My classmates and I were just awarded a student ASLA award for the Tajo River project. I am specially happy because it shows the strength of the system and structure that Carl Steinitz and Christian Werthmann set up for us, helping the entire multidisciplinary studio to work together and do such a comprehensive project. We played as a team we won as a team.

For a more comprehensive description of the project than I ever gave:
http://www.asla.org/awards/2008/studentawards/205.html



Other Tajo blog entries:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7

Lectures: I haven't found a slick poster for the lecture series this semester, but there seem to be more lectures than last semester.GSD Public Lectures Fall '08 and don't forget that you can catch most of those lectures live via webcast.trays: The first entries of the semester are loosely based... View full entry

I just returned from San Diego/Tijuana and have updated images and information on the thesis project and its context. In the entries I go from the US border and all the political and environmental problems there to Tijuana and its inequality, eventually arriving to the sewer-less and amazingly... View full entry

After two years I am finally beginning my thesis. To be frank I am scared, you know that dream of presenting to a group naked? well, I am having a dream that a year from now I will get up to present and to my horror there is nothing on the walls or on the model table. It didn't really help that... View full entry

The trip to La Prusia, Nicaragua is finally over and our team of Simon Bussiere MLA, Christine Canabou MArch, Aron Chang MArch, and moi are finally at home. Over the last two weeks and a half we have worked in the design and construction of three projects (maybe four). These projects are a... View full entry

The semester is finally over and I have to say that it was by far one of the most hectic I have had so far. It was basically 3.5 studios and a couple of things on the side (like trays). Because most of the projects were done in collaborations I cannot put up a lot of the results, but soon I will... View full entry

We recently came back from a week studio trip in the neighborhood of La Prusia in Granada, Nicaragua. It was a great trip, the group bonded in 95 degree weather, hour-long trips in the back of pick up trucks, dirt roads, and interactions with the community of La Prusia. The most heartening was the... View full entry

trays, the new web-based GSD student journal is launching officially today. The name was changed to trays to better represent the intent, to fulfill the goals of communication and discourse that are embedded in the design of our building, Gund Hall, and its open tray system... View full entry

Check out the lecture:Teddy Cruz (March 4 Video) I was very inspired by the lecture. It isn't often that you hear an architect tackle the larger problems that face our nation and world, and can use these larger conflicts as the driver for the design of compelling structures. Clearly, it is not the... View full entry

An invitation to pass by the GSD tomorrow (Friday) @ 7PM to check out Pecha-Kucha. This is the line up: Ana Duran, Harvard GSD Ben Fry, Processing.org Benjamin Fortunato and Quilian Riano, Harvard GSD, re: journal Daniel Paluska, MIT Media Lab David Oliver, Cusp Development, Drawing Pod Gretchen... View full entry

...or at least outside of Gund Hall. This is the table of contents for the semester:1-CLASSES This semester I am taking most of my classes outside the GSD. 1.1- Studio with Teddy Cruz 1.2- Smart Cities Seminar with William Mitchell and Ryan Chin over at MIT's media lab. We are working on projects... View full entry

I am very excited, this semester I got my first choice in the lottery: Teddy Cruz's : Housing in Nicaragua - Radicalizing the Local: The Neighborhood as Political Unit. We are going to Granada, Nicaragua and it promises to be an intense research studio for the NGO Casas de la Esperanza's housing... View full entry

More info:http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/events/lectures/ For archives and to watch most of the lectures live:http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/events/webcasts/ View full entry

PART 1: TAJO The presentations in Toledo and Madrid are done and I am on my way back home after way too long. Both presentations went well, the one in Toledo was sparsely attended but there was a small media circus, the one in Madrid was well attended by students, politicians and professionals... View full entry

For anyone that may be around the neighborhood, I wanted to invite the Archinect community to the public presentation(s) of the Reviving the Tajo River studio-research project. A group of Spanish-speaking students (including myself) will be presenting the designs and findings of the studio... View full entry

It is so nice it is to have a little time to travel and rest over the break, so far the break has taken us to:Berlin Thanks to delays in Logan and Heathrow we had only a couple of hours to look around Berlin. Alas, it was just enough time to see the one new design I really wanted to check out... View full entry

I, like many people, have often complained about the divide between the academic and professional world, as in studios we are asked to do things that very often have little to do with the pressures of the 'real world'. This is why I am VERY happy to have had a Carl Steinitz signature research... View full entry

My group and I just finished our project for my final pro-practice course "A New Framework for Practice" with Paul Nakazawa. As I mentioned before we chose to look at the pressures that slums are putting on the built environment across the world and how architects can best expand the current... View full entry

I will now begin live blogging about the Eisenman Herzog Conversation today at the GSD. No photos to go with the narration as I forgot my camera (I will get some later). If you would like, check or refresh this page every once in a while it as I will be updating this post every 15-20 mins. 5:25 PM... View full entry

It is the end of the semester crunch, but I am glad that this weekend I took some time to participate in the GSD's student-run Design Youth Initiative during their GSD Open House. The Design Youth Initiative is a student-run program here at the GSD in which a group of middle school students from... View full entry

I am both scared and fascinated by Orlando and its famous neighbor, Disney World. The fear rises from a city that seems to sprawl endlessly, encouraging growing and continuous mass-indulgence. However, by now the model has spread like a virus throughout the country and it does not seem to be... View full entry

The Contemporary Writing live and direct from the Contemporary resort in Disney World, FL for the NOMA (National Organization of Minority Architects) annual conference. The theme for this year is Community | Commitment | Change. The theme is promising and a lot of the seminars and speakers are... View full entry

So it has been a while since I updated this. I can see how easy it is to get behind on your blogging... one idea passes by, you want to write about something but you get busy, and next thing you know midterm is around the corner. So in order to catch up, this will be an OMNIBUS blog entry to give... View full entry

more View full entry

I am in Spain now in the research trip for studio. So far it has been a very busy schedule waking up everyday around 7:00 AM and either going to lectures on anything from water quality to urban planning in world heritage cities in Spain or traveling up and down the river and taking pictures. We... View full entry

My plan to exile myself from architecture worked a little better than I was ready for. The lottery gods with their 'happiness quotient' ended up giving me my third choice of studio: 1401 - - Contested Waters: Rethinking The Tajo River - (Carl Steinitz, Christian Werthmann) Madrid and the... View full entry

I have come to the point in my GSD experience that I will be afforded some freedom, in the form of options, both in classes and studio. As a bonus the studios I get to chose from often require sponsored travel, and we are all happy to get to see the world outside Jamaica Plain and Allston... View full entry

Exhibit by Behnisch Architekten + Transsolar Climate Engineering @ the GSDVIDEO of the lecture From the GSD exhibit site: "Behnisch Architekten and Transsolar Klimaengineering have been collaborating for many years in pursuit of an environmentally responsive architecture. Works extend from... View full entry

Voromuro by Office DA. Overhead from a tourist: 'It is a spatial experience' 'nuff said. For more images go to my Voromuro flickr set. View full entry

Following dot's lead... Unless otherwise noted, all Lectures are held at 6:00 pm in Piper Auditorium on Wednesday nights.September Exhibition Opening Lecture 09/17/2007 6:00pm - 9:00pm Gund Hall - Piper Auditorium Angelo Bucci Principal, SPBR Architects, San Paulo, Brazil Angelo Bucci, Recent... View full entry