The increasing prevalence of physical inactivity across Europe poses a critical public health challenge, especially as it contributes to the rise of non-communicable diseases such as obesity, cardiovascular conditions, and diabetes; in this context, the spatial configuration of urban environments emerges as a fundamental determinant of active behavior, particularly walking, which has prompted researchers to develop tools capable of quantifying the walkability of different regions, with the aim of fostering more health-oriented urban planning strategies; this study proposes a standardized, high-resolution walkability index that captures the nuanced characteristics of the built environment across the European continent, incorporating seven carefully selected indicators—walkable street length, intersection density, green space availability, terrain slope, public transport access, land use mix, and 15-minute isochrone zones—all derived from harmonized geospatial sources including Sentinel-2, CORINE, OpenStreetMap, and NASA’s elevation models; the use of a 100x100 meter hierarchical grid combined with advanced spatial techniques like network buffers and distance decay functions allows for an exceptionally detailed analysis that remains scalable across vast territories, making it a versatile tool for both macro- and micro-level assessments; one compelling example is the identification of cities such as Barcelona, Berlin, Munich, Paris, and Warsaw as leading urban areas with high walkability, driven by compact forms, diversified land use, and rich connectivity—features that correlate strongly with higher levels of pedestrian activity; this index not only maps out existing disparities in walkability across urban and rural zones but also equips planners, policymakers, and health professionals with actionable evidence to guide future development toward healthier, more walkable cities.
lunes, 22 de septiembre de 2025
Once a rural retreat of modest fishing villages and quiet calas
Ibiza has now become an extreme case of tourist-driven transformation, where identity, landscape, and social balance are being dismantled by high-end tourism and speculative development, as journalist Joan Lluís Ferrer argues in his book Ibiza Masificada, which describes how the island has turned into a theme park for the wealthy, pushing out local residents, expropriating rustic land, and stripping access to housing and public spaces from those who don’t belong to the global elite; the shift is visible in the rise of luxury beach clubs, gated villas, private marinas, and a public discourse that values profitability over sustainability, turning Ibiza into a symbol of urbanism driven by spectacle and exclusion, where each season intensifies the housing crisis, environmental strain and social fragmentation, making it nearly impossible for essential workers—teachers, nurses, or civil servants—to live on the island they serve; Ferrer warns that this model of development, now normalized in Ibiza, could soon be replicated in other regions of Spain such as Málaga or parts of inland Andalusia, as tourism becomes less about culture and more about consumption; with up to 276 tourists per resident in high season, Ibiza is no longer a Mediterranean destination but rather a failed laboratory of hedonistic urban planning, where short-term gains eclipse any long-term vision for coexistence, and where locals find themselves alienated from their own land, forced into precariousness or displacement as their environment is reshaped by the logic of elite leisure and speculative value, creating a reality in which the island's authenticity becomes both a product and a memory.
While the 20th century often celebrated architecture as a set of universal formulas and ideological blueprints
José Antonio Coderch chose a profoundly human and contextual approach that dismantled the rigid precepts of modernism by privileging climate, terrain and daily life over abstraction, as he famously opposed Le Corbusier’s doctrinaire attitude by asserting that the architect should adapt to life, not dictate it, and this ethos resonated through every line he drew, from shaded porches overlooking the Mediterranean to homes that folded into the land instead of dominating it; rather than imposing five points of architecture, Coderch responded with lime-washed walls, wooden shutters, fragmented volumes and topographical sensitivity, building a vocabulary that drew as much from vernacular Mediterranean traditions as from modern principles, an attitude captured strikingly in Casa Rovira, recently reimagined cinematically in Casa en llamas, where the dwelling becomes both set and protagonist, encapsulating the essence of a style that rejected spectacle in favor of lived-in warmth; his creative logic, which many misread as repetition, was in fact a process of refinement through self-citation, allowing details like louvered blinds and horizon-facing chimneys to mature through iteration rather than invention, a method that yielded not prototypes but tailored responses—each home becoming a habitable dialogue with its environment, like Casa Ugalde or Casa Senillosa, where rooms bend toward views and silence, and light carves out comfort, embodying an architectural ethic deeply rooted in observation, patience and empathy, and in his final retreat to Espolla, restoring his ancestral home, Coderch sealed a career that never sought to dazzle but to accompany, leaving us a legacy that whispers rather than shouts: architecture is not a manifesto—it is a listening act.
domingo, 21 de septiembre de 2025
.jpeg)
Nowadays
Our work consists of active series spanning urbanism, art, science, and humanities, exploring liminal spaces and creating sensitivity layers through the accumulation of experiences. Each discipline interweaves with its context, generating dynamic encounters that challenge permanence and perception. In architecture, projects like the Trole Building in Madrid stand out for transforming industrial structures into adaptable workspaces that dialogue with their surroundings. In the field of installation art, series such as YELLOW BAG use a simple everyday object to mark transitions and presence across urban settings like Madrid and Lagos. From the perspective of science and technology, projects like Psicología Ambiental Hoy delve into human interaction with space through perception and memory, analyzing how environments shape behavior. In film, the COPOS series comprises over 500 videos documenting urban interventions, exploring the idea of an unstable archive. For performance, works like DOBLE CARA investigate duality and perception through choreographic movements and installations. Finally, in the humanities, CAPA (Council of Applied Art and Philosophy) integrates theory and practice, proposing new hermeneutic frameworks to redefine authorship and cultural production. Projects are often situated at the intersection of urban space and social dynamics, using subtle interventions to shift perceptions. Works like Spanish Bar capture the fading essence of traditional community hubs, transforming familiar locations into contexts for reflection on cultural shifts. In the ongoing series TWINS, the city becomes a fragmented reality of mirrored elements and contrasts, creating a dialogue between symmetry and rupture across urban landscapes. The textile-based project Re(T)exHile, presented at the IV Lagos Biennial, explores sustainability and memory through fabric, addressing the dualities of preservation and transformation. In Conversation Installation, ephemeral dialogues become the core medium, turning the spoken word into an art form that evolves with each participant’s input, challenging the traditional stability of exhibitions. Across these projects, the aim is to use art as a lens for rethinking presence, identity, and transformation. Each piece—whether through sculpture, performance, film, or architecture—becomes a tool for examining the boundaries between permanence and impermanence, creating a dialogue between context, action, and memory.
The Power of Patience
the landscape of second language acquisition, a critical divergence emerges between naturalistic learning through comprehensible input and the formal classroom approach based on memorization and grammatical sequencing. The former, as postulated by Krashen, fosters authentic acquisition when learners are exposed to meaningful messages that they can understand, even if these messages contain forms slightly beyond their current level of competence (i+1). Unlike mechanical drills or forced output, this process requires time, patience, and emotional readiness, as linguistic competence gradually emerges without conscious effort. Contrarily, traditional methods that emphasize rote memorization, error correction, and early forced production tend to neglect the affective dimension and underestimate the subconscious nature of language acquisition. While memorization may appear efficient in the short term, it often results in fragile, consciously accessible knowledge, unsuitable for fluent communication. A compelling observation in Krashen’s work is that fluency, particularly in adults, often requires upwards of 1,000 hours of rich input under low-anxiety conditions before productive skills begin to surface organically. For instance, immersion programs and sustained exposure to authentic language through reading, listening, and interaction provide the necessary conditions for learners to internalize structures without explicitly focusing on them. The emphasis on input over output reflects a paradigm where comprehension precedes production, and acquisition precedes fluency. Thus, patience is not a passive virtue but a strategic stance: by allowing the mind to absorb language implicitly, learners construct a deep, intuitive command of language that no amount of grammatical drilling can replicate. In this sense, natural input-based acquisition is not only more humane but ultimately more effective than the forced pace of traditional instruction. Krashen, 1982.
sábado, 20 de septiembre de 2025
Las cruzadas nunca fueron generosas con los vencidos
La vecina aparece mientras estoy sentado en el peto de cemento,
al fondo del jardín,
cenando.
—¿Qué pasa? —le digo.
—Oye —me dice—, ¿qué sabes de la guerra en Palestina?
Le resumo algunas cosas que leí; son muchas fuentes.
Me pregunta quiénes son los malos.
Le digo que hay una superioridad por un lado,
pero que hubo una matanza de israelíes hace dos años
y que la guerra es muy vieja.
—Vale, es una guerra vieja —dice—, seguro los matarán a todos.
