DAVID GARCIA STUDIO

NEW PROJECT IN THE MALDIVES

2011-12-29T02:31:00.000-08:00

The Studio, together with the architectural practice PMO of the Maldives, is designing a ten floor residential building in the heart of the capital Malé.

CRIT & LECTURE

2011-10-28T04:19:00.000-07:00

EXTREME ENVIRONMENTS AND FUTURE LANDSCAPES master course presents a full action day, with crit and triple lecture. Liam Young, teacher at the AA in London and Ricardo de Ostos, teacher at the AA and The Bartlett, Christer Malström, director of the Architecture School in Lund, and David Garcia, Guest Professor and director of the master course will take part at a morning and early afternoon critique of the work being developed by the students at the course. At 17:00, Liam Young, Ricard de Ostos and David Garcia, will take part in an unprecedented experiment: The "BOUNCE Lecture Series". Can a lecture be improvised between three speakers? In an effort to break the linearity and planned nature of lectures, this platform will attempt to improvise by association. Each speaker, with the web and their laptops at hand, will link to the previous speakers image and comments in a successive bounce of ideas and visual journey. Come along for a full day of visions into a world inspired by science and driven by fiction. 

CRIT and LECTURE at the FULLSKALELABBET , LUND Arch. School
9:00 am Monday 31. October

CCA exhibit "IMPERFECT HEALTH"

2011-10-24T23:05:00.000-07:00

David Garcia Studio will be exhibiting its Quarantinable Farm and Domestic Isolation Unit projects at the CCA's exhibition "IMPERFECT HEALTH" which includes OMA, SANAA, Morphosis, MVRDV. If you are in Montreal, make sure to drop by.

Health is a focus of contemporary political debate in a moment of historically high anxiety, but are architects, urban designers and landscape architects seeking a new moral and political agenda within these concerns? Imperfect Health: The Medicalization of Architecture examines the complexity of today’s interrelated and emerging health problems juxtaposed with a variety of proposed architectural and urban solutions.
Pollen, pollution, toxic materials that make up the built environment, globalized industrial food production, reclaimed manufacturing landscapes, unbalanced population demographics, sedentary and indoor lifestyles, and efforts to fight death are becoming imperfect materials for architecture to explore. Emerging as trends like healthy cities, green buildings, fit cities, global cities, re-use cities, tailored cities, these strategies suggest inspired solutions, but could also address isolated concerns which privilege specific users or conditions. The focus on problems sometimes creates conflicting agendas and disregards the complexity of the urban fabric.

A book accompanying the exhibition and extending this research will be published in Spring 2012 by CCA with Lars Müller. Edited by Mirko Zardini and Giovanna Borasi, it includes essays by Carla Keirns, David Gissen, Hilary Sample, Linda Pollak, Deane Simpson, Margaret Campbell, Sarah Schrank, and Nan Ellin.

From 25 October 2011 to 1 April 2012.

DAVID GARCIA STUDIO TO EXHIBIT AT VENICE BIENNALE 2012

2011-09-20T23:16:00.000-07:00

HENNING LARSEN ARCHITECTS and DAVID GARCIA STUDIO are one of the four teams which have been selected to represent the Danish Pavillion at the Architecture Venice Biennale in 2012. The theme of study, FUTURE GREENLAND, aims to look at the challenging future of perhaps one of the most rapidly changing zones in the world. The Danish teams will be joined by architecture studios and institutions from Greenland, and together will develop the concepts and projects for the exhibition. The Danish Architecture Centre and Professor Minik Rosing together with NORD architects will be curating the event. A workshop in Greenland in November will start of the collaboration. Congratulations to the Greenland teams, TNT Nuuk, KITAA Arkitekter, Tegnestuen Nuuk, Clement, Carlsen Arkitekter, Qarsoq Tegnestue and Thomas Riis, and the Danish teams, Vandkunsten, BIG + Superflex, Elkiær & Ebbeskov + Hausenberg, we look forward to seeing you in Greenland.

MAP 004 FLOODS LAUNCHED

2011-09-20T08:15:00.000-07:00

MAP 004 FLOODS was launched in the Maldives on the 10th of September, and the sea measuring device survived monsoons and typhoons on two islands. Through out the tests we managed to chart tide surges and sand movements, and we will now continue the project to create an array of measuring devices at selected islands. We would like to thank the people of Kurumba and Bandos for their hospitality and help with the project, The National University for their invitation to lecture and to RIAS for the sponsorship of the materials for the floating device. A very special thanks to PMO for inviting The Studio to the Maldives, for their passion and support.

At The Studio, thanks to the team that built the device, Nynne Blak, Shane Masterson, Nicolas Feihl and Hinke Majoor

MAP 004 FLOODS TO BE LAUNCHED IN THE MALDIVES

2011-09-01T23:16:00.000-07:00

MAP 004 FLOODS will be available to distribute world wide from the 12th of September. The official launch will be on the 10th of September in the Maldives. The firm PMO, have invited David Garcia to an underwater launch of this MAP issue, to underline the challenges that the archipelago faces in the immediate future. MAP 004 FLOODS deals with the spatial implications of inundation, presenting projects in The Netherlands, Italy, the US and the Maldives. Architect Peter Cook writes the introduction to this issue.The Studio is constructing a sea level rise measuring buoy to take to the Maldives as part of the launch. More to come.This issue of MAP has been possible thanks to THE BARTLETT RESEARCH FUND. Thanks to PMO and to RIAS for their sponsorship in the launch.

THIRD PRIZE FOR INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION

2011-06-05T23:59:00.001-07:00

The Studio has received a third prize for the Jøssingfjord museum international competition in Norway. Placed on the remnants of an old titanium mine and at the mouth of a fjord, the museum proposal plays with relationships between the vertical and horizontal landscape skyline and mining typologies as spatial design.
We are delighted to receive this prize contributing to the studio's track record of 9 out of 10 prized competitions.

BAUHAUS LECTURE AND CALL FOR PAPERS

2011-06-05T23:43:00.000-07:00

Thanks again to BAUHAUS - WEIMAR and the Horizonte lecture series. Impressive publication and and energy at this platform. Here is a link to their call for papers for the next issue. A special thanks to David Bauer, Michael Kraus and Carsten Tetens for saving my laptop, and by extension, my lecture.

GRANT FROM DANISH ART FOUNDATION

2011-06-05T23:05:00.000-07:00

The Danish Arts Foundation, architecture review, has awarded David Garcia Studio, 100.000 danish kroner to research on the spatial implications of sea level rise in Denmark in general and in Copenhagen in particular, with special emphasis of speculative proposal to such an extreme scenario. Just recently, The Danish Meteorological Institute has in May published a report detailing recent studies for sea level rise in Denmark, predicting a 49cm to 100 cm rise in the next 100 years, much more than previously though.

We are delighted to have been awarded this opportunity to engage in our field of study and we look forward to publishing our results as they develop.

STUDIO WORK PUBLISHED IN "BOOK OF ICE"

2011-05-26T04:03:00.000-07:00

Paul D. Miller has just launched a book on his on going project in Antarctica, including some of our architectural speculations on that continent.

Drawing on Antarctica's rich history of inspiring exploration and artistic endeavors, Paul D. Miller a.k.a. DJ Spooky has put together his own multimedia, multidisciplinary study of the South Pole.
In light of climate change and tireless human enterprise to be present everywhere on the planet, Miller uses Antarctica as a point on entry for contemplating humanity’s relationship with the natural world. Using photographs and film stills from his journey to the bottom of the world, along with original artworks and re-appropriated archival materials, Miller ponders how Antarctica could liberate itself from the rest of the world. Part fictional manifesto, part history and part science book, Book of Ice furthers Miller’s reputation as an innovative artist capable of making the old look new.

LECTURE AT NATIONAL ART GALLERY, VILNIUS (LT)

2011-04-13T03:27:00.001-07:00

David Garcia will be lecturing on architecture and invention at The National Art Gallery in Vilnius, Lithuania.
The fourth session of ARCHITECTURE [discussion] FUND is dedicated to rethinking of how the mechanism of architectural education functions and bringing into a new perspective to the curriculum of an architect. The speakers representing different attitudes are invited to touch upon the subject from their point of view: How has the architecture as discipline changed and what new forms will it take in the future? How wide and multidisciplinary can the architectural education be? How do the processes of research and design interact with it? Has the fundamental master/apprentice model dissolved due to the institutionalizing of the architectural education, or can this model still be recognizable in the performance of the contemporary architectural offices? How does the educational practice reflect ideological frameworks and contexts? Is it becoming a platform for political action?

The talks are held every Thursday, 8.00 p.m. at the National Art Gallery (NDG), Konstitucijos av. 22, Vilnius. Entrance is free of charge.

THE STUDIO PUBLISHED BY GESTALTEN

2011-03-28T00:00:00.000-07:00

A map of the world that does not include Utopia is not worth even glancing at, for it leaves out the one country at which Humanity is always landing. —Oscar Wilde  

The cities in which we live today are unfortunately not the cities that we need for a humane and sustainable tomorrow. Societies and politicians are desperately looking for solutions and ideas for the urban areas of the future. That is why the development and discussion of utopias are–next to sustainability–the most current topics in contemporary architecture.  We have learned from the 1960s and 1970s that utopian visions are one of the most important catalysts for fundamental change. Modern wind farms for generating energy, for example, were initially contemplated at that time and are now permanent fixtures in our landscapes.  Utopia Forever is a collection of current projects and concepts from architecture, city planning, urbanism, and art that point beyond the restrictions of the factual to unleash the potential of creative visions. In contrast to the largely ideal-theoretic approaches of the past, today’s utopias take the necessity for societal changes into account. The projects in this book explore how current challenges for architecture, mobility, and energy as well as the logistics of food consumption and waste removal can be met.  Whether created by established architects and artists or new talents, the projects in Utopia Forever are radically shaping our notions of life in the future.

Utopia Forever
Visions of Architecture and Urbanism
Editors: R. Klanten, L. Feireiss
Release Date: March 2011
Format: 24 x 28 cm
Features: 256 pages, fullcolor, flexicover
ISBN: 978-3-89955-335-2

THE STUDIO'S SUSTAINABLE HOUSE PUBLISHED BY RIZZOLI

2011-02-21T06:30:00.000-08:00

David Garcia Studio "G HOUSE" is included in Mimi Zeiger's latest work, MICRO GREEN, published by Rizzoli and coming out in March. From treehouses to pre-fabs, this book presents sustainable, micro-green living at its best. Micro Green delves into the concept of compact living and demonstrates the possibilities of living with less while maintaining a rich life. As sustainable architecture becomes mainstream, many architects and designers are using technology and wit to experiment with what it means to be green, and the results are both effective and enthralling. The rustic treehouses, airy domes, and recycled-scrap structures of Micro Green are presented through vivid photography and detailed building plans, and display a range of environmental influences. Here living spaces are carved out of hillsides, trees rise through decks and floors, and walls melt seamlessly back into the surrounding woods. Though many of the homes chronicled in Micro Green are unique in design, their economical size and ingenious interior spaces are the epitome of practicality and illustrate an acute understanding of compact living and its potential for rural, suburban, and even urban ecosystems. Small in both carbon and architectural footprint, the dwellings in Micro Green have large implications for the global movements of eco-consciousness and sustainability.

THE STUDIO'S MOBILE ARCTIC UNIT PUBLISHED

2011-01-29T12:59:00.000-08:00

Involving HMKV (Germany), Projekt Atol (Slovenia), the Arts Catalyst (United Kingdom), C-TASC (Canada), and Lorna (Iceland), this collaboration focuses on the global, cultural, and ecological significance of the polar regions. These zones are causing current geopolitical and territorial conflicts, while at the same time posing opportunities for transnational and intercultural cooperation. Arctic Perspective uses media art and the research of artists to investigate the complicated, global, cultural, and ecological interrelations in the Arctic, and to develop concepts for constructing tactical communications systems and a mobile, eco-friendly research station, which will support interdisciplinary and intercultural collaborations. Scheduled to run over a period of years, this project will involve workshops, field work in the Arctic, publications, exhibitions, and a conference.

The Studio and architect Alanna Baudinet collaborated on a this project for a mobile arctic unit which is included in the ARCTIC PERSPECTIVE PUBLICATION. The design is to be an open source mobile architecture system capable of functioning in extreme as well as temperate climates and containing mass, industrial and amateur production and manufacturing potential. The unit is to serve as a model for mobile research in extreme cold environments, designed to incorporate high tech solutions while utilizing sustainable resources.

The ARCTIC PERSPECTIVE – THIRD CULTURE project is supported by the European Commission Culture 2007-2013.

FOOD AND ARCHITECTURE

2011-01-18T10:27:00.000-08:00

Architects and architecture students are increasingly concerned with food production, designing everything from edible schoolyards (Work AC) to pig skyscrapers (MVRDV), as well as entirely new urban landscapes of cultivation (Nicholas de Monchaux's Local Code). But what about an edible architecture—an architecture that is designed to be consumed, whether by humans or our companion species?

Back in 2007, I taught a workshop on hybrid programming to architecture students at the Royal Academy in Copenhagen. Part of the aim with this five-day-long exercise was to find alternatives to the traditional model-making materials, which at this school did not go much beyond cardboard and glue. To achieve this, on the first workshop day, I took the students to the local supermarket, and presented the store to them as a resource for model-making materials. From packaging to Saran wrap, and pills to broom hair, I surveyed the store with them, as a palace of alternative construction materials.

To my surprise, food was used more than I expected. One student used broccoli for columns and banana peels as flooring. Another used salmon skin to clad her building (a shortlived façade) and a third built the structural systems out of pasta (which he later steamed and the building slowly collapsed). Some included food as part of their narrative as well; the Dairy and Cinema shared the same space, divided only by the projection screen, which was a huge suspended milk container. If the dairy sales were too good, you might only see the bottom half of the film. The Observatory and Bakery was mostly built with Swedish crisp bread, painted blue. The astronomers would often get the munchies in the middle of the night, and eat away at the premises—the Hansel and Gretel syndrome I called it—only to have to pay the baker to repair the damage (with more bread, of course).

The story hardly ended back in 2007. Presently, at Unit 3 at The Bartlett, one of my students has this semester designed a Teashop and Mushroom farm.Through her thorough research on mycelium (the vegetative part of fungus and mushrooms, consisting of a mass of branching, thread-like underground roots), she found it is currently used as insulation material for construction. In her design, through the humidity and steam produced during tea making, mushrooms grow out of the walls, filling the cavities with insulating mycelium, and slowly overtaking/becoming the structure.

Inevitably, this brings to memory the house in Roseville, California, where bees had inhabited the ducting and honey was oozing out of the walls and electrical sockets.The owners were worried that the honey would attract the ants, and the ants…well, you can imagine where this is going.

Eating your own house might seem like an absurd idea, but absurdity often presents itself unannounced. I recently built a small pavilion in Beijing solely out of bamboo. At the inauguration, a guest was sitting on a bamboo chair inside the pavilion, using her own bamboo chopsticks to eat some fresh bamboo shoots.

As I stared at her, my mouth hanging open in surprise, she offered me a bite.

This article is the result of Nicola Twiley's invitation to Food for Thinkers, a week-long, distributed, online conversation looking at food-writing from as wide and unusual a variety of perspectives as possible. Between January 18 and January 23, 2011 at GOOD.is/food.

WEAVING PROJECT COMPLETED

2010-10-19T14:33:00.000-07:00

The Weaving Pavillion is now finished at the Village, downtown Beijing, where it will be the main centre for the NOTCH 10 Art and Culture festival. It is the first weaved structure (no glue, screws or nails) to function as facade, roof, column and foundation.
This pavilion wished to explore the potential of weaving as an alternative method of construction in architecture. While traditional building methods of construction are based on stapling (bricks), casting (concrete) and welding elements (space frames and trusses), weaving offers structural stability with weaving as the only binding solution.
The project is the result of a two year research, which started in Japan. Thanks to Liberty, Isobel and Max for their fantastic efforts on site. More here.

Pavilion: David Garcia, David Garcia Studio .
Onsite team / David Garcia Studio: Liberty Adrien, Isobel & Max Gerthel.
Electronic Ecosystem: Jacob Sikker Remin & Mogens Jacobsen.
Composition: Morten Riis.
PCB Design: David Gauthier.

Thanks to:
Lei Yang, Bo Zhang, Caroline Ektander and all the people at Notch.

FIRST PRIZE FOR UNESCO DELTA CITIES COMPETITION

2010-09-30T00:00:00.000-07:00

David Garcia Studio's submission for the International UNESCO Delta City of the Future competition, has been awarded first prize. Out of 57 teams world wide, and after being one of the 7 teams selected in the first round, we were invited to Rotterdam to take part in the final, 24-hour competition session. The brief aimed to give solutions to the flood risk area of the harbour and the redevelopment taking place in Rotterdam. We were announced as winners at the Delta Climate Change Conference. More to come.

TEACHING FELLOWSHIP AT THE BARTLETT

2010-09-25T03:01:00.000-07:00

The Bartlett School of Architecture has awarded David Garcia with a Teaching Fellowship in Architectural Design. He will be teaching BSc, Unit 3 together with Jan Kattein, during the course 2010/11, starting this September.
The Bartlett School of Architecture is part of a truly multidisciplinary Faculty of the Built Environment in world-class University College London. It is located at the heart of the world's largest cluster of innovative architecture and engineering firms in London. It attracts an extraordinary variety of staff, students and international visitors, all of the highest calibre.

DAVID GARCIA STUDIO PUBLISHED BY DAMDI

2010-09-21T14:15:00.000-07:00

David Garcia Studio has been published by DAMDI, in both ARCHITECTURE MODEL, LEAD TO DESIGN and PORTFOLIO books. We look forward to see these great works in the bookstores.

ICEBERG LIVING STATION

2010-09-15T08:17:00.000-07:00

Buildings and base stations have grown exponentially in the last 20 years in the Antarctic. For 2010, about 80000 tourists are expected to visit the South Pole, and an average of 5000 researchers are based in the main land during the summer period. This proposal aims to design a living station for 100 visitors with minimum environmental impact. To achieve this, we aim to avoid “building” by traditional means, which would implicate transporting materials foreign to the continent, which never leave Antarctica again. Instead, the “architecture” is holed out in a super large iceberg (about 2.5 square kilometre area), which would eventually melt in 7 to 10 years time. Icebergs are compacted snow, which only become ice at a depth of 25 metres, and as igloos have demonstrated trough out the centuries, snow is a very efficient insulation. Caterpillar excavators, traditionally used in the Antarctic to move and clear snow, would cut out the spaces inside the iceberg. The geometric logic of the movement of these machines, now used to “design and cut” the spaces, create the curves of the interiors. Two access ramps (one for pedestrians, the other for vehicles) give access to the main hall and canteen, with access to kitchen, medical services, and toilets. From this public area the living station grows into an array of passages, which give access to the sleeping quarters, clustered in groups of eight or nine rooms around a common lounge. A lecture/conference hall allows for cultural activities. Containers would transport food and reusable solar cells and energy equipment, and would be used to store waste and grey water residue, which can be shipped of regularly.

WORKSHOP IN BRAZIL

2010-08-30T13:59:00.000-07:00

David Garcia will be giving lectures and a workshop in Brazil during the first week of September. The workshop will be given at the UFOP School of Architecture in Ouro Preto, where a study of abandoned open-air mines will be carried out and a series of proposals for the re-use of the sites will be developed.

DAVID GARCIA LECTURE AT "OSLOO" INSTALLATION

2010-08-09T23:34:00.000-07:00

Today at 19:00 David Garcia will give a short lecture intertwined with DJ music at FOS floating installation "OSLOO". The lecture will present concepts of UTOPIA and DYSTOPIA.

WINNER IN FIRST ROUND OF UNESCO COMPETITION

2010-07-14T05:10:00.000-07:00

David Garcia Studio's submission for the UNESCO Delta City of the Future-competition has made it through to the final. Out of 40 international teams, 14 have been selected. We are now invited to come to Rotterdam to take part in the 24-hour pressure cooker session. Congrats to the studio team.

DE ZINES EXHIBIT IN MADRID

2010-07-03T01:45:00.000-07:00

"La Casa Encendida" in Madrid, will exhibit David Garcia Studio's MAP publication from the 29 of June to the 1st of September 2010. ‘De Zines’, tries to reflect what is happening in the contemporary editorial creation on the level of independent publications, how this area relates to the artistic production and social, cultural and current political environment. Around 400 international publications have been gathered from most established magazines in the market until handmade zines and a selection of experimental magazines.

SHADOW ORGANISTRUM

2010-06-20T07:15:00.000-07:00

Inspired by the 13 century musical instrument, and working with the rhythm and tempo created by the human arm, the Shadow Organistrum tests interactive forms of virtual space. This device creates a continuously random link between the user, as they turn the lever, and the space that surrounds them. The installation puts into question the “reality” of the space found between the shadow surface and the focus, or source of light. Not sound, but shadows, “draw” the “musical” score, and the space surrounding the device.

MÖBIUS

2010-06-19T04:26:00.000-07:00

Möbius serves as a beacon, and as a playful structure for this municipal school in the Danish town of Sjølund. In collaboration with artist Pernille Worsøe and designer Martin Larsen, David Garcia Studio created this work based on the möbius strip, a single surface with non-orientable properties which triggers the mind and the senses. The circular shape functions not only as a playground with, a rich formal and textural vocabulary, but as a unifying element for the school, where it becomes a meeting point for the institution and a symbolic gesture for curiosity.

Möbius is made from 10mm thick roll-formed steel plate, measures 5.5 meters in diameter and is placed around a plane tree. (Photo Credits: M. Larsen)

THE STUDIO AT CHICAGO'S UIC SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE

2010-03-30T12:42:00.000-07:00

Mimi Zeiger brings her amazing exhibition "A Few Zines" to Chicago, and she is including MAP in this show. It opens at UIC's School of Architecture the 5th of April and concludes April the 9th with a top notch panel. The closing-night panel, Publishing Futures, includes:

Brendan Crain, The Where Blog
Penelope Dean, University of Illinois, Chicago, Flat Out
Iker Gil, UIC, University of Illinois, Chicago, MAS Context
Marc Fischer, Temporary Services
Jimenez Lai, University of Illinois, Chicago, Bureau Spectacular

Publishing Futures: Content, Context, and Emerging Formats With e-book, tablet, and social media technologies rapidly reshaping the publishing landscape, how new and old formats respond? Publishing Futures observes the changes facing art, architecture, and design publishing—blogs, journals, zines, and magazines—and speculates on future models.

Closing Panel April 9, 2010
Panel Discussion: 6:00 – 7:30 pm
Reception: 8:00 pm ‘til late.

DAVID GARCIA STUDIO NEW YORK EXHIBIT

2010-03-18T09:50:00.000-07:00

The exhibit opening was a smashing success. Hundreds came and conquered! Thank you all for making this amazing evening possible. MAP was nearly sold out, and Steven Holl took a bunch of them. Moma will now be selling the Studio's publication. Cheers to the Storefront team, Nicola and Geoff and everyone at David Garcia Studio!

HONORABLE MENTION FOR THE BRONX HIGHBRIDGE

2010-02-20T00:56:00.000-08:00

HB: BX is an open ideas competition to design an arts center that culturally reinforces the physical connection between the Manhattan and Bronx High Bridge communities of New York City. Working in cooperation with the arts organizations Artists Unite and the Bronx Museum of the Arts, ENYA means to draw awareness to the current efforts to restore and reopen the historic High Bridge. This competition is a forum to explore the urban and community improvement opportunities that may come with the achievement of such a momentous milestone.

The aim of the Studio's proposal is to re-establish the significance of the derelict High Bridge as a historic and cultural point/landmark, which links the Bronx to Manhattan, while making evident the infrastructural damage that this site has been submitted to. High Bridge needs to re-conquer its status as a popular destination, a unique inter-borough crossing, and the Manhattan-Bronx link in the Old Croton Aqueduct Greenway without being oblivious to the historic violence that the river and its shore have been submitted to.
To achieve this, we have aimed to maintain the High Bridge as a pedestrian structure, and the symbolic and physical link between Bronx and Manhattan. This artery of social flow and communication will also function as a connection to the different interventions that will house the art related functions, which in turn will stimulate and offer a critical standpoint to the existing landscape.
Five sites (A, B, C, D and E) have been found which describe a vocabulary of disrupted interventions that have happened through time. All linked to the High Bridge as the main artery and access point, these site are used to resolve cultural spaces and mirror their immediate status. Avoiding the romantic or utopian, we wish the use a critical eye to inform the public, with the very space they enjoy, what their environment has been transformed into. The chosen sites have been the result of past isolation, neglect, displacement and disregard for nature and social needs. We have chosen to turn these results into positive actions. Instead of turning our back to the reality that surrounds these sites, the interventions use this context to generate spaces with consciousness, an architecture which is the physical expression of a history of neglect.

THE STUDIO TO EXHIBIT AT STOREFRONT, NEW YORK

2010-01-28T14:38:00.000-08:00

DAVID GARCIA STUDIO is proud to be exhibiting at the prestigious STOREFRONT FOR ART AND ARCHITECTURE in New York, at the "LANDSCAPES OF QUARANTINE" exhibition, curated by Geoff Manaugh and Nicola Twilley.

The Studio will be exhibiting and launching the second issue of MAP (Manual of Architectural Possibilities). MAP 001 focused on Antarctica, and with MAP 002 QUARANTINE will be investigating and questioning the subject through research and projects, and the realm of architectural ideas. Four projects are treated on this issue: A Domestic Isolation Unit, an Instantly Quarantinable Farm, a Zoo of Infectious Species, and a Quarantined Library on a cargo ship. Along with the projects, our fact page will focus on a series of topics regarding quarantine, from the biological to the political, the geographical and beyond. We are happy to have Peter Cook along again, writing the introduction and to Geoff and Nicola for their contribution.

The opening will take place Tuesday evening, March 9th at 7 pm, where MAP will be on sale.

All invited.

"LANDSCAPES OF QUARANTINE"

9th March - 17th April, 2010

STOREFRONT FOR ART AND ARCHITECTURE

97 Kenmare Street New York, NY 10012

THE STUDIO EXHIBITS IN CHINA AT NOTCH 09, BEIJING

2009-10-25T14:46:00.000-07:00

For NOTCH 09, David Garcia Studio has produced two interactive spaces ARCHIVE II and ARCHIVE IV, where information, books and music, become the generating factors for simple spaces full of social potential.
Both works are part of an architectonic research into the character of information storage at a small scale. This Archive Series, exemplifies the unavoidable "weight" of information, whether digital or analogue, and our varied relationships to it. At the NOTCH 09 festival, ARCHIVE II and ARCHIVE IV will be main attractions for social gathering and information hubs.

ARCHIVE II, a round wheel book archive, functions as a nomadic library, where the user can travel with his own books. Once still, it creates a room for meeting and inspiration, generating a special acoustic echo for the reader inside the wheel.
ARCHIVE IV challenges space and weight, by hanging from the ceiling. A wooden cylinder, 3 meter in diameter and 3.5 meter high, suspended from above, serves as a sitting area and as an archive for books and music in its inside. The visitor encounters a quiet space for conversation, and in the centre a rope ladder takes the curious to a level above, a micro lounge room, where one can look out into the crowd. From the outside, the introvert character of the structure hides the human body, only revealing feet at floor level, and the heads of visitors that climb to the top.

Thanks to: Shuyu Chen, Max Gerthel, Marion Spillmann and Lawrence Ebelle.

THE STUDIO OPENS A PLAYGROUND INSTALLATION IN DREJENS

2009-09-17T12:34:00.000-07:00

David Garcia Studio inaugurated this prize winning installation in September 2009. Combining simple geometry with playful intentions, the 6 elements were designed to enhance play and inspire two different age groups of a newly built kinder-garden in Drejens, Denmark. Shifts in scale and direction, and variations in space, from intimate to shared and open, define the social qualities of the interventions. But it is the simplicity of the compositions, which allow for open interpretations, that has received so many compliments and have proven to be an instant hit with children. The installation was carried out in collaboration with artist Pernille Worsøe and designer Martin Larsen. The works were manufactured by boat builders Årøsund Bådværft.

MAP 001 ANTARCTICA, IS ON SALE!!

2009-09-12T09:19:00.000-07:00

www.MAP.davidgarciastudio.com

MAP (Manual of Architectural Possibilities) is a publication of research and visions; research into territories, which can be concrete or abstract, but always put into question. Map is not a magazine (it only has two pages) and is not a book (it is issued twice a year). Map presents itself as a folded poster (A1) where information is immediate, dense and objective in one side, and architectural and subjective on the other. Map is a guide to potential actions in the built environment, a folded encyclopedia of the possible, a topography of ideas, or a poster on the wall.

MAP 001 ANTARCTICA is introduced with a text by Peter Cook
The first issue of MAP has cast itself upon the unknown, but also the very physical. Although the Antarctica has only been a building site for slightly over 100 years, the scenario is, to say the least, disastrous and marvellous at the same time. Building is almost impossible in some areas, but Mac Murdo Base Station seems a mining station with a vengeance, in size and appearance. In other regions, buildings are being literally devoured by the ice and spat out into the ocean. Just the mere climatic contradiction that the Antarctica (larger than Europe) is 70% ice, but a dessert at the same time, makes it an unavoidable subject to be studied. Brainstorms precipitate, MAP is the result.

CONTACT: map@davidgarciastudio.com

MAP is printed on both sides of a single A1 sheet on 80g COLORIT 72 paper, and folded to 297mm x 105mm

Peter Cook and Odile Decq enjoying MAP

URBAN SKY LINK

2009-09-09T02:21:00.000-07:00

The history of the skyscraper is inherently linked to that of the elevator. It is interesting to note that although structurally speaking the skyscraper has evolved enormously, it is still a vertical structure, dictated by the elevator, which in its effort to go up, it only meets a dead end. The lack for alternative methods of moving through floors (the elevator’s refusal to bend) has determined the typology of the skyscraper for the last hundred years or so.

This proposal wishes to expand the understanding of high-rises, beyond a high FAR structure, or an extrusion of a plan. The proposal’s main concept is simple: that the idea of moving up in a building can also mean moving to somewhere else in the urban fabric, taking the pedestrians’ relationship to the city as decisive design factor.

The concept converts the traditional structure into a double-ended skyscraper, making it rise and fall again, linking two sites and transforming the structure into a wormhole in the city. As thus, the building also becomes a public transport system, and accessible landscape. The skyscraper could link unconnected sites, or salvage topographic barriers such as rivers, or link different levels with in a city.

ASAE 09 SYMPOSIUM

2009-09-01T00:32:00.000-07:00

David Garcia will be lecturing on the 4th of September at 17:30, at the Anual ASAE Symposium, where MAP publication will be introduced.

ASAE is an annual two-day seminar at the School of Architecture, Lund University. It celebrates the beginning of the academic year. The aim is to keep an annual ongoing discussion about international education programs and architectural education strategies. ASAE promotes encounters between different schools of architecture in Europe, America and other countries, taking into consideration the objectives of the School of Architecture in Lund: Architectural Design, Experiment and Construction.

ASAE is meant to be a public event and the ambition is to also engage local and international architects, teachers, students, politicians etc. in an open discussion about architecture and design.

The first ASAE was held in the autumn of 2003 and has since then become an ongoing autumn semester event at Lund University.

Invited Lectures:

Sir Peter Cook [CRABstudio]
Thom Mayne [Morphosis]
Hernan Diaz Alonso [Xefirotarch]
Florencia Pita [FPmod]
Odile Decq [ODBC]
Geoff Manaugh [BLDGBLOG]
David Garcia [David Garcia Studio]
Drura Parrish [Parrish | Rash]
Megumi Matsubara [With Assistant]
Daniel Golling [forumAID]

ASAE 2009 SYMPOSIUM

MAP FILM FESTIVAL 001 ANTARCTICA

2009-08-10T07:55:00.000-07:00

David Garcia Studio thanks everyone for the smashing success of the MAP 001 Film Festival. Three fantastic days of film and discussions.

As a preambul to the upcoming publication MAP, we are showing three films on Antarctica, from the 18th to the 20th of August at 9:30 pm, at DAVID GARCIA STUDIO.

All welcome and bring your own chair or pillow and refreshments.

TUESDAY AUGUST 18th

9:30 pm

“The Crystal Ocean” 1999

Director: Michael Single - Duration: approx 52 mins

Award-winning filmmaker Michael Single won an Emmy for his beautifully cinematic look at the icebergs of Antarctica.

WEDNESDAY AUGUST 19th

9:30 pm

“The Thing” 1982

Director:John Carpenter - Writers:John W. Campbell Jr. and Bill Lancaster

Plot: Scientists in the Antarctic are confronted by a shape shifting alien that assumes the appearance of the people that it kills

THURSDAY AUGUST 20th

9:30 pm

“Encounters at the End of the World” 2007

Director:Werner Herzog - Writer:Werner Herzog

Plot: Filmmaker Werner Herzog travels to Antarctica to capture its landscape's rarely seen beauty on film.

WORKS PREVIEW

2009-08-10T01:55:00.000-07:00

Pecha Kucha CPH 009

2009-08-01T02:30:00.000-07:00

David Garcia Studio was invited to Pecha Kucha night in Copenhagen Denmark 2009.

Pecha Kucha Night, devised by Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham (Klein Dytham architecture), was conceived in 2003 as a place for young designers to meet, network, and show their work in public.

But as we all know, give a mike to a designer (especially an architect) and you’ll be trapped for hours. The key to Pecha Kucha Night is its patented system for avoiding this fate. Each presenter is allowed 20 images, each shown for 20 seconds each – giving 6 minutes 40 seconds of fame before the next presenter is up. This keeps presentations concise, the interest level up, and gives more people the chance to show.

Pecha Kucha (which is Japanese for the sound of conversation) has tapped into a demand for a forum in which creative work can be easily and informally shown, without having to rent a gallery or chat up a magazine editor. This is a demand that seems to be global – as Pecha Kucha Night, without any pushing, has spread virally to over 100 cities across the world. Find a location and join the conversation.

MOBILE MEDIA-CENTRIC UNIT

2009-08-01T02:11:00.000-07:00

David Garcia Studio and architect Alanna Baudinet collaborate on a competition for a mobile arctic unit. The design is to be an open source mobile architecture system capable of functioning in extreme as well as temperate climates and containing mass, industrial and amateur production and manufacturing potential. The unit is to serve as a model for mobile research in extreme cold environments, designed to incorporate high tech solutions while utilizing sustainable resources.

The ARCTIC PERSPECTIVE – THIRD CULTURE project is supported by the European Commission Culture 2007-2013.

SECOND NATURE EXHIBITION

2009-07-22T11:56:00.000-07:00

DAVID GARCIA STUDIO is invited to the Danish-Japanese design exhibition "Second Nature", Copenhagen, Denmark. From 8th of August to 20th of September.

The exhibition features furniture, lighting, textiles and pottery at the boundary between design and art, with a fascination for untamed nature and a minimalistic/aesthetic world.
All exhibitors are innovative and expressive professional artists and designers, and their groundbreaking works demonstrate passionate commitment to minimalistic ideals.
They are all masters of their craft, and capable of telling present-day stories based on the values of the past. The sublime expression of their works connects with the future, giving them a contemporary and modern expression which surprises and yet seems familiar at the same time.

www.rundetaarn.dk

www.second-nature.dk

NATIONAL WILDFLOWER CENTRE

2009-07-19T02:42:00.000-07:00

COMPETITION SHORT LISTED

The architectural competition for the National Wildflower Centre in Leeds, England, desired an extension to their existing installations, that expressed nature's mathematical order that is not necessarily immediately apparent in nature, but found upon closer inspection. To test how this building could become an expression of this, Fibonacci series based curves were placed on the site to test the interaction with the available site. From these curves and the site area constraints, the floor plan geometry of the building was derived. A well to collect rainwater was then placed within each of the floor plans. An arch with optimal bearing section was then drawn between the outer curve and the well, and then swept between the two, to create the three dimensional structure of the buildings.

Pragmatically the public and operational areas of the centre are separated into two buildings. Although these two areas are physically distinct from one another, the dialogue between the two forms and paths through the public building invites visitors to view the processes involved in seed production.

It was the explicit desire of the program to work with non-linear surfaces. Natureʼs geometry is an example of how spaces are developed by surfaces growing into spaces. Sections through plants, reveal pockets created by single surfaces and the separation of layers into cavities. This same concept was overlayed onto the forms of the buildings, to solve the succession of functions under one single roof.

Secondary skins were added to each building and pulled away from the outer walls as much as necessary to create spaces for functions that require defined areas. In the public building, the remainder of the area has been kept open to allow maximum flexibility of the space with the minimum of intervention. The classroom areas became floating volumes within the overall structure that define spaces of different sizes.

By choosing this methodology of defining spaces the flow through both buildings is uninterrupted. This is particularly heightened in the operational building where connections from seed sowing all the way through to dispatch have been created as one single path.

Visitors are invited into this public building through the walled garden. By choosing this entry a strong dialogue is created between the two new buildings and the existing visitors centre and the walled garden of wildflowers. The flow of visitors is then directed out adjacent to the production building where they are invited to walk around the building to learn how seeds are produced, cleaned and packaged.

The building has been devised as a single structure but double clad. This reduces the amount of structural material required for the project whilst ensuring excellent thermal insulation. Each building becomes more opaque to the north where less light intensive functions have been located. The buildings open to the south to allow good solar access. Solar cells would be incorporated into the fabric of the external cladding where appropriate.

DAVID GARCIA STUDIO Lecture at AHO, OSLO

2009-05-03T13:00:00.000-07:00

Lecture at the AHO, OSLO

The Oslo School of Architecture and Design (AHO) is an autonomous institution in the Norwegian system of universities. AHO is a scientific institution providing education within architecture and industrial design, awarding the titles of PhD, master of architecture, master of industrial design and master of landscape architecture. In addition, AHO offers post-graduate master degrees in urbanism and architectural heritage.

The Thursday Lecture Series

05 Mar

Guest lecture: David Garcia

12 Mar

Guest lecture: Francis Kere

19 Mar

Guest lecture: Knut Eirik Dahl

02 Apr

Guest lecture: Helen & Hard

16 Apr

Guest lecture: Un-Plugged Italy

30 Apr

Guest lecture: Deane Simpson

www.aho.no

WEAVING PROJECT

2009-04-23T08:44:00.000-07:00

The Weaving Pavillion is now completed at The Village, downtown Beijing, where it will be the main centre for the NOTCH 10 Art and Culture festival. It is the first weaved structure (no glue, screws or nails) to function as facade, roof, column and foundation.

This pavilion wishes to explore the potential of weaving as an alternative method of construction in architecture. While traditional building methods of construction are based on stapling (bricks), casting (concrete) and welding elements (space frames and trusses), weaving offers structural stability without glue, nails or any sort of binding material; the weaving itself and friction is the binding solution.

Made of bamboo or plywood, the pavilion is 100 % recyclable, permitting to unweave and re-use all of its components again. This structure is the result of a two year research project which started by traveling to Japan to learn weaving techniques form the most prominent contemporary weavers.

A two year test and modeling process developed at the studio, which resulted in the built pavilion now standing in Beijing, at the downtown The Village plaza.

photos by Max Gerthel

ARTFUND PAVILION

2009-01-19T11:35:00.000-08:00

As this pavilion will be constructed each summer, we chose to work with elements that could create a different configuration of spaces each time the structure was erected, basing our concept in simplicity and flexibility. We began with a standard sheet of plywood. By stacking these and allowing each element to become a sliding panel, an infinite arrangement of spaces to suite various exhibitions and gatherings could be created.

The location of the panels not only creates interior spaces, but also reflects the inverse space to the outside, inducing a dialogue with the surroundings and defining outdoor areas. The tracking system allows doors to be moved from the centre to the extremity of the roof space, which permits openings all the way along the pavilion as desired.

The interior of the building is not isolated from the elements, although the spacing of the boards ensures that artworks can be locked inside when required. This openness enhances the quality of the pavilion as a contrasting outdoor space in which to view art, from the typology adjacent gallery. Each sliding panel is top hung and has not been fixed to the ground to give the sensation of levitation. Once an exhibition or gathering space has been created, the panels can be locked into position and the pavilion is secured. This concept allows the pavilion to emerge anew each summer, each exhibition and each gathering.

WORKSHOP IN OURO PRETO UFOP, BRASIL

2008-12-16T05:37:00.000-08:00

A four day workshop at Ouro Preto, UFOP School Of Architecture, Brasil, for 1st and 2nd year students, focused on basic structure research and model making techniques. From geodesic domes made out of plastic cups to tensile structures, the students came in contact with alternative model making techniques and a basic language of structural concepts, tested in 1:1 scale.

Click here to learn more.

WORKSHOP IN OURO PRETO UFOP, BRASIL

2008-12-16T05:33:00.000-08:00

This four day workshop at Ouro Preto, UFOP School Of Architecture, Brasil, for 1st and 2nd year students, focused on basic structure research and model making techniques. From geodesic domes made out of plastic cups to tensile structures, the students came in contact with alternative model making techniques and a basic language of structural concepts, tested in 1:1 scale.

BAMBOO PAVILION

2008-11-20T04:35:00.000-08:00

Bamboo has been used as a building material for centuries, however traditional methods of construction with bamboo are generally convoluted, and do not take advantage of the inherent structural qualities of the material.

A single culm of madake bamboo can support approximately 1.2 tones of vertical load once fully grown. A bamboo shoot in the right climatic conditions can reach full height of 15 meters in just 30 days. Once bamboo is cut it becomes susceptible to moisture and pests. The biggest challenge in traditional bamboo construction is how to connect the poles to the footings. Nature has already solved this problem with a root system to anchor the plant to the ground.

This investigation tries using the structural possibilities of bamboo whilst it is living. The plant is allowed to grow through a grid floor and roof structure initially held in place with scaffolding. Metal plates are inserted into this grid structure where bamboo ‘columns’ are desired. As the plant matures and increases in girth it grows into the steel ring forming the structural connection to the floor and roof plates.

The project is presently being tested at the Beppu Bamboo Research Center, Japan.

LECTURE AT LSBU OPEN SERIES - LONDON

2008-10-30T06:30:00.000-07:00

Techné and Poïesis  How Do You Design – OS2 Autumn 2008

Open Series’ second year is under the theme of techne and poïesis - the process of design. It explores the ontological question of design and allows reflection, criticism and exposure to relevant questions in design.

Techne is often translated as craftsmanship; it is the rational method involved in producing an object or accomplishing a goal or objective and is quintessential to architecture. Poïesis, derived from the ancient Greek term ποιέω, meaning ‘to make’, describes a verb, an action, in its purest sense. Neither technical production nor creation in the romantic sense, poïetic work reconciles thought with matter, and time and man with the world. This pair of techne and poïesis are extremes in architecture but are essential and together create a tension field which is explored through the agenda of OS2.

The series invites and encourages inspiring architects, thinkers and designers to express and debate their views through this symbiotic relationship, reflecting their own practise as well as analysing the past, capturing today and projecting upon tomorrow. This creates a crossbreed between vision, utopia and the inspiring fields in-between.

We are very proud to have Peter Cook with us to kickstart this lecture series, telling us how he views the translation from his own critical utopian design of, for instance, the plug-in city to a building endeavor such as the Kunsthaus Graz.

Techné and Poïesis  How Do You Design – OS2 Autumn 2008

We boldly ask this complex question hoping to shed some light on the complex processes which lead to the final outcomes of great architects, designers and thinkers.

08 / 25th of September Peter Cook

08 / 2nd of October Paul Davies

08 / 9th of October Andrew Wai-Tat Yau (UFO)

08 / 16th of October Karsten Huneck & Bernd Truempler (OSA)

08 / 23rd of October Shrikant Sharma

08 / 30th of October David Garcia

09 / 5th of February Neil Spiller

09 / 12th of February FAT

09 / 19th of February Odile Decq

09 / 26th of February Achim Menges (OCEAN)

09 / 5th of March Anthony Dunne

09 / 12th of March Didier Faustino

www.lsbu-openseries.com

WHAT EXISTS IS A SMALL PART OF WHAT IS POSSIBLE

2008-08-11T09:29:00.000-07:00

With the studio's moto as lecture title, we introduce this years latest work to open the Lund academic year.

Lund Architecture School, Sweden

DEPLOY "The Space Between the Folded and the Unfolded"

2008-07-23T07:03:00.000-07:00

WORKSHOP AT COPENHAGEN ARCH. SCHOOL by David A. Garcia

Introduction:

From the thousand year old umbrella and all the way to un-foldable space stations, the built environment has accumulated a catalog of folding and unfolding capabilities. Spatially, the two extreme stages of the deployment/collapse are less important than all the stages in between. This middle range is malleable, it can take various routes, and its elements change their interrelation from one second to the other.

Students of The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture

ENERGY SYSTEMS "Building from within"

2008-07-23T06:12:00.000-07:00

WORKSHOP AT COPENHAGEN ARCH. SCHOOL by David A. Garcia

Introduction:

Continuously avoided by the architectural discipline, the energy systems, services and general “arteries” of any built environment, have been hidden, masked or even ignored. Different movements in the architectural tradition have embraced the spacial potential hidden/ignored in these systems. A vital example is Center Pompidou, where ventilation systems become external elements of the facade. What if this attitude was extended to all the elements of a built environment? What if electric systems, solar panels, ventilation, sewage etc... become the architecture, the spaces we inhabit, with out hiding or masking them?

Students of The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture

ZOO NETWORK

2008-07-07T04:42:00.000-07:00

The competition guidelines called for "An environmental zoo where consideration should be given to a symbiotic environment that includes the activities of humans with animals." The proposal aimed to enrich both humans and animals by closer contact, while using the same environment.

If the contemporary aim of zoos is to understand how animals and humans can be enriched by each other, then the proximity between animals and people is essential.

This can be done by sharing simple rituals, like eating, resting or training. If these activities are done in the same architectural space, the spatial environment becomes important to both, animals and humans.

Architecture is the perfect language to solve the physical challenges of such a proposal. This has to be understood as a serious undertaking and a way to enrich each other’s social necessities while creating new spaces.

Imagine your self, reading in a cloud of butterflies in the central library, swimming with dolphins in the public pool or eating close to grazing giraffes in a restaurant.

ALL IS NOT WHAT IT SEEMS

2008-03-15T07:59:00.000-07:00

WORKSHOP AT LUND ARCHITECTURE SCHOOL, LTH

By Peter Cook and David A. Garcia

Introduction:

“If you do not expect the unexpected you will not discover it.” Heraclitus

The project aims to encourage your awareness of architectural language or ‘representative form’ and to take a stab at manipulating it in a highly conscious way.

Thus the building programme is kept simple and offered as a series of ‘A’ or ‘B’ constituents.

Students of Lund University School of Architecture

COVERT SPACES" Ideas of the hidden"

2008-01-23T07:00:00.000-08:00

WORKSHOP AT COPENHAGEN ARCH. SCHOOL by David A. Garcia

Introduction:
Traditionally, human desires and needs for the subversive and the hidden, have always found a way of expression in architecture. From secret libraries in monasteries, to mafia offices in the back of restaurants, the possibility to create space also allows the possibility to hide space. This typology with in the realm of the built environment is often determined by great inventiveness. The constraints are of such unusual and extreme character, that the results tent to be equally unorthodox.

Students of The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture

FREDERIKSBERG MAIN LIBRARY

2007-11-20T08:41:00.000-08:00

Frederiksberg Main Library in the city of Copenhagen, commissioned a "reading lounge" in the main library room. In collaboration with industrial designer Martin Larsen, the solution created a new space, while integrating the existing structure. Due to the increased use of the internet, the library has become more a book pick up spot and less an archive where the user physically searches for and discovers books. The premise of the project is to create a reading space where user and books meet. Taking advantage of the rigid character of the library as archive, the proposal maintained the frame and format of the book shelves, replacing the books of the niche in question, with a sinuous seating arrangement. This created a frame where the reader becomes the main character, instead of the bookshelves.

ARCHIVE SERIES

2007-10-11T03:01:00.000-07:00

The Archive Series are investigations on space and books, aiming to blur the borders between art and design. Clearly non functional, they aim to appeal to the senses, creating a narrative which more often than not, reaches the absurd.

Departing from ideas of density and micro spaces, they aim to explore the traditional relationships that humans have to books. Private collections have existed for centuries, but when this is added to nomadic behaviour, curious contradictions arise; this is the area studied by Archive II. How can an individual travel with it’s own library, given that books are so heavy? Is this an absurdity? Archive II is a nomadic library, an impossible transport system and an intimate space. Inspired by ancient travelling libraries from the Far East, which visited courts and cities, Archive II transforms this into a "micro room", where walking and reading coexist as refuge and transport in the imagination.

The Archive Series has been exhibited at the Royal Danish Art Academy Fall Show 2005 with the support of the Danish Arts Agency, and at Traneudstilling in 2007 and in Beijing at the Notch 09 culture festival.

Archive II is owned and on exhibition at the University of Roskilde Main Library.

Archive I is a weight balance library,the readers chair is elevated in proportion to the amount of books in the shelves.
Archive II is a circular library for the nomad book collector, allowing the user to step inside, and walk away with half a ton of books.
Archive III is a censored book stand, the books close suddenly if anyone approaches the reading stand.

“As a child, I was introduced to an old friend of the family. I have never met anyone who has read so many books, could remember so many sources or quote so many authors as he could. Many years later, while studying at university, I would often call him for suggestions with bibliography regarding the most varied subjects. We would always meet in a café or a park, and my curiosity grew with time. What was his library like? I imagined him having endless rooms filled with books. Finally, one day, I convinced him to meet at his house, and to my deep disappointment, there were no books to be seen. My impatience took over and I asked him where he kept all his books? ”I only own the book I read at the moment” he answered. “When I finish them, I go for a walk, pick a stranger from the crowd, and give the book away.”

EVERY 30 SECONDS A BOOK IS PUBLISHED IN THE WORLD

THE AVERAGE PUBLICATION PRINTS 5000 COPIES

EVERY MINUTE 10 000 BOOKS ARE SENT TO PRINT

The average reader can read about 240 words per minute

A 300 page book normally takes 9 hours to read, non stop

I you read while you walk, you can read a book in about 43 kilometers

If you read and walk, watch out for traffic.

OUR STUDIO PUBLICATION MAP WILL BE FEATURING AN ISSUE ON ARCHIVES
VISIT US AT WWW.MAP.DAVIDGARCIASTUDIO.COM

MODUS GLASSWARE

2007-08-06T09:18:00.000-07:00

For a Danish glassware manufacturer, David Garcia and Martin Larsen have designed a range of drinking glasses, bowls and pitcher. The concept behind the range is a combination of maximal functionality through a minimal design. All elements have been created, using the same conical shape, which allows stacking with content. Thus the glasses invite to be used beyond the obvious functionality. The series is composed of drinking glasses in three sizes (150ml, 250ml and 400ml) a 1litre pitcher and two sizes of bowls.

MODUS was launched in April 2006 and was awarded the RED DOT Award and the international IF Design Award.

SQUASH COURT FOR THE URBAN LANDSCAPE

2007-07-31T00:43:00.000-07:00

In the contemporary urban space, at all scales, we often find potential sites which are unused and overlooked. These can be found between building facades, standby building sites, parks, squares or water fronts. Some of these potential sites can only be used for a relatively short amount of time, before they are developed by subsequent plans, but in the meanwhile they could be rented or used on a loan basis. On the other hand, fitness and sport facilities are seldom found in city centres. Squash, for example, is a sport in high demand in high dense areas, and those that exist are hidden away in deep inside buildings or basements. There are about 200 squash courts in Denmark, approximately 18 of them in Copenhagen.

It is the aim of this project to satisfy these demands with a typology which is found somewhere between building and product. A modular structure, used at months at a time, that can be transported, put together, dismounted and stored with relative ease, while its modular structure offers flexibility in size, making the available area suit other sports or events.

Transparency is a key factor in this project. As such, the squash court would offer as much to the city as it would to the players. For the squash user, apart from a professional squash court, he/she would experience the city back drop on the back wall, and the blue sky above. Regarding the city, the transparency of the courts make the event a public phenomena, creating a dialogue between sport and urban space, a relationship often inexistent and hidden away from the public.

Architect David Garcia and industrial designer Martin Larsen collaborated in this proposal.

ANIMATE "Dynamics and Movement"

2007-07-23T06:16:00.000-07:00

WORKSHOP AT COPENHAGEN ARCH. SCHOOL by David A. Garcia

David A. Garcia

Introduction:

If there is anything that architecture has tried to avoid through out its history, it has probably been movement, that is: buildings should not move. Nonetheless, and especially since the middle of the last century, we find more and more examples of, if not buildings that move, at least huge parts of them expressing dynamics. Some even consider various types of transport methods as architecture; after all, a 747 on a transatlantic flight carries, feeds, entertains, and sleeps more people than most hotels.

Students of The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture

G HOUSE

2007-07-19T13:28:00.000-07:00

Close to the Gredos mountain range, bordering a nature reserve in the west of Spain, this summer house was designed under very specific demands by the local authorities, only allowing wooden carpentry, pitched roofs and granite stone facades. The design follows these constraints, and responds to the client's desire to collect rain water and offer a large area for solar panels. The result was an inverted pitched roof, at angles to allow sun to enter the house in the winter time, and offering shade in the summer, with a large roof surface to the south for solar panels, hidden from view at eye level. Cooling and heating are supplied by a constant 15 degrees Celsius airflow from underground tubes and grey water is stored for irrigation. The project is under construction.

CHRISTINA WILSON GALLERY

2005-02-23T05:33:00.000-08:00

The gallery is one of the most prominent contemporary art venues in Copenhagen, located in the Islands Brygge area. The client wished to divide the gallery into two separate rooms and functions: storage/show room, and gallery space. New divisions and wall surface treatments were required, as well as creating a new administration area. One of the main elements of the proposal was a movable double bladed door (instead of a “wall and standard door” solution). This 3 meter by 2,4 meter door, ritualizes the event of inviting potential buyers into the show room and art storage area, while offering an extra 9m2 of exhibit space to the gallery if deemed necessary. The playfulness of the door element, allows a free interaction between user and space, as well as offering new possibilities for artists who work with site specific projects.

SYMBIOTIC DEVICE

2002-10-30T03:29:00.000-08:00

The device exemplifies the role of the parasite in a commensalist relationship with the host as it explores the spatial relationship between body and machine. Maintained alive by the breathing rhythm of the host (body), the device reacts to this rhythm by elevating its shell and by moving on the ground. If the rhythm pattern is stopped, the device enters in alarm mode and stops moving, while still lighting up. If the breathing is not restored, the device unplugs itself and shuts itself off, literally "dying". At this point in time, the host is blindfolded by the headset, therefore missing the positive feedback that a host receives from it's parasite in a commensalist relationship. Once this state is reached, there is no possible way that restoring breathing, can bring "life" back to the device.

PESSOA CLOCK

2002-07-25T06:46:00.000-07:00

In an attempt to formalise the ritual of waiting, a clock was devised to leave traces of poems while it was turned on. The clarity of the traces is directly proportional to the amount of time one has to wait. The text engraved in the base is a poem by Pessoa, depicting concepts of time, and the futility of understanding them fully. Cinnamon is slowly dropped by the rolling cylinder, leaving traces on the street.

"To take advantage of time, but what is time to be taken advantage of...."

Fernando Pessoa, APOSTILA (11-4-1928)

INGLEWOOD COMMUNITY CENTRE

2002-07-22T01:41:00.000-07:00

The city of Inglewood in Los Angeles California has a population of 119,500, and is rated as the highest crime per capita city in the US. The complex is designed as an isolated refuge away from crime and gang activity. Offering social services like employment, and health aid, 24 hour counselling, emergency overnight facilities and a kinder garden, the centre tries to cover some of the basic lacking facilities of the area. Taking advantage of this 24 hour weapon safe environment, the centre is designed as a playground landscape, where library and mediateque are intertwined with the basket courts, wall climbing structure, pool and skateboard facilities

Placed above the highway slope, and on pillars, as a pier over a river bed, it takes advantage of this other wise, unusable site.

City of Inglewood, L.A. California FACT SHEET 2002

Ten children are killed every day by handguns in Inglewood. Californians legally purchase an average of 30,000 handguns per month. Juvenile violence and crime triples in the hour immediately after school. More California kids are killed by handguns than by car crashes, diseases or drugs. Youth ages 12-17 are crime victims five times more often than adults over 35.

There are 8 times more gun dealers than McDonald’s in the State of California.

Population 119,500

50 % black, 38 % hispanic

42 % unemployment

24 % below poverty level

22 gang groups

CINEMATOGRAPHIC GARDEN

2002-07-19T11:08:00.000-07:00

This proposal for British Film Institute merges an existing natural park at the edge of Regents Canal in London. Functioning as a gate for the natural park and the researchers artificial landscape, the two cinema screens become hybrids and introduce alternative functions. The smaller and above ground cinema functions as a café with views over the canal during the day. The larger and underground cinema is the main library during the day, allowing for daylight during library hours.

An artificial garden is created to house the research facilities. From an archive for BFI's microfilm library, to research and study pods covered with grass, pavilions that project films onto trees, underwater mini cinemas and hidden film screens, all recreate archetypical garden elements.

NEWS

2002-07-03T01:54:00.000-07:00

DAVID GARCIA STUDIO to exhibit at the International Architecture Festival in Barcelona EME3,at the CCCB, June 30, 2011.

DAVID GARCIA STUDIO published in GUESTALTEN’s “UTOPIA FOREVER” publication out this APRIL.

DAVID GARCIA invited to lecture at BAUHAUS UNIVERSITÄT WEIMAR
Horizonte Series, May 31, 2011.

DAVID GARCIA invited to lecture at VILNIUS NATIONAL ART GALLERY, Architecture lecture series, April 21, 2011.

DAVID GARCIA STUDIO AT THE CENTRE FOR ARCHITECTURE, NEW YORK
The Studio's Manhattan-Bronx high bridge project will be published and exhibited at the The Centre for Architecture in New York, opening on the 11th of November.

WEAVING PAVILION IN BEIJING

For the NOTCH 10 cultural festival, David Garcia Studio has built the main pavilion in downtown Beijing.

MAP 003 ARCHIVE, LAUNCH AND LECTURE AT THE AA SCHOOL, LONDON

David Garcia will be lecturing and launching the latest issue of MAP 003 ARCHIVE, at the AA School of Architecture, London, on the 8th of October AT 18:00.

THE STUDIO AT CCB, BARCELONA
David Garcia Studio will be exhibiting and lecturing at the EME 3 Architectural Market, opening the 6th of October. Lecture, 7th of October at the CCB 17:00.

DAVID GARCIA AT THE BARTLETT
The Bartlett School of Architecture has awarded David Garcia with Teaching Fellowship in Architectural Design. He will be teaching the course 2010/11, at BSc Unit 3 together with Jan Kattein.

WINNER OF UNESCO FIRST PHASE COMPETITION
David Garcia Studio's submission for the UNESCO Delta City of the Future-competition has made it through to the final. Out of 40 international teams, 14 have been selected. We are now invited to come to Rotterdam to take part in the 24-hour pressure cooker session. Congrats to the studio team.

LECTURE AND WORKSHOP IN BRASIL
David Garcia will be lecturing and giving a workshop at the Architecture School of Ouro Preto starting on the 30th of August.

EXHIBITION IN NORWAY
Punkt Ø has invited the studio to exhibit at Momentum Kunsthall, in Moss, Norway. The exhibition runs from the 3rd of July to 3rd of October 2010.

EXHIBITION IN MADRID
"La Casa Encendida" will exhibit the Studio's MAP publication from the 29 of June to the 1st of September 2010.

ARCHIVE SERIES ON DESIGN BOOM
DAVID GARCIA STUDIO is featured in this prestigious design blog.

THE STUDIO TO EXHIBIT IN BEIJING AT NOTCH 10
DAVID GARCIA STUDIO has been invited to exhibit and represent Denmark at the NOTCH 10 cultural festival in October, 2010, Beijing.

EXHIBITION IN NEW YORK
The STUDIO is proud to be exhibiting at the prestigious STOREFRONT FOR ART AND ARCHITECTURE in New York, at the "LANDSCAPES OF QUARANTINE" exhibition, curated by Geoff Manaugh and Nicola Twilley. Opening, March 9th.

HONORABLE MENTION
for the entry to the BRONX MANHATTAN HIGH-BRIDGE International Competition.

THE STUDIO

2002-07-02T12:14:00.000-07:00

The Studio is an experimental architectural platform focusing on extreme environments. Projects span through various scales and spheres of action, often challenging the status-quo through inventiveness and a cross-disciplinary approach. Collaborative work with the scientific community and technical institutions is part of every project we undertake. We truly believe that what exists is only a small part of what is possible, and we design driven by this principle.The Studio is run by architect David A. Garcia.

TULLINSGADE 3, ST TH

1618 COPENHAGEN

DENMARK

+45 22446415

info@davidgarciastudio.com

Presently at the studio:
Architect Annelie Håkansson (SE), and interns Tímea Török (HU), Ida Kleve (SE) IñakiEtxeberria Iturbe (EUS), Julian K. Siravo (IT), Karolína Kotnourova (CZ), Vytanis Rougala (LT), Arub Saqib (UK) and Sebastian Mardi (SE).

Architect David A. Garcia graduated from The Bartlett school of Architecture, London in 2002. He has worked at Foster and Partners, London, he is an Associate partner at Henning Larsen Architects in Copenhagen.
He is the editor and publisher of the international publication MAP (Manual of Architectural Possibilities), now in it’s fourth issue and founder of The Institute of Architecture and the Extreme Environment.

David is a Guest Professor and master course director at Lund's School of Architecture, LTH, Sweden since 2010, having taught at LTH since 2002, and holds a teaching position at the School of Architecture at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen since 2003. He has recently been awarded a Teaching Fellowship at The Bartlett School of Architecture, Unit 3, where he is a degree unit director since 2010.

He lectures regularly and is an invited as guest jury at international architecture schools, amongst many others, at the AA London, LSBU London, Bauhaus Weimar, ESA Paris, AHO Oslo and DIS Copenhagen.

In 2007 he was awarded a prestigious 3 year bursary grant from the Danish Art Council, and has in the past year exhibited in Beijing, New York, Chicago, London, Barcelona, Madrid, Oslo, Copenhagen and Rotterdam.