Join your colleagues from the Committee on Design and the Historic Resources Committee this November at our Fall Conference in and around Seville, Spain. Go to the AIA COD website for more information or click here to register.
Seville – photo by Jordi Puig, Artchitectours
We will spend 6 days, from Sunday November 11 through Saturday November 16 in Seville. For those who would like to stay longer we will continue to Granada, Cordoba, and Morocco from the 17th to the 21st.
We will stay in the old city of Seville. Our hosts, specialists in Spanish architecture, will introduce us to local architects, planners, and historians as we learn about the history and development of the city. We will visit the Roman ruins at Italica, the Cathedral of St. Mary of The See, the Medina, and have dinner on a boat as it travels down the Guadalquivir River.
Schindler Tower – photo by Mike Mense
Other highlights we’ll see will include tours of the Metropol Parasol by Jürgen Mayer-Hermann, the 1992 World’s Fair with structures by Santiago Calatrava, SITE, Grimshaw Architects, Tadao Ando, among others. We will visit the Casa de Retiro Espiritual by Emilio Ambasz and the Abengoa Solar Research Facility with buildings by Richard Rogers.
Casa de Retiro Espiritual – photo by Jordi Puig, Artchitectours
Costurero de la Reina, Seville – photo by Jordi Puig, Artchitectours
We will then travel to the historic cities of Granada and Cordoba to visit the Alhambra, The Grand Mosque and the Aga Kahn Award-winning Museum of Madinat-al-Zahra. The Madinat al Zahra is considered one of the most significant early Islamic archaeological sites in the world. We will visit the Madinat al Zahra Museum, by Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos S.L.P. Completed in 2008, the Museum won a 2010 Aga Khan Award for Architecture and provides a research and interpretive center for the historic site and a display of the archaeological findings.
Metropol Parasol – photo by Fernando Alda
Madinat al Zahra Museum -photo by Jordi Puig Artchitectours
Seville World’s Fair – photo by Jordi Puig Artchitectours
Alcázar Seville – photo by Jordi Puig, Artchitectours
An additional side trip will have us cross the Mediterranean to spend two days in Chefchaouen, Tétouan, and Fez, Morocco before returning to Seville to end our trip. Chefchaouen was founded in 1471 by Moorish exiles from Spain and is distinct for its blue-rinsed houses and buildings.
Alhambra – photo by Jordi Puig, Architectours
Fez, Morocco – photo by Jordi Puig, Architectours
- Chefchaouen, Morocco – photo by Will Adams
Early Registration is open until August 10, 2012
Like all of the COD Conferences, the adventure will recharge your batteries!
COD Japan Conference 2011: Tokyo, Design Site by Tadao Ando
November 15, 2011
One of today’s highlights was visiting what is called the Art Triangle in the Roppongi section of Tokyo. The smallest museum here is the Design Site project by Tadao Ando. It is a one-story building stretched along the edge of a small urban park, designed by EDAW, with a large commercial complex by SOM on the other side of the park. As one would expect, it is beautifully detailed. The roof appears, and feels, like it is steel, with a waterproof coating, and all of the joints ground smooth. The concrete feels like it has been waxed to a smooth, warm, low-luster sheen. The back of the building is all concrete with an impossibly long horizontal window cut into it.
Jim Childress, FAIA
