Members Miquel Ramis

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About me

Miguel Ramis : designer, director, teacher, webmaster and creator of the pedagogical contents and concept of Artifex balear.

I returned to my family craft after 15 years working at the Turism Industry. I resigned as Marketing Manager of an international hotel cha ... More »

TEDCRED 10+

  • More about me

  • I'm passionate about

    Traditional & Bioclimatical construction. Innovation & Education on building methods. Preserving stonemasonry crafts, architectural conservation and teaching self-building low-tech altogether.

  • An idea worth spreading

    History of construction is perhaps the most neglected source of solutions of humanity. Every single building problem has possibly being faced in the past, so amazingly enough we insist in searching for solutions while neglecting 3000 years of master builders. At Artifexbalear we learn from Vitrubius to Viollet, from Hassan Fathy to Jaime Lerner and try to blend this knowledge with our cultural context, time and self-appointed tasks
    Traditional building arts, specially arches&vaults are a key source for shelter. The technical aspects of stone construction can be applied to different materials. More that half of mankind will never be able to save $100, so self-building techs with local and free materials are their only key to have a home.
    On the other side, projects like ours will always face the same problem: we are builders, dreamers but not experts in swimming through bureaucracy to get the support.We shouldnt waste our time searching for institutional support or sponsorships.

  • Talk to me about

    Continuous learning projects to save stonemasonry ,endangered crafts, low-tech.

    Ways to promote ecobuilding , need to touch people`s soul through design, like vernacular building does

  • People don't know that I'm good at

    I have developed a continuous learning programme for stonemasonry and bioclimatical construction with 2600 web pages and multimedia tools specifically designed for students with little time to study.

  • My TED story

    Some of us just feel something has to be done ahead of our daily horizon. We do not know why, but we just feel compeled to do and insist. After 4 years working alone, it was quite a surprise to discover a whole ted crowd that shares and feels awareness and want to do,share and learn.
    I am not anymore alone. And thanks to the presentations, I am now aware that I am part of a bigger vision, and that I have a sound project, in a much misused field: hands-on building techniques, stonemasonry and brickvaulting.
    I would like to have the opportunity to present my educational approach for the recovery of endangered crafts and how to work transversally with different fields within a common vision.
    I
    At 50 years of age, I have found my place in the world, and he thanks to the web there's a opportunity of being VISIBLE for the first time. You may visit our website for more information.
    www.artifexbalear.org
    Miquel Ramis

  • Comments

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  • TEDCred score: +10

    TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

  • A comment on Talk: Paul Moller on the Skycar

    Jan 9 2009: A flying transport medium is obviously a much needed solution to traffic jams. Having said so, it is a shame that a alternative project with an equivalent amount of intelligence, persistence and money was not dedicated to the hovercraft: a flying machine with little risc ( floating just centimetres above ground), and that does not need asphalt, infraestructure or maintenance for roads.Just a bed of pebbles to avoid the movement of dust. Combinated with an automated piloted system seem to be a much more logical alternative.
    By the way, anybody remembers french explorer Michael Peisel ? He crossed the Himalayas by hovercraft in 1973 between Mt. Annapurna and Dhaulaghiri. Couldn't be that bad...
    A last thought: after the attack to the NY Towers, I doubt that such a device ( the perfect kamikaze-terrorist vehicle) would ever be allowed to flight.
  • +4

    A comment on Talk: Sheila Patek clocks the fastest animals

    Jan 3 2009: At min 08,00 Sheila mentions Eduardo Catalano from MIT for making the hyperbolic paraboloid popular in architecture. I would like to mention three spanish architects (Salvador Gaudi, Eduardo Torroja and Felix Candela, with earlier hyperbolic paraboloids. Europe and specially Gaudi were vital for the development of synclastic shells. In fact Candela was about to travel to Germany in 1936 to study with Dischinger and Frinsterwalder, two other shell specialists, when the spanish civil war burst. In 1939 he went to Mexico, exiliated, and afterwards lived in Raleigh, North Caroline, where he died in 1997.Candela is the inventor of the "umbrella" hypar, a familiar design for american petrol stations. All these events happened before Utzon's Opera of Sidney.
  • +6

    A comment on Talk: Eva Zeisel on the playful search for beauty

    Dec 9 2008: Twenty minutes is a good consensus for a presentation. But this is a masterclass. The Africans say that when a "griot", a storyteller dies, a library dies. The Japanese have a title for their best artisans: once a year, the emperor gives a title of "living treasure" to an old master.These are examples of paying homage and respect beyond social or economical classes. You cannot ask a living treasure to explain anything in twenty minutes. Let's consider an extra couple of monologues, an off-stage long talk for these fragil and vaste recipients of knowledge, wisdom and inspiration, within a new category of "living treasures", at a pace and tempo that they can feel comfortable with.
    At Mallorca everybody forgot how to build a stone groin vault. I learned "the secret" from a 85 year old master, returning to our island after 50 years as an inmigrant at Brazil. But this is too risky a method to preserve knowledge, wisdom or inspiration. I am sure TED can do better...
  • +1

    A comment on Talk: Iqbal Quadir says mobiles fight poverty

    Nov 14 2008: Again the same story. Over an over we learn that no government will help anybody. It is always we, the people. People is not the problem, but the solution. There are huge bussiness opportunities for investors in sound and serious projects at developing countries. What about a TED-MIX Selected projects Mutual Fund and we -the people- investing our money on them?
    A Mutual fund would diminish the risk of a particular project in a particular country, thus raising confidence and making us -the people- less afraid of investing...on us...

  • A comment on Talk: Bjorn Lomborg sets global priorities

    Oct 20 2008: If this is the result of the best brains in economics and a sample of what university students think, then we will never make it. Inteligence is not solely confined into universities. Why do not ask local experienced social leaders with proven experience in real world instead? I have also seen much attention on the SOLVING, but not much on the MANTEINING. Do not give them fishes, make them fishermen. That was suppossed to be a good focus. I do not see this idea on the top positions. Neither do I see considerations about sustainability. After given them vitamins, what's next?. I believe there is a big confusion about URGENT and IMPORTANT. Urgent is that we feed people, important is that they can feed by themselves. More important is that the way they survive is not going to create them a future sustainibility problem: people is hungry because of inefficient management, lack of information,corruption and Wall Street brutal gold rush. How is that possible that the price of rice can go up or down 50% in one month? What is the use of saving lives if the next month food prices can double? and what guarantees and market information has the farmer or enterpreneur? Also, Bilharzia, dengue,chagas or tracoma... do not always kill but renders people uncapable of working since ancient egyptian times, and this is often confused with lazyness. The important issue is wether we have to face the problems of humanity(important) or of this generation (urgent).
    The focus has to be broad-minded: a clean water play-pump solves hunger, migration and sustainability . Also reinforces communal activities and pride, and it is fun. Let's invest into projects that after an initial external investion can thrive for themselves. The first priority should be educate local leaders, foster local economies NOW within a substainable master plan. And I do not need to be universitary to see that. Let's THEM organize their priorities.
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