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Next Up: Exhibit Columbus / Ecosistema Urbano

2021-07-30T12:33:00-04:00

Archinect Sessions Next Up: Exhibit Columbus continues with sharing conversations with the recipients of The J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize. Today's episode is a conversation with Belinda Tato and Jose Luis Vallejo of Ecosistema Urbano.

Ecosistema Urbano is a design and consulting company operating within the fields of urbanism, architecture, engineering, and sociology, with offices in Madrid and Miami. Their work often addresses climate head-on, while incorporating strategies of working with micro-climates to educate communities through public spaces. This focus was applied to Cloudroom, their contribution to this year's Exhibit Columbus. Cloudroom consists of an inflatable "cloud," floating over a wooden structure, acting as a space for education, play, and interaction for middle school students.

Listen to “Next Up: Exhibit Columbus / Ecosistema Urbano”.

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Bracket [takes action]: submissions selected and new website launches!

2014-06-26T17:01:00-04:00

[takes action] is the fourth issue from Bracket, Archinect's collaborative publication with InfraNet Lab. Edited by a diverse collection of professionals from the intersecting worlds of architecture, environment, and digital culture, Bracket's content is sourced from an open-call for submissions.

Bracket [takes action] asks: What are the collective projects in the public realm to act on?

How have recent design projects incited political or social action? How can design catalyze a public, as well as forums for that public to act? What is the role of spatial practice to instigate or resist public actions? Bracket 4 provokes spatial practice’s potential to incite and respond to action today.

Peruse the selected entries (on the brand new website !): Bracket [takes action]

The Jury included:

Pier Vittorio Aureli, founding partner of Dogma, teaches at the AA School of Architecture in London and is visiting professor at Yale University.
Vishaan Chakrabarti, Principal at SHoP Architects.
Adam ...

Finding playground potential in the Energy Carousel in Dordrecht

2014-03-31T15:08:00-04:00

For a kid, a lifesize light-up spinning top that you can play in right in your neighborhood sounds like a dream come true -- and such is the case in Dordrecht, The Netherlands.

The Energy Carousel by Madrid-based firm Ecosistema Urbano is a play structure that is both engaging and educational. As kids grab onto one of the structure's hanging ropes, the kinetic energy released by their movements is stored in a battery, which later serves as supply to light up the structure at night. The carousel's LED lights shine in various colors depending on how much energy was stored during that day.

The Energy Carousel was one of the winning designs in a 2010 invited competition by Carve, an Amsterdam design group that specializes in developing and engineering public spaces for children. Carve asked 10 European firms to design a multi-age sustainable "unconventional play object" to complete the Governeursplein public square in Dordrecht.

Since then, it seems the Energy Carousel has provided whirls ...