Zarch 

Abstract: In certain socioeconomic circumstances it is necessary to design learning methodologies based on the analysis of the student entrance profile. In the case of the Universidad San Sebastián introductory architectural design class, Foundation Studio, this study has made it possible to design a course that structures learning through a series of activities that progress in difficulty. Initially, simple concepts are developed through short, guided exercises that are very limited both in terms of material, as well as the handling and format variables. The complexity of the problems increases progressively until end the year when students complete a basic architectural exercise with a reduced programme and minimal material exploration that emphasizes spatial articulation and material handling. Thus it becomes possible to even out the students’ design abilities with a view to their progress in subsequent years.

Abstract: This study offers a macro-historical geographic comparison of blue-green urban infrastructure in the coastal cities of Boston, USA and Mumbai (formerly Bombay), India. After introducing the aims and methods of comparative historical geography, we focus on the insights that these two cases offer. Their stories begin with ancient coastal fishing settlements, followed by early processes of urbanization and fortification in the 17th century. By the late-18th century Anglo-American merchants in Boston were trading with Parsi merchants in Bombay, at a time when Bostonians had little more to sell than ice in exchange for India’s fine textiles. From the early-19th century onwards, the two maritime cities undertook surprisingly parallel processes of land reclamation and water development. Boston commissioned blue-green infrastructure proposals at the urban scale, from Frederick Law Olmsted’s Back Bay Fens to Charles Eliot’s Metropolitan Park District Plan—innovations that offer more than a century of lessons in environmental performance and resilience. The two cities developed parallel “Esplanade,” “Back Bay,” and “Reclamation” projects. None of these projects anticipated the magnitude of 20th century land, water, and infrastructure change. Both cities have begun to address the increasing risks of urban flooding, sea level rise, and population displacement, but they need bolder metropolitan visions of blue-green urban infrastructure to address emerging climate change and water hazards.

Abstract: Los paisajes de la sal son lugares singulares con una urgente necesidad de una politica publica integrada y de atencion academica. Los paisajes de la sal mediterraneos son lugares de produccion antiguos ubicados principalmente en los estuarios y en la proximidad de las ciudades. Su fragil naturaleza, su transformacion ecologica y cultural, principalmente como consecuencia de los procesos de reestructuracion global, han llevado a la implementacion de medidas especificas orientadas a la preservacion y salvaguardia de las salinas como depositos de paradigmas artesanales, ecologicos y socioeconomicos. Examino estudios previos sobre el tema e intento de ilustrar el valor ecologico de salinas, la preeminencia cultural y el potencial turistico con ejemplos de Portugal, donde las condiciones climaticas durante el verano son bastante favorables a la cosecha de sal a traves de la evaporacion. Sostengo que muchas de estas salinas solares han sido amenazadas por transformaciones economicas globales, cambios en patrones de empleo, tecnologias laboriosas, estilos de vida y la invasion de la urbanizacion, potencialmente conduciendo a su destruccion insustituible si la planificacion colaborativa entre las partes interesadas no ocurre o no es completamente aceptada. Palabras clave: Mediterraneo, Salinas, Paisaje, Planificacion, Patrimonio cultural, Portugal. Saltscapes are remarkable places in need of integrated public policy and scholarly attention. Mediterranean saltscapes are ancient production places located mostly in estuaries and within relative proximity of cities. Their fragile nature, ecological and cultural transformation, mostly as a consequence of global restructuring processes, has led to the implementation of specific measures aimed at the preservation and safeguarding of salinas as repositories of artisanal, ecological and socio-economic paradigms. I examine previous scholarship on the subject and attempt to illustrate salinas ecological value, cultural preeminence and tourism potential with examples from Portugal, where climatic conditions during the summer are quite favorable to the harvesting of salt through evaporation. I argue that many of these solar salinas have been threatened by global economic transformations, changes in employment patterns, laboring technologies, lifestyles and the encroachment of urbanization, potentially leading to their irreplaceable destruction if collaborative planning among stakeholders does not occur or is not fully embraced. Keywords: Mediterranean, Saltscapes, Landscape, Planning, Patrimonial Heritage, Portugal.

Abstract: MARIA JOSE RODRIGUEZ-TARDUCHY, IGNACIO BISBAL GRANDAL y EMILIO ONTIVEROS DE LA FUENTE Forma y Ciudad. En los limites de la arquitectura y el urbanismo Madrid, Cinter Divulgacion Tecnica, S.L.L., 2011, 367 pags. Idioma: castellano. 25 € (tapa blanda)