Published at 21 April, 2010
in Architectural Association, CV, Biography, Office for Metropolitan Architecture, Cie., Interviews, Independent, Contact info, About, Joao Bravo da Costa, Log, Projects, Writings, Contact, Other and Uncategorized.
The Architectural Association’s visiting workshop took place once again on 20 and 21 April, with a team of AA tutors conducting half-day sessions of creative teamwork for Instituto de Empresa’s MBA students. The workshop is conducted at IE’s campus in Madrid, where the students are offered a brief exercise in thinking, designing, and making in architectural mode.
The theme for this edition of the workshop was “Anti-Ordinary Urban Furniture”; the challenge: to produce a prototype for an original piece of urban furniture — “prototype” meaning a life-size object made from cheap materials. The object should not be a conventional but rather a unique piece of urban furniture with architectural qualities. The team of AA tutors Christopher Pierce and Christopher Matthews concentrated on a construction method; João Bravo da Costa focused on enclosure.
Using cardboard, cutters, adhesive tape, magazines, markers, and whatever came to hand, the management students were given a taste of a design project — from first ideas to discussion of the final results in 4 hours. Some similarities as well as differences in the work dynamics of management and design eventually emerge, while such skills as creativity, teamwork, and leadership are put to the test.
The IE AA Workshop, together with the AA’s Visiting School in Madrid, is part of an effort to diversify and enhance each school’s education offer and to establish a productive exchange between the disciplines of management and design.
The city of Santarém (80 km northeast of Lisbon) launched an ideas competition for the refurbishment of its bullring and the design of the surrounding area.
João Bravo da Costa and Tiago Simões submitted an entry for a multifunctional urban complex; the site was redesigned to stimulate constant and intensive use, with a focus on the local equestrian culture. To replace the existing, isolated bullring, one large envelope contains a loosely arranged, diverse architectural program.
Presentation booklet - SIL competition 2009 (screen)
Click the link above to view the presentation booklet on screen (text in portuguese).
In recent years, a few urban bullrings in the Iberian Peninsula have been converted into multifunctional venues with attached shopping centers. Spatially, they remain unconnected or indeed incongruous accumulations: an augmented arena plus a standard shopping center.
This proposal is an attempt at a typological reinvention of the outdated bullring. A single envelope is introduced to blend outdoor public space into indoor commercial space and into the events venue in a seamless spatial flow.
Inspired by the local culture of horsemanship and historical examples of equestrian activities in the urban realm, the proposal celebrates those activities (such as horse races and displays of riding skill) which presently do not have a wide public participation, with a view to using the urban space as a showcase of local culture to the world. Conversely, the multipurpose venue would bring a diverse offer of cultural events from the world into Santarém.
João Bravo da Costa, Jerome Tsui (in London), and Adalberto Tenreiro (in Macao) have submitted an entry to the concept design competition for the 2010 World Expo Macao pavilion.
The design features an intricate arrangement of compartments intertwined with open-air spaces, all connected by a path of bridges, stairs, ramps, and an elevator. Nicknamed the “Treasure Box”, the design evokes the elaborate and ingenious curio boxes crafted in China since many years to store and carry precious objects.
The competition was organized by the local government of the Special Administrative Region of Macao, one of the regions of China — alongside Hong Kong and Taiwan — that will be represented at the Expo 2010 by their own pavilions next to the Chinese national pavilion.
