Martin Azùa. Designer sociale

Martin Azúa, architetto diplomato all’Università Politecnica di Barcellona concentra la sua ricerca tematica nel sociale e nell’ecologia, ne sono un esempio la Casa Nido, la Casa Basica gonfiabile e il design del Banco Pantalla.
Archphoto gli dedica un approfondimento all’interno del numero tematico sull’ecologia.

Nest House
The life in the city is complicated when thinking of the most basic necessity and sometimes absurd obligations. Freedom is reduced in what you have or need. Birds don’t pay the rent. They settle into a place and use the closest resources. Their nests form a part of nature. Learning form them, we came up with the idea to build the nest house of simple metal structure and some rope which are completed with natural materials like leaves, branches etc… It doesn’t take any space as it is hung on a tree with a thick tape not to damage it. Once installed it can serve as point of observation or an essential habitat in which you can spend a night. The nest house allows us a perception of the natural space of animal, plant and human life. Designed for Neorrural exhibition in 2005.

Plaited fence
A frame of galvanized iron curled with a warp of string in which all kinds of recycled materials are plaited; paper, plastic, etc. Frames are joined with bridles of plastic; their form with and against curve generates very dynamic closings; easy to move; some are piled up against others; possible to fold up and open rapidly. Different qualities of colour, texture and transparency can be obtained which depends on the material used for the plaited frame.

A metallic screen adapted to an urban bench which proportions are adapted to gather the movements of a person chit-chating calmly. Speakers’ images are recorded and projected into a real size and time. A new dimension wants to be given to the images, extracting them out of the broadcasting ignorant screens, to obtain a major implication, a communication information based on the personal relations. The first version was designed by Martin Azúa in 1999, it is EVA’s case for a chair that was showed in “Future Compost” exhibition in Barcelona in 1999. In 2003 I developed screenbench for Culture Forum of Barcelona 2004.

Basic House
Inhabitable volume of basic presentations; folding, inflatable, reversible. (Experimental prototype in metalized polyester) Our habitat has turned into a place of consumption in which an unlimited number of products satisfy a series of needs created by complex relations difficult to control. Cultures that keep a more direct relation with their environment demonstrate us that the habitat can be understood in a more essential and reasonable way. Learning from these attitudes and using the most advanced technology, I came up with an almost immaterial house that swells itself up from the heat of our own body or from the Sun; so adaptive that if we turn it, it protects us from the cold or from the heat; so light that it floats ;besides, it is possible to fold it up and put it into a pocket. A life on the move without material ties. Having everything without having scarcely anything.

Martin Azùa
Born in Basque Country in 1965, lives and works in Barcelona.
Graduated in fine arts with the especialization of Design at the University of Barcelona. Postgraduated in Arquitecture and Design of Ephemeral Constructions by the Politecnic University of Barcelona. He lives in Barcelona where combines his work as designer with teaching in Design College of Design Elisava and in the 2nd cycle Degree in Design for the UPC Politecnic University of Catalonia.
Actually colaborates as designer in many companies and institutions, activity that he combines with a permanent work of experimentation and investigation, shown in many individual and collective expositions such as;
Exposition “Safe” in the MOMA of New York, “Strangely familiar: design and everyday life”, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, USSA, Exposition. Royal Institute of British Architects Londres. “Living in Motion” Vitra Design Museum Alemania. Projects published at important magazines and international publications.
Author of World Swimming Championships of Barcelona 2003 Medals and the packaging of the Olimpic Candidacy for Madrid 2012, Design of Fad 2007 Medals. His piece Basic House was adquired by the MOMA of New York Collection. Designer of the exposition “Sed” for the Expo Zaragoza 2008
Expohogar regalo Awards 1999, 2000, 2001, 2005, 2006. Top Nominated Index Award 2005, City of Barcelona Prize 2000.
[Martín Azúa]

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