Luis Barragan

Luis Barragán, 1902-1988, was born in Guadalajara, Mexico. His training and schooling was in engineering, but he taught himself architectural skills. In the 1920's, he traveled extensively in France and Spain, and later in 1931, lived in Paris for a time, attending Le Corbusier's lectures. His travels since then extended to Morocco in 1951. His architectural practice was in Guadalajara from 1927 until 1936 when he moved to Mexico City and remained until his death. His travels stimulated an interest in the native architecture of North Africa and the Mediterranean, which he related to construction in his own country.
His work has been called minimalist, but it is nonetheless sumptuous in color and texture. Pure planes, be they walls of stucco, adobe, timber, or even water, are his compositional elements, all interacting with Nature.
Barragán called himself a landscape architect, writing in Contemporary Architects, published by St. Martins Press, "I believe that architects should design gardens to be used, as much as the houses they build, to develop a sense of beauty and the taste and inclination toward the fine arts and other spiritual values." And further, "Any work of architecture which does not express serenity is a mistake."
A religious man, Barragán and his work have been described as "mystical" as well as serene. His chapel for the Capuchinas Sacramentarias is evidence of both qualities. Because of his interest in horses, he designed many stables, fountains and water troughs that manifest many of these same qualities.
Barragán has had a profound influence not only on three generations of Mexican architects, but many more throughout the world.
In his acceptance of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, he said, "It is impossible to understand Art and the glory of its history without avowing religious spirituality and the mythical roots that lead us to the very reason of being of the artistic phenomenon. Without the one or the other there would be no Egyptian pyramids, nor those of ancient Mexico. Would the Greek temples and Gothic cathedrals have existed?"
Further, he called it "alarming" that publications devoted to architecture seemed to have banished the words, "Beauty, Inspiration, Magic, Spellbound, Enchantment, as well as the concepts of Serenity, Silence, Intimacy and Amazement." He apologized for perhaps not having done these concepts complete justice, but said "they have never ceased to be my guiding lights."
As he closed his remarks, he spoke of "The Art of Seeing. It is essential to an architect to know how to see: I mean, to see in such a way that the vision is not overpowered by rational analysis."

Minimalismo en el 2008

El dia de ayer recibi un newsletter de uno de los portales el cual soy miembro, me refiero a archiweb.cz una pagina muy interesante con casi todas su obras en europa y me sorprendio mucho esta casa que pongo a continuacion siendo estilo minimalismo a su explendor, tambien pongo las bases y fundamentos del movimiento Minimalista "Less is more".

Minimalismo: Menos es más

El minimalismo es una tendencia de la arquitectura caracterizada por la extrema simplicidad de sus formas que surgió en Nueva York a finales de los años sesenta.
Los orígenes de esta corriente están en Europa y se encuentran en el manifiesto titulado “Menos es más” del arquitecto alemán Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe, uno de los más importantes de este siglo. Debido a la segunda guerra mundial Van Der Rohe emigró a Estados Unidos para más tarde nacionalizarse estadounidense.

A fines de los años treinta Van Der Rohe ejerció la dirección de la Escuela de Arte y Diseño de la Bauhaus, en Alemania en donde se materializaron sus primeas ideas respecto a la pureza de las formas y al uso del concepto artístico para dotar al diseño industrial de personalidad.

Los preceptos básicos del minimalismo son:

Utilizar colores puros, asignarle importancia al todo sobre las partes, utilizar formas simples y geométricas realizadas con precisión mecánica, trabajar con materiales industriales de la manera más neutral posible y diseñar sobre superficies inmaculadas. El resultado que define este estilo en un concepto es la palabra “limpieza”.
El minimalismo le da gran importancia al espacio y a los materiales ecológicos. Centra su atención en las formas puras y simples. Otro de los aspectos que definen esta corriente es su tendencia a la monocromía absoluta en los suelos, techos y paredes. Al final son los accesorios los que le dan un toque de color al espacio. En un planteamiento minimalista destaca el color blanco y todas los matices que nos da su espectro. No hay que olvidar que el blanco tiene una amplia gama de subtonos.

Los elementos:

Uno de los cambios producidos por el minimalismo en la decoración fue el uso de elementos como el cemento pulido, el vidrio, los alambres de acero.
Esos coloresEn cuanto a los accesorios el minimalismo no utiliza telas estampadas en los sillones ni en los cojines. Todos son colores puros, lo cual proyecta una sensación más contemporánea en contraposición al estilo barroco del siglo XIX.

El sentido de la unidad:

Para el minimalismo todos los elementos deben combinar y formar una unidad. Esto se resume en el precepto minimalista de que “todo es parte de todo".
Con el tiempo el minimalismo nacido a finales de los sesenta alcanzó su madurez en los años ochenta a tal punto que ejerció influencia no sólo en la arquitectura y el diseño sino también en la pintura, la moda y la música.

Union 13

Todavia recuerdo el dia que escuche esta banda, sus canciones crudas y sus ritmos de un estilo punk ya conocido, lo mas interesante era escuchar canciones en ingles y espanol y seguir con esa linea de protesta. Y un dia en un bar de Tijuana me encontre con la banda y estube platicando un poco de lo que me llamo la atencion, sus letras etc. Poco tiempo despues se dieron una vuelta por tijuana y los volvi a saludar y verlos en vivo es otra onda, aunque la gente no se dejo llevar por su musica la gente que conoce su repertorio gritaron todas sus canciones y despues me les pegue para irnos a un bar y seguir conociendo mas de ellos, muy buena onda todos la verdad aunque platique mas con loui (luis) y eddi, baterista y guitarrista de la banda. Es mas tuve la oportunidad de darles posada en mi depa.... Despues les di un tour por la tijuana que no conocian y fuimos a comer a unos ya conocidos tacos de pescado por la calle 10.
Pues vuelven a tijuana una vez mas y estoy seguro de ir a verlos otra vez y saludarlos y platicar un poco de su nuevo disco y otras cosas mas.
Aca los dejo con un video de su mas reciente grabacion.....

Tijuana Sound Machine

Tijuana's electronica leaders Nortec Collective are set to drop Bostich + Fussible Tijuana Sound Machine, due May 6 fromNacional Records. Fans are already familiar with the stylings of Bostich and Fussible as they were the masterminds behind hit tracks "Tengo La Voz", "Tijuana Bass", and "Tijuana Makes Me Happy" off the double Grammy-nominated 2005 album, Tijuana Sessions, Vol. 3. The first single off the new album will be the title track.
In a statement, Pepe Mogt (aka Fussible) commented, "With Tijuana Sessions, Vol. 3, we focused on fusing vocoders, synthesizers and drum machines with the Norteño flavor. This time around, we really relied more on the acoustic sound. We tried to achieve a better balance between the acoustics and the electronics. While some tracks on [that album] aren’t even a month old yet, others have been around for a couple of years. We actually wrote many of these songs while on the road promoting Tijuana Sessions.”
Nortec Collective toured extensively for that album, covering Latin America and the United States as well as Europe, Japan and Australia. Their past high-profile appearances include Coachella, Rokslide Festival (Denmark), Sonar Festival (Barcelona), Smithsonian Institute (Washington, DC), Vive Latino (Latin America's Coachella), Kennedy Center (Washington, DC), Bellas Artes Palace (Mexico City), Mutek.MX (Mexico City), Ultra Festival (Miami) and Decibel Festival (Seattle). An extensive U.S. tour featuring Bostich and Fussible is planned to coincide with the new release.
"In every place we have toured to, whether it is Australia, Japan or the U.S., crowds respond differently," said Mogt. "Even in Mexico, the response changes from town to town. But when it comes down to it, they are coming to our shows for the music, no matter whether they found it through a friend or online. So they are super enthusiastic either way. The real fun challenge comes when we play at festivals with audiences that are hearing our music for the first time."
Nortec Collective notched two Grammy nominations including "Best Alternative Music Album" and "Best Recording Package", not to mention extensive praise in both the underground and mainstream music press. The group's music has appeared in commercials for Volvo, Dell, Fidelity Mutual, Edwin Jeans (with Brad Pitt), Nissan, and others as well as HBO's "Big Love" and NBC's "Friday Night Lights,” the movies Fast Food Nation and Babel, and video games "FIFA Soccer" and "FIFA Street 2." Lastly, an interactive coffee table book entitled Paso del Nortec- This Is Tijuana dedicated to the Nortec phenomena was released in the US, Mexico and Europe. The Nortec Collective is: Fussible (Pepe Mogt), Bostich (Ramón Amezcua), Panóptica (Roberto Mendoza), Clorofila (Jorge Verdín) and Hiperboreal (PG Beas). These musicians created and perform a style of music that they invented called Nortec - a fusion of Norteño ("from the North") and Techno, documenting the collision between the style and culture of electronica and traditional Mexican music.
Watch for the May issue of HARP for a review of the album.

Premian Vinos L.A Cetto

Competencias de Vino Europeas reconocio la calidad de Vinos L.A Cetto con cuatro premios; En el Bachus 2008, competencia binaual realizada en Madrid, España, se le otorgo la Presea Bacchus de Oro al Don Luis Viognier 2007. Asimismo, en la decimo cuarta edicion de Vinalies Internacionales, realizado en el transcurso de la semana en Paris, tres vinos mexicanos recibieron medallas de plata. Estos fueron Don Luis Cetto Terra 2004, L.A Cetto Boutique Sangiovese 2004 y L.A Cetto Nebbiolo 2003. La competencia fue organizada por la Union de Enologos de Francia.

Teniendo dichos resultados tendremos que ir a darnos una vuelta a Vinos L.A Cetto y comprobar lo que dicen los expertos.

Hugo Sanchez fuera del TRI

Hugo Sánchez ya no es el director técnico de la selección nacional de fútbol de México.
La Federación Mexicana de Fútbol (FMF) lo despidió este lunes luego de varios fracasos, entre ellos la eliminación para los Juegos Olímpicos de Pekín.
"Por unanimidad, se da por terminada la relación contractual con el cuerpo técnico de la selección nacional", dijo el secretario general de la FMF, Decio de María, tras una reunión del consejo de dueños de clubes de primera división de la federación.
Asumirá como entrenador interino el mexicano Jesús Ramírez, a fin de cumplir con los próximos compromisos de partidos amistosos, como el del 16 de abril contra el seleccionado de China.

En mi poca experiencia con lo que es el futbol de mi pais, creo que la Federacion de Futbol Mexicana esta cometiendo un error, si quieres o aspiras ser el mejor, tienes que ver lo mejor que tienes, y no hay duda alguna que lo mejor que tiene mexico referente a futbol es Hugo Sanchez. Se que pueden opinar que fue el mejor jugador y que no se puede comparar con ser el entrenador pero es lo mejor que tenemos sobre futbol; Yo segui todo el proceso de Hugo Sanchez me refiero a los juegos que tuvieron las selecciones de futbol y algunas entrevistas que dio a la prensa, y si lo puedes criticar de todo porque es una persona que llego al nivel publico que todos pueden opinar; Pero viendo el partido de la seleccion cuando no califico para los Juegos Olimpicos de Pekin fue una verguenza ver ese partido como mexicano " No fue la culpa de Hugo" que no se metieran los goles, si no de los jugadores. Aca les dejo un video de lo que fue Hugo Sanchez como jugador y simplemente estuvo en las filas del que en el siglo pasado fue considerado como el mejor equipo el Real Madrid, aunque me duela siendo aficinado del Barcelona, pero tienes que saber reconocer lo que es mejor!!

Tenemos que cambiar de actitud, todo tiene un proceso y creo que aca no lo estamos haciendo!

French Architect Wins Pritzker Prize

Jean Nouvel, the bold French architect known for such wildly diverse projects as the muscular Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis and the exotically louvered Arab World Institute in Paris, has received architecture’s top honor, the Pritzker Prize.
Mr. Nouvel, 62, is the second French citizen to take the prize, awarded annually to a living architect by a jury chosen by the Hyatt Foundation. (Christian de Portzamparc of France won in 1994.) His selection is to be announced Monday.
“For over 30 years Jean Nouvel has pushed architecture’s discourse and praxis to new limits,” the Pritzker jury said in its citation. “His inquisitive and agile mind propels him to take risks in each of his projects, which, regardless of varying degrees of success, have greatly expanded the vocabulary of contemporary architecture.”
In extending that vocabulary Mr. Nouvel has defied easy categorization. His buildings have no immediately identifiable signature, like the curves of Frank Gehry or the light-filled atriums of Renzo Piano. But each is strikingly distinctive, be it the Agbar Tower in Barcelona (2005), a candy-colored, bullet-shaped office tower, or his KKL cultural and congress center in Lucerne, Switzerland (2000), with a slim copper roof cantilevered delicately over Lake Lucerne.
“Every time I try to find what I call the missing piece of the puzzle, the right building in the right place,” Mr. Nouvel said this month over tea at the Mercer Hotel in SoHo.
Yet he does not design buildings simply to echo their surroundings. “Generally, when you say context, people think you want to copy the buildings around, but often context is contrast,” he said.
“The wind, the color of the sky, the trees around — the building is not done only to be the most beautiful,” he said. “It’s done to give advantage to the surroundings. It’s a dialogue.”
The prize, which includes a $100,000 grant and a bronze medallion, is to be presented to Mr. Nouvel on June 2 in a ceremony at the Library of Congress in Washington.
Among Mr. Nouvel’s New York buildings are 40 Mercer, a 15-story red-and-blue, glass, wood and steel luxury residential building completed last year in SoHo, and a soaring 75-story hotel-and-museum tower with crystalline peaks that is to be built next to the Museum of Modern Art in Midtown. Writing in The New York Times in November, Nicolai Ouroussoff said the Midtown tower “promises to be the most exhilarating addition to the skyline in a generation.”
Born in Fumel in southwestern France in 1945, Mr. Nouvel originally wanted to be an artist. But his parents, both teachers, wanted a more stable life for him, he said, so they compromised on architecture.
“I realized it was possible to create visual compositions” that, he said, “you can put directly in the street, in the city, in public spaces.”
At 20 Mr. Nouvel won first prize in a national competition to attend the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. By the time he was 25 he had opened his own architecture firm with François Seigneur; a series of other partnerships followed.
Mr. Nouvel cemented his reputation in 1987 with completion of the Arab World Institute, one of the “grand projects” commissioned during the presidency of François Mitterrand. A showcase for art from Arab countries, it blends high technology with traditional Arab motifs. Its south-facing glass facade, for example, has automated lenses that control light to the interior while also evoking traditional Arab latticework. For his boxy, industrial Guthrie Theater, which has a cantilevered bridge overlooking the Mississippi River, Mr. Nouvel experimented widely with color. The theater is clad in midnight-blue metal; a small terrace is bright yellow; orange LED images rise along the complex’s two towers.
In its citation, the Pritzker jury said the Guthrie, completed in 2006, “both merges and contrasts with its surroundings.” It added, “It is responsive to the city and the nearby Mississippi River, and yet, it is also an expression of theatricality and the magical world of performance.”
The bulk of Mr. Nouvel’s commissions work has been in Europe however. Among the most prominent is his Quai Branly Museum in Paris (2006), an eccentric jumble of elements including a glass block atop two columns, some brightly colorful boxes, rust-colored louvers and a vertical carpet of plants. “Defiant, mysterious and wildly eccentric, it is not an easy building to love,” Mr. Ouroussoff wrote in The Times.
A year later he described Mr. Nouvel’s Paris Philharmonie concert hall, a series of large overlapping metal plates on the edge of La Villette Park in northeastern Paris, as “an unsettling if exhilarating trip into the unknown.”
Mr. Nouvel has his plate full at the moment. He is designing a satellite of the Louvre Museum in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, giving it a shallow domed roof that creates the aura of a just-landed U.F.O. He recently announced plans for a high-rise condominium in Los Angeles called SunCal tower, a narrow glass structure with rings of greenery on each floor. His concert hall for the Danish Broadcasting Corporation is a tall rectangular box with transparent screen walls.
Before dreaming up a design, Mr. Nouvel said, he does copious research on the project and its surroundings. “The story, the climate, the desires of the client, the rules, the culture of the place,” he said. “The references of the buildings around, what the people in the city love.”
“I need analysis,” he said, noting that every person “is a product of a civilization, of a culture.” He added: “Me, I was born in France after the Second World War. Probably the most important cultural movement was Structuralism. I cannot do a building if I can’t analyze.”
Although he becomes attached to his buildings, Mr. Nouvel said, he understands that like human beings, they grow and change over time and may even one day disappear. “Architecture is always a temporary modification of the space, of the city, of the landscape,” he said. “We think that it’s permanent. But we never know.”