full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Débora Mesa Molina: Stunning buildings made from raw, imperfect materials

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Here we built the General Society of Authors and Editors, a culrtual building. And on top of all the regulations, we had to use stone by code and our experience was liietmd, but we had incredible rnfeeceers to laern from, some coming from the city itself or from nearby lenpdsacas or other remote places that had impacted our education as architects, and maybe you recognize here. But somehow the finished products that iudtnrsy made available for us as atcchreits to use in our buildings seemed to have lost their soul. And so we decided to go to the nearby quarries to better understand the pesrcos that transforms a mountain into a perfectly sruaqe tile that you buy from a supplier. And we were taken by the monumental scale of the material and the actions to ecatrxt it. And looking carefully, we noticed hundreds of ieurlargr blocks piling up everywhere. They are the leftovers of an extraction sequence: the ugly parts that nobody wants. But we wanted them. We were inspired. And it was a win-win situation where we could get this residual material of great quality, doomed to be crushed, at a very low cost.

Open Cloze


Here we built the General Society of Authors and Editors, a ________ building. And on top of all the regulations, we had to use stone by code and our experience was _______, but we had incredible __________ to _____ from, some coming from the city itself or from nearby __________ or other remote places that had impacted our education as architects, and maybe you recognize here. But somehow the finished products that ________ made available for us as __________ to use in our buildings seemed to have lost their soul. And so we decided to go to the nearby quarries to better understand the _______ that transforms a mountain into a perfectly ______ tile that you buy from a supplier. And we were taken by the monumental scale of the material and the actions to _______ it. And looking carefully, we noticed hundreds of _________ blocks piling up everywhere. They are the leftovers of an extraction sequence: the ugly parts that nobody wants. But we wanted them. We were inspired. And it was a win-win situation where we could get this residual material of great quality, doomed to be crushed, at a very low cost.

Solution


  1. learn
  2. square
  3. industry
  4. landscapes
  5. irregular
  6. process
  7. extract
  8. architects
  9. references
  10. cultural
  11. limited

Original Text


Here we built the General Society of Authors and Editors, a cultural building. And on top of all the regulations, we had to use stone by code and our experience was limited, but we had incredible references to learn from, some coming from the city itself or from nearby landscapes or other remote places that had impacted our education as architects, and maybe you recognize here. But somehow the finished products that industry made available for us as architects to use in our buildings seemed to have lost their soul. And so we decided to go to the nearby quarries to better understand the process that transforms a mountain into a perfectly square tile that you buy from a supplier. And we were taken by the monumental scale of the material and the actions to extract it. And looking carefully, we noticed hundreds of irregular blocks piling up everywhere. They are the leftovers of an extraction sequence: the ugly parts that nobody wants. But we wanted them. We were inspired. And it was a win-win situation where we could get this residual material of great quality, doomed to be crushed, at a very low cost.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
precast concrete 2
concrete beams 2
art center 2


Important Words


  1. actions
  2. architects
  3. authors
  4. blocks
  5. building
  6. buildings
  7. built
  8. buy
  9. carefully
  10. city
  11. code
  12. coming
  13. cost
  14. crushed
  15. cultural
  16. decided
  17. doomed
  18. editors
  19. education
  20. experience
  21. extract
  22. extraction
  23. finished
  24. general
  25. great
  26. hundreds
  27. impacted
  28. incredible
  29. industry
  30. inspired
  31. irregular
  32. landscapes
  33. learn
  34. leftovers
  35. limited
  36. lost
  37. material
  38. monumental
  39. mountain
  40. nearby
  41. noticed
  42. parts
  43. perfectly
  44. piling
  45. places
  46. process
  47. products
  48. quality
  49. quarries
  50. recognize
  51. references
  52. regulations
  53. remote
  54. residual
  55. scale
  56. situation
  57. society
  58. soul
  59. square
  60. stone
  61. supplier
  62. tile
  63. top
  64. transforms
  65. ugly
  66. understand
  67. wanted