Transgressive urbanism : borderlands and urban informality of american cities along the panamerican highway

This study explores the ways in which political boundaries can be trespassed in order to develop subaltern forms of urbanism and edge conditions, mainly to the comparative study of border cities in the Americas, predominantly ruled by informal economies, and which are situated alongside the largest land-transport infrastructure on Earth called ‘Pan-American Highway’. This land transport corridor operates as a grand linear urbanism and constitutes the economical catalyst of emerging urban economies in scenarios of political regional integration (‘soft boundaries’) or fortification (demarcations). As result of border pressure, the process of ‘instantness’ has upgraded various informal urban economies to adequate standards of production, consumption and exchange. In terms of regional development, one of the direct impacts of the Pan-American Highway – from Alaska to Patagonia – has been the expansion of formal and informal economic and trade corridors along this main infrastructure network, which is shaping the urban structure of border cities or towns. On one hand, this study reflects on the border conditions of American border cities ruled by formal and informal economies. On another hand, it compares and critically reflects on the socio-spatial principles of infrastructural urbanism and the phenomenon of metapolisation (Ascher, 2004) of urban economies in selected border cities. The novelty of this study lies in the observation and mapping of new spatial schemes in border landscapes alongside the largest infrastructure on Earth

Transgressive urbanism : borderlands and urban informality of american cities along the panamerican highway

This study explores the ways in which political boundaries can be trespassed in order to develop subaltern forms of urbanism and edge conditions, mainly to the comparative study of border cities in the Americas, predominantly ruled by informal economies, and which are situated alongside the largest land-transport infrastructure on Earth called ‘Pan-American Highway’. This land transport corridor operates as a grand linear urbanism and constitutes the economical catalyst of emerging urban economies in scenarios of political regional integration (‘soft boundaries’) or fortification (demarcations). As result of border pressure, the process of ‘instantness’ has upgraded various informal urban economies to adequate standards of production, consumption and exchange. In terms of regional development, one of the direct impacts of the Pan-American Highway – from Alaska to Patagonia – has been the expansion of formal and informal economic and trade corridors along this main infrastructure network, which is shaping the urban structure of border cities or towns. On one hand, this study reflects on the border conditions of American border cities ruled by formal and informal economies. On another hand, it compares and critically reflects on the socio-spatial principles of infrastructural urbanism and the phenomenon of metapolisation (Ascher, 2004) of urban economies in selected border cities. The novelty of this study lies in the observation and mapping of new spatial schemes in border landscapes alongside the largest infrastructure on Earth

Climate and urban design of maritime public spaces in Mediterranean Arab cities

The traditional urban fabrics in Arab cities along the Mediterranean coast offer an exceptional 'urban lab' to study climatic design, urban patterns and forms applied in public realms. Nonetheless, due to the rapid modernisation and expansion of these cities, most of their old urban tissues are in a process of severe dereliction and abandonment. As part of the current asymmetric urban expansion, the new urbanisations and infrastructures within the old cities are applying generic and fashionable spatial schemes detached from climatic and morphologic urban considerations, which are generating discontinuous and dysfunctional townscapes. The key questions raised by this phenomenon are twofold: How do existing maritime urban settlements effectively respond and adapt to the coastal Mediterranean climates? How can intuitive climatic design influences contemporary urbanism and landscape? This study proposes a synoptic and comparative analysis of appropriate public spaces in the Mediterranean cities of Tangier, Beirut and Malaga. It also reflects on the notion of 'placeness' and landscape recovery of traditional urban tissues through a wide range of urban design strategies in paradigmatic public spaces. Nonetheless are these chosen cases sharing similar urban patterns regardless their geo-climatic contexts? What makes Mediterranean urban voids resilient or not? The aim is to articulate the principles of ecologic urbanism; climatic design and landscape design by taking into account urban voids and solar orientation; natural ventilation and greenery; and surface materials and colours in unique urban spaces such as the old port and Medina in Tangier; the AUB Campus in Beirut; and the Guadalmedina creek in Malaga

Fog_Hive© : 3D fog collection along the coastal Atacama desert

The provision of drinking water turns out to be one of the great challenges for the future because central water supply systems cannot technically or logistically be implemented. FogHive©'s main aim is stopping desertification by repairing endangered fog oases ecosystems, and harvesting water for drinking and irrigation and fostering potential inhabitation in many arid coasts such as Chile, Peru and others latitudes. FogHive© is resilient to different climatic contexts and can dynamically response to the different and intermittent prevailing wind directions by keeping the screen ratio of 1:1 or 1:2. It is an adaptable and lightweight design with emphasis in optimal frame types, forms, structural and surface sizes, structural and constructional specifications made with aluminium, galvanised steel or timber. FogHive© employs hydrophobic meshes and a deployable space-frame to intersect atmospheric water and then harvest it for drinking and irrigation. FogHive© has been tested throughout climatic simulations in the fog oasis of Alto Patache, Atacama Desert (2010). It also performs like a shading/cooling device and a soil humidifier for greenery or crop. Being a transformable construction, it can easily be transported and installed. Its footprint is hexagonal (6m side) which is resistant against strong winds and ‘aerodynamic’ to the landscape. FogHive© consists of a water-repellent skin facing prevailing winds and a shading device facing the Equator. The water collector, filtering and irrigation network considers local structural materials and techniques. Regarding conventional two-dimensional fog collection, FogHive© upgrades the following aspects: 1. Increasing rate and yield of advection fog by taking into account harvesting rate and climatic parameters; 2. Structural reinforcement of fog collectors through lightweight and deployable space-frames; 3. Reducing installation and maintenance of fog collection; 4. Lowering physical impacts on surrounding

Minimum game plans : eco-design and low-tech fabrication in studios

This paper looks at eco-design and low-tech fabrication in studio

El proceso pre-traductológico en textos de economía a través del análisis metadiscursivo interpersonal: estudio piloto del corpus COMENEGO

Este artículo da cuenta de una investigación piloto con el corpus COMENEGO con objeto de identificar los marcadores metadiscursivos interpersonales en dos sub-corpus: comercio (COM) y prensa (PRS), en español. Ambos contienen textos digitales cuyas principales funciones son, respectivamente, persuadir e informar al lector. El propósito es ofrecer una herramienta que ayude a los traductores a tratar el aspecto interpersonal de los textos origen y de los textos meta, sin lo cual las traducciones pueden sufrir una falta de ajuste importante debido al desconocimiento de los patrones metadiscursivos que subyacen en cada lengua, género o especialidad. El análisis comienza identificando las funciones discursivas más relevantes en cada especialidad, tras lo cual se aplica un análisis de frecuencias para obtener un listado de palabras y de concordancias de los marcadores y categorías interpersonales más importantes. Eso conduce a la propuesta de un patrón caracterizador de cada especialidad tanto cuantitativa como cualitativamente

The MOBILELAND© garden : a radical landscape game

The phenomenon of urban shrinkage in post–industrialised cities has generated many derelict voids. This study reflects on the implementation of Systemic Design and Ecological Urbanism applied in mobile gardens. A garden always represents the notion of heaven on Earth even informally. MOBILELAND© is a portable garden system. Its structures are entirely made from reclaimed materials: shipping containers, timber pallet boards, car tyres, and any reused material. Components are available in different modules and sizes. They can be moved anywhere depending on seasonal, event–like and growing needs. In a short–term period, it has generated a unique play place by establishing an outdoor civic arena with ludic and recreational areas and open art events. Its design is based on the principle of remaking: reduce, re–use and recycle. By working with local communities, universities and other stakeholders, MOBILELAND© has the potential to upgrade open spaces and envigorate community groups via temporary uses. These bottom–up initiatives make adequate use of sites by contributing to the quality of life for neighbourhoods and addressing many wider environmental, ecological and landscape goals through community led place–making. Since the opening in October 2014 designer, group leaders and volunteers have transformed this place in a well–know public event. Nowadays it holds seating, resting and recreational areas and a sunflower garden. In terms of public education, MOBILELAND© is a play place that offers experiential learning and research–by–doing outside the classroom

Las quejas de los viajeros: ¿un género digital para controlar la calidad de los servicios hoteleros?

Analizamos las quejas de los viajeros en un corpus integrado por 80 opiniones o reseñas sobre cuatro hoteles, alojadas en la plataforma TripAdvisor en las categorías de puntuación “malo/pésimo” y “bueno/excelente”. El estudio se enmarca en el análisis del discurso interpersonal aplicado a géneros turísticos digitales (Mapelli 2008, 2016, Suau Jiménez 2011, 2012a, 2012b, 2014), con el propósito de caracterizar no solo el aspecto relacional entre autor y lector, sino también el proposicional. Nos centramos en las quejas, ya que constituyen una parte fundamental de las opiniones. Abordamos la construcción de la subjetividad en la voz de los viajeros a partir de la revisión de los marcadores de actitud, por aglutinar estos a la vez riqueza subjetiva y de contenido. Sin embargo, también consideramos los atenuadores, los realzadores y la auto-mención como marcadores interpersonales que participan en la modelación de dichas quejas. Los resultados apuntan hacia una construcción diferenciada de la subjetividad en las dos categorías analizadas de TripAdvisor. Se sugiere que las estrategias discursivas resultantes obedecen al marco funcional pre-determinado por el fin comunicativo de la opinión, ya sea esta positiva o negativa. La aplicación de este marco de investigación muestra igualmente su capacidad metodológica para caracterizar el contenido proposicional. Las implicaciones son de orden discursivo, metodológico y socio-lingüístico.Wwe analyze travellers’ complaints in a corpus of 80 reviews about four hotels, in the opinions categorized as “poor/terrible” and “very good/excellent” from the platform TripAdvisor. The study is done from the perspective of interpersonal discourse applied to digital genres of tourism (Mapelli 2008, 2016, Suau Jiménez 2011, 2012a, 2012b, 2014, 2016) with the purpose of characterizing not only the relational aspect between author and reader, but also the propositional. We focus on complaints since they are a fundamental part of reviews. We approach the construction of subjectivity in the voice of travelers from attitudinal markers, since they contain a high degree of subjectivity and content. However, we also consider hedges, boosters and self-mention markers because they participate in the modeling of those complaints. Results show a differentiated construction of subjectivity in complaints, in both travelers’ opinions categories. It is suggested that resulting discursive strategies obey the pre-determined functional frame of the reviews, either negative or positive. The application of this research framework also demonstrates its methodological capacity to characterize propositional content. The study offers discursive, methodological and socio-linguistic implications