full transcript

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

Unscramble the Blue Letters

Now, we had to convince our celints that this was a good idea; but fmoresot, we had to come up with a design poscers to reuse these randomly shaped rocks, and we had not done this before. Today everything would be much easier because we would go to the quarry with our soteranhmps equipped with 3-D scanners and we would document each rock, turn that into a digiatl model — highly engineer the whole process. But more than a decade ago, we had to embrace uttircnnaey and put on our boots, roll up our sleeves and move to the quarry for a hands-on experience. And we also had to become the contractors because we fiaeld at finding somebody willing to srahe the risk with us. Now, luckily, we convinced the quarry team to help us build a few prototypes to resolve some of the technical details. And we areged on a few mock-ups, but we got excited, and one stone led to another until we succeeded to build an 18-meter-long by eight-meter-high structure that rlyceecd all the amorphous material of the quarry, just supported by gravity — no mortar and no ties. And once built and ttesed, moving it to the final site in the city center to unite it with the rest of the building was a piece of cake, because by having isolated uncertainty and managed risk in the controlled environment of the qarury, we were able to complete the whole building in time and on bgudet, even if using nonconventional means and methods. And I still get goosebumps when I see this big chunk of the industrial landscape in the city, in a building, eexcrepneid by the visitors and the nreihgbos. This building gave us quite a few headaches, and so it could have well been an ectipoxen in our work, but instead it steartd to inform a modus operandi where every project becomes this opportunity to test the limits of a discipline we believe has to be urgently reimagined.

Open Cloze

Now, we had to convince our _______ that this was a good idea; but ________, we had to come up with a design _______ to reuse these randomly shaped rocks, and we had not done this before. Today everything would be much easier because we would go to the quarry with our ___________ equipped with 3-D scanners and we would document each rock, turn that into a _______ model — highly engineer the whole process. But more than a decade ago, we had to embrace ___________ and put on our boots, roll up our sleeves and move to the quarry for a hands-on experience. And we also had to become the contractors because we ______ at finding somebody willing to _____ the risk with us. Now, luckily, we convinced the quarry team to help us build a few prototypes to resolve some of the technical details. And we ______ on a few mock-ups, but we got excited, and one stone led to another until we succeeded to build an 18-meter-long by eight-meter-high structure that ________ all the amorphous material of the quarry, just supported by gravity — no mortar and no ties. And once built and ______, moving it to the final site in the city center to unite it with the rest of the building was a piece of cake, because by having isolated uncertainty and managed risk in the controlled environment of the ______, we were able to complete the whole building in time and on ______, even if using nonconventional means and methods. And I still get goosebumps when I see this big chunk of the industrial landscape in the city, in a building, ___________ by the visitors and the _________. This building gave us quite a few headaches, and so it could have well been an _________ in our work, but instead it _______ to inform a modus operandi where every project becomes this opportunity to test the limits of a discipline we believe has to be urgently reimagined.

Solution

  1. agreed
  2. share
  3. exception
  4. digital
  5. process
  6. foremost
  7. failed
  8. recycled
  9. neighbors
  10. smartphones
  11. quarry
  12. clients
  13. budget
  14. tested
  15. started
  16. experienced
  17. uncertainty

Original Text

Now, we had to convince our clients that this was a good idea; but foremost, we had to come up with a design process to reuse these randomly shaped rocks, and we had not done this before. Today everything would be much easier because we would go to the quarry with our smartphones equipped with 3-D scanners and we would document each rock, turn that into a digital model — highly engineer the whole process. But more than a decade ago, we had to embrace uncertainty and put on our boots, roll up our sleeves and move to the quarry for a hands-on experience. And we also had to become the contractors because we failed at finding somebody willing to share the risk with us. Now, luckily, we convinced the quarry team to help us build a few prototypes to resolve some of the technical details. And we agreed on a few mock-ups, but we got excited, and one stone led to another until we succeeded to build an 18-meter-long by eight-meter-high structure that recycled all the amorphous material of the quarry, just supported by gravity — no mortar and no ties. And once built and tested, moving it to the final site in the city center to unite it with the rest of the building was a piece of cake, because by having isolated uncertainty and managed risk in the controlled environment of the quarry, we were able to complete the whole building in time and on budget, even if using nonconventional means and methods. And I still get goosebumps when I see this big chunk of the industrial landscape in the city, in a building, experienced by the visitors and the neighbors. This building gave us quite a few headaches, and so it could have well been an exception in our work, but instead it started to inform a modus operandi where every project becomes this opportunity to test the limits of a discipline we believe has to be urgently reimagined.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
precast concrete 2
concrete beams 2
art center 2

Important Words

  1. agreed
  2. amorphous
  3. big
  4. boots
  5. budget
  6. build
  7. building
  8. built
  9. cake
  10. center
  11. chunk
  12. city
  13. clients
  14. complete
  15. contractors
  16. controlled
  17. convince
  18. convinced
  19. decade
  20. design
  21. details
  22. digital
  23. discipline
  24. document
  25. easier
  26. embrace
  27. engineer
  28. environment
  29. equipped
  30. exception
  31. excited
  32. experience
  33. experienced
  34. failed
  35. final
  36. finding
  37. foremost
  38. gave
  39. good
  40. goosebumps
  41. gravity
  42. headaches
  43. highly
  44. industrial
  45. inform
  46. isolated
  47. landscape
  48. led
  49. limits
  50. luckily
  51. managed
  52. material
  53. means
  54. methods
  55. model
  56. modus
  57. mortar
  58. move
  59. moving
  60. neighbors
  61. nonconventional
  62. operandi
  63. opportunity
  64. piece
  65. process
  66. project
  67. prototypes
  68. put
  69. quarry
  70. randomly
  71. recycled
  72. reimagined
  73. resolve
  74. rest
  75. reuse
  76. risk
  77. rock
  78. rocks
  79. roll
  80. scanners
  81. shaped
  82. share
  83. site
  84. sleeves
  85. smartphones
  86. started
  87. stone
  88. structure
  89. succeeded
  90. supported
  91. team
  92. technical
  93. test
  94. tested
  95. ties
  96. time
  97. today
  98. turn
  99. uncertainty
  100. unite
  101. urgently
  102. visitors
  103. work