate Professor of Architectural and Urban Design at the Department of Architecture of Roma Tre University. She has been a visiting researcher at TU Delft and ETSAM-Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. Her research work mainly focuses on collective housing spaces in the modern and contemporary city. She has been an editorial board member of the scientific journal “Il giornale dell’architettura” since 2019. In 2008, she founded “Factory Architettura” (www.factoryarchitettura.it) where she carries out her design activity with a particular attention to public space and urban regeneration.

Valeria Federighi

Valeria Federighi is an architect and PhD. She studied in Turin and in Ann Arbor, she is co-founder of design practice Wworks Design-Build and Assistant Professor in Architectural and Urban Design at the Politecnico of Turin. She is a fellow of research groups Invisible Cities Lab and China Room, and co-founder and editor of academic journal Ardeth (Architectural Design Theory). Her research focuses on the mechanisms of innovation in architectural design practice and on understanding the project of architecture as a social and technical object.

Sálvora Feliz Ricoy

Sálvora Feliz Ricoy graduated in Architecture by Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Advanced Architectonic Projects Master with specialty in Processes of Technological Innovation in Architecture, and PhD in 2022 with a research about XL Residential Infrastructures: evolution of mass housing productions on a large scale by Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and Universidade de São Paulo. As a researcher, she has published articles in indexed journals, over 30 peer-reviewed papers in international conference proceedings, and more than 40 books or book chapters. She has also participated as a speaker and organizer in scientific conferences, as well as in research projects.

Davide Tommaso Ferrando

Davide Tommaso Ferrando is an architecture critic and curator, particularly interested in the intersections between architecture, city and digital media, currently working as Research Fellow at the Faculty of Design and Art of the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano. Davide is a contributor to The Architectural Review and his writings are published in magazines such as Log, Casabella, Bauwelt and Volume. Davide is the author of The City in the Image (Vibok Works, 2018), Another Breach in the Wall (Solitude Project, 2022), Building Stories (Letteraventidue, 2023) and City of Legends: Stanze, Web e Social Network (Krisis Publishing, 2024).

Francesca Frassoldati

Francesca Frassoldati is Associate Professor in the Department of Architecture and Design at the Politecnico di Torino. With a multidisciplinary background, her professional and research endeavours have examined processes, tensions, and spatial impacts of socio-economic transformations, highlighting the relevance of spatial design in public discourse. She has curated events and installations at Design Weeks and Architecture Biennales in cities such as Shenzhen, Beijing, Singapore, and Hong Kong. Since 2017 has held the position of editor-in-chief of Ardeth-Architectural Design Theory journal since 2016.

Lidia Gasperoni

Lidia Gasperoni is Associate Professor, Co-Director of Design and member of the Cluster Just Environments at The Bartlett School of Architecture (UCL). She is a philosopher and architectural theorist who specialises in the transformative function of architectural theory, practice and education responding to contemporary challenges associated with designing just environments. Before her role at The Bartlett, Lidia was a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer in the Department of Architectural Theory at TU Berlin between 2018–2024.

Saskia Gribling

Saskia Gribling is a postdoc researcher at the Interuniversity Department of Regional and Urban Studies and Planning at the Politecnico of Turin. She has been trained as an architect and urban planner at TU Delft in the Netherlands and later earned a PhD in Architecture, History, and Project at the Politecnico of Turin. Her research focuses on the political dimension of spatial projects. She is a member of the Invisible City Lab and part of the organising committee for the Scenario Torino Project. Additionally, she serves as the Reviews Editor for Ardeth journal and is involved in teaching activities in architecture and urbanism courses.

Christoph Heinemann

Christoph Heinemann is an Architect and co-founder of ifau (Institute for applied Urbanism) together with Susanne Heiß and Christoph Schmidt. From 2001-2009 he taught Urban Design as Assistant Professor at the Brandenburg University of Technology, Department Urban Design. From 2017-2022 he was Professor for Architecture and City (A+ Stadt) at HafenCity University Hamburg. With ifau architects he has realized numerous projects for arts institutions as Palais Thinnfeld in Graz, The Showroom in London, Artists Space and the Goethe Institut – Wyoming Building in New York. He is especially interested in process- oriented strategies and participative design methods.

Lluis J. Liñán

Lluis J. Liñán studied architecture in Valencia, Vienna, and Madrid, and got his PhD in Architectural Design at Madrid ETSAM. He is Guest Lecturer at the Umeå University School of Architecture, Professor in Practice at Madrid ETSAM, and part of rellam. His work addresses the links between web media and architectural design, has been published in journals such as Bracket and JAE, has exhibited twice at the Venice Architecture Biennale, was awarded with the Bauwelt Preis 2019, and can be checked at rellam.org.

Sharif S. Kahatt

Sharif S. Kahatt is Professor at the Department of Architecture at Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP), where he teaches studio and courses. Founding partner of K+M ARQUITECTURA Y URBANISMO in Lima, he develops urban and architectural projects in Lima and other cities of Peru. He has taught, lectured, and published articles in Peru, Mexico, Spain, England, and USA. He has received the X BIAU Book Award in Sao Paulo and the Bruno Zevi Prize in Rome for his research and publications. He was also appointed Curator of the Peruvian Pavilion at the 14th Venice Biennale (2014).

Stamatina Kousidi

Stamatina Kousidi is a PhD Architect and Associate Professor at the Department of Architecture and Urban Studies at the Politecnico of Milan and a board member of the AUID PhD Program. She has held postdoctoral fellowships at Politecnico of Milan, gta Institute/ETH Zürich and Humboldt University. Her work appears in Ardeth, Vesper, RIHA Journal, The Architectural Review and Territorio, among other journals. She authored From Wall to Skin: Architecture and the Poetics of Breathing (Gangemi Editore, 2020) and edited Viaggi e viste. Mediterraneo e Modernità (Altralinea Edizioni, 2020) and Forest Architecture. In Search of the (Post) Modern Wilderness (Mimesis, 2024).

Marcos L. Rosa

Marcos L. Rosa is an Architect and Urban Planner, Doctor in Regional Planning and Urban Design (Technical University of Munich) and Postdoctoral Fellow at University of São Paulo. His investigation inquires agency and the coproduction of space to nourish an analysis of infrastructural space and collective housing, with focus in Brazilian cities. 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).

Jacopo Leveratto

Jacopo Leveratto, PhD, is Senior Lecturer in Interior Architecture and Exhibition Design at the Department of Architecture and Urban Studies, Politecnico of Milan. Focusing his research on critical spatial practices and posthuman architecture, he has authored numerous publications in peer-reviewed international journals and edited volumes. Besides having published different monographs on these themes, he is also an associate editor of the peer-reviewed journals Stoà, ARK and iijournal, and among the others he has written on Architectural Design, Area, Interni, Int|AR Journal, Op.Cit., and Vesper.

Sara Marini

Sara Marini is a PhD Architect and Full Professor of Architectural and Urban Design at the Università IUAV di Venezia. From 2019, she is the editor of Vesper. Rivista di architettura, arti e teoria | Journal of Architecture, Arts & Theory, DCP, IUAV, published by Quodlibet. From 2023 she is Principal Investigator for the national research project ‘Miserabilia’, from 2020 to 2024 she was scientific responsible for the IUAV Research unit for the national research project ‘Sylva’. In 2018 the ‘Casa nera’, design and built project by Sara Marini and Alberto Bertagna, was exhibited at ‘Archipelago Italia’, Italian Pavilion, 16th Venice Architecture Biennale.

Sergio Martín Blas

Sergio Martín Blas is a PhD Architect and Associate Professor of the Architectural Design Department at the ETSAM (UPM). He worked as Academic Secretary and Coordinator of the Advanced Architectural Design PhD Program at UPM in 2017-2025. He is a member of the NuTAC research group, where he has served as Principal Investigator and member of several national and international projects. His research focuses on the relations between collective housing design and urban transformations, with a special attention to social housing. He has curated several exhibitions and is currently leading the Ibero-American Network on Sustainable Social Housing (REDIVISS). Visiting researcher, invited lecturer and critic at TU Delft, TU Berlin, Cooper Union in New York, UNR Rosario, La Sapienza Rome and KTH Stockholm. His research works have been published in international journals like Rassegna di Architettura e Urbanistica, DASH or Lotus International.

Guiomar Martín Domínguez

Guiomar Martín Domínguez is Associate Professor of History of Architecture and Urban Planning in the Composition Department of ETSAM (UPM), and member of the NuTAC research group. PhD Architect from IUAV and UPM, she also holds a MA degree in Architectural History from the Bartlett School. She has been visiting researcher at TU Delft and ENSA Belleville, Adjunct Professor at URJC and guest lecturer at UNAL, KIT and UCLM, among other universities. Her work combines theory and history, with a special focus on postwar modern architecture and the study of social housing from a contemporary perspective, being a founding member of the Ibero-American Network on Sustainable Social Housing (REDIVISS). Recently, she has co-organized the international conferences IV AhAU (Madrid, 2024), I CIVISS (Mexico City, 2024) and V Critic|all (Delft, 2022).

Lucía Martín López

Lucía Martín López is a PhD Architect and Research Professor at Universidad Rey Juan Carlos. She is currently the coordinator of the research group on Emerging Processes and New Techniques, between History and Architecture PENT(H)A and investigates housing in Latin America and Europe, which has led her to obtain the Research Articles Award at the Spanish Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism 2016- 2017. She is a Level1 Researcher of the National System of Researchers of the National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT) of Mexico.

Elena Martínez-Millana

Elena Martínez-Millana is a PhD Architect and a Postdoctoral Research Fellow (Margarita Salas, Ministry of Universities, Government of Spain) at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) and Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), funded by the Next Generation EU programme (2022-24). Elena is Visiting Scholar at the Jaap Bakema Study Centre, Het Nieuwe Instituut (HNI), in Rotterdam. She is a member of the research groups Architecture Culture and Modernity (TU Delft) and Vivienda Colectiva (UPM). The results of her research have been disseminated in several international conferences and academic journals. She has also been involved in Architectural Design teaching activities.

Leandro Medrano

Leandro Medrano is a Professor at FAUUSP, specializing in the theory of architecture and urbanism. He collaborates with global institutions such as Harvard, TUDelft, ETH, and UPM. His research focuses on urban development and social housing, which is reflected in his participation in international networks and published works. Recent publications include: Vilanova Artigas: Habitação e Cidade na Modernização Brasileira (with Recanan, 2013) and The New Urban Condition (with Tom Avermaete and Recaman, 2021).

Nieves Mestre

Nieves Mestre is a PhD Architect and Associate Professor at the UPM School of Architecture. She has lectured at diverse institutions such as Syracuse University, London Architectural Association, IUA Venice, Nottingham University, Sapienza Universitá di Roma, TU Munich or Budapest University of Technology. She combines teaching and research with her own architectural practice based in COMBOLAB, whose work has been awarded in Europan 8, nominated at the EU Mies Award (2011) and recently selected for both the EMUASA headquarters in Murcia (2022) and for a Social Housing building in San Sebastian (2021).

Nelson Mota

Nelson Mota is an associate professor at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft, The Netherlands), where he co-leads the group Global Housing and the Global Urban Lab programme at Delft Global Initiative. He graduated from the University of Coimbra and earned his doctoral degree from TU Delft with the dissertation An Archaeology of the Ordinary: Rethinking the Architecture of Dwelling from CIAM to Siza (2014). Nelson is the author of the book A Arquitectura do Quotidiano (edarq, 2010), and co-editor of Global Housing: Dwelling in Addis Ababa (JapSam Books, 2020). He is a member of the editorial board of the book series DASH-Delft Architectural Studies on Housing.

Sofia Nannini

Sofia Nannini is an Assistant Professor in Architectural History at the Politecnico of Turin. She is author of Icelandic Farmhouses: Identity, Landscape and Construction (1790-1945) (Firenze University Press, 2023) and of The Icelandic Concrete Saga: Architecture and Construction (1847–1958) (Jovis, 2024). She is currently working on a book project tentatively entitled The Mechanization of Life: An Architectural History of Intensive Animal Farming. This project has been supported by the Canadian Centre for Architecture and the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art.

Virginie Picon-Lefebvre

Virginie Picon-Lefebvre is an Architect and Urbanplanner, PhD in History and Professor at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture Paris Belleville. She has also taught at the Ecole d’architecture de Versailles, Harvard University, Ecole des Ponts and the Ecole d’architecture Paris-Malaquais. Her career combines research, teaching and practice. She has published Paris-ville moderne (2003), Climats (2012), on the issues of sustainable development and climate change and La Fabrique du Bonheur (2019), which deals with the architecture of tourism and leisure. With Pierre Chabard, she has edited a historical dictionary and an atlas of La Défense in 2014. Finally she published Learning from the informal. Architectural practices in Mediterranean cities (with Mazen Heïdar, Silvana, 2024).

María José Pizarro

María José Pizarro is an architect by the ETSAM in Madrid since 1995 and PhD by the ETSAM since 2013. She is Tenure Professor and she has been Academic Secretary of Architectural Design Department between 2016-2024. She has three six-year research periods recognised by the CNAI and has written numerous research articles that have been published in books and indexed journals such as Arquitectura COAM, RITA, Revista Arquitectura y Urbanismo (CUJAE), and DC Papers, EGA, among others. She has been a member of the scientific committee of the APEGA research congress, REIA journal, Critic|all congress and a member of the organizing and scientific committee of EURAU (European Research in Architecture and Urbanism) since 2016.

Fernando Quesada

Fernando Quesada is Professor of Architecture at the University of Alcalá de Henares. He has also been part of the research-creation group ARTEA since its inception. His research work focuses on two major fields: the theory and history of modern and contemporary architecture, and its relationship with the performing arts. The main topics in this critical framework are the body, biopolitics, spatiality and social theatricality. His most recent publications notably include Mobile Theater. Architectural Counterculture on Stage (Actar Publishers, 2021, BEAU XVI Prize), and Functionalism and Architecture. The Function of Function (Abada, 2024).

Armando Rabaça

Armando Rabaça is an integrated researcher at CEIS20 (Centre of Interdisciplinary Studies) and teaches Design Studio and Architectural Theory at the Department of Architecture of the University of Coimbra. He has authored the book Entre o Espaço e a Paisagem (Edarq, 2011) and has contributed to a number of architectural periodicals and books. He has edited the book Le Corbusier, History and Tradition (University of Coimbra Press, 2017) and is editor-in-chief at Edarq (The Department of Architecture Press) since 2019, where he also edits Joelho, Journal of Architectural Culture. His main research interests are nineteenth- and twentieth-century architectural theory and urban design.

Bianca Maria Rinaldi

Bianca Maria Rinaldi is Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at Politecnico di Torino, Italy. Her research and writing focus on cross-cultural interactions in landscape architectural history, twentieth-century landscape architecture and transnational histories, the relationship between history and contemporary landscape architecture, public parks and urban resilience. Recent book publications include Ideas of Chinese Gardens, Western Accounts 1300-1860 (2015), Urban Landscapes in High-Density Cities. Parks, Streetscapes, Ecosystems (with Tan 2019), Italie: viaggio nelle trasformazioni del Bel Paese (2020). Her book The Chinese Garden: Garden Types for Contemporary Landscape Architecture (2011) was awarded a J.B. Jackson Prize by the Foundation for Landscape Studies.

Alessandro Rocca

Alessandro Rocca is a PhD Architect and Full Professor of Architectural Design at Politecnico of Milan. In the last six years, 2019-2024, he has been heading the PhD program of Architectural Urban Interior Design (auid.polimi.it/) at PoliMi, and an active member of Ca2re (ca2re.eu/). He summarized the doctoral experience in two volumes, Research in Architectural Urban Interior Design and A Debate about Research in Architectural Design (both MMXII Press, 2024). Recently, he wrote about design-driven research in journals and books and published Totem and Taboo in Architectural Imagination (LetteraVentidue, 2022).

Fernando Rodriguez

Fernando Rodriguez holds a PhD in Architecture from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. He teaches at the Architectural Design Department of UPM ETSAM, and has also taught at other international institutions. In 2015 his PhD dissertation “An infrastructural understanding of architectural design” showcases his interest in the architectural character of the infrastructural condition and the different scales in which it performs.He publishes in architectural journals and has published the books “Dual Practices” (Asimétricas 2020), “Un entendimiento infraestructural del proyecto” (Nobuko, 2016), and “Matterscapes” (Mairea 2013), among others. He has been curator of the Lecture Series argument#2 “Dual Practices” and has been an Europan España jury member.In 2007 he founds FRPO Rodriguez & Oriol together with Pablo Oriol.

Michela Rosso

Michela Rosso is an architect, PhD and Full Professor in the History of Architecture at the Politecnico of Turin, and has published extensively on contemporary architectural history, historiography and criticism. Among her current interests is research on the connection between design practices, judgment and the public sphere. Within this line of study, the reception of architecture and urban facts through the medium of humour, is at the centre of her Laughing at architecture. Architectural Histories of Humour, Satire and Wit (Bloomsbury, 2019).

Ignacio Senra

Ignacio Senra is a PhD Architect and Adjunct Professor of the Architectural Design Department at the ETSAM (UPM) where he currently serves as a member of the Academic Commission of the PhD Program. He graduated from ETSAM (UPM) and holds a Master degree from GSAPP, Columbia University, where he received the Honor Award for Excellence in Design 2009. In 2012 founded Bojaus together with Elisa Sequeros, an architectural office based in Madrid. Their work has obtained several prizes as the Häuser Award in 2018 and the COAM Prize in 2021. He currently is a member of the editorial board of CPA (Cuaderno de Proyectos Arquitectónicos), previously he has been co-editor of the magazine VARIA (Association of Historians of Architecture and Urbanism).

Giulia Setti

Giulia Setti is an architect, PhD, Assistant Professor of Architectural and Urban Design at DAStU Departement at the Politecnico of Milan. Her research focuses on design strategies for the reuse of industrial architecture and, in parallel, on the study of water architecture in India. She participates in the CRAFT project – Competence Center Anti-Fragile Territories coordinated by DAStU – Department of Excellence (2023-2027). In 2014-2015, she carried out research and teaching activities at CEPT University, Ahmedabad, India. She published Stepwell. Architetture per l’acqua nel Gujarat (LetteraVentidue, 2022).

Heidi Shon

Heidi Sohn is Associate Professor of Architecture Theory at the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment (TU-Delft). She is interim chair and academic coordinator of the Architecture Theory Group in the Theories & Territories Section. Her area of expertise comprises postmodern theories and contemporary continental philosophies, and their intersection with the materialization of the world. Her research focuses on politico-economic and socio-cultural processes, agential power, and their impact on spatio-temporal disciplines and material-discursive practices, including architecture. Her current interests revolve on conceptual problematizations of territory, terraforming and Geophilosophy. She has been visiting professor of Architecture Theory in DIA, Dessau, Germany, and in Umeå School of Architecture, Sweden.

Luka Skansi

Luka Skansi is an Architectural Historian, Associate Professor at the Politecnico of Milan (DASTU – Dipartimento di Architettura e Studi Urbani). His research ranges across different geographical and temporal contexts of the 20th century and focuses on the themes of spatiality in architecture, construction or its relationship with geopolitics. Awarded with the Plečnik medal in 2018 (for the exhibition+catalogue Streets and Neighbourhoods, MAO Ljubljana, 2016), he was a member of the curatorial committee of the exhibitions Toward a Concrete Utopia. Architecture in Socialist Yugoslavia 1948-1980 (MoMA – NY, 2018) and Fiume Fantastika. Phenomena of the City (Rijeka – ECC 2020).

Mariana Wilderom

Mariana Wilderom is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of the University of São Paulo. In 2019 she received a doctoral degree in History and Fundamentals of Architecture and Urbanism (FAUUSP). She has a bachelor’s in Architecture and Urbanism (FAUUSP, 2009) and a Master’s degree from the same institution (2014). She was a Visiting Researcher at TU Delft (2018) and an Associate Researcher at the Critical Thinking and Contemporary City Research Group (PC3) at FAUUSP. She is co-author of the books Social Urbanism in Latin America (Springer, 2019) and Marcenaria Baraúna: Furniture as Architecture (Olhares, 2017).

Francesca Zanotto

Francesca Zanotto is an Assistant Professor of Architectural and Urban Design at the Politecnico of Milan, currently working at the Department of Architecture and Urban Studies within the National Biodiversity Future Center (NBFC) research group. Since 2013, she has been actively engaged in research, teaching, and design. She holds a PhD cum laude in Architectural, Urban, and Interior Design from Politecnico of Milan and has served as visiting researcher at TU Delft, as well as postdoctoral researcher at Università Iuav di Venezia.
The venue
Politecnico di Torino – DAD

Viale Pier Andrea Mattioli, 39
10125 Torino TO, Italia

view on google maps
Registration
Standard fee: 220 €
Early-bird fee: 180 €

Registration fee includes:

· Welcome pack
· Publication of the full paper in the proceedings (if accepted in the peer-review process)
· Certificate of attendance
· Coffee breaks
· Closing reception

Accepted papers will be included in the proceedings of the conference, a publication with ISBN that will 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 September 15^th, 2025

The deadline for standard registration is January 19^th, 2026

To register for the critic|all conference, please visit the CCI congress webpage through this link and follow the instructions.
Contact
General: conference@criticall.es
Scientific secretariat: sec@criticall.es
Administration: admin@criticall.es
Communication: press@criticall.es
Critic|others
The 2026 Critic|all Conference will be the sixth edition of a biennial program started in 2014. Here you can see what happened in the previous editions.

Critic|all 2023
The fifth edition of Critic|all Conference took place the 10-11 October 2023 at TU Delft.

Call for papers
e(time)ologies

or the changing meaning of architectural words

The study of the origin and history of words has played a central role in the recurrent search for a deep, allegedly forgotten, meaning of architecture. The strikingly persistent and often problematic influence of Martin Heidegger’s Bauen Wohnen Denken proves the fascination of architects with the ancestral power of words. The same fascination explains the equally recurrent urge to explore new meanings and invent new terms in architecture, in order to alleviate the weight of old cultural prejudices and connotations. Hence, etymological lines extend in two opposite time directions: one pointing to roots and sources, the other to future visions and transformations. Architectural thought oscillates between the illusory stability of conventional, present meanings, the mystery of remote, often obscure, connotations, and the poetic, creative drive of language invention. Choosing between communication (order) and noise (entropy), the opposite terms used by Umberto Eco, becomes a typically architectural problem, one which relates both to words and forms, terms and materials.

The heavy architecture-is-a-language fever of the 1960s is long overcome. Robin Evans’ “all things with conceptual dimension are like language, as all grey things are like elephants” might suffice to prevent its return. However, the multiplication and transformation of architectural words has probably accelerated since then, pushed by the development of competitive research production. In fact, every research problem is, at its core, a problem of language, of word use and word definition. Research on the contemporary urban and architectural condition can be no exception.

Meaningful arguments about the changing meaning of architectural words need to address the role of language in the description of current matters and realities as well as its potential to unchain innovative perspectives and actions. New situations call for new terms as much as new terms provoke new situations. Today’s interface of architecture with other disciplines is exemplary in this sense. The growing need to establish meaningful communication between experts from different fields fosters both codification and distortion of language, the homologation of terms and its expansion through translation and borrowing. In the first case, the descriptive precision is favoured to produce an objective (codified) system, whereas misunderstandings, metaphors and inaccuracies can lead to the generation of new knowledge and actions in the second. Such complexities are especially evident in the terminology emerging from practice-based or design-based research. In fact, the translation between visual and verbal signs, which is at the core of architectural practice, tends to obscure the distinction between descriptions and actions.

While the transdisciplinary context might certainly lead to an intensified look, in the last decades architecture has engaged in a process of expansion and adjustment led, in part, by new combinations of old keywords (ecology, landscape, urbanism, infrastructure, logistics…). Beyond disciplinary discourses, contemporary debates addressing the social, ecological and political connotations of architecture are providing a new set of critical words. Adjectives (“post-anthropocentric”, “non-human”, “inclusive”, “transcultural”) names (“decolonization”, “decarbonization”) and phrases (“climate change”, “race and gender identity”…), have gained increasing visibility over the last two decades, both to inform and transform architecture’s critical thinking. The proliferation of prefixes in many of them (post-, de-, trans-), denotes the urge to build new words and concepts from existing materials, pushed by the speed of contemporary culture. The problem of meaning persistence and change, but also of the tacit positions inscribed in words, can be exemplified by the crucial differences between “post-colonization” and “decolonization”.

These and other terms are generated by a sequence of adjustments and oppositions, distortions and borrowings. The study of such processes, not in strict etymological terms but in a broader sense including the complex relations between words, practices, disciplines, is key to unveil the cultural and ideological positions behind current architectural debates. We propose to carry out this critique as a tool to explore today’s emerging terminologies, and the ones to come.

The 5th edition of Critic|all Conference welcomes contributions that critically address the uses and misuses, the creation and wearing, the transformation and timeliness of the words with which architecture is – or has been – described, historized or updated through time. We expect interpretive work that draws new relations between words, concepts, things and practices, not strict etymological studies.

The most basic structure should present the expression or word under scrutiny, explain the reasons that justify the choice, formulate new interpretations or perspectives stemming from it, support these 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: 16 January 2023
Full-paper deadline: 24 May 2023

Critic|all is an initiative lead by the Architectural Design Department of Madrid ETSAM–UPM. This two-days edition of the conference is organized in collaboration with the Department of Architecture & the Built Environment, Delft University of Technology, and will be held in Delft on the 10–11 October 2023. 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 available online. Previous editions have already been indexed in CPCI (WoS). 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.

Program
tuesday 10th

08:30 – 09:15 Accreditations & Welcome Pack

09:15 – 09:30 Welcome and Presentation. Organizing Committee

09:30 – 11:00 panel#1 [Revisited Terms] | Berlagezaal 1

09:35 “Kitsch. Learning from Ordinary Dreams of Architecture”. Elisa Monaci. (Università IUAV di Venezia, Italy)

09:50 “Critical Spatial Practices Inhabiting an Ever-changing Term”. Francesca Gotti. (Politecnico di Milano, Italy)

10:05 “(Re)Defining Utopia. The Changing Concept of an Ideal World”. Jana Culek. (Delft University of Technology, Netherlands + University of Rijeka, Croatia)

10:20 “Past and Future of Townscape. For a Humane Urbanism”. Carla Molinari (Anglia Ruskin University, United Kingdom) + Marco Spada (University of Suffolk, United Kingdom)

10:35 Discussion. Conducted by the Session Chair Marcos Pantaléon (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid)

11:00 Welcome by BK Dean Dick van Gameren

11:00 – 11:30 Coffee Break | Berlagezaal 2

11:30 – 13:00 panel#2 [Modern Genealogies] | Berlagezaal 1

11:35 “The promise(s) of sustainability”. J. Igor Fardin + Richard Lee Peragine (Politecnico di Torino, Italy)

11:50 “Visions on Democratic Architecture”. Cássio Carvalho + Alexandra Alegre (Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal)

12:05 “Nostalgia for Backwardness. Investigating the Persistent Influence of Modernity on Brazilian Contemporary Architecture”. Federico Costa (Universidade Estadual de Campinas & Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo, Brazil)

12:20 “Vulnerable architecture as a/n (im)material assemblage”. Öykü Simşek (Istanbul Technical University, Turkey)

12:35 Discussion. Conducted by the Session Chair Heidi Sohn (Delft University of Technology, Netherlands)

13:00 – 14:00 Lunch Break | Berlagezaal 2

14:00 – 16:00 panel #3 [Situated Terms] | Berlagezaal 1

14:05 “Space, Makan, Kūkan. Phenomenology of Space through Etymology”. Mohammad Sayed Ahmad (Tohoku University, Japan) + Munia Hweidi (Sophia University, Japan)

14:20 “Word, Associations, and Worldviews. A case of pol Architecture of Ahmedabad” (*). Khevna Modi (CEPT University, India Carnegie Mellon University, USA)

14:35 “Speaking of Collective Dining. The Spatial, Social and Semiotic Realities of the Kibbutz Dining Room”. Marine Zorea (Kyoto Institute of Technology, Japan & Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Israel)

14:50 “Redistribution: Domestic space and Land Sharing in Mexico City’s urban centre”. Lola Lozano (Architectural Association, UK)

15:05 “HOME-steading. Subversions, Reversions, and Diversions of the Moral Right to Space”. Hanxi Wang (Cornell University, USA & University College London, UK)

15:20 Discussion. Conducted by the Session Chair Janina Gosseye (Delft University of Technology, Netherlands)

16:00 – 16:30 Coffe Break | Berlagezaal 2

16:30 – 18:30 panel #4 [Expanded Meanings] | Berlagezaal 1

16:35 “From sustainable development to sustainable (urban) engagement: The evolution of a concept”. Clarissa Duarte + Mariana Magalhães Costa (Université Jean Jaurès UT2J, France)

16:50 “A relational approach to performance. Composition of meaning through Price and Ábalos”. Haitam Daoudi (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain)

17:05 “Architecture / architectural”. Grayson Bailey (Leibniz Universität Hannover, Germany Association for the Promotion of Cultural Practice in Berlin, Germany)

17:20 “Platform: as an Architectural Ecotone”. Zeynep Soysal (Atilim University, Turkey)

17:35 “Transtemporal: Unlocking Time in the Architectural Discourse”. Maria Kouvari + Regine Hess (ETH Zurich, Switzerland)

17:50 Discussion. Conducted by the Session Chair Alejandro Campos (Delft University of Technology, Netherlands)

19:00 – 21:30 Dinner | Huszár, Delft

wednesday 11th

08:45 – 09:00 Accreditations & Welcome Pack

09:00 – 11:00 panel #5 [Projective Language] | Berlagezaal 1

09:05 “Redefining Architecture from an Undecidable ‘Anybody’. The Anybody Conference in Buenos Aires, 1996”. Cathelijne Nuijsink (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA)

09:20 “Composting Death. Towards a Body Sublimation”. Caterina Padoa Schioppa (Sapienza University of Rome, Italy)

09:35 “Mundus. Designing landscape as wholeness, thickness, and fertility”. Federico Broggini + Annalisa Metta (University of RomaTre, Italy)

09:50 “Architecture, transfeminism, queerness: reimagining the urban space”. Silvia Calderoni (CIRSDe, Interdisciplinary Centre for Research and Studies on Women and Gender, Italy)

10:05 “Industrial Pastoralism. Post-productive arcadias in machine-modified landscapes”. Marco Spada (University of Suffolk, United Kingdom) + Carla Molinari (Anglia Ruskin University, United Kingdom)

10:20 Discussion. Conducted by the Session Chair Mariana Wilderom (Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil)

11:00 – 11:30 Coffe Break | Berlagezaal 2

11:30 – 12:30 Keynote Lecture | Berlagezaal 1
“Don’t Fly, Don’t Jump: Critical Proximity in Architectural Research”. Albena Yaneva. Professor of Architectural Theory at the University of Manchester, UK Adjunct Professor at Columbia University, USA

12:30 – 13:30 Lunch Break | Berlagezaal 2

13:30 – 15:30  panel #6 [Translated Terms] | Berlagezaal 1

13:35 “The Term “Architectural Art” in the 1950s Chinese Architectural Theory. A Semantic Transplantation” (*) Xuerui Wang (Tongji University, China)

13:50 “Analysing English translation of ma interpretations between the 1960s and 80s”. Miho Nakagawa (University of East London, United Kingdom)

14:05 “Going Back Home/House. Unravelling Linguistic and Existential Differences”. Mustapha El Moussaoui (Free University of Bolzano, Italy)

14:20 “From Kankyō to Environment to Enbairamento. A Mutating Concept Between Intermedia Art and Architecture in Post-War Japan”. Marcela Aragüez (IE University, Spain)

14:35 “Comparison of Jiàngòu and Kekkō. Differences in Terminology Translations of Tectonic Between China and Japan in Studies in Tectonic Culture”. Ye Chen (Nagoya Institute of Technology, Japan)

14:50 Discussion. Conducted by the Session Chair Marcos L. Rosa (Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil)

15:30 – 16:00 Coffe Break | Berlagezaal 2

16:00 – 17:45 Round Table | Berlagezaal 1

16:00 Introduction

16:05 Discussion. Chairs of the sessions, speakers, and organizers

16:45 Q&A

17:15 – 17:45 Break | Berlagezaal 2

17:45 – 18:45 Keynote Lecture | Oostserre
“Words and Buildings. Revisited”. Adrian Forty. Emeritus Professor of Architectural History at The Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment at University College London, UK.

18:45 – 17:45 Closing Ceremony | Oostserre

Scientific Committee
Tom Avermaete

Ignacio Borrego

Marta Caldeira

Alejandro Campos

Roberto Cavallo

Ana Rosa Chagas Cavalcanti

Pippo Ciorra

Silvia Colmenares

Giovanni Corbellini

Íñigo Cornago Bonal

Paulo Dam

Milena Farina

Françoise Fromonot

Maite García Sanchis

Bruno Gil

Janina Gosseye

Christoph Heinemann

Hélène Jannière

Sharif S. Kahatt

Paula Lacomba

Rachel Lee

Sara Marini

Sergio Martín Blas

Guiomar Martín Domínguez

Lucía Martín López

Laura Martínez de Guereñu

Elena Martínez-Millana

Leandro Medrano

Jorge Mejía Hernández

Nieves Mestre

Nelson Mota

Virginie Picon-Lefebvre

Eduardo Prieto

Fernando Quesada

Armando Rabaça

Jane Rendell

Luiz Recamán

Luis Rojo

Marcos L. Rosa

Rosana Rubio Hernández

Ignacio Senra

Angeliki Sioli

Taishin Shiozaki

Heidi Sohn

Doris Tarchópulos

Dirk van den Heuvel

Mariana Wilderom

Digital Proceedings

Download Now!

Critic|all 2021
The fourth edition of Critic|all Conference took place online the 25th and 25th of March 2021.

Call for papers
#dual-ectics

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

Program

thursday 25th

* All schedule indicates local time Sao Paolo. Brazil. (UTC/GMT -3 hours)

09:00 – 09:30 Welcome and Presentation

09:30 – 10:30 Key-note speaker. Sven-Olov Wallenstein. Professor of Philosophy at Södertörn University, Stockholm.

10:45 – 12:15 panel #1. The dialectics of the case I

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)

12:15 – 13:00 Lunch time

13:00 – 14:30 panel #2. The dialectics of the case II

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)

14:30 – 14:45 Break (15’)

14:45 – 16:15 panel #3. Identity Construction (through difference) I

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)

16:15 – 16:30 Break (15’)

16:30 – 18:00 panel #4. Identity Construction (through difference) II

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)

18:00 – 18:30 Break (30’)

18:30 – 19:30 Key-note speaker. Gareth Doherty. Director of the Master in Landscape Architecture Program. GSD. Harvard.

friday 26th

* All schedule indicates local time Sao Paolo. Brazil. (UTC/GMT -3 hours)

09:30 – 10:30 Key-note speaker. Carmen Espegel. Full Professor Architectural Design Department and Director of the Master in Advanced Architectural Design MPAA. ETSAM-UPM.

10:30 – 10:45 Break (15’)

10:45 – 12:15 panel #5. Critical Dualities (Methodologies)

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).

12:15 – 13:00 Lunch time

13:00 – 14:30 panel #6. Conceptual Constructions (through difference)

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)

14:15 – 14:45 Break (30’)

14:45 – 16:15 panel #7. Extreme Dualities (A test of the methodology)

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)

16:15 – 16:30 Break (15′)

16:30 – 17:30 Key-note speaker. Tom Avermaete. Chair of the History and Theory of Urban Design. ETH Zürich.

Scientific Committee
Directors
Silvia Colmenares
Leandro Medrano

Scientific Committee
Luis Rojo (Coordinator of the Scientific Committee)
Luiz Recamán (Coordinator of the Scientific Committee)
Juan Herreros
Carmen Espegel
Andrés Cánovas
Nicolás Maruri
Nelson Mota
Jesús Ulargui
Marta Caldeira
José Aragüez
Fernando Lara
Jesús Vassallo
Maria José Pizarro
Marina Correia
Fernando Rodríguez
Ruy Sardinha Lopes
Sergio Martín Blas
Ricardo Fabbrini
Nieves Mestre
Claudia Piantá Costa Cabral
Ignacio Senra
Maria Cristina Nascentes Cabral
Otavio Leonidio
Eduardo Roig
Ivo Girotto
Juan Elvira
Katrin Rappl
Guiomar Martín
Lizete Maria Rubano
Enrique de Teresa
Marcos Rosa
Enrique Encabo
Vanessa Grosman
Javier Maroto
Alberto Nicolau

Digital Proceedings

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Critic|all 2018
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.

Call for papers
#un-thology

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:

Con-texts

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

Research Articles

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

Full-paper Deadline: 1 February 2018

Length: 5.000 words max.

Length: 2.000 words max.

You can download the full Call for Papers here
Program
Thursday 26th April 2018

10:00 – 10:30 Accreditations & Welcome Pack

10:30 – 11:00Welcome and Presentation
Silvia Colmenares + Luis Rojo. Directors Critic|all

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

13:30 – 14:30 Lunch time

14:30 – 16:00 panel #1. Anthology problematized

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)

16:00 – 16:30 Coffee Break

16:30 – 17:45 panel #2. The Spanish perspective

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).

Friday 27th April 2018

10:00 – 11:30 panel #3. Anthology today

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

12:30 – 14:00 Key-note speaker

“Configuring a discipline. Anthologies in architectural theory” | Hilde Heynen, Full Professor Architectural Theory. University of Leuven. KU LEUVEN. Belgium.

14:00 Closing cocktai
Scientific Committee
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

Digital Proceedings

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Critic|all 2016
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.

Call for papers
#out-onomy

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.

Program
Monday 20th June 2016

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

Tuesday 21st June 2016

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

Wednesday 22nd June 2016

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

11:40 Break

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.

12:30 Discussion

Lunch time

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

Scientific Committee
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

Digital proceedings

Download Now!

Edited Book

Click to read a preview of the book

Critic|all 2014
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.

Call for Papers
utopian-pragmatism
pragmatic-utopianism

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 1^stInternational 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?

Program
Thursday 12th June 2014

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

Friday 13th June 2014

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

11:40 Discussion

12:30 – 13:00 Coffee-break

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”

14:30 – 16:30 Lunch

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

18:10 Discussion

19:00 – 20:00 MPAA L4 Exhibitions opening
VESTÍBULO PRINCIPAL | MAIN HALL

Saturday 14th June 2014

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

11:40 Discussion

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

12:30 – 13:00 Coffee-break

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

Scientific Committee
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

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