Antoni Gaudí and Frei Otto: Essential Precursors to the Parametricism Manifesto

As Senior Architect to the Basilica of the Sagrada Família in Barcelona, Mark Burry has been ‘thinking parametrically’ for almost his entire career. Here he describes how his longstanding role overseeing the completion of Antoni Gaudí's masterpiece has afforded unique insights into the work of a great geometer and parametric thinker. Burry places the contribution of Gaudí alongside that of Frei Otto – the other eminent 20th-century Proto-Parametricist.     

In the Pursuit of Pleasure: The Not so Fleeting Life of the Pavilion and its Ilk

Author and architecture critic for the London Evening Standard, Robert Bevan reflects on the enduring appeal of the temporary structure, speaking ‘to a latent desire for freedom and movement’ as a hangover of our nomadic past in a sedentary ‘civilised’ society. He highlights the type's historical apex in Henry VIII's palatial pop-up on the Field of the Cloth of Gold, questioning the purpose and purposelessness of more recent examples.     

城市绿轴——巴塞罗那城市慢行网络建设的风景园林途径研究

巴塞罗那作为城市公共空间建设的典范,近年来开始注重施行"以人为本"的建设理念,推进"慢行城市"构建计划。计划通过重新划分城市慢行片区,规划片区间联系的慢行网络,并与公共交通系统相接驳,增强城市的慢行可达性。在城市慢行网络的建设中,巴塞罗那注重将绿色空间网络与慢行系统相结合,主要利用现有道路、铁路和水渠等线性基础设施空间,通过创造性的设计将这些空间转化为多功能绿轴,增强慢行舒适性,实现从机动车优先向慢行优先的转变。该计划的实施为世界各国慢行城市的构建,尤其是对已建成城区的慢行系统改造提供了重要的借鉴经验。     

漫谈欧洲滨水空间

本文以笔者亲身考察过的欧洲巴塞罗那滨水区、汉堡港口新城、巴黎海滩与不来梅港口复兴等四个具体案例为研究对象,分析研究了其所分别代表的不同滨水空间的复兴策略与实践经验：通过事件的滨水复兴、通过文化的滨水复兴、通过场所营造的滨水复兴和通过主题营造的滨水复兴。     

The limits to shaping diversity as public culture: Permanent festivities in Barcelona

In spite of the existence of an extensive debate on cultural policies on the one hand, and on local diversity policies on the other hand, there are still few studies dealing directly with this nexus. This emerging research trend will be discussed in the context of Barcelona and through the analysis of a specific cultural policy field: the planning of permanent festivities.After overviewing its migration history and after presenting the theoretical framework and methodology, this article frames Barcelona’s general cultural policy and intercultural policy patterns, arguing that the Catalan capital is really at a very initial stage of connecting diversity with cultural policy. After that, I will defend the argument that, in spite of recognising diversity, the analysis of Barcelona’s permanent festivities shows that there are also some limits to the development of this connection, due primarily to a lack of democratization of culture. Interviews and a discussion group confirm this empirical diagnosis. The argument I want to put forward is that this lack of participation of immigrants in cultural planning and diversity promotion is probably due to the fact that the two departments in the city represent, indeed, two approaches toward the question of how to promote the nexus between culture and diversity, and thus they are still working separately. The department of culture still has an elitist focus, centred on a culture of excellence, while the immigration department has a more social focus on cultural diversity.     

Developing prototypes for France’s mass housing programme, 1949–53

The results of two key competitions run by the French Ministry of Reconstruction and Urbanism in 1949 and 1950 have long been regarded as prototypes for les grands ensembles, the large mass housing developments of the 1950s and 1960s. Claudius‐Petit, the minister (1948–52) and a strong supporter of modern architecture, believed that industrialization would raise both the quality and the volume of housing construction. The competitions, one for 200 dwellings at Villeneuve‐Saint‐Georges and the other for 800 in Strasbourg, were judged large enough to attract the interest of contractors working in the public works sector and capable of developing industrialized building techniques. In each competition the winning project, though able to satisfy the technical demands of the competition, won because of its architectural qualities, while the second place project addressed the issues of production more comprehensively. However, the subsequent development of mass housing in France has caused the legacy of the competitions to be identified with the mainstream emphasis on production and economy, bitterly attacked from the late 1950s onwards. This has overshadowed that combination of architectural and technical values, central to Claudius‐Petit’s vision for post‐war housing, which was embodied in the two winning projects.     

Crystal structure and cationic distribution of BaFe4Ti2O11 R-type hexagonal ferrite

The crystal structure and the cationic distribution of BaFe₄Ti₂O₁₁ R-type hexagonal ferrite has been studied from room-temperature powder neutron diffraction and ⁵⁷Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy data. The compound is hexagonal (S.G.: P63/mmc, Z = 2) with cell parameters $\text{a}\text{= 5.843(1)}\text{A}\text{?}$ and $\text{c}\text{= 13.608(2)}\text{A}\text{?}$. Our data indicate that in BaFe₄Ti₂O₁₁ the 5-fold sublattice is only occupied by Fe ions, while the two remaining octahedral sublattices are occupied by Fe and Ti ions with a slight preference of Ti ions for the 4e octahedral sites. As in the BaFe₁₂O₁₉ M-structure, the 5-fold Fe cations present a disorder between the two pseudotetrahedral sites forming the trigonal bipyramid. Our Mössbauer spectroscopy results seem to suggest that this disorder is a static one. The remaining cationic polyhedra show some important additional distortions, as compared to BaFe₁₂O₁₉ M-structure, which are likely due to the augmented intercationic electrostatic repulsion.     

流动与匀质之间——巴塞罗那馆之“几何建构”解读

巴塞罗那馆是现代建筑中的经典作品之一。人们一直津津乐道其空间的流动和形式的抽象,却很少注意到它与上述特质对立的另一种特质,即那种贯穿密斯一生建构探索的、以＂清晰的建造＂为终极目标,以匀质网格为本质特征的＂几何建构＂法则。作者通过对德国馆的深入剖解,试图将这种特质揭示和呈现出来。但在德国馆中,这种特质却在很大程度上被抽象形式挫败,这归根结底源于两者间不可调和的矛盾,正是这种矛盾促使密斯在日后的建构生涯中逐渐放弃了抽象形式转而走上了一条＂匀质建构＂之路。