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public works together with Book Works and supportstructure invite you to a Friday Session to launch

The so-called utopia of the centre beauborg - an interpretation by Luca Frei,
co-published by Book Works and Casco
and
A FanFiction by public works and supportstructure:

Where does the speculation start and finish?
We are asking a number of artists/architects/urbanists who are/have been involved in participatory and/or self managed public programmes, to revisit that particular project's initial ambitions and concepts in relation to the reality of its lived appropriation.
What could have happened next?
The invitation is to fictionalise the future of the project, after it has already gone through multiple speculations by the different authors and users involved; this is meant as a light hearted opportunity to assess what has taken place so far, and to push it into a (probably) unrealistic direction.

Luca Frei will be joined by Alun Rowlands, Emily Pethick, Kathrin Böhm, Andreas Lang and Celine Condorelli, for an informal presentation and discussion.

Friday 14 September 2007
19.00 to 21.00
public works
Northgate House
2-4 Scrutton Street
UK London
EC2A 4RT

Posted July 24, 2007 09:18 by Kathrin Böhm

Posted July 24, 2007 09:05 by Kathrin Böhm

Cerro Toro: Public Space Improvements for the Community

The Santiago de Chile based photographer/urbanist Justine Graham, and architect Antonio Lipthany from LMB Architects are going to present one of their current projects Cerro Toro in Valparaiso, Chile.

The Chilean government and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) signed an agreement in 2004 to create and fund the Valpo Mio programme, whose main objective is to implement urban renewal for specific areas of the port city of Valparaiso. After 2 years, Valpo Mio has not yet been able to deliver any concrete projects, mainly due to the enormous bureaucracy impeding them to spend the allocated money. However, in September 2006 they launched the first 4 tenders
1. Mercado Puerto (port market)
2. Plaza Civica (civic plaza)
3. Cerro Santo Domingo (public spaces Santo Domingo Hill)
4. Cerro Toro (public spaces Cerro Toro Hill)

LMB Arquitectos applied to the hills’ public space renovation projects in collaboration with architect Cecilia Puga, photographer/urbanist Justine Graham, and the Department of Geography form Universidad Católica de Chile, winning both bids.

The team’s philosophy offers a much more comprehensive approach to the initial urban design brief and includes a multi-disciplinary team of architects, engineers, social scientists, and a photographer. In March 2007 we began the design and community participation work on Cerro Toro and in August 2007 we will begin work for Cerro Santo Domingo.

The Cerro Toro project consists of the design and building of over 9,000 sq.m of public space of one of Valparaiso’s poorest and most socially excluded hills with a population of 2,500 people. Project Director, Antonio Lipthay and Community Participation coordinator, Justine Graham, will present the work to date of the Cerro Toro Project.

LMB Architects (Lipthay / Morande / Browne) was founded in September 2005 in Santiago, Chile after winning a competition for the extension of the German School in Valdivia, south of Chile. From that date LMB has developed three main areas: urban Design / Urban Studies, Residential, and Hospitals. Currently the practice has grown from the 3 founders partners, Antonio Lipthay, Sebastian Morande and Patricio Browne, to 9 architects. One of the aspects that the practice wants to emphasize is its capacity to collaborate with other disciplines and practices. “We believe that being flexible, collaborative and multi-disciplinary produces richer process and better output”.

Justine Graham is a photographic artist and urbanist, and founder of YAPO
Project, a new creative laboratory based in Santiago, Chile initiating cross-disciplinary initiatives and producing editorial content for cultural projects. Justine was previously project director and researcher for General Public Agency, London and project coordinator at The Architecture Foundation, London.

Contact: a.lipthay@earthlink.net / justinegraham@earthlink.net

Posted July 3, 2007 11:19 by Kathrin Böhm