Immersive experiences during the conceptual phase of the architectural project: virtual reality as a tool for user participation in the co-creation process

La elevada competencia del mercado actual dificulta la contratación de proyectos singulares de viviendas unifamiliares. Por ello, resulta necesario agudizar el ingenio para ofrecer al cliente una visión diferencial respecto a las propuestas de otros competidores. En este contexto, se propone incorporar al propio usuario en el proceso proyectual durante la fase de desarrollo conceptual de la propuesta constructiva, utilizando la Realidad Virtual (RV). Sumergir al usuario en una experiencia sensorial inmersiva le permitiría vivir su propio espacio habitable antes de ser construido, permitiendo a diseñadores y arquitectos centrar la atención en el estudio personaliza-do de la iluminación natural y el diseño de los paramentos que actuaran como nexo entre el espacio interior y exterior de la vivienda. Esta forma de abordar el proyecto puede suponer una ventaja competitiva que contribuiría al posicionamiento del estudio arquitectónico como referente del mercado. Este trabajo analiza diferentes sistemas RV actuales que podrían ser adaptados durante el proceso de trabajo, y discute la ventaja que supone para los estudios de arquitectura esta metodología del proyecto frente a otras más convencionales.The high competitiveness of the current market makes it difficult to contract unique projects for single-family homes. Therefore, it is necessary to sharpen inventiveness in order to offer the customer a different vision compared to the proposals of other competitors. In this context, we propose to incorporate the user in the design process during the conceptual development stage of the construction proposal, using Virtual Reality (VR). Introducing the user to an immersive sensory experience would allow him/her to live his/her own living space before being built, al-lowing designers and architects to focus attention on the personalized study of natural lighting and the design of the walls that act as a connection between the interior and exterior space of the home. This way of approaching the project can provide a competitive advantage that would contribute to the positioning of the architectural studio as a referent in the market. This paper analyses different cur-rent VR systems that could be adapted during the work process, and discusses the advantage that this project methodology has for architectural studios compared to other more conventional ones.Universitat Jaume I P1·1B2015-30Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2016-75866-C3-1-

La representación del cuerpo en el arte actual

Una de las cuestiones sobre las que más ha reflexionado el arte en la actualidad es sobre el cuerpo y la identidad. La identidad entendida como una construcción social y aceptando que somos uno y varios, somos un yo y el otro, lo cual nos genera en ocasiones múltiples contradicciones. En esta búsqueda de la identidad el disfraz, la mascara, la metamorfosis han sido una obsesión recurrente de la humanidad y temas muy tratados a lo largo de la historia del arte

Gamification as a tool for acquisition soft skills in the design field

Comunicació presentada a INTED2018, 12th International Technology, Education and Development Conference. (March 5-7 2018, Valencia, Spain).The current labour context is increasingly changing, driven by the continuous blooming of technological changes. So, the integration of recent graduates to the labour market, as new professionals, demand the acquisition of not only each field’s specific Hard Skills, but also generic, transversal Soft Skills which might facilitate the adaptation of these professionals to future contexts, while enabling them to develop their work career in a responsible way, as well as increasing their entrepreneurial spirit. These abilities are especially relevant in the field of design engineering, as the idiosyncrasy of the discipline leads their practitioners to offering solutions to diverse problems society and users have. So their professional development is inextricably linked to social changes and society evolution. In this way, in the “Sustainable Development Goal 4, Education 2030” (SDG4-Education 2030), regarding targets and commitments, the UNESCO defines the needs to emphasize the development of high-level cognitive and non-cognitive/transferable skills, such as problem solving, critical thinking, creativity, teamwork, communication skills or conflicts resolution, which can be applied across a wide range of occupational fields. Therefore, the acquisition of these Soft Skills by design professionals can ease their adaptation to a novel future scenario and guarantee a prolonged professional development over time. So, not only learners should be provided with opportunities to update their skills continuously through lifelong learning, but it is also necessary to give the chance for active professionals to adapt to new contexts in the future. This work presents an action proposal aimed to enhance the acquisition of Soft Skills by design professionals, in a playful way. So, a conceptual proposal of a methodology, based on the concept of Gamification, is suggested, where the degree of acquisition of some Soft Skills by the designer would be assessed. To do so, a platform where sharing and assessing evidences is to be developed. And the incentive for the participation of both new graduates and professionals lies in the detection of their professional weaknesses (from the evidences’ assessment) and the possibility of having a feedback consisting of professional recycling actions. The use of Smartphones becomes the vehicular platform for acquiring and assessing these transversal abilities, as these devices offer different technological possibilities for generating the designers’ own evidences, by means of actions such as voice recording, video recording, image capturing, text recognition, etc. Once generated, the evidences would be assessed by using a co-evaluation system, based on a peer review process, where the evaluation of colleagues’ work is presented as a part of a collaborative game and where the assessment process of peers’ work can contribute ideas for improving personal Soft Skills. Furthermore, all this may end up in the generation of a community with common interests. As a result, the suggested methodology can offer a useful tool for designers for continuously assessing the state of their Soft Skills, thus facilitating their progressive adaptation to the changes to their future professional contexts

Los Batanes: A trap for the Pyrenean wild goat during the Late Pleistocene (Spain)

Los Batanes cave (1025 m.a.s.l.) is a karstic system formed by pressure ducts, near the locality of Biescas in the Upper Gallego Valley (Huesca, Spain). Many fossil remains were retrieved from the cave sediments. The minimum sediment calendar age was determined to be 12.770 ± 60 BP. This date indicates that the deposit was formed before the Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene transition at the Pyrenees. Here we analyze the faunal assemblage of the site that is only conformed by remains of Pyrenean wild goat (Capra pyrenaica pyrenaica), which is a recently extinct subspecies of Iberian wild goat (C. pyrenaica). In the site, 1079 remains of Iberian wild goat have been recovered being one of the most numerous both in minimum number of individuals (MNI) and number of identified specimens (NISP) recovered until now in a natural trap in the Spanish Pyrenees. The population of Los Batanes shows a wide range of ages between juvenile and senile individuals and the MNI estimated from the number of right metatarsus is nine. The taphonomic features indicate that the cave acted as a trap for the goats which inhabited the vicinity of the cave. These goats probably stumbled and fell to the bottom of the pit and they could not get out, dying inside. Due to the origin of the accumulation numerous complete bones have been recovered. These fossil allow us to perform a biometric analysis that indicates that population of Los Batanes is in the range size of other goats from Late Pleistocene of Iberian Peninsula

Revitalizing public space from communication and creative neomedial practice. New languages for dialogue between the citizen and the urban environment

La ciudad actual se construye, desarrolla y practica desde la comunicación, y el lenguaje, clave en la formación del pensamiento, la cultura y las identidades, evoluciona en sociedad. Cabe por tanto reflexionar sobre la capacidad de los nuevos lenguajes que emergen de la integración de las nuevas tecnologías en el entorno urbano para proponer un nuevo tipo de comunicación con la ciudad que revitalice sus diferentes espacios. En este artículo se identifican las distintas tipologías de espacios públicos desde los que el ciudadano establece su relación con la ciudad. Así mismo, se estudia cómo una incorporación creativa de las NTIC en los soportes más habituales de estos lugares ayuda a percibirlos como espacios urbanos de relación vividos por el ciudadano desde la interacción, identificando claves que ayudan a entender mejor la comunicación en la urbe y su relación con la emergencia de una ciudad híbrida. Desde el análisis de significativas aportaciones creativas de la última década se identifican diferentes lenguajes y tipologías de comunicación que acontecen en la ciudad, reflexionando sobre tendencias y escenarios de interés para los campos del arte y el diseño orientados a reforzar el concepto de ciudad practicada que ayuda a canalizar la revitalización de los distintos espacios urbanos.ABSTRACT: The modern city is built, developed and practiced from communication, and language, key in the formation of thought, culture and identities, evolves in society. We should therefore consider the ability of new languages emerging from the integration of new technologies in the urban environment to propose a new type of communication with the city to revitalize its different spaces. This article describes the different types of public spaces from which citizens determine their relationship with the city. Similarly, we study how the creative incorporation of ICTs in the most usual elements of these places helps to perceive them as relationship urban spaces, experienced by the citizens through interaction, identifying clues that help us to better understand communication in the city and its relationship with the emergence of a hybrid city. From the analysis of significant creative contributions of the last decade different languages and types of communication that occur in the city are identified, reflecting on trends and scenarios relevant to the fields of art and design, aimed at strengthening the concept of a practiced city that aims to revitalize the various urban spaces

Integración de los principios de la economía social y solidaria en el diseño sostenible de bienes de consumo

From a sustainable design approach, it is inevitable to question the current economic system and its practice focused on the production of consumer goods. In recent years, many social sectors have stated the urgent need to change production and consumption models and develop new economic models that would prioritize human survival. This paper establishes a framework to reflect on the integration of social and solidarity economy principles in the design processes as bearers of a solidarity and sustainability culture in order to promote the generation of consumer goods for the social market. The paper is structured with a theoretical approach since the authors first try to define the concept of social and solidarity economy and then link this transforming model to the concept of sustainable human development design. The paper’s main objective is to establish conceptual bases that allow us to continue studying tools and strategies to promote the design as a factor of sustainable culture, innovation, and social welfare.A partir de um enfoque sustentável do desenho, o questionamento do atual sistema econômico é inevitável, assim como a prática da disciplina voltada para a produção de objetos de consumo. Nos últimos anos, são muitos os setores sociais que apontam para a emergência de uma mudança nos modelos de produção e consumo, e também para a necessidade de se desenvolver novos modelos econômicos que priorizem a sobrevivência do ser humano. Este artigo estabelece um marco para a reflexão sobre a integração dos princípios da economia social e solidária nos processos de desenho como portadores de uma cultura de solidariedade e sustentabilidade, a fim de promover a geração de bens de consumo destinados ao mercado social. A estrutura do artigo responde a uma orientação teórica, uma vez que tentamos definir, em primeiro lugar, o conceito de economia social e solidária, e então vincular esse modelo transformador ao conceito de desenho para o desenvolvimento humano sustentável. O objetivo principal é estabelecer bases conceituais que nos permitam continuar com o estudo de ferramentas e estratégias que promovam o desenho como um fator de culturalização sustentável, da inovação e do bem-estar social.Desde un enfoque sostenible del diseño, es inevitable el cuestionamiento del actual sistema económico, así como de la propia práctica de la disciplina enfocada a la producción de objetos de consumo. En los últimos años, son muchos los sectores sociales que apuntan a la emergencia de un cambio en los modelos productivos y de consumo, y también a la necesidad de desarrollar nuevos modelos económicos que prioricen la supervivencia del ser humano. Este artículo establece un marco de reflexión sobre la integración de los principios de la economía social y solidaria en los procesos de diseño como portadores de una cultura de la solidaridad y de la sostenibilidad, con el fin de promover la generación de bienes de consumo destinados al mercado social. La estructura del artículo responde a una orientación teórica, puesto que tratamos de definir, en primer lugar, el concepto de economía social y solidaria, para después vincular este modelo transformador al concepto de diseño para el desarrollo humano sostenible. El principal objetivo es asentar unas bases conceptuales que nos permitan continuar con el estudio de herramientas y estrategias que promocionen el diseño como factor de culturización sostenible, de innovación y de bienestar social