In a classic workshop setting, forty or so students and professors organised
in the OBS (Observatorio del Diseno y la Arquitectura) Murcia group worked
on answers architecture has to offer against climate change and
environmental destruction. Designed as a "work in progress", the
participants developed concepts and ideas helping to create awareness about
the benefits of sustainable architecture.


Debate

Moderated by the renowned Spanish architect José María Torres Nadal, the
debate dwelled on the potential benefits of social innovation in the face of
profound demographic changes and global environmental disruption. Keynote
speakers and commentators highlighted the need for solid funding of
innovative projects by national as well as European-level institutions,
already during early and preparatory stages. Creative professions, Torres
said, are obliged to advocate social innovation that embraces values over
material consumption, one example being the SOS festival itself. Especially
Spain faces great challenges in terms of an ageing population which require
a new societal mindset and innovative strategies, he concluded.

Since 2009 our partner, the Observatorio del Diseno y la Architectura, has been working on a series of seven workshops with the goal to develop and suggest new formats of visibility of the compromise between economic development, sustainability and climate change in the region of Murcia, Spain.

The main focus of “El Taller” lies in the development, the strengthening and the professionalization of networks working on those topics.  Networks, that already exist in the region. Another goal is the development of a cooperation strategy for such networks using the workshop as a platform for new initiatives and operations to meet the requirements suggested by the European Union for 2020 concerning sustainability.

By redefining the relationship between every day, professional and urban contexts and architecture the workshop comes from a special angle which at the same time is an undeniable dimension in climate change, sustainability and future social development. In this sense “El Taller” offers the demonstration of projects and processes with an architectural background but with the opportunity of low cost advancement in the indicated direction towards a more sustainable future.

The basis
The first workshop of “El Taller” deals with a new design which will restore the region “Huerta de Murcia” in an ecological and sustainable way.
Izaskun Chinchilla and Antonio Abellán suggest a method of scalability: Scalability lies in a lot of concepts like the “environmental footprint”. It also is one of the best known and mostly used methods of architects. Thirdly it is the basis of all technological innovations and used to make utility measurable and to ensure functionality. 

The place
The Carmaca Huerta (Huerta de Murcia) is a very important region concerning cultural, profitable, social and sustainable issues. The agricultural character of La Huerta is visible in all Murcian habits, for example Murcian cooking which is famous all over Spain. But a lot of single family houses build over the years disturbed the regions natural structure, its’ landscape.

Through a new design, the project tries to take up the natural state of the landscape an underline it with ecological and sustainable architecture.

The idea
To achieve a more sustainable environment in La Huerta de Murcia, Chinchilla and Abellán create a system of balance between analytical processes (science), the administration of available information (know-how), direct observations (empiricism) and the production of products (implementation). The balancing of the four will enable change.
To achieve this balance the project developed a twelve-step  proposals which they will give their presentation on at the Zona EuroGlobe at SOS4.8.

The second workshop of „El Taller“ develops ideas and proposals dealing with the demographic change European countries, regions and cities have to face sooner than later. Demographic change and an aging society are serious developments European politics and societies have to face the next decades.
Dealing with demographic change contains several challenges and opportunities that with a proper solutions will benefit societies in many different ways.

Examples of those challenges are: mobility, the creation of social and environmental spaces for migrating aging people, transgenerational relationships of individuals as well as collectives, assisted living, creation of new financial, working and life environments relating to the special needs of the elderly and the change the political attitude towards age in an aging society.

The workshop develops a 3-phase-system towards the urbanization of aging society.

1) Maping seniority

2) Developing the Program “All Age City” for European Cities

3) Organizing an intergenerational regional office.


In the “Zona EuroGlobe” Andrés Jaque will tell us about the status of his project as well as the next steps on a regional as much as on a European level.

The revision of the golf sport as it is today is what the third workshop is all about. Tourism and especially golf vacation offers have changed the landscape of the Murcian region over the past decade. Tourism is one of the important economic sectors in Murcia, but the tourisms paradigm has to change towards a higher sustainability, innovative solutions and environmental issues.

The workshop does not only address and redefine those paradigms, but also explores opportunities  to construct open spaces that produce better solutions in energy, economic, social and ecological dimensions. As golf seems to stand for the opposite of this new sustainable paradigm, it is the element Carlos Arroyo chose to introduce his ideas with.

After an analysis of different types of golfing situations in the region and the country, the project offers new ideas for a more sustainable way of golf tourism. The ideas relate to topics such as: biodiversity, awareness raising, fertile land or energy. Find out more at the Zona EuroGlobe at SOS4.8.

The world needs one year and four month to regenerate from our usage of resources of one year. The study Encoger/Shrink by Federico Soriano and Martín Lejárraga faces this problem by exploring the current situation of endlessly expanding cities and individuals whose thirst for more doesn’t seem to stop. By reflecting and understanding the current ways of taking and consuming territory and cities the project calls for a paradigm shift towards a healthy balance of consumption and growth.

The key words stand for the new paradigm Soriano and Lajárraga offer in their project:

1) Ecoefficiency

2) Coherence/Biomimesis

3) Suficiency/Reduction

“Shrink” is based on the balance and imbalance of our world that is visible in all aspects of our world, It is based on the differences that define our world, like growing and shrinking. What we wanted to have only once became something we now need to have every day.

The project states: If society decides to reduce consumption, possessions and population until it is in a new balance with the environmental system it might be able to stop its own destruction.

The fifth workshop of El Taller deals with the most precious resource on earth: water.  
A pivotal contribution to supply dry parts of the world with much-needed water, Enric Ruiz Geli and Javier Peña build and design desalination plants. Their project has three main goals:

1.    Running desalination plants with renewable energy such as solar energy.
2.    Combining its vital functionality with art and aesthetic constructions.
3.    Creating more than 2.000.000 “green jobs”.

The two design different products for different scenarios, like the “Blackbox”, the “Blackmachine” and the” Blackmedia”, the latter one being shaped like a battery.

“Mobility in former times” is the theme of this project. The term “horsepower” – still used today – indicates the origins of our way to measure speed; horsepower was used to pull carriages as well as the first cars. In collaboration with Riccardo Crespi, Daniela Frogheri and Fernando Meneses, Vicente Guallart and Miguel Mesa del Castillo want us to look back and understand that horsepower should be considered a major contribution to save our climate, as it can be considered a renewable energy source. They offer trips with horses through the landscape of Andalusia.
Their proclaimed goal is to develop a horse-trail network throughout Spain, showing that there is always an alternative to cars.

Titled “Escenarios del deterioro”, the project design of Fernando de Retes has a highly interesting thesis:  everything on this planet has the tendency to end up in a state of disorder. His ambitious project exposes the destructive forces of our world, by means of various energy-related scenarios. Out of this chaos de Retes formulates optimistic assumptions as regards solutions to urban planning and energy use.