(Book editorial project, 2004 - ) World Grammar is an objectionary, that is to say, a global dictionary of objects. The cultural differencees between countries and cities in the world are often shown through their languages, gastronomies, musics or ways of dressing. Thus the large imaginary of everyday-life objects that accompanies our lives seems to be consigned to a background, almost anecdotal, level. World Grammar salvages these peculiar, ingenious, useful objects and gives them notoriety. By isolating these objects from their context and ordering them under unifying criteria, the cultural differences amongst the societies to which they belong start to emerge. This project has been conceived as an open collaboration with multiple agents from different corners of the planet who discover, during their travelling, the cultural specificities of other locations.

(Film production, 2007-2008) kawamura-ganjavian, together with Alfonso Merry, were the executive directors of an exquisite short film featuring stunning architectural settings. Within 5 minutes deep human emotions such as hope, will, timeless love and heritage are explored and revealed through a few parallel narrative lines.

(Visionary urban scenarios; Madrid, Spain; 2007) The scarcity of water due to global warming is gradually becoming a prime concern in cities. The ornamental notion of water features in cities (lakes, ponds, fountains) has become anachronic in an age when people flee in their millions for a short swim in the sea. As opposed to the static and often monumental landmarks, the watermarks project questions the way we experience water in our cities and our contemporary lives by proposing new ways in which water and cities can coexist: fountains become bathing pools, telephone booths double as showers, basements as water reservoirs. Can we bring the sea to the city instead of moving citizens to the beach? In parallel to this project we are exploring a similar notion of a mobile eden garden: a mini park that can move from city to city, exchanging flora and culture and unfolding a celebration of nature as it moves along.

(Documentary video; Madrid, Spain; 2004) This film follows a day in the life of a group of Latinamerican paper collectors moving around the streets of Madrid. It reveals a layer of the city that normally remains hidden to the naked eye, showing that planning a city is not just thinking of streets and buildings but also coordinating the systems that supply it and serve it.

(Speculative landscape project; European Union; 2004) Newland is a visionary project of pan-European transnational land co-sharing. It consists of a series of mobile landscapes at different scales that can transport indigenous landscapes through waterways (sea, rivers, canals) to places where they do not belong. A Finnish tundra can travel to the Mediterranean and a Spanish olive grove to the Baltic, thus creating not only a shocking effect but also encouraging a deeper cultural exchange.

(Speculative health and territorial project; Deptford, UK and international waters; 2003-2004) Waisternisation poses an inconvenient question about the future of health-tailored human nurishment and its potential territorial consequences. A visionary system of off-shore production and on-shore logistics is conceived including its architectural apparatus.

(Speculative urban project; Stratford, London, UK; 2002-2003) Wasternisation looked at waste from an urban (wasteland) and human (rubbish) point of view and explored the fringes of the city where many inmigrant communities settle. Two prototype projects emerged from Wasternistaion: M-Pack (portable construction system) and Dolly Domestic (portable living element).

(Reality distortion; Hyde Park, London; 2002) As part of an illegal action exercise, a gold fish was conceptually fished out of the Serpentine lake in Hyde Park and locked inside a bottle of water hanging from a tree. The passers-by could listen through headphones the monologue of the fish impersonating multiple characters from all over the world reflecting the multiculturality of London.

(Contingency plan for a volcanic eruption; Quito, Ecuador; 2002-2003) The slopes of volcano Guagua Pichincha suffer since decades the urbanisation pressure of the informal settlements of Quito. On top of the economical and social problematic (alienation, cultural uprooting), these communities are highly exposed to ecological catastrophes (landslides, debris flows, floods). The proposal includes a series of topographical interventions and a manual of good practice for the communities to implement, guaranteeing a safer settlement pattern. On 2nd November 2002, the city of Quito was covered by a dense layer of volcanic ash due to an eruption. The project Retroactive Simulacrum, coordinates the different agencies that entered into action during this event and as a final result of the collaboration between strategists and citizens, a series of topographies-buildings for communal use emerge: large domes built with pozzolanic cement from the volcanic ash.

(Historical and technical material research; Quito, Ecuador and London, UK; 2003) The dramatic volcanic eruption of the Reventador in November 2002 in Ecuador, which deposited large amounts of volcanic ash on the city of Quito, was the starting point of this research project. Extensive study on the specific chemical and physical properties of the ash lead to the conclusion that it could be stored in heaps and used as a construction material based on its cementicious properties. This project was carried out as a research programme at the Architectural Association in London, in collaboration with the Civil Engineering department of Ove Arup, the Roman Era studies department at the British Museum, the Civil Guard of Ecuador and the National Geophysics Institute at the Polytechnic university of Quito.

(Material test and installation; Holbrook House, London, UK; 2000) After studying for 9 months the technical properties of willow wood this installation was conceived and executed. It exploits the tensile and torsion capacities of a bundle structure made out of dozens of freshly cut branches, reaching incredible spans of up to 6 meters.

(Material investigation and application; Ayenager, India and London, UK; 2000) After spending 6 months in India taking care of 5 cows and in close contact with Hindu notions of cyclical life, the idea of using cow dung as a construction material came about. Its fertile, fibrous nature, combined with different bonding components lead to a wide range of tests that were subsequently applied to a landscape project for a reed pond in the village of Ayenager.

(Ephemeral dispersed museum; East London, UK; 2002) Most museums nowadays pride themselves on being large taking size as a measure of success. The 30 minutes museum instead uses time as its added value. The project stems from the urbanistic idea of the open-dispersed institution and it took the form of a promenade with citizens of East London, appropriating the streets as the corridors and several abandoned sites as gallery rooms where artist Luis Gallo performed site-specific actions.

(Material test, installation and action; Holbrook House, London, UK; 2001) This installation consisted of a hanging steel frame and a stretched polythene canvas from the largest greenhouse territory in Europe (El Ejido, Spain). The canvas, placed horizontally, was gradually loaded with buckets of water as a subtle critique towards the waste of water and dessertification suffered in Southern Spain. The accumulated water lead to the frame taking the amazing shape of a pregnant mother. The installation was concluded with a sudden action that emptied all the water within 2 seconds.

(Material investigation; El Ejido, Spain and London, UK; 2000-2001) Following a research trip to the largest greenhouse territory in Europe in the province of Almería in Spain, we became aware of the huge environmental risk posed by the disused polythene sheets of abandoned greenhouses. Multiple tests were made to develop structural elements out of rolled recycled polythene leading to innovative construction components and landscape irrigation systems.

(Material investigation; Las Alpujarras, Spain and London, UK; 2000-2001) The scarcity of construction material and the sensitive environmental equilibrium in the Alpujarras mountainous region in Southern Spain ask for site-specific construction techniques. Rammed earth prototypes with diverse types of reinforcement and consistency were developed and proposed as a new local tradition for building with limited means. Its layered nature allows for objects to be cast into it, like traces of memory fossilised into the architecture.

(Reality distortion; Hyde Park, London, UK; 1999) Trespassing the conventional edge between park and lake, this action placed a person into the Serpentine lake in Hyde Park. Like a boat stranded on earth but opposite, this immediate and direct action caused the awe of the park visitors that witnessed it.