Nelson Mota
  • Home
  • Writing
  • Editing
  • Lecturing
  • Educating
  • Researching
  • Designing
  • News
  • Videos

"Global Housing: Dwelling in Addis Ababa" is out now!

3/10/2020

 
I am happy to announce that the book "Global Housing: Dwelling in Addis Ababa", edited by Dick van Gameren and by myself is out now. The book is published by Japsam Books, with graphic design by Studio Joost Grootens.
This book brings together essays and architectural projects that discuss housing as a key component in the social and urban development of  Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia.
Over the last two decades the urban landscape of Addis Ababa has been changing at a fast pace, with disruptive consequences for the physical and social fabric of the city. Housing has been one of the key factors for this transformation, affecting job creation, craftsmanship, social and spatial equity, and dwelling practices, to name but a few.

This edited volume brings together twelve architectural projects developed by graduation students from TU Delft's Global Housing educational program that explore alternative approaches to housing design, dwelling on the challenges brought about by Africa’s urban revolution.

Presentation at the conference "The Irritant Principle of Renewal: 100 years of Aldo & Hannie van Eyck"

1/11/2018

 
Picture
 From 28 November through 30 November 2018, I will participate in the conference "The Irritant Principle of Renewal: 100 years of Aldo & Hannie van Eyck".
I will present a paper in Paper Session 2, dedicated to the topic "Education", on Wednesday 28 November, 2018, from 13:45 to 15:00.

Here's the program for this session:
Nelson Mota - Architecture and social ecology: the role of visual ethnography in design education.
Lidwine Spoormans - Towards continuous renewal. Re-use design of 1970s architecture and design education.
Dirk Somers & Daniel Rosbottom - Playgrounds as pedagogic tools for architecture students.

The session will be moderated by Andrej Radman (TU Delft)

For more info about the conference, click here


Architecture and urbanism towards the 21st century social space: Seminar #1, 12-13 November 2018

14/10/2018

 
Picture
On 12 and 13 November 2018 I will participate in the first seminar of the Research Project "Architecture and urbanism towards the 21st century social space: segregation strategies and appropriation tactics."

​This first seminar will be focused on the theme "Theories and Methodologies: Processes of Spatiality and Temporality in the Metropolis."

The seminar will take place in Sao Paulo (Brazil).
More information and program available here:

http://www.pc3.fau.usp.br/program21s

Colloquium "Aprender com a Viagem", 15 March 2018

3/3/2018

 
Picture
On 15 March 2018, I will participate in the 2nd Colloquium "Aprender com a Viagem" (Learning from Travelling), organised by the University of Coimbra (Portugal).

This event brings together Portuguese architects that have an international career, either through their practice or through their academic career. The colloquium will discuss the importance of the relations between Portuguese architecture and the diverse architectural cultures in which the speakers have been working and disseminating knowledge.


The event will be held in the Auditorium of the Faculty of Law at the University of Coimbra.
(Auditório da Faculdade de Direito da Universidade de Coimbra)

​15 de Março de 2018, 10h00.


Program
10h00. Opening
10h20. Introduction by the pelo Director of the Department of Architecture

The Internationalisation of the School of Coimbra
10h30. Nelson Mota
11h00. Bruno Silvestre
11h30. Sílvia Benedito

Working with Álvaro Siza: a perspective from Andalucia
12h00. Conference by Juan Domingo Santos
12h30. Lunch Break

From Built work to Academia
14h30. Ricardo Bak Gordon
15h00. Diogo Burnay
15h30. Book Launch "De volta à Viagem"
15h50. Launch Joelho #8
16h00. Coffee Break

The Internationalisation of Iberian architecture
16h30. Gonçalo Byrne
17h00. Jordi Garcés e Daria de Seta
17h30. Round Table and Debate
18h30. Closing

Call for Papers Footprint 24: The Architecture of Housing after the Neoliberal Turn

1/2/2018

 
The Call for Papers for Footprint 24 is out now. This issue will be dedicated to the theme "The Architecture of Housing after the Neoliberal Turn" and will be edited by myself and Yael Allweil. This issue of Footprint aims at examining how the housing policies that unfolded since the 1980s have contributed to re-theorise the architecture of dwelling as a social and spatial practice. This issue welcomes original research articles (6000–8000 words) that can contribute to define a new concept of housing after the neoliberal turn, exploring case studies, theoretical frameworks, research methods and analytical instruments. Authors of research articles are requested to submit their contributions on Footprint’s online platform before 1 May, 2018. The submissions should adhere to Footprint’s submission preparation checklist and author’s guidelines, available here.
All research articles will go through a double-blind peer-review process. Footprint 24 will be published in the Spring of 2019. For inquiries, please contact editors Nelson Mota and Yael Allweil at fp24@footprintjournal.org.
The Call for Papers is available here.

Joelho#8 "Ideas and Practices for the European City" is available now

14/1/2018

 
Picture
The issue #8 of Joelho - Journal of Architectural Culture has just been published online.
Link: Joelho 8 - Ideas and Practices for the European City
​This issue, dedicated to the theme "Ideas and Practices for the European City" was edited by myself in collaboration with José António Bandeirinha and Luís Miguel Correia, both from the Department of Architecture at the University of Coimbra. Joelho 8 features contributions from Ákos Moravánszky, Irina Davidovici, Matthew Teissmann, Alexandre Alves Costa, Chiara Monterumisi, Harald Bodenschatz, Joana Capela de Campos and Vitor Murtinho, Platon Issaias, Kasper Lægring, Nuno Grande and Roberto Cremascoli, and Jorge Figueira and Bruno Gil.
These scholars discuss the multiple facets of the European city as the vital locus for the historical processes that populate our imagination as urbanites. In three complementary parts, Discourses, Projects, and Reviews, Joelho 8 reveals a critical cross-section of ideas and practices for the European City developed over the last century. The articles included in this issue discuss several instances of the European city as a palimpsest, a physical and mental support where multiple historical phenomena are overlaid. Looking from different intellectual perspectives, Joelho 8 shows the European city as a place of coexistence, a stable, yet dynamic, organism against which the flow of time and the accumulation of experiences takes place. Joelho 8 allows us to travel in time, navigating through different aspects that have contributed to make the European city a cherished repository of collective memory and a shared cultural heritage.

Lecture at LABA (EPFL, Lausanne)

17/11/2017

 
Picture
On Tuesday, 21 November 2017 I will give a lecture at the Symposium "Environmental Objects" organised by LABA (Laboratory Basel) of EPFL, Lausanne.

​My presentation, with the title "Mass Housing and Contextualism" will discuss the different dimensions of "anonymity" and "individual expression" in mass housing, focusing on the case of Álvaro Siza’s Malagueira Neighbourhood.
​
In the same session there will be also presentation given by Victoria Easton (
Christ & Gantenbein architects) and Emily Scott (ETH-Zurich).
The Symposium will start at 14:15 in room AAC 014.

More info here:

https://laba.epfl.ch/portugal

Southopolis - Design Workshop

20/6/2017

 
Picture
Southopolis design workshop (organized by Nelson Mota and Ana Rosa Chagas Cavalcanti)

Southopolis was organised under the auspices of the International Social Housing Festival.
Southopolis is a game that tackles the challenges of designing affordable housing in the context of the global urban South. The aim of Southopolis is to address the issues related to designing an affordable housing complex that is attuned with both the demands and needs of cities in the South Hemisphere, according to the resources and capacities of local communities.

The game can put the players in contact with conflictive situations in the design decision-making process, and promote creative proposals to cope with these challenges. The participants will get to know some actors that may play an important role in the design of low income dwelling in the global South. Furthermore, there is a simulation of situations that generates common awareness of the complexities of the design process. While playing Southopolis, the participants will get familiar with some of the key issues related to the design of affordable housing in the global urban South within a holistic approach.

​More info here

"An Anthropophagic Manifesto for Africa" published in the Journal of Architectural Education

15/5/2017

 
Picture
My review of the exhibition "Making Africa" was just published in the website of the Journal of Architectural Education.

In this review I discuss how the exhibition portrays the challenges postcolonial Africa has encountered in the context of post–Cold War geopolitics. Next to it, I also reflect on the contemporary phenomena that these days makes Africa so attracting to an increasing number of investors, artists, and scholars.
I suggest that there are two aspects that deserve further intellectual scrutiny to underpin the possibility of an African Renaissance. First, we need to reconceptualize the creative potential of informality.Second, we need to harness the productive potential embedded in the invisible infrastructures that activate vernacular social and spatial practices. 


The review is available online here:

http://www.jaeonline.org/articles/reviews-exhibits/anthropophagic-manifesto-africa

Octávio Lixa Filgueiras: The Social Role of the Architect

10/4/2017

 
Picture
On 18 April 2017, the Marques da Silva Foundation (Porto, Portugal) will commemorate the acquisition of Octávio Lixa Figueiras's archive with an event that comprises three activities: a colloquium, the signature of the acquisition contract, and the opening of the exhibition "O Habitat da Modernidade" (The Habitat of Modernity), curated by Gonçalo Canto Moniz, and myself.

The program of the event is as follows:
14:30-17:30 Colloquium
With the Chairman of the Board of the Marques da Silva Foundation, Maria de Fátima Marinho, opening the proceedings, there will be contributions from Gonçalo Canto Moniz, Nelson Mota, Domingos Tavares and Nuno Miguel Costa.

18:00-18:45 Signing of the contract for the donation of the collection
At the table will be Maria de Fátima Marinho, Carlos Filgueiras, Margarida Coelho and Armando Coelho Ferreira da Silva.

19:00-20:00 Opening of the Exhibition "Octávio Lixa Filgueiras: the Habitat of Modernity"
With a guided tour by the curators, Gonçalo Canto Moniz and Nelson Mota


The entrance is free. More information is available here in English and here in Portuguese.

<<Previous
Home

Contacts

TU Delft – Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment
Department of Architecture
Julianalaan 134
2628 BL Delft
The Netherlands
+31 (0)15 278 3097​
n.j.a.mota@tudelft.nl
  • Home
  • Writing
  • Editing
  • Lecturing
  • Educating
  • Researching
  • Designing
  • News
  • Videos