Oct 24, 2011
Oct 24, 2011
Living in the Américas - Fall 2011
BAC Long Studio
Introduction
“Soy la arena,
que en la playa está tendida
envidiando otras arenas,
que le quedan cerca al mar,
eres tú la inmensa ola
que al venir casi me toca,
pero luego te devuelves
hacia atrás.”
“I am the sand,
That is laying on the beach,
Envying other sands,
Closer to the sea,
You are the immense wave,
Which comes to almost touch me,
But later you draw back,
Away.”
Sylvia Rexach
The subject of the project design for this year’s studio is Paladar La Playa Recuerda,
a small hotel overlooking the Balneario El Escambrón.
This studio, open to both Masters and Bachelors candidates, meets twice a week for extended hours in a dedicated workspace. The studio includes travel to Puerto Rico to experience its culture, art, and architecture firsthand. The curriculum is comprised of: preparation, travel, concept development, and project design.
Preparation includes research on the history, food, music, and architecture of Puerto Rico. The studio will review five centuries that began with Ponce de Leonʼs decimation of the Tainos in search of gold, followed by Spanish, then American colonization, culminating in a commonwealth whose blend of native, European, African, and American cultures offers distinctive food, music, and art. Architectural research will concentrate on
Juan Antoinio Bautistaʼs 16th century military works as well as the late 19th and early
20th century works of architects such as Alfredo Wiechers and Blas Silva, who
contributed to the creation of unique Puerto Rican creole style.
Travel is to experience Puerto Rican culture directly. Research begins in Old San Juan to study its military architecture and 16th and 17th century colonial monuments. The next concentration is the South to study the culture of coffee and rum in Ponce and San Germán. Our time in the Northeast looks at the natural world of the rainforest of El Yunque, Luquillo, and Fajardo. We conclude with time in the Puerta del Tierra Santurce, and Condado districts of San Juan to see the countryʼs contemporary architecture and study the site. Travel is recorded through a journal, a set of sketches, and photographs.
Concept development in this studio is done through a rigorous set of writing and plastic art exercises based on each participantʼs experiences from preparation and travel.
Project design requires translating the results of concept development into concrete designs carried to a full schematic, including expression of materials and human use
Fall 2011 Longstudieros
Jonathan Barnardo
Sarah Broadhead
Nerijus Bubnelis
Eddie Gaffney
Edmond Kim
Marissa Lisec
Thalia Lewis
Megan Lorenz
Eric Miller
Luis Montalvo*
John Pilling*
Andrew Shelburne
Cristina Zupcu
Natalia Wieczorek
*instructors