The rise of visual culture and the role of images in shaping contemporary thought and global society has been a constant since the end of the last century. Called “Iconic turn” in the field of philosophy of perception and image theory, this process has captured increasing attention in diverse academic fields, even in disciplines such as architecture where the role of images has not always been well considered. There is no doubt, however, that the visual nature of architecture makes the image essential in its conception, representation or perception. Within this relationship between architecture and image can be noted a recent change: a progressive attention toward realism as an alternative to an arbitrariness of form whose main consequence has been an uncritical use of images by architects and their consumption by society. The visual nature of some of the most influential works of the British architects Sergison Bates and Tony Fretton are exemplary for this purpose, aware of the importance of images in the shaping of everyday life and in the architectural narratives of the real. These works, in turn, allow us to explore the reciprocal strengthening that this realism as an attitude in being (architecture) and in looking (photography) has for an architectural practice that feeds on images and engenders them.

The present paper examines, in a case study format, the use of films, short films and audiovisual documentaries as reasoning and references for design assignments during the first years of an architectural degree course. The aim of this fruitful and comparable experience is not so much to study and verify the well-known synergies between film and architecture, but to emphasize the methodological importance of endowing students in their first experience of design projects with realistic and feasible support – through visual references – that can increase their awareness of the desire for realism to which every project aspires. Project simulacrum finds an ally in the realistic fiction present in film. The association between film and architecture is thus placed at the service of learning and design methodology, as a means, not as an end.

El presente texto repasa, como caso de estudio, la utilización de películas, cortos y documentales audiovisuales como argumento y referencia en determinados enunciados de proyectos arquitectónicos en los primeros cursos del Grado en Estudios en Arquitectura. A partir de esta contrastable y fructífera experiencia se trata no tanto de revisar y verificar las conocidas sinergias entre cine y arquitectura sino poner metodológicamente de relieve la importancia de dotar al alumno en sus primeros años de práctica proyectual de un apoyo referencial verosímil y verificable —a través de lo visual— que le ayude a caer en la cuenta de los anhelos de realismo al que todo proyecto aspira. El simulacro del proyecto encuentra un aliado en la ficción realista del cine. La asociación cine-arquitectura se pone por tanto al servicio, como medio no como fin, del aprendizaje y la metodología proyectual. The present paper reviews, as a case study, the use of films, short films and audiovisual documentaries as arguments and references for desing assignments in early design studios at the school of architecture. Out of this fruitful experience the goal is not so much to review and verify the well-known synergies between film and architecture but to methodologically emphasize the importance of endowing the student in his first steps of design practice with realistic and feasible referential support —through the visual— that could help him to realize the yearnings of realism to which every project aspires. The simulacrum of the project finds an ally in the realistic fiction of the movie. The film-architecture association is thus placed at the service, as a medium not as an end, of learning and design methodology.

RETRATANDO SUEÑOS. FOTOGRAFÍAS DE MAQUETAS DE ARQUITECTURA MODERNA EN ESPAÑA / Portraying dreams. Photographs of Modern Architecture models in Spain

En el marco docente del segundo curso de Arquitectura de la Universidad de Zaragoza planteamos un ejercicio trasversal entre las áreas de Expresión Gráfica (Taller Integrado 1) y Proyectos (Proyectos 1). Para trabajar en un proyecto de ampliación de la casa Farnsworth de Mies van der Rohe, desarrollado gráficamente en el Taller 1, nos planteamos en primera instancia un ejercicio de exploración visual —a través del fotomontaje y el collage— para reconsiderar críticamente el carácter mítico de esta urna de cristal y sus potenciales estrategias operativas. Revisando los extraordinarios y sugerentes resultados alcanzados por los estudiantes este texto aspira brevemente a analizar y revalorar más si cabe esta técnica gráfica de representación arquitectónica en el ámbito docente y a poner en cuestión crítica y teóricamente la circunspecta identidad de los iconos modernos.

In 1928, Le Corbusier was invited to the Residencia de Estudiantes in Madrid. His letter of acceptance ended with the postscript: ‘I am sending you some photos.’1 In 1936, Richard Neutra's secretar...