Cloud 9 Villa Nurbs project records

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Part of

• Fonds: Cloud 9 Villa Nurbs project records, 1990s-2013

People

• Cloud 9 (archive creator)
• Cloud 9 (architectural firm)

Title

Cloud 9 Villa Nurbs project records

Dates of creation

1990s-2013

Form

• archives

Level of archival description

Fonds

Extent and Medium

• Approximately 350,000 digital files (312 GB)
• Approximately 35 original drawings by Enric Ruiz Geli
• Approximately 22 folders and 1 box of drawings
• Approximately 12 folders of textual records
• Approximately 6 folders of publication and presentation materials
• 12 prototypes/material samples
• 7 models
• 1 original painting
• 1 set of copies of paintings by Frederic Amat

Scope and Content

The Cloud 9 Villa Nurbs project records,1990s-2013, document the firm’s Villa Nurbs project, a private residence in Empuriabrava (Costa Brava), Spain. The majority of the records date from 2000 to 2013.

Villa Nurbs is a housing prototype located in Empudiabrava, Spain designed by Cloud 9, who used the building opportunity to place common materials in unconventional configurations through digital fabrication. Villa Nurbs also interrupts its context, a standardized and homogeneous housing development in a tourist center, while the hybrid design includes electronic elements such as translucent concrete display and audiovisual entertainment interfaces. Under construction since 2004, the design, manufacturing and installation of each phase were conceived as performances involving artists and theorists to disturb standardized modern construction, and in this way, Villa Nurbs is a bridge between traditional crafts and contemporary digital design.

The born-digital component of the archive contains approximately 350,000 digital files copied from firm’s servers and 93 optical discs (CDs and DVDs). This includes digital files related to the project’s design and execution, as well as lecture recordings and materials, publications, maps, and office documentation. File types include raster and vector images, CAD models and drawings, videos, PDFs, word processing and desktop publishing files, and a number of other formats. CAD drawings and 3D models are predominantly in AutoCAD, Microstation, Rhinoceros, and form*Z.

Physical materials in the archive include twelve prototypes/material samples, seven models, approximately 30 original sketches by Enric Ruiz Geli, folders and bound volumes of project drawings, folders and bound volumes of project documentation and other textual records, a small number of slides and photographs, paintings, and a copy of a handwritten text by Paul Virilio.

Reference Number

AP186

Physical Description

This fonds contains a number of born-digital files in CAD and 3D modeling formats. Due to the complex and often proprietary nature of CAD formats, proper rendering and use of these files may require highly specific software. CCA’s dedicated Study Room CAD workstation is loaded with a wide but incomplete range of such software. For further information about services and software available for interacting with obsolete or niche file formats, please contact Collection Reference (reference@cca.qc.ca) and ask to speak with the Digital Archivist.

Arrangement

This fonds is not yet arranged.

Administrative history

Cloud 9 was founded by principal Enric Ruiz Geli in 1997. The firm is based in Barcelona and works “at the interface between architecture and art, digital processes and technological material development. The architects’ multifaceted projects include stage designs and buildings, installations and patents, and are realized together with collaborative partners.”

Cloud 9’s work has been awarded many international prizes and belongs in the collections of MoMA (New York), FRAC Centre Collection (Orleans), and the Centre Pompidou (Paris). This cutting edge experimental practice is well known for works like Media-ICT, El Consorci Zona Franca 22@, Barcelona; Villa Nurbs House, Empuriabrava; and Forest Hotel, Barcelona. The practice has made a unique commitment to research and experimentation in fundamentally novel approaches to technology, fabrication and construction.

Source:

Cloud 9 website, http://www.ruiz-geli.com/team, last accessed 1 August 2016.

Conditions governing access

• This fonds is unprocessed. Physical material from the fonds will not be open for research until processing is complete. Some born-digital files may already be accessible for on-site research on a by-request basis. To inquire about potential access to this material, please contact Collection Reference (reference@cca.qc.ca).

Conditions governing reproduction

• For copyright information or permission to reproduce material from the fonds, please contact the CCA (reproductions@cca.qc.ca).

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer

• Gift of Enric Ruiz Geli /Cloud 9 on 4 July 2015.

Custodial history

These records were stored in the Cloud 9 office in Barcelona prior to their transfer to CCA.

Digital files, including the files originally on optical disc, were copied by the firm from their servers onto an HFS+-formatted external hard drive, which was then physically shipped to CCA.

These records were acquired by CCA as part of the Archaeology of the Digital project. Selected items were displayed in the show Archaeology of the Digital: Complexity and Convention, May-October 2016.

Archivist's note

• A single-level record for this archive was created by Digital Archivist Tessa Walsh in July 2016. Information in this record is based on donor-supplied accession information, exhibition research, and preliminary investigations into the archive. Information in this record will be verified and updated during processing.

Credit line

When citing the collection as a whole, use the citation:
Cloud 9 Villa Nurbs project records,
Collection Centre Canadien d’Architecture/
Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montréal.
When citing specific collection material, please refer to the object’s specific credit line.