In pursuit of an architecture realism

The noble idea of studying seminal works to ‘see what we can learn’ has turned in the 1990s into ‘let’s see what we can take’ and in the last decade a more toxic derivative ‘what else can’t we take’. That is my observation as a student of architecture in the 1990s, and as a practitioner in the 2000s. In 2010, the sense that something is ending is clear. The next generation is rising and their gaze has shifted. The idea of classification (as a means of separation) was previously rejected by a generation of Postmodernists; the usefulness of difference declined. It’s there in the presence of plurality in the resulting architecture, a decision to mine history and seize in a willful manner. This is a process of looking back but never forward. It has been a mono-culture of absorption. The mono-culture rejected the pursuit of the realistic. It is a blanket suffocating all practice of architecture in this country from the mercantile to the intellectual. Independent reviews of Australia’s recent contributions to the Venice Architecture Biennales confirm the malaise. The next generation is beginning to reconsider classification as a means of unification. By acknowledging the characteristics of competing forces it is possible to bring them into a state of tension. Seeking a beautiful contrast is a means to a new end. In the political setting, this is described by Noel Pearson as the radical centre[1]. The concept transcends the political and in its most essential form is a cultural phenomenon. It resists the compromised position and suggests that we can look back while looking forward. The radical centre is the only demonstrated opportunity where it is possible to pursue a realistic architecture. A realistic architecture in Australia may be partially resolved by addressing our anxiety of permanence. Farrelly’s built desires[2] and Markham’s ritual demonstrations[3] are two ways into understanding the broader spectrum of permanence. But I think they are downstream of our core problem. Our problem, as architects, is that we are yet to come to terms with this place. Some call it landscape others call it country. Australian cities were laid out on what was mistaken for a blank canvas. On some occasions there was the consideration of the landscape when it presented insurmountable physical obstacles. The architecture since has continued to work on its piece of a constantly blank canvas. Even more ironic is the commercial awards programs that represent a claim within this framework but at best can only establish a dialogue within itself. This is a closed system unable to look forward. It is said that Melbourne is the most European city in the southern hemisphere but what is really being described there is the limitation of a senseless grid. After all, if Dutch landscape informs Dutch architecture why can’t the Australian landscape inform Australian architecture? To do that, we would have to acknowledge our moribund grasp of the meaning of the Australian landscape. Or more precisely what Indigenes call Country[4]. This is a complex notion and there are different ways into it. Country is experienced and understood through the senses and seared into memory. If one begins design at that starting point it is not unreasonable to think we can arrive at an end point that is a counter trajectory to where we have taken ourselves. A recent studio with Masters students confirmed this. Start by finding Country and it would be impossible to end up with a building looking like an Aboriginal man’s face. To date architecture in Australia has overwhelmingly ignored Country on the back of terra nullius. It can’t seem to get past the picturesque. Why is it so hard? The art world came to terms with this challenge, so too did the legal establishment, even the political scene headed into new waters. It would be easy to blame the budgets of commerce or the constraints of program or even the pressure of success. But that is too easy. Those factors are in fact the kind of limitations that opportunities grow out of. The past decade of economic plenty has, for the most part, smothered the idea that our capitals might enable civic settings or an architecture that is able to looks past lot line boundaries in a dignified manner. The denied opportunities of these settings to be prompted by the Country they occupy is criminal. The public realm is arrested in its development because we refuse to accept Country as a spatial condition. What we seem to be able to embrace is literal and symbolic gestures usually taking the form of a trumped up art installations. All talk – no action. To continue to leave the public realm to the stewardship of mercantile interests is like embracing derivative lending after the global financial crisis.Herein rests an argument for why we need a resourced Government Architect’s office operating not as an isolated lobbyist for business but as a steward of the public realm for both the past and the future. New South Wales is the leading model with Queensland close behind. That is not to say both do not have flaws but current calls for their cessation on the grounds of design parity poorly mask commercial self interest. In Queensland, lobbyists are heavily regulated now with an aim to ensure integrity and accountability. In essence, what I am speaking of will not be found in Reconciliation Action Plans that double as business plans, or the mining of Aboriginal culture for the next marketing gimmick, or even discussions around how to make buildings more ‘Aboriginal’. It will come from the next generation who reject the noxious mono-culture of absorption and embrace a counter trajectory to pursue an architecture of realism.

Public space design of knowledge and innovation spaces: Learnings from Kelvin Grove Urban Village, Brisbane

The era of knowledge-based urban development has led to an unprecedented increase in mobility of people and the subsequent growth in new typologies of agglomerated enclaves of knowledge such as knowledge and innovation spaces. Within this context, a new role has been assigned to contemporary public spaces to attract and retain the mobile knowledge workforce by creating a sense of place. This paper investigates place making in the globalized knowledge economy, which develops a sense of permanence spatio-temporally to knowledge workers displaying a set of particular characteristics and simultaneously is process-dependent getting developed by the internal and external flows and contributing substantially in the development of the broader context it stands in relation with. The paper reviews the literature and highlights observations from Kelvin Grove Urban Village, located in Australia’s new world city Brisbane, to understand the application of urban design as a vehicle to create and sustain place making in knowledge and innovation spaces. This research seeks to analyze the modified permeable typology of public spaces that makes knowledge and innovation spaces more viable and adaptive as per the changing needs of the contemporary globalized knowledge society.

Injection laryngoplasty with autologous fascia for treatment of unilateral vocal fold paralysis

The purpose of this dissertation was to study the applicability of minced autologous fascia graft for injection laryngoplasty of unilateral vocal fold paralysis (UVFP). Permanence of augmentation and host versus graft tissue reactions were of special interest. The topic deals with phonosurgery, which is a subdivision of the Ear, Nose and Throat-speciality of medicine. UVFP results from an injury to the recurrent or the vagal nerve. The main symptom is a hoarse and weak voice. Surgery is warranted for patients in whom spontaneous reinnervation and a course of voice therapy fails to improve the voice. Injection laryngoplasty is a widespread surgical technique which aims to restore glottic closure by augmenting the atrophied vocal muscle, and also by turning the paralyzed vocal fold towards midline. Currently, there exists a great diversity of synthetic, xenologous, homologous, and autologous substances available for injection. An autologous graft is perfect in terms of biocompatibility. Free fascia grafts have been successfully used in the head and neck surgery for decades, but fascia had not been previously applied into the vocal fold. The fascia is harvested from the lateral thigh under local anesthesia and minced into paste by scissors. Injection of the vocal fold is performed in laryngomicroscopy under general anesthesia. Three series of clinical trials of injection laryngoplasty with autologous fascia (ILAF) for patients with UVFP were conducted at the Department of Otorhinolaryngology of the Helsinki University Central Hospital. The follow-up ranged from a few months to ten years. The aim was to document the vocal results and possible morbidity related to graft harvesting and vocal fold injection. To address the tissue reactions and the degree of reabsoprtion of the graft, an animal study with a follow-up ranging from 3 days to 12 months was performed at the National Laboratory Animal Center, University of Kuopio. Harvesting of the graft and injection was met with minor morbidity. Histological analysis of the vocal fold tissue showed that fascia was well tolerated. Although some resorption or compaction of the graft during the first months is evident, graft volume is maintained well. When injected deep and laterally into the vocalis muscle, the fascia graft allows normal vibration of the vocal fold mucosa to occur during phonation. Improvement of voice quality was seen in all series by multiple objective parameters of voice evaluation. However, the vocal results were poor in cases where the nerve trauma was severe, such as UVFP after chest surgery. ILAF is most suitable for correction of mild to moderate glottic gaps related to less severe nerve damage. Our results indicate that autologous fascia is a feasible and safe new injection material with good and stable vocal results. It offers a practical solution for surgeons who treat this complex issue.

Good Lives, Hidden Miseries : An Ethnography of Uncertainty in a Finnish Village

This is an ethnographic study, in the field of medical anthropology, of village life among farmers in southwest Finland. It is based on 12 months of field work conducted 2002-2003 in a coastal village. The study discusses how social and cultural change affects the life of farmers, how they experience it and how they act in order to deal with the it. Using social suffering as a methodological approach the study seeks to investigate how change is related to lived experiences, idioms of distress, and narratives. Its aim has been to draw a locally specific picture of what matters are at stake in the local moral world that these farmers inhabit, and how they emerge as creative actors within it. A central assumption made about change is that it is two-fold; both a constructive force which gives birth to something new, and also a process that brings about uncertainty regarding the future. Uncertainty is understood as an existential condition of human life that demands a response, both causing suffering and transforming it. The possibility for positive outcomes in the future enables one to understand this small suffering of everyday life both as a consequence of social change, which fragments and destroys, and as an answer to it - as something that is positively meaningful. Suffering is seen to engage individuals to ensure continuity, in spite of the odds, and to sustain hope regarding the future. When the fieldwork was initiated Finland had been a member of the European Union for seven years and farmers felt it had substantially impacted on their working conditions. They complained about the restrictions placed on their autonomy and that their knowledge was neither recognised, nor respected by the bureaucrats of the EU system. New regulations require them to work in a manner that is morally unacceptable to them and financial insecurity has become more prominent. All these changes indicate the potential loss of the home and of the ability to ensure continuity of the family farm. Although the study initially focused on getting a general picture of working conditions and the nature of farming life, during the course of the fieldwork there was repeated mention of a perceived high prevalence of cancer in the area. This cancer talk is replete with metaphors that reveal cultural meanings tied to the farming life and the core values of autonomy, endurance and permanence. It also forms the basis of a shared identity and a means of delivering a moral message about the fragmentation of the good life; the loss of control; and the invasion of the foreign. This thesis formed part of the research project Expressions of Suffering. Ethnographies of Illness Experiences in Contemporary Finnish Contexts funded by the Academy of Finland. It opens up a vital perspective on the multiplicity and variety of the experience of suffering and that it is particularly through the use of the ethnographic method that these experiences can be brought to light. Keywords: suffering, uncertainty, phenomenology, habitus, agency, cancer, farming

Training for reduction of design waste

Construction and demolition (C&D) waste have negative impacts on the environment. As a significant proportion of C&D waste is related to the design stage of a project, there is an opportunity for architects to reduce the waste. However, research suggests that many architects often do not understand the impact of their design on waste generation. Training and education are proposed by current researchers to improve architects’ knowledge; however, this has not been adequately validated as a viable approach to solving waste issues. This research investigates architects’ perceptions towards waste management in the design phase, and determines whether they feel they are adequately skilled in reducing C&D waste. Questionnaire surveys were distributed to architects from 98 architectural firms and 25 completed surveys were returned. The results show that while architects are aware of the relationship between design and waste, ‘extra time’ and ‘lack of knowledge’ are the key barriers to implementing waste reduction strategies. In addition, the majority of respondents acknowledge their lack of skill to reduce waste through design evaluation. Therefore, training programmes can be a viable strategy to enable them to address the pressing issue of C&D waste reduction.

Vigencia y sentido de las prácticas musicales tradicionales en la actualidad : el caso de la baguala y la vidalita andina en San Blas de Los Sauces, Provincia de La Rioja

Resumen: El propósito de este artículo es reflexionar críticamente desde una perspectiva intercultural acerca de la vigencia y el sentido de los géneros musicales tradicionales en la actualidad en la provincia de La Rioja. Centramos el estudio en los géneros más antiguos: la ‘baguala’ y la ‘vidalita andina’, en la localidad de San Blas de los Sauces. Para ello, analizamos los cambios y permanencias en las estructuras de ambas y el desarrollo de la dimensión discursiva, tomando como referencia principal la tesis doctoral de Isabel Aretz (1978). Los géneros son abordados como fenómenos estéticos situados en un contexto histórico y social. En dicho marco, se analizan sus modos de producción y recepción a partir de observaciones de corte etnográfico, así como de entrevistas a músicos, vidaleros, vecinos, funcionarios del Estado y referentes culturales.

Aportaciones metodológicas a la gestión y explotación de nubes de puntos procedentes de escáneres tridimensionales, aplicados a la documentación geométrica del patrimonio. El caso de la Portada de los Hierros de la Catedral de Valencia

Presentado en: IX Congreso Internacional de Rehabilitación del Patrimonio Arquitectónico y Edificación (Sevilla, España, 9-12 julio 2008)

Proceso del desarrollo exportador de la PYME colombiana

[ES] Las Pymes colombianas, al igual que las de América Latina, afrontan una serie de barreras para la exportación asociadas a la carencia de recursos y capacidades organizacionales y directivas, las cuales hacen que su permanencia en los mercados internacionales sea cuestionable. Al no superar tales barreras y mostrar una posición competitiva más fuerte difícilmente éstas podrán penetrar y sobrevivir en los mercados internacionales y aprovechar las grandes oportunidades que ofrece el mercado mundial. Especialmente, aquéllas que surgen como resultado de los acuerdos de integración y de los sistemas de preferencia suscritos y otorgados a Colombia.

Introducción de peces exóticos en la República Argentina

A review and analysis of the exotic fish distribution and introduction is made using bibliographic information. Both lentic and lotic environments were considered. In order to classify the state of the populations, different categories were defined as follow: permanent, probably permanent, reported and unknown. Results show that 15 species were attempted to be introduced from 1904. Only 8 of them arose an successfull aclimatization: raimbow trout, brown trout, lake trout, landlocked salmon, carp, goldfish, and mosquitofish. For the salmonids, ecological features were analized, in order to explain the disappearence or the permanence in some regions. (Document contains 90 pages)

Testable models of aquatic systems: A NERC special topic for integrating experiments and modelling

A major part of the support for fundamental research on aquatic ecosystems continues to be provided by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). Funds are released for ”thematic” studies in a selected special topic or programme. ”Testable Models of Aquatic Ecosystems” was a Special Topic of the NERC, initiated in 1995, the aim of which was to promote ecological modelling by making new links between experimental aquatic biologists and state-of-the-art modellers. The Topic covered both marine and freshwater systems. This paper summarises projects on aspects of the responses of individual organisms to the effects of environmental variability, on the assembly, permanence and resilience of communities, and on aspects of spatial models. The authors conclude that the NERC Special Topic has been highly successful in promoting the development and application of models, most particularly through the interplay between experimental ecologists and formal modellers.

Feira de São Cristóvão: uma incursão sobre os estudos na área e a tentativa de aproximação à relação global-local

O presente trabalho se propõe fazer uma aproximação aos estudos sobre a tradicionalmente chamada Feira de São Cristóvão, levando em consideração a relação entre os agentes partícipes e a dinâmica no espaço. O objetivo é compreender melhor a força que move os atores no sentido da mudança da forma da feira para a forma do Centro Luiz Gonzaga de Tradições Nordestinas (CLGTN), e assim me aproximar da seguinte questão: Por que uma forma de comércio como a modelada na Feira de São Cristóvão, popularmente conhecida como feira dos paraíbas, sobrevive à força das mudanças operadas no ramo, dando lugar aos sofistificados shopping-centers? Para isso, faço uma aproximação ao estado de arte da pesquisa na área com base nas seguintes categorias de análise: a Feira como forma de produção do espaço e a relação Forma-Conteúdo, a relação espaço-identidade na feira e a relação entre agentes internos e externos no Espaço. Vendo a migração como movimento responsável pela constituição de um espaço social e territorialmente diferenciado do nordestino na cidade do Rio de Janeiro, é por ela que inicio a exposição. Esta se continua com a análise dos trabalhos escolhidos para estudo, via as categorias indicadas e, com um capítulo no qual procuro repensar a feira a partir da relação global-local que vem referenciando as reflexões acumuladas na área do urbano a partir da segunda metade do século XX. Por fim, concluo observando que a permanência da feira se deve a um duplo movimento de resistência-absorção que, se redefinindo no tempo e no espaço, não consegue, entretanto, apagar os traços da tradição que lhe deu origem.

Meu nome não é ninguém: narrativa sobre excluídos na Literatura Brasileira Contemporânea: Cidade de Deus e Meu nome não é Johnny

O tema da exclusão social sempre esteve presente na Literatura Brasileira, porém, na virada do século XX para o XXI, ele ganha ainda mais relevo, através de narrativas realistas, chocantes, exacerbadas de violência e até anomia, que enfatizam a imagem dos excluídos. Cidade de Deus (Paulo Lins: 1997) e Meu nome não é Johnny (Guilherme Fiuza: 2004) focalizam a exclusão dos envolvidos com o narcotráfico. A despeito das diferenças entre as duas narrativas, os seus protagonistas entram em ação a partir da marginalidade; ganham autonomia, no cenário urbano, através da criminalidade, e se tornam ameaçadoramente visíveis, depois de uma histórica invisibilidade. O estudo das complexidades concernentes ao tratamento ficcional do tema se distribuiu, nessa dissertação, em três capítulos. No primeiro capítulo, as obras foram estudadas individualmente, em função da organização dos relatos no espaço narrativo. O segundo capítulo abordou a correlação entre geografia cultural e teoria da literatura, em suas considerações sobre a proeminência da categoria do espaço para o trabalho narratológico. Nessa perspectiva interdisciplinar, foram analisadas as paisagens ficcionais de ambos os romances e, em seguida, articulou-se o roteiro ficcional de cada romance com o pensamento de Foucault sobre os lugares heterotópicos. No terceiro capítulo, intertextualizando o binômio disciplinar geografia cultural e literatura com a filosofia, retroagiu-se aos filósofos idealistas alemães que teorizaram sobre o trágico e intuíram que a tragicidade não se manifesta apenas na tragédia, mas também em obras que lidam com a experiência do irrepresentável, da representação negativa e, em termos estéticos, do sublime. Conjugando as idéias de Hölderlin sobre o vislumbre do divino, de Schopenhauer sobre a metafísica da música, e de Nietzsche sobre a correlação entre o apolíneo e o dionisíaco, tragédia e música, chegou-se à conclusão de que ambas as narrativas incorporam produtivamente ao projeto ficcional duas metáforas absolutas (Hans Blumenberg) que dizem respeito à exclusão/inclusão: a cidade e o hipocorístico (Johnny), dois espaços um material, outro alegórico interativos, em ambos os romances. Em Meu nome não é Johnny, o percurso simbólico do protagonista o leva do sofrimento à redenção social e à inclusão (grandemente graças à atividade musical); em Cidade de Deus, a brutalização progressiva das relações humanas leva à erradicação de qualquer manifestação da sensibilidade, a uma cidade sem música e à permanência da exclusão

Reis de paus: Carlos Heitor Cony e Rubem Fonseca

Este trabalho investiga o que chamamos crimes da literatura, no livro de Carlos Heitor Cony, Pilatos (1974), em perspectiva comparada com o livro de contos Secreções, excreções e desatinos (2001), de Rubem Fonseca. Cony, famoso autor e jornalista, com histórico de prisões políticas na época da ditadura, publicou Pilatos obra de linguagem considerada pornográfica ainda na vigência da censura. Rubem Fonseca, perseguido pelos censores desde Feliz ano novo (1975), devido às suas narrativas também consideradas contrárias à moral e aos bons costumes, publicou Secreções, excreções e desatinos livre de censura. Este estudo, a partir das análises dos textos referidos, questiona o que é o crime da literatura? E, se não há mais a conjunção de censura política e repressão moral, se está esgotado o embate entre argumentos moralistas e liberais, como podem ser lidos os novos códigos de controle desse imaginário? O objetivo desta tese é, sobretudo, discutir a possibilidade da permanência ou não destes livros como transgressores em relação ao tratamento dado ao corpo no panorama contemporâneo. Para tanto, serão analisadas as diferentes formas de representação do corpo nesses livros, a partir de conceitos, como castração, pornografia e obscenidade, investigados em campos de estudo sobre as representações do corpo nas áreas de psicologia, sociologia e da crítica literária

Liberdade e identidade: uma abordagem filosófica acerca da proteção à diversidade cultural nas democracias liberais

O presente trabalho tem como objetivo analisar os conceitos de liberdade e identidade através da proposta de um "liberalismo cultural", apresentada pelo filósofo canadense Will Kymlicka, tal como defendida em suas obras Multicultural Citizenship: A Liberal Theory of Minority Rights (1995), Politics in the Vernacular: Nationalism, Multiculturalism and Citizenship (2001) e Multicultural Odysseys. Navigatingthe New International Politics of Diversity (2007). Através dessas leituras, buscou-se compreender em particular de que modo a língua e o território se configuram como elementos definidores das culturas de povos nacionais e étnicos que empenham suas lutas para garantir a permanência desses atributos, tanto em nível doméstico como no plano internacional, a fim de assegurar a singularidade de seus modos de vida e de suas visões de mundo, enquanto grupos diferenciados. Para tanto, tornou-se fundamental a realização de uma análise crítica do processo de construção nacional dos Estados modernos, como um projeto levado a cabo por parte de inúmeros países na modernidade com o intuito de promover a unidade nacional de seus Estados, através da invisibilização das expressões culturais e da participação política de grupos culturalmente minoritários. Ao final, desenvolve-se uma pequena reflexão sobre como esse debate pode contribuir para uma melhor compreensão acerca das reivindicações de populações indígenas e remanescentes de quilombos no Brasil pela regularização de seus territórios e reconhecimento de suas práticas culturais.

Análise das práticas de recrutamento e de seleção de pessoas com deficiência para o trabalho em empresas privadas: cumprimento à Lei n 8.213/1991

A proposta da presente pesquisa teve como objetivo analisar criticamente as melhores práticas de recrutamento e de seleção, direcionadas a pessoas com deficiência, candidatas a emprego em cinco empresas privadas, na cidade do Rio de Janeiro, que possuem em seu quadro de funcionários mais de 100 empregados, sendo assim, obrigadas ao cumprimento da Lei n 8.213/1991, a Lei de Cotas. Analisou-se também o modo como profissionais de Recursos Humanos adquiriram conhecimentos técnicos acerca destas práticas. Parte dos objetivos desta proposta de pesquisa foi identificar as bases desta determinação legal, no que se refere ao amparo técnico aos profissionais de RH no processo seletivo. Neste aspecto, o foco da investigação foi verificar a existência de programas de qualificação para estes profissionais, tendo em vista que a exigência de capacitação está sempre centrada na pessoa com deficiência, quando, na verdade, a carência está presente também nos responsáveis que lidam com este público, por ocasião do seu ingresso nas organizações corporativas. A abordagem metodológica incluiu uma pesquisa de campo com base em dados de entrevistas semi-estruturadas, sendo complementada pela técnica de análise de relato verbal. Seis foram os profissionais de RH escolhidos como participantes da pesquisa e que atuam diretamente na área de recrutamento e de seleção de pessoas com deficiência. Inevitavelmente, estes profissionais de RH se utilizam de instrumentos psicométricos dentre outros, cotidianamente empregados no processo seletivo, inclusive na avaliação de pessoas com deficiência. Os resultados da presente pesquisa apontam que as melhores práticas de recrutamento e de seleção, atualmente em uso, direcionadas a pessoas com deficiência, são discriminatórias, pois os profissionais envolvidos neste processo, por demonstrarem falta de conhecimento acerca de práticas apropriadas, se utilizam dos mesmos procedimentos adotados no atendimento de vagas para o público de pessoas ditas normais. Complementarmente, a revisão da literatura aponta a inexistência de amparo técnico e científico, no sentido de qualificar profissionais responsáveis pelo ingresso e permanência de pessoas com deficiência no mercado de trabalho, confirmando-se, assim, a limitação da ação de política pública em vigor. Por conta desse fato, propõe-se a adoção de ações afirmativas, neste caso de órgãos privados, no sentido de mobilizar esforços em prol da contratação de grupos socialmente excluídos no mercado de trabalho, como é o caso das pessoas com deficiência.