VLC arquitectura. Research Journal

The light-frame construction as a design resource in the work of Frank O. Gehry (1978-1997)

2022-07-01T09:51:22+02:00

This article analyses the role of light-frame construction as a design resource in Frank Gehry’s work between 1978 and 1997. It carries out a historical-critical analysis of his work over this period, identifying three different stages. The first stage (1978-1987) includes residential projects in which Gehry experimented with a variety of simple combinations of forms based on lightweight framing. The second stage (1983-1992) includes the Fish projects, characterised by a search for complex forms through adaptations of this construction technique. The third and final stage (1991-9997) includes the Guggenheim Museum, a project which he based on the complex assemblage of contorted light-frame units. The use of lightweight framing as a design resource in Gehry’s work includes two main dimensions: on the one hand, the creation of one-room-house blocks involved annexation and stacking. On the other, the constant subversion of the conventions of light-frame construction generated spatial, formal and perceptive complexity. Both avenues of exploration provided a means for Gehry to evolve his architecture in the period addressed in this paper. This research demostrates that lightweight framing is at the core of many of Gehry’s projects.

Topology of the intermediate space. The work of landscape architect Jussi Jännes in Tapiola

2022-09-15T10:15:33+02:00

Between 1955 and 1967, Jussi Jännes had the opportunity to design and build most of the public space of Tapiola, a new Finnish town that was conceived as a laboratory in which experimental solutions susceptible to being extrapolated to other urban interventions could be studied. This experimental condition allowed him to elaborate a delicate sequence of intermediate spaces that could articulate the different scales and spheres of the city, from the territorial to the domestic, thus favoring environmental connectivity and social inclusiveness as qualitative values of the urbanscape. The present article addresses an analysis of this experience with the aim of contributing to the identification and assessment of the role played by mediation spaces, in this case arising from the overlapping and intertwining of multiple realities, in the life of the public space of our cities. The critical review of the proposed case is relevant at a time like the present, in which the practices of urban planning and design are being reoriented on the basis of the previous definition of interconnected networks of spaces of high social, environmental and cultural value that are now known as green and blue infrastructures.

Temporary distancing. Garden of the Angels by John Hejduk in Riga

2022-09-29T11:55:19+02:00

In the main square of the Riga project by John Hejduk are located The Building of Time, The Cultural Center and The Garden of the Angels. The Time Building maintains links with the adjoining buildings according to the use and program of each of them. Based on the written description for the project, this work hypothesizes that John Hejduk expresses a bitter sensation when alluding to the aroma left by angels when they perch on the branches of trees. Through this manuscript I try to find out if the actions that take place between the surrounding buildings influence such desolation. The research explores the neighboring buildings to find the meaning that is in-between them. This essay aims to discover where to find that feeling of irritation that the Riga project somehow expresses through the lines, colors and tones of the drawings as well as the links with Marcel Proust, Michel Foucault and Walter Benjamin. As a conclusion, the affliction created is caused by the lack of architecture so necessary for life in the city when the architect sets aside his own condition.

The churches of Julián Laguna in Madrid (1958). Four projects and one hypothesis

2022-07-20T12:49:04+02:00

In 1958, the Madrid Urban Planning Commission, run by Julián Laguna, commissioned the architects Romany, Cubillo, Sáenz de Oíza, Sierra, Fisac, Pinto and García de Paredes to design six preliminary projects for parish complexes in various absorption and programmed settlements. Of these, only the project from Cubillo for Canillas programmed settlement was built. This research recovers, as far as it is currently possible, the existing documentation on the preliminary projects of this Church construction plan by Laguna. Had it been built, it would have been the Madrid replica of the Plan developed in Vitoria by Bishop Peralta, one of the most outstanding initiatives of Spanish sacred architecture of the mid-20th century. The study of the different proposals reveals points in common in the preliminary projects of the architects linked to Hogar del Empleado building company, compared to the more personal options of Fisac or García de Paredes, continuation or germ, respectively, of highlight projects from both. The recovered projects provide very diverse approaches, both in their conception of the sacred space and its liturgical functionalism, as well as in their implementation strategies in neighborhoods that were still being built.

Color and artistic expression through architectural ceramics in the last stage of Oscar Niemeyer’s work

2023-03-10T11:15:37+01:00

The extensive professional career of Oscar Niemeyer shows, in its last stage, a compositional reiteration that developed the pattern set by emblematic works as the Church of Saint Francis of Assisi, the project that initiated the architect’s journey through formal sinuosity. The intent with which Niemeyer used ceramic coatings at the beginning of his career range from the visual dematerialization of the enclosures, reinforcing the compositional reading to the vindication of Brazilian tradition and culture in the context of the Modern Movement, offering a certain singularity to the building. These intentions were reexamined in his latest
works, in which Niemeyer’s constant desire to integrate different cultural manifestations into the project through
collaboration with various designers, in order to reinforce the symbolic role of the union of the arts, was oriented
to the deployment of his own creativity, understood as an author’s signature.

“A sum of possibles.” Eileen Gray and the overcoming of Modernist design

2022-11-10T13:54:52+01:00

The history of 20th-century design has traditionally viewed Modernism as a monolithic phenomenon without variations. The visceral reaction to this movement in the 1960s was born partly in opposition to this unified version of modernity. However, analysing specific examples makes it possible, on the one hand, to glimpse cracks in this homogenised viewpoint and, on the other, to follow connecting threads between designs resulting from modernity and some proposals which although part of the Modern Movement deviated from the canon. This is the case of Irish designer Eileen Gray. Her works and texts include propositions which anticipated not only the shortcomings of modern design, but more fundamentally, their solutions. She viewed design not as an imposition but as a “sum of possibles” which considers needs, comfort and something as indispensable and intangible as the happiness of the user. Thus, Gray was linked to proposals apparently as removed from her surroundings as those of Italian Radical Design. This article aims to show some of these relationships, emphasising the figure of Eileen Gray as a pioneer in the world of 20th-century design.

Geometric patterns in the carpentry of palaces in Valencia: a study of tessellations

2023-02-10T09:31:08+01:00

Valencian architecture experienced a moment of splendour from the 14th to the 16th century at a time of economic development which coincided with the expansion of the Crown of Aragon throughout the Mediterranean. Members of the aristocracy built stately homes and palaces which stood out for their rich architecture and decorative finishes. Among these it is worth noting the geometric patterns of the carpentry of doors and windows, which were a feature of this type of building at the time in this area. While in some cases these can be assumed to be the original elements, their characteristics suggest that some may have been renovated or replaced, some in the 20th century. This contribution to their study applies a methodology for the analysis of the decorative designs, which aims to complement historical studies within a multidisciplinary approach. A representative number of cases is analysed according to shapes generated based on the regular and semi-regular tessellations, revealing a varied repertoire. This makes it possible to establish a classification and description of different types, graphically defined with
examples illustrating specific applications adapted to the shapes of doors and windows.

Dignifying Building Heritage: Essential Interventions in the Wall of Lugo

2022-07-08T09:46:13+02:00

Throughout the last two centuries, Spain has faced the challenge of safeguarding more than 15,000 monumental buildings of varying magnitude and historical-artistic relevance. For this reason, research on the protection of cultural heritage and its materialization through consolidation, conservation, and restoration allows outlining the mechanisms developed for such an undertaking. This challenge can only be approached
from a general analysis, with a focus on the successive intervention projects of some of the most and bestpreserved monuments. On this occasion, two axes of interventions will be analyzed that represent the keys to
the conservation of the Wall of Lugo, the release of rampart and the exhumation of interior stairs, and how both
actions have decisively influenced the formal restitution and the structural stabilization of the walled complex,
revealing itself as the most effective way to dignify it.

The chronological footprint of the ‘Cuarto Real de Santo Domingo’: Spatial geometry and time

2023-02-27T17:39:35+01:00

The ‘Cuarto Real de Santo Domingo’ of Granada, declared a Site of Cultural Interest in 1919, holds one of the most important conserved buildings from the period of transition between Almohad and Nasrid art. Located in the Realejo quarter, in the area previously known as the Alfareros or old potter´s quarter, this royal complex has been subject to important and controversial interventions throughout its history. The present study aims to investigate its materiality by analysing the historical development of the archaeological information perceived in its space and form. The main construction achievements are marked on a timeline, and the features of the construction systems used are analysed to establish the spatial and temporal condition of the architecture and the place. Special value is given to the invariable features of its geometry and material condition as essential elements to define the architectural footprint of this unique heritage.

The architecture Bauhausbücher. Reflexive artisanility and reconstruction of links

2023-02-17T13:24:47+01:00

In this article, we discuss the meanings implicit in the editorial form of Internationale Architektur (1925), Ein Versuchshaus des Bauhauses in Weimar (1925), Holländische Architektur (1929), and Bauhausbauten Dessau (1930), the four architecture editions of the iconic Bauhausbücher series (1925-1930). Our objective is to bring to light the comprehension of how the Bauhaus approached its editorial work and clarify its possible critical dimension and the scope of its contribution to architecture editorial culture. Methodologically, we contrast and connect the outcomes of various investigations that consider these books within the transition from industrial to cultural economics. In addition, we expand the historiographical context in which the Bauhausbücher series tend to be placed (the experimental searches of the 1920s avant-garde) to consider a broader one: the evolution of editorial techniques in architecture books. This approach will allow us to identify the attunement with the editorial methods of the pre-modern architecture book and its reservation towards the nineteenth-century industrial-publishing formulas still in force in architecture. The analysis would help us to delve into the most hidden implications of this reservation and the problems involved in the editorial codification of architecture subject to the competitive demands of the cultural economy.