this is NOT an architectural post

CHAOS / OUT OF CONTROL. are we ready to deal with tools that produce uncontrolled results? do I know the consequences of writing something in a blog? Do I care?  Should I? Should I do less thing but keep a closer look at them? Should I let things to grow wild? Do I know what the consequences are?

SURPRISE OR NOT? And there you go, I found some days ago that my blog, this one, tamopaya, the one you’re reading right now was on the links page of the EastCoastArchitectureReview blog. Like, WTF and then WOW and finally COOL & Thanks.

INTERNET. That’s why I love Internet, suddenly you’re open to the world, and everything becomes out of control, and my blog has a life without me, it’s autonomous. Everything I write can be reproduced anywhere, and one day you see that a very friendly person is refering to your page.

REALITY CHECK. Sadly I haven’t been writing a lot about architecture lately as I haven’t been doing mainly doing architectural stuff over the last year and the few things I’ve done I cannot published them yet as I am hoping to get lots of money for them, so all my ideas are confidential at the moment.

PROJECT ABSTRACT. The blog was thought to reflect architectural issues, thoughts, events, ideas, stupid realities, everyday stuff and everything you can imagine. It was thought to be the home for a diary of the office, an inside view to the way we work, we chat, we think, we party and we travel, but the setup is taking so much long than expected.

STAND BY.  unbelievable useful engineering concept. we are there, we are ready, we are shut down, for now.

VARIABLES. time, location, funding, opportunity, contacts, chances, competitions, contracts, intentions, friends, infinite

Next Stop. Sydney Australia.

europan, submission, meetings, zaragoza, alicante

Last three weeks have been a bit busy, from a competition deadline to some meetings with city officials and a day visit to zaragoza.  Not much to talk about, but some images to sum it up.

Submission was fun as always, there is something happening on those nights that it’s tough to explain and probably people won’t get it unless you’ve been through it.  it’s that 5.oo am moment in which you just have to finish things up and there is this text missing or an explanation, and you need a drink to keep awake, and suddently someone comes with a brilliant solution, or something that at least at that time looks brilliant.

Gerardo working on his leopard chair, that’s classy, eh, hahaha

Laura on the phone, what was it about, oh yeah, ….”hey A. could you tell me how to open AutoCad? I have forgotten, sorry to wake you up for this. “

My workspace window at madrid school of Architecture. They have the fence so students don’t jump in desperation.

My workspace at the place I usually crash in Madrid. it’s all about comfort.

After submission the meetings came, and so I went to Zaragoza for a day, firstly a traditional walk through downtown Zaragoza, where you cannot escape from the looming cathedral. Walking around town you can find anything you want, like a guy talking about his life with a green background for television, or a nice commercial passage, or a Wi-Fi square in front of the cathedral.

This was the street where I had to go for the meeting, lucky I found it, someone is asking for a parking spot?

Well you know, I come from Canada, and I am burning in hell right now, you can see my redskin, apart from that, yeah, I like it whynot.

the trip came to and end, a night ride to Alicante back,  speeding in the desert.

in the space between

In the space between I can get lost, I can live.

Space between paper and real, between outdoor and indoor,  between the two faces of a wall, between public and private, between up and down, between mine and yours, between successful or not, between past and present, between conscious and unconscious, between what I am and what I think that I am.

There is always a gap, a space between, between my real and everybody else’s real. There is a gap between what we do and what we wanted to do, it’s not a line, a wall it’s not a line, it has thickness, the space between has thickness,  sometimes so big that you actually live inside and cannot scape. There is gap, it has no point to deny, I want to embrace the gap, the gap makes things interesting. a gap in the professional practice, in the understanding of our job, our life.

Unfolding the space between, discovering it, living in it, enjoying it, feeling confortable in the space between.

The space between cities, between friends, between jobs, between moments, between events, between your eyes and what you look at,  space between thoughts and words, between action and reaction.

I live in the space between

dedicated to a longtime friend.

e.

workspace as it should be.

I am back at Madrid school of Architecture, my favourite place to work these days in Madrid due to a free Wifi network, a lot of work spaces with plugs and so on and with a very cheap cafeteria. Clases are over, and only a few exams missing for the students, but surprisingly the workstations are packed with people. It shows how high is the demand for this type of pleces, friendly spaces where to meet, connect to the internet, study, great access to one of the best architecture libraries I know, …. and a big parking lot for cars,

You can bring your drinks to the place you are working, there is a huge screen showing video-installations or different lectures, you can stay outside on the grass just chilling. If you have something “professional” to do and you don’t have your own office in town there is no better place than this, even if you have you own office it might be worth coming here, the atmosphere is so much lively and open.

I enjoy the feeling because I feel I belong to something other, something bigger, like if all these people would have a goal in common, it feels as if somehow we have some interest in common, I guess architecture in its wide conception.

When I was studying here I never came o the building to work, I always did it at home, no laptops at that time, no wi-fi system, no work spaces, just a few old computer for printing, what a huge change in a few years.

the feeling is like I always imagine my own office, completely free, nice chats everywhere,  a lot of effort but in a nice comprenhensive enviroment, almost as nice as google offices, but without free food.

was this an exercise of live blogging? Not sure what it is, can you blog “not live”?

lockers

Madrid school of architecture LOCKERS!!!!!

London days. Stills

Following the urban of the move post, here are some picks of my walks through London in my last week there.
This was My London. sort of

hackney. 100 football fields. wanna play?

Old garages. I would love to renovate them and put my office here with a vibrant courtyard.

Directions.

Old magnetic Lloyd’s Building.

Mutivideo-two screen cocktail layout.

The curve @ The Barbican. 3D modifications

Smithfields market. Brightful meat.

Suitcases. My life in boxes once again

nature crash

Lesson to everybody.
They’ve just improved and re-paved a street near my place.
No comments.

 

how much do your books weigh?

mines (and ain’t so many) more than 200 kg. tough to believe.

 

ideas

OK, so a friend of mine told me I should take pictures of my “folded papers” I consider “architecture models” and then throw the papers to the bin. I argued that those “folded papers” represent what I think were some of my best ideas and that if I throw them away I might loose the idea cause the pic is not gonna make me remember the idea.He then said, well take a picture of the idea and throw the paper away. So I tried.

1. some time ago, trying to do some other stuff, I came up with this idea for a tower, basically made of one folded torn paper.

2. but I also realised that if you change scale, it is perfect as a place to put your plants, you can make it out of ceramic , and it looks pretty cool.

3. if you don’t like plants and ceramic, you can keep it on paper and translucent and make really cool lamps. Perfect for parties and dinners, but be careful not to burn them.

4. a simpler version of the same game is this chair/bus stop/bookstand piece made out of just one fold and one cut to a rectangular piece of paper. Deformations due to paper resistance make it look more “organic”, though it’s a mistake, don’t take it wrong.

5. last but not least. the torn façade. No comments need it, perfect for a hotel.

ideas or whatever

Note. All ideas, shapes, structures and pictures showed and explained in this post are copyright and property of tamospaya

thanks (belated)

normally it happens to me that when I am in the middle of something,  it is so demanding and so tiring that you are not able neither to understand what’s going on nor to express what you think or feel. It is also very normal to me that it is only some time after things have happened that I get to know my feelings about them, sometimes it almost feels like me watching some others behaviour, as it was not me living those situations. Last year was one of those situations, it was a rush, it was crazy, it was insane, and now I have different understanding of it, in fact I could say I am starting to have an understanding of it.

First thing I should say is THANKS, thanks a lot to all the people that pushed me so hard, consciously or unconsciously, to the guys at the office that spent long hours with me and discovered new ways, new faces, and new limits. Second thing I should say is I AM SORRY for being a dick , for bitching so much at times and for reacting foolish at some other times. I can say and promise that if I would be in the same situation I would bitch on everybody again, and would be grumpy again, but I have to say that now I know the reasons for those things.  I learnt a lot, I gain 2 years of experience or more in one.

Over the past ten years since I started college many things have changed,  I am confident to do things I never imagined I could be doing, I know and talk to people I considered always really far to reach, impossible has become easy over the last 10 years, Now I understand the look and behaviour of many people in the last decade, I’ve got friends with people I hated when I first met.

There is a point where you have to decide if your job is your life or it is just a job to pay your rent, you even might have taken the decision unconsciously. If you take the second path there are many places you could never access but you’ll have a happy cheerful life. if you take the first choice, your job is your life, you’ll probably drag yourself into a parallel world far from everything and you’ll start to be another person and do things you don’t know the reason why, you might notice that people around you will push you more and more, hard as ever, you’ll swear, you’ll be grumpy and you’ll fight to be better, to survive, you will stop living to just work and nobody from outside will understand, you will stop your entire external life for months, for years, you’ll transform yourself because you decided that is worth to fight for what you do or what you believe. Sometimes that decision is not totally conscious but people working around you will notice it, even before you and they feel that you are ready to be pushed, because you will only fight the push if you believe in what you do, in what you are, if not you will quit, decision is yours.

My profession is my life, I was in one of those rushes last year, I didn’t know what was going on, now i will take some rest from the past 10 years, now I will recap, now I understand last year (understand doesn’t mean agree), now i am thankful to all the people that have pushed me over the limit once and again in my life and have made be better, I am thankful for all my outside friends that have stuck with me even when I’ve been a total cabron, and they are still around somehow, i am thankful to all my coworkers that have shared my hours and that have forced me to learn, to survive and to improve.

so, late, but better late than never. THANKS: .

thoughts of a sunday night.

after , why do I always end up watching U2 concerts???
http://www.laestaciondelparque.com/video/u2-concierto-buenos-aires
http://es.videofindr.net/video/14249

whatever