Spaces for agro-ecological opportunity
An architecture report from Huerta de Murcia by Gonzalo Herrero Delicado, María José Marcos
Huerta Bizarra operates entirely in the fruit-growing environment. Its first actions are being rolled out in the Plantío area, which has always been one of the biggest engines for agricultural production in the whole of Spain. It uses "micro-enjoyment actions" to generate small-scale interventions that, due to the location in which they are run, can boost agricultural, leisure and tourist activity in the Huerta de Murcia area. Some of the actions it has already carried out as active prototypes in the search for common good include breakfast fishing trips, the exfoliating cart, water party, white noise lullabies, market gardeners' school and the cabbage spa. One of the foundations of Huerta Bizarra is sustainable action, and one of the main requirements in its micro-actions is the use of light or biodegradable materials that will disappear from the site once each of the events is over.
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A news report from Bentveld
Amsterdam-based architecture studio BaksvanWengerden Architects has recently completed the renovation and expansion of a single family house in a Dutch village, between Haarlem and the north sea coast in Bentveld. The SH House was originally built in 1932, with typical brick walls topped with a gable roof and overhanging eaves. BaksvanWengerden's intervention sought to build upon these vernacular architecture traits, incorporating an additional volume into the previously existing house by continuing the slope of the pitched roof. Thus, the angled concrete walls of the new volume — painted white — form a triangular section when viewed from the yard, and the volume appears to be contained in one pure geometrical shape, combining old and new.
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A design report from Kortrijk by Justin McGuirk
One of the clichés pertaining to the Belgians is that, having been ruled variously by French, Dutch, German and Spanish masters, they are historically suspicious of government, instead espousing individualism and self-organisation. "I think that's definitely an attitude," says Boelen. "You don't follow the rules, you look for the gap in the rules and build your house the way you want it." And Z33 is a case in point. In the absence of any national strategy for design (such as you would find in neighbouring Holland) it has fallen to enterprising individuals to lead the way. Now ten years old, Z33 has become the epicentre of design debate in the country, and has made a point of pushing at the edges of the discipline. With shows such as "Designing Critical Design" (2007), "1% Water" (2008), "Alter Nature" (2010) and "The Machine" (2012), it has been at pains to speculate about design's relevance to the changing social and environmental circumstances we face.
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An architecture report from Los Angeles by Mimi Zeiger
Serious is the antithesis of Design, Bitches' philosophy. If they are serious about anything it is an ethos that finds humour in the everyday. Johnson and Rudolph are both SCI-Arc grads and both are licensed architects, but don't hold the discipline sacred. For the exhibition Come In! Les Femmes, staged last summer at the A + D Museum in Los Angeles, they produced Masters of Architecture in collaboration with photographer Meiko Takechi Arquillos. A series of black and white photographs that, in Cindy Sherman-like fashion, recreate the iconic poses of architectural history.
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