Archinect - University of Edinburgh (Roberto Costa)

5-hour film: Favela Santa Marta

2011-08-06T09:54:01-04:00

I am back home, in Rio, and have made an architectonic-cinematographic collaboration with filmmaker Rogerio Boettger. The 5-hour film must be produced, shot and edited within a period of five hours.

The first film of the series was shot in Favela Santa Marta. This is a symbolic community in the heart of the Rio's affluent South Side where international figures such as Michael Jackson, Madonna, Alicia Keys, and Beyoncé among others have paid a visit. It has also been the canvas for many artists and home of the samba school Mocidade Unida do Santa Marta. The favela was 'pacified' by the military police in 2008 (UPP) and is now free of drug lords and thus open for tourism.

Dissertation: Wikileaks and Architecture

2011-07-22T15:33:33-04:00

My dissertation for the final year of ARB/RIBA Part 1 architectural studies involved a very contemporary topic. It was entitled "Wikileaks and the Architecture of Data-Loss Paranoia" and done under the tutorship of Martin Parker and Richard Coyne. I am glad to say it has been nominated for the 2011 RIBA President’s Medals Student Awards Dissertation Medal (fingers crossed!).

As of August 2010, the whistle-blowing organisation Wikileaks has been storing some of its servers at data centre Pionen White Mountain, in Sweden. Located 30 meters below downtown Stockholm, the facility was originally designed as a Cold War-era, nuclear-proof bunker and has now been converted into a high-security data centre. It is has been shaped and (re)shaped by motives of paranoia, which – neither entirely true nor completely cut off from reality – have produced spaces responsive to the collective fears of different times. The paranoia expressed by Pionen’s designers was initially the possibility of a ...

Open Studio Party

2011-07-17T18:58:21-04:00

EUSAS, the Edinburgh University Student Architecture Society, has organised this past friday the ‘Open Studios Party’ in Minto House. It was a chance to celebrate the work of Year 4, MArch1 and MArch2, in a relaxed and sociable setting. The Gallery, Studios 3,4&5, Crit Rooms 1&2, and Elliot Room, were all open for the viewings. These will stay open until the end of June for those of you couldn’t make it on Friday.

More at: www.robertocostastudio.com

Siccar Point site visit

2011-01-30T09:59:48-05:00

Last week, Unit 1 went to visit Siccar Point and Cockburnspath, Southeast Scotland. It was here, by investigating the unconformity of the rock formations, where James Hutton found evidence for his theory of Deep Time, and Geology was officially born as a scientific discipline. Although hard for us to conceptualise today, until then the Bible was the best geological book around and the Christian date of 5,000 years was taken as the age of the Earth.

This is a site of significant importance in the history of modern science, where Huttonian theory led to Lyell’s geological discoveries and Darwinian evolution, and that of Scotland, as James Hutton was one of the most active members of the Scottish Enlightenment. Our task as designers is to commemorate the importance of the site and allow further geological investigations by designing a geological research centre and museum for visitors who come from all over the world to see the site.

Design Units Assigned!

2011-01-12T15:11:19-05:00

Back to Edinburgh and ready to work!

This week we’ve moved into the studio and have been assigned our Design Units for the course Design Option 2 (DO2). There were three Units to chose from: ‘The Language of Stone’ by Dr Dagmar Motycka Weston, ‘The Architecture of Stratification’ by Cristina Gonzalez-Longo, and ‘Between Rethoric and Terror’ by Kevin Adams. I chose the Unit led by Dr Dagmar Motycka Weston. Everyone seems to be very enthusiastic, and some nervous, with their design choices and the semester ahead. I am looking forward to seeing the projects that will arise from students who have just come back from a year of professional experience. Below is the description for Dagmar's Unit, the design project that I will be working on for the next term.

‘The Language of Stone’:
A Geology Study Centre near Siccar Point

Unit Description:

The work of the unit will be rooted in an understanding that in order to be good, meaningful and non-arbitrary, architecture has to be understood a...

Christmas, Nazis, and Processional Architecture

2010-12-31T12:37:36-05:00

Before heading back to Edinburgh, one of the great things I saw this Christmas holiday, while visiting a close friend and his welcoming family, was the daunting Nazi Party Rally Grounds in Nuremberg. Not far from there, the Christmas Angel had already opened her market, the largest one of its kind in Germany, with wooden stalls selling bratwurst and glühwein. She had recited biblical words from the gallery of the Church of Our Lady, preaching messages of brotherhood to be faithfully followed. All the while, I couldn’t help to think of other messages of brotherhood that had once been preached, also from spectacle-driven architecture, on these same grounds.

This is not your average parade ground. It was here, a site in the southeast of Nuremberg with a size of eleven square kilometres, where the Nazi party rallies were held from 1933 until 1938. It was designed by Hitler’s architect Albert Speer and, to this day, the remains of the buildings with their immense proportions are a vivid...

Hello from Edinburgh!

2010-12-16T16:25:00-05:00

Dear Archinect Community,

I am currently undertaking the fourth year of the MA (Hon) program – ARB/RIBA Part I – at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. I’ve seen interesting things around the ‘School Blog Project’ and decided to share a bit of my own experience for those who are keen to learn how architects and kilts do their thing.

Starting January 2011, students in the fourth year of a four-year program come back to the grand Minto House (see photo bellow) from their placement year to do their last semester before graduation in May. Everyone will have had professional experience in different practices across the world – we have a very international community in our course – and I am looking forward to seeing what new shenanigans my colleagues have learned. It is hoped, if I’m not defeated by all-nighters or have an overdose of espressos, that this blog will document and share the tasks undertaken by colleagues and myself. I aim at giving insight into not only studio projects...