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Showing posts from 2010

LENS to DETOX

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"I leave my brush in the East and set froth on my journey. I shall see the famous places..." Ando Tokitaro Hiroshige (Tokyo 1797-1858)  Florence was the most enticing experience to my senses. It was difficult when it came time to leave. It was perhaps something to do with the cultural indulgence I experienced there... at least that is what I would like to think as I hopped on a train to Rome instead of Milan when I eventually left! Santa Maria del Fiore - known to most peasants as Florence - is full of life and endless narratives of past glorious times which you can see, touch, smell and even taste throughout its well crafted buildings, museums and certainly, piazzas. I love stopping at bars and cafes, if possible mingling with the locals, at least I make my effort to ask for a snack such as arancini (rice balls originally from Sicily) but if the being under question turns up to be an obnoxious sod I then take my sketchbook out and courageously throw a ha

TINKERING

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There is no switch-off! It is like a disease. I know I need to stop but I can't. Some are clever ideas, others... quite stupid! They keep crossing my mind. Why is that? I ask myself. Why on earth I need to reinvent everything? Reinventing the wheel, reinventing the chair, reinventing chop stick, reinventing every frinking useless object that crosses my sight and I always start tinkering with this thought of 'uselessness' - THE breakthrough to grandiosity never arrives. It is sisyphist attempt to get somewhere, indulging myself, spending time, the time that no one can afford. Yet, I am here. In recent times I have been tinkering with a handful of design ideas. One idea is not enough, too many of them is just about right! I am greedy when it comes to collecting ideas ... then I don't know what the heck to do with them. Too many is never enough - and yet, they all end in a vacuum! A black hole, a void, a vacuum, yes, a vacuum of ideas... cueing to exist. Some will. T

A PASSION FOR ARCHITECTURE: THEN AND NOW!

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MY EARLY WORK: Proyecto Casa Cubo: Guadalajara, México (1992-93). Centro de meditación en Tapalpa, Jalisco, México (1993). Proyecto Hotel y Centro de Convenciónes. Guadalajara, Mexico (1994). Proyecto de Tesis: Restauración Templo San Miguel de Belén y conjunto urbano - with Juan Manuel Salgado Alcaraz (1994-95). Work at Seville University and UIA Barcelona 1996 will take place in another blogpost. The architectural pilgrimage: Europe from January 1996 to November 2003. Daniel Libeskind lecture on the extention of the V&A Museum. Other influential lectures at the Royal Academy of Arts and RIBA included Norman Foster, Kisho Kurokawa, Charles Jencks and visits to Richard Rogers, Norman Foster and DEGW studios. Some of the following shots include conference at the UIA Barcelona 1996 where I got to attend to presentations by Herzog and De Meuron, Norman Foster, Zaha Hadid, Ricardo Legorreta. During that summ