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Actuated and Performative Architecture: Emerging Forms of Human-Machine Interaction
Full text linkThis Spool [CpA] #3 issue poses and attempts to answer questions on the nature of this intimate human-machine bond, encouraging the discussion of its potentials also in terms of individual and social resilience. This issue of Spool, moreover, attempts to explore the design of bio-cyber-physical systems, which requires integration of natural, physical, and virtual architectures with digital systems and social organizations. In designing interactions between the (augmented) human and cyber-physical environments, the collection and use of personal data, the management of a multi-layered design approach, and the ethics of such design activity require attention from experts in architectural design, interaction and UX design, civil and architectural engineering, mechanical and electrical engineering, computer and information science, sociology, psychology, education, ethics, philosophy, media arts, and science and technology studies.
 
From the Port City of Beirut to Beirut Central District: Narratives of Destruction and Re-Constructions
Full text linkThe repeated destructions and reconstructions of Beirut have been widely acknowledged and conveyed from one generation to the next through different narratives, anecdotes, literature, and popular cultural productions. This paper describes the historical transformations of the city of Beirut from an old harbour city to a generic central district through a selection of dominant narratives, as well as alternative counter-narratives and anecdotes.
The paper argues that the post-civil war reconstruction project is submissive to the neo-liberal models of development which resulted in the generic city that we can observe today. The paper also projects two extreme case scenarios for the future development of the city, of which one seems to prevail: a scenario that has started to materialise since the sudden dramatic and deadly port explosion that hit the port of Beirut on August 4, 2020. 
Dialogs on Architecture
Full text linkDialogs on Architecture is a series of dialogs between researchers and practitioners. who are embracing the intellectual model of high technology and are involved in its advancement and application in architecture. The present dialog focuses on the role of parametric design and cyber-physical systems in architecture. It has been inspired by a lecture given by Henriette Bier at the Italian Institute of Architecture in Catania (2019) and addresses the question of the current paradigm shift in architecture and its impact on the role of the architect and the user. The dialog is led by Grazia Maria Nicolosi (GMN) with Henriette Bier (HB) and Maria Vogiatzaki (MV).
 
In Search of Eden: Landscape laboratory for the enrichment of abandoned orchards in the Barranco de Tremps, Matarraña, Aragón, Spain
Full text linkThe Barranco de Tremps is one of many valleys in the vast hills of the region of Aragón, in the northeast of Spain. A barranco is a natural watercourse created by excessive rainfall, visible only as a dry river bed in summer. Such watercourses and riverbeds are no longer present in this valley.
Today, the valley is full of olive and almond orchards surrounded by pine forests. Summers are increasingly hot and without rain. Since the advent of the tractor in the late 1980s, the soil is ploughed more often and more deeply, and there is little soil life left. During the winter months, wind and rain erode the bare soil, which absorbs almost no rainwater. The water retaining old stone walls have been breached by new wider tractor access paths, through which rainwater also washes away.
Eight hectares of orchards and forest in this valley are owned and cared for by a landscape architect and her partner. A longing to work closer to nature and a desire to transform a semi-arid area into a rich and biodiverse landscape brought them to this spot. They are exploring old and new horticulture techniques to enrich the terrain with diverse planting, to improve soil quality and increase its ability to hold water. Some of these experiments fail, some succeed. In this in-situ laboratory, all experiences contribute to the knowledge of the relationships between soil, vegetation, land use, cultivation, and water cycles.
This visual report gives an impression of the terrain, shows the various experiments of the past two years and the gradual development of spatial principles for design and management
The Interesting Challenges of Designing for Humans in Space
Full text linkExtra-terrestrial living and working environments are characterized by significant challenges in logistics, environmental demands, engineering, social and psychological issues, to name a few. Everything is limited: physical volume, air, water, power, and medicine … everything, even people, and therefore all is treated as valuable resource. This situation is complicated by the end product being the result of balancing many competing interests. The relationship between humans, space, and technology is forced, as well as a dynamic process. Although mathematical models for complex systems exist, long-term effects are hard to predict, and even more so to calculate. Even if we had technological solutions for all hazards and threats, there would still be the question of how these subsystems work together, how they are perceived, and if they are accepted by the inhabitants. Habitability design is vital to the success of future space exploration. Research into the dynamic system of ‘living together in an isolated and extreme environment for a long time’ does not lead to a single common solution. Instead, designers are left trying to translate differing first-person astronaut accounts into a solution bound by the constraints of physics, schedule, and cost. The early days of human spaceflight were all about discovery. Trying to replace conjecture with experience and fact. For example, the Moon was thought to have meters of soft dust that would swallow landing spacecraft. We have built on the successes and failures, but some achievements have also been forgotten. Today, we use these lessons to create effective designs for ‘living together in the isolated and extreme environment (ICE)’ of space. Following are descriptions of historical and newer examples of possible solutions that show what can be achieved when the demanding constraints of space inspire creative solutions for combining human needs with technological possibilities. 
The Invention of Cod in Gafanha da Nazaré
Full text linkTo what extent can a fish drive specific urban developments? This paper seeks to trace the links between fluctuations in the natural cod resources, the technologies used by fishermen to catch and process the fish, and the development of coastal landscapes and urban forms. The fishing port of Gafanha da Nazaré, near Aveiro on the River Vouga lagoon, is an example of the close relationship between the twentieth-century nationalist cultural construction in Portugal (in which cod fishing played a major role), the development of urban sprawls in new territories (independently from the old urban centres with ties to agriculture) and the fluctuations in the cod populations on the other side of the Atlantic. Despite the somewhat haphazard development of the fishing port between the 1920s and the 1970s, it nonetheless established the territorial dynamics that displaced the centre of local urban developments from the ancient urban core to new territories. 
Garden Thinking in Cities of Tomorrow
Full text linkSince the middle of the 19th century, when the term ‘landscape architecture’ began to replace the hitherto common term ‘garden art’, the garden as a work of art and gardening, understood as a predominantly decorative activity, stood in the critical discussion about the future of the metropolises. It was not only architects and urban planners who repeatedly questioned the value of ornamental gardens in the city. Against the background of the enormous growth of the cities in the industrial age and the accompanying social problems, leading European landscape architects in the 20th century like Leberecht Migge (1881-1935), Ernst Cramer (1898-1980), and Dieter Kienast (1945-1998) stated that gardening is neither artistic work nor scientific planning, neither modern nor progressive. Given the respective historical context as well as the particular conception of city and society, this criticism is comprehensible. In the 21st century though, the garden as a living component in the ‘network metropolis’, and gardening itself, especially ‘urban gardening’, were experiencing a remarkable renaissance. Against the background of today’s rapid development of the ‘Zwischenstadt’, it turns out that the basic principles of garden thinking never really lost their relevance.
 
Circular Water Stories
Full text linkProfessional water managers, due to a rise in population, have taken over authority of the living water systems (circular water system) in which there is a self-evident exchange between the natural system and the (human) water chain. This led to an administrative approach to the water system in many - especially western - countries. Water systems were separated into categories like drinking water, drainage, irrigation, sewage systems, and water safety systems, with centralised management. The bond that traditionally existed between communities and ‘their’ water was literally and figuratively cut off and became not only controlled from the top down, but was also often invisible, amplified by technical innovations or even more disturbingly by a lack of water. This industrialisation caused a change from communities of water workers - aware and knowledgeable about the importance of water as the source of life and shaper of the cultivated landscape - to passive users.
Central to this Spool issue, Landscape Metropolis #7, are contributions that investigate traditional water systems as a source of inspiration for today’s challenges. Due to the fact that there are so many interesting contributions there is room for a second issue on: Circular Water Stories Landscape Metropolis #8, which will be published in early 2021.
 
Amidst Things: A more-than-Human Garden for Nonhuman Species and their Human Companions
Full text linkThis visual essay explores the making of a new garden in a small secluded space deep within Danish housing estate Farum Midtpunkt. Through a series of digitally produced drawings the author unfolds origin and current material condition of the site in question, and speculates on the site’s possible future as a new garden for humans and the landscape metropolis’s unnoticed animals and plants. The design approach for the new garden is experimental, maintenance-based and open-ended, aiming to achieve a high level of biodiversity and to balance preservation and renewal attending to the site’s legacy and pre-existing qualities.
 
The Watermills of the Sierra de Cádiz (Spain): A Traditional Open Water Re-circulation System
Full text linkTraditional hydraulic milling was the main productive activity in the Sierra de Cádiz (Andalusia, Spain), as evidenced by the existence of 85 mills spread throughout the region. Although the date of their construction is unknown, the first documentary evidence of their existence appeared in the 16th century. In the 18th century, a more comprehensive account of the set of mills in the Sierra was drawn up thanks to the Ensenada Cadastre. The majority were operational until the mid-20th century, albeit with some difficulties. The disappearance of this handmade trade has led to the obsolescence and abandonment of its architecture and infrastructure. However, the infrastructure remains there, as traces of a recent past in which it is still possible to see the Circular Water Story that made them work. This article explains the hydraulic system that was used by the mills in the Sierra de Cádiz. Located next to rivers and streams, they formed part of an open water re-circulation system, which captured the water at a specific point in the riverbed of origin, artificially diverted it to the mill and then ended up returning it to the same riverbed of origin, at a different point from the initial one. The methodology used is based on the preparation of graphic documents and photographic recognition to select the riverbanks that show the adaptations and variations of the water re-circulation system according to the hydrographic, topographic, and productive characteristics of each territory. As some of these old artificial riverbeds are still operational, today they are used as a natural resource to supply water to other productive activities, thus proving the usefulness of the system, the suitability of the construction techniques applied, and their consequent integration into the landscape. The research carried out justifies the need to protect and catalogue these architectural hydraulic systems before they disappear completely, in order to benefit from the learning that can be derived from the reading, interpretation, and transformation of the territory and its landscape