Learning from Morella: the memory of the urban form and the dialogical-historical approach in the contemporary design

From the dialogical models defended by Mijai´l Bajti´n (Bakhtin 1982), GIRAS Research Group has analyzed for years the historical urban form and architecture, trying to clarify how the architect can at the same time, innovate and preserve, understanding that in the specific of each place are the seeds for a good modernization. (Muntañola 2016). To understand the relationships between history and memory and to clarify the types of memory that the architect can use to learn from the city, we use Paul Ricoeur’s theory (Ricoeur 2010) and Space Syntax as a theory as well as a meth- od (Hillier 1996). In the case study of Morella, Spain, we will see that the urban form of the historical city has kept in his memory the existence of an old gate of the wall, in a place that people has forgotten. With historical drawings, plans, written sources, with archaeological exploration and with Space Syntax analysis, it will be shown that the memory of the city is present in the constructed form. In Morella, we will find some interesting examples about how the architect can make bridges between the new design and the history of the profession, of the place and of the society, analyzing two heritage buildings restored in the core of the city, the town hall and a church as a health center, and two new buildings outside the wall, the Primary School designed by Miralles & Pino´s and the Secondary School by Helio Piñón, both of them with international awards. (Beltran 2015)Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Legitimate Exclusion of Would-Be Immigrants: A View from Global Ethics and the Ethics of International Relations

The debate about justice in immigration seems somehow stagnated given that it seems justice requires both further exclusion and more porous borders. In the face of this, I propose to take a step back and to realize that the general problem of borders—to determine what kind of borders liberal democracies ought to have—gives rise to two particular problems: first, to justify exclusive control over the administration of borders (the problem of legitimacy of borders) and, second, to specify how this control ought to be exercised (the problem of justice of borders). The literature has explored the second but ignored the first. Therefore, I propose a different approach to the ethics of immigration by focusing on concerns of legitimacy in a three-step framework: first, identifying the kind of authority or power that immigration controls exercise; second, redefining borders as international and domestic institutions that issue that kind of power; and finally, considering supranational institutions that redistribute the right to exclude among legitimate borders

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009: Grant Application Information, Tips, and Thoughts

This Special Report identifies some of the key elements for grants under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 ("Act"), offers general tips that likely will be of interest to nonprofits applying for stimulus-fund grants, and highlights some key thoughts to consider

American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009: Whether and Where States Are Accepting & Distributing Federal Stimulus Funds

Nonprofits should be watching what your state governments are doing in terms of who receives and will be responsible for the stimulus funds flowing to your state from the federal government. In most states, the funds will flow to the Governor, but important differences exist in each state. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, PL 111-5 ("Act" or "ARRA") directs that Federal funds to states and local entities will flow into each state through the Governor, who must certify that: "(1) the State will request and use funds provided by this Act; and (2) the funds will be used to create jobs and promote economic growth." Act, p. 189 If the Governor refuses to accept the money, then the state legislature can accept the funds. Act, p. 190. News reports indicate that states are responding in different ways, meaning that nonprofits interested in applying for new grants and contracts need to know what is happening in their states, especially given the extremely tight time application deadlines. To help nonprofits, the National Council of Nonprofits prepared this evolving chart that may serve as a common frame of reference

Metastability of reversible condensed zero range processes on a finite set

Let r: S\times S\to \bb R_+ be the jump rates of an irreducible random walk on a finite set $S$, reversible with respect to some probability measure $m$. For $\alpha >1$, let g: \bb N\to \bb R_+ be given by $g(0)=0$, $g(1)=1$, $g(k) = (k/k-1)^\alpha$, $k\ge 2$. Consider a zero range process on $S$ in which a particle jumps from a site $x$, occupied by $k$ particles, to a site $y$ at rate $g(k) r(x,y)$. Let $N$ stand for the total number of particles. In the stationary state, as $N\uparrow\infty$, all particles but a finite number accumulate on one single site. We show in this article that in the time scale $N^{1+\alpha}$ the site which concentrates almost all particles evolves as a random walk on $S$ whose transition rates are proportional to the capacities of the underlying random walk

American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009: Sources of Information About Federal Stimulus Funds

Nonprofits interested in applying for grants for federal funds -- whether directly to federal agencies or to state and local governments that received federal funds -- must remain vigilant in these fast-paced times to remain informed. This Special Report identifies key resources for the latest information at the state and federal levels