With due interpretative caution and trying not to fall into simplification or cliché, it could be stated that the "rational" mind learns with "pure concepts" based mainly on the understanding of the essence and attributes of their objects of knowledge. The "logical" mind, on the other hand, learns to unravel the theoretical consequences of a formula within an abstract language. On its side, the "creative" mind of the designer acquires and achieves the object of knowledge -creativity- through a deep understanding of already completed designs. This paper aims to delve into the process of analysis of design examples, a process that could somehow resemble Alchemy, in which the alembic could be the pencil. Drawing is the analytical tool that allows the designer to distil the essence of the studied references departing from the overflow of images that arrive to the eye. With the gathering of different successful design examples, the designers build up a repository stocked in their memory that enlarges their creative capacity when facing new challenges.

The task of developing a new teaching methodology to train young designers is not an easy one. Given the nature of the discipline, design education must deal with numerous complex and specific aspects in constant change: the mastery and management of creative processes; the balance between strong technical knowledge and good formal capacity; the tension between the application of industrial processes and the handling of artisanal techniques; the capacity to know the updated demands of a humanity in constant change; or the need to develop a rich - and critical - memory of project references. This, together with the current technological and digital paradigm, constantly changing, makes the formation of the designer a completely open debate. How, then, can a good design teaching strategy be designed?

The impetus of this project is to gain a historical perspective on some conflicting philosophical theories on perception and representation of space, and to trace a demo& method of representation, that has remained in use in some contexts. The research focuses on the tension between two sensory experiences: tactility and opticality. It is an interweaving of critical narratives to examine ways of perceiving space in the context of artistic and architectural practices. Departing from the optical understanding of space and materialized in some examples such as El Lissitzky's Proun Room, Yves Klein's The Void and Lebbeus Woods' tectonic visuality; this article focuses on the tactile spatial perception theories of the 'Situationists' and 'Surrealists', with their derive mapping techniques, their mediated history/memory of urban space and their approach to capitalism and systems of control. All of this is finally interpreted through the lens of the optical practice of holography, and its success (and failure) as a representational tool.

The Biddle House is possibly one of the most iconic suburban houses in the Sotogrande resort. In this scattered American style urbanization, there are many large avenues, sports complexes and, above all, the traditional Andalusian architecture of the villas and farmhouses. And there you can find, apart from this house by Javier Carvajal, some other examples of rationalist architecture such as the golf club by Luis Gutierrez Soto, or a hotel by Jose Antonio Corrales. This article seeks to address the context and architectural analysis of the Biddle Duke family house. In it one can venture a dichotomy between the pragmatic and the poetic. Its compositional strategy revolves around a simultaneously classic and modern cloister, enshrined and at the same time filtered towards the landscape. This patio that articulates the whole project reaches here a poetic and almost monumental dimension, which is combined with the repetitive rationality of the succession of groin vaults. And this double condition impregnates the entire domestic space. There, the Mediterranean essence of the patio coexists with the rationalism of the modular grid; the austerity of the materials synchronizes with the poetry of the white volumetry of the vaults; and the sobriety of the finishes concurs with the formal purity of the arch work.

In 1959 the renowned luxury firm Loewe decided to transform and renew its image and chose architect Javier Carvajal to accomplish the task. In facing the design of these stores, he found that the strategic equipment he had developed in the projects he had done until that moment, was here totally useless. Nonetheless, the architect dealt with the commission in a thorough definition process, with the same resolve of formal control he used in previous ones. Beyond the general plans of the stores, the interiors, furniture and details were drawn by his own hand, 1 to 1 scale most of the times. Constructive relations between elements and materials were established with total precision. Each and every joint, detail, attachment and screw was gathered up in a set of uncompromising drawings, pure graphic orders that composed a sort of virtual construction, born to avoid any error range.