mini_max malta

As the population decreases, the urban fabric decays

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Malta was awarded the George Cross as its recognition from the British Monarchy, for their unbelievable dedication to the war effort on the allied side. Malta remains a friend of the highest orfer in this world.

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A city built by gentlemen, for gentlemen.

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“We will fight until the last man, until the last woman, until the last bullet.”-Qaddafi’s son

“A city built by gentlemen, for gentlemen.”

VALLETTA.;

LIBYA;

Anyone looking at a map can see that the distance between Malta and Tripoli and between Malta and Misurata are al-most equal. That means that Malta is the nearest port to Misurata. It is even closer than Benghazi is.

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LIBYA: HAVE WE MISSED THE BUS AGAIN?ARTICLE FROM THE MALTA INDEPENDENT.

Swept up in a completely futile controversy whether Malta should, or should not, imitate the Italians and push would-be asylum seekers back into the sea (not that Italy is doing so, anyway), we may have allowed an opportunity to help the belea-guered people of Libya once again. Anyone looking at a map can see that the distance between Malta and Tripoli and between Malta and Misurata are almost equal. That means that Malta is the nearest port to Misurata. It is even closer than Benghazi is. Over the past days, the world’s news wires have been saying that Misurata is un-der siege, cut in two, with the Gaddafi forces blocking off all exits from the city, using far superior fire-power (Grad rockets and the pernicious and supposedly banned cluster bombs), jettisoning tanks and armed vehicles and replacing them by the sort of trucks used by the rebels, jettisoning even their uniforms and climbing up tall buildings from where snipers could shoot at anyone moving) and the amount of casualties increasing (they are now said to be more than 10,000 killed in all Libya). The area near the port is filled with people of other nationalities, mainly sub-Saha-rans but also from other third world countries, who just want to get out and whose governments seem unable or unwilling to get them out. They are camping out near the port until a Grad or two kill scores of them. The hospital at Misurata had been closed before the troubles began, so the many wounded have been cared for in clinics, and temporary structures hiding as much as possible from the Gaddafi forces. The doctors working under extreme conditions succeeded in saving many lives while they had to assist those who were dying. Nevertheless, over the past days, Misurata has become less isolated than it was. And it would seem that among the small ships that made their way into the port mostly under cover of darkness, there were boats that sailed from Malta. So too much needed aid has been channeled to Misurata by means of ships that sailed from Malta. It would seem that the first escape of people from the city alarmed people here who maybe saw their shipments of aid being threatened if the return trips included people fleeing from the city under siege. That in itself may well have been an over-reaction, for as much as the sending of needed medical supplies is essential, so too is the very helpful task of allowing people to flee from hell. In this case, however, the case of a former Libyan minister who fled to Malta with his family may well have scared the NGO which chartered the vessel. Anyway, Misurata is now less isolated than it was some days ago. An enterpris-ing photographer from the Maltese media went there and took some telling photos. There was also an ITV team whose reportage from inside the city is a must-see. So too, yesterday, on Al Jazeera, a reporter with the Dragonara Casino clearly in the background, included a reportage from inside the city.

In other words, there are many comings and goings between Malta and Misurata. Except of the people who really need help and who, with some caveats, Malta could help – the wounded.Over the past days, since according to some reports at least, clear responses from Malta were late and not clear, bigger ships have made it to Misurata and have taken away with them thousands of sub-Saharans helped on their way back to their homes and many wounded who have endured the longer sea journey and are now at Benghazi.

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But what has become of what, until a month or so ago, was our pride, of Malta once again being the nurse of theMediterranean?

We are so afraid of hun-dreds of asylum seekers coming over, but yet we accept this as our duty. So too, we argue, must we see the helping of so many wounded people as in a way our duty too. We could call it the duty which derives from our geographic position. It is also our calling, our vo-cation, our mission as a country.”

[More than 1,100 people have arrived in Malta from Libya since March.

The situation is simple for Malta; It will simple not let people drown.

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CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT.//first sketches of concept one; .social space making use of roof, using light to entice people into the city of Valletta. Changing the flow between the two existing building, using the new structure as connection between the two.

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.Different daytime function & evening function.

Seperate entrances for different functions and programmes.

Uses the roof as a means of access to the neighbouring building.

Collapsable/foldable structure, to keep disturbance to a minimum.

Thousands of temporary emergency tents and shelters have been set up across the Libya-Tunisia border, where people are fleeing to safety. UNHCR have set up a camp for refugees with contemporary easy assemble shelters, but also people are setting up their own traditional North African style tents, to accomodate larger groups and families.

TEMPORARY EMERGENCY SHELTER.[

Deployable Rapid Assembly Shelter.

Armies all over the world have long used tents as part of their work-ing life. Tents are preferred by the military for their relatively quick set-up and take down times, compared to more traditional shelters.

One of the most popular military designs currently fielded by the US DoD is the TEMPER Tent. TEMPER is an acronym for Tent Expandable Modular PERson-nel. The U.S. military is beginning to use a more modern tent called the deployable rapid assembly shelter or DRASH. Similar quick erect shelters are offered by Utilis USA. It is a collapsible tent with provisions for air conditioning and heating.temporary and re-locatable barrack housing with floors, insulated steel walls, lighting, climate control, and power generators.

The TEMPER Tent (Tent Extendable Modular Personnel) is a highly versatile design suitable for a wide range of en-vironments and capable of being as-sembled using standard modules into a multitude of configurations. These configurations can range from smaller personnel and utility purposes to larger medical or kitchen configurations. In its largest standard form, it can be as-sembled into a dining facility which can serve 1,100 service people. The TEM-PER tent represents the most dramatic improvement in military tentage since World War II.

The TEMPER has an aluminum frame and is primarily covered with a vinyl coated polyester duck cloth that is fire, mildew and water resistant. The cov-ering also has special coatings which suppress its visual and electronic char-acteristics to help conceal it from sur-veillance. It is fitted with features which allows for both heating and air condi-tioning.

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CONTEMPORARY EMERGENCY SHELTER

‘Concrete Canvas’

‘Superadobe’

‘Cocoon Emergency’

Foldable/Collapsable Structures

Life Tunnel on display at ‘psycho buildings’

Kowloon Walled City was a loophole, a glitch never meant to exist. It grew organically devoid of building codes and largely absent of legal oversight, a kind of organic tent city times one thousand. As it grew without rules some areas were cut off entirely from natural light and air, crime ebbed and flowed and everything grew densely packed until the government finally in-tervened – evacuating the city and de-molishing what remained.

WALLED CITY OF KOWLOON.

WOOD PAVILLION;Wing Yi Hui &Lap Ming Wong[

[DESIGNPROJECT/MPL]

Wing Yi Hui and Lap Ming Wong, students at The Oslo School of Architecture and De-sign, conceived the Wood Pavilion resulting from their exploration on the performance of wood. The pavilion is made up of wood strips bent and laminated together to form a diamond-shaped lattice.

FOLDED-PLATEHUT, OSAKA;Ryuichi Ashizawa Architects[ Constructed for the Aqua Metropolis Osaka 2009,

the Folded Plate Hut is one of the many temporary structures conceived by Ryuichi Ashizawa Archi-tects and located at Nakanoshima Park in Osaka. The origami-inspired hut which hosted concerts and theatrical events, consists of folded wood panels with a dramatically-cantilevering roof, and is perched at the edge of the waterfront.

[DESIGNPROJECT/MPL]

COOP HIMMELBLAU.ROOFTOP.

METTERAMSGARDTHOMSEN

KNITS, WEAVES & SEWS THE BUILDINGSKINS SHE DESIGNS.

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[[VIVISECTION]

METTE RAMSGARD THOMSEN is an experimental Danish architect, computer scientist & interactive-textile designer from Copenhagen. She extends beyond the traditional stereotype of someone who works with movement, dance, interaction fabrics & interiors, her work is inno-vative & experimental.

VIVISECTION is one of Thomsens’s experimental works, it is an exploration in spatial formation in ar-chitecture & design, it is the making of a live sec-tion, a sensing skin that acts and reacts on its

inhabitation. The fabric, a weave of silk and steel, is conductive thereby allowing us to pass electronic signals through it. By using antenna based sensor chips the fabric itself becomes a sensor, which feels the presence of its audi-ence. The sensors inform a network of distrib-uted micro-computers, that in turn control the fans, inflating and deflating internal bladders in the structure.

[DESIGNPROJECT/MPL/FLUX]

LEBBEUS WOODS.

RICADA ACTUS.