Date:
Tuesday, January 2, 2018 (All day) to Friday, January 12, 2018 (All day)
Location:
Harvard Graduate School of Design, 48 Quincy St, Cambridge, MA
Between 1987 and 2006 the consumption of land in Spain increased 86,257 acres, at an average of 108/ac per day, reaching its peak between the years 2000 and 2006, in which the rate almost doubled to 190/ac. Such consumption of the country ́s territory was due to an uncontrolled investment in the construction market during those years. The vast majority of that amount of consumption of land came from the construction of suburban residential projects and real estate developments. These, in most cases, were abandoned due to the economic recession, leaving behind a half- built, bleak landscape where the absence of inhabitants conferred a demeaning atmosphere. After such an expenditure of economic, human and material efforts, it would seem foolish not to study and analyse the constructions that arose during those two decades. Although we can intuit that the architectural, urban or socioeconomic quality of these projects is not remarkable (the goal is not to pay a homage to the absurd), it is notable their extension and quantity as they represent a great percentage of the architecture built during the first decade of the twenty-first century. These among other reasons that will be unfolded during the course makes them worth studying.
The course will:
- Examine the cultural frameworks that have determined why and how these developments where built and how they attain their meaning
- Critically analyse the architectural styles proposed and the meaning they carry
- Uncover the relationship between the underlying power of networks of a place
- The social structures proposed and the assets used as marketing strategies
Instructor: Eduardo Martinez-Mediero Rubio, RCC Fellow, Master Candidate in Architecture at Harvard Graduate School of Design
If you are interested in enrolling this course, please click here.