VLC arquitectura. Research Journal

Donald Judd vs. Peter Zumthor. The unbuilt pavilion of the Kunsthaus Bregenz

Pablo Llamazares Blanco — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0200

The incursions into architecture by the American artist Donald Judd were a constant feature of his career. His analysis of spatial elements with his specific objects and his great interest in constructive practice played an important role in his work. This research introduces one of those architectural projects in which Judd was directly involved, the unbuilt pavilion for the Kunsthaus Bregenz. A little-known project whose definition was conditioned by the guidelines of the architect Peter Zumthor, who was responsible for the complete configuration of the institution. Based on this approach, the study starts with the direct consultation of the original material conserved in the archives of the Judd Foundation in Marfa, Texas, and delves into the creative transfers between art and architecture, in the analysis of a singular proposal which never came to fruition. The excessive autonomy of Judd’s design did not manage to adapt to the criteria set by Zumthor who would end up taking on the construction of the pavilion. Despite the frustrated attempt at collaboration, the course of the commission reveals the interests of two figures like Judd and Zumthor working on the same project, while at the same time it uncovers the architectural development of the Kunsthaus Bregenz.

The influence of motor vehicles in the architecture of Kevin Roche and John Dinkeloo

Laura Sánchez Carrasco — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0200

Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates (KRJDA) was a pioneering architecture firm responsible for the introduction into North American architecture of variables resulting from the mass use of private cars. The firm designed buildings to be seen by speeding highway traffic, they studied different options to minimize the impact of vehicle parking in the administration buildings in the suburbs and even modified customs and elements deeply entrenched in architecture such as access and entry adapting it to the possibility of accessing them by car instead of on foot. This article analyses key elements of this work within those three scopes of action: on a territorial scale, in terms of typological innovation and the calling into question of entrances as architectural elements. These examples with their unique innovative solutions reflect how these architects understood that vehicles provided a new sense of the everyday to society, influencing how architecture was seen, used and approached.

Architecture in the heights: the forays of Alejandro de la Sota into the world of aeronautics

Ana Pascual Rubio — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0200

Alejandro de la Sota is a key figure in 20th-century Spanish architecture. Within his professional career, the result of a tenacious personal search, we can glimpse a decisive factor, the transfer of knowledge from other more advanced fields of technology, stemming from his experience of the aeronautical sector. Based on this, he developed a profound admiration for the problem-solving methods of technology and engineering, focusing on the search for universal solutions through anonymous teamwork. Despite their importance, De la Sota’s forays into the world of aeronautics have barely been researched. This article therefore aims to analyse the marked influence of these forays on the way in which De la Sota understood architecture and approached the development of his projects. In view of this, an initial study carried out on the architect’s connection to the aeronautics sector is followed by a chronological analysis of his projects, and finally, by the conclusions on how this may have impacted the evolution of his trajectory.

Invisible Heritage in Emptied Spain. The Landmarks of Cabrera’s “Magic Kingdom”

Guillermo Guimaraens-Igual, Virginia Navalón Martínez — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0200

A large part of the territory of what is today recognized as emptied Spain coincides with historical boundaries characterized by successive and diverse cultural, social or economic phenomena that have contributed to accentuate the concentration-emptying polarization. This historical-patrimonial study focuses on the First Carlist War, a military conflict that became entrenched in Spain as a consequence of the decomposition of the Old Regime. The objective is to bring to light a heritage condemned to invisibility, but which characterizes the territories affected by the Maestrazgo war, thus allowing the emergence of new perspectives for the enhancement of these threatened territories.

Instituto de Crédito Territorial’s Rural Housing and Modern Housing in Colombia

Victoria Sánchez-Holguín — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0200

The Colombian State undertook the construction of a significant number of houses in rural areas between 1939 and 1956 through the Instituto de Crédito Territorial. The rural housing program required abundant resources and posed challenges due to the country’s complex geography and its precarious road infrastructure, as it involved building single-family homes scattered across extensive rural areas. To overcome these obstacles and reduce construction costs, the agency explored several strategies, including standardizing housing typologies, systematizing gathered experience, experimenting with different materials and construction techniques, and implementing prefabrication methods. This text argues that these strategies, inherent to modern architecture, enabled, in turn, the construction of the agency's first explicitly modern urban housing projects. Reviewing this process thus contributes to expand the understanding of the genesis of the modern housing projects built by the agency in Colombia in the late 1940s, going beyond the narrative that these constructions were simply a byproduct of the ideas emanating from the International Congresses of Modern Architecture, CIAM.

Thermal performance and roof geometry in churches of San José de Cúcuta, Colombia

Andrea Paola Colmenares Uribe, Carmen Xiomara Díaz Fuentes, Yannette Díaz Umaña — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0200

Understanding the thermal performance of architectural enclosures is fundamental due to its environmental, economic, social, and political implications worldwide. This study investigates the impact of roof geometry on the thermal performance of three churches in San José de Cúcuta, Colombia: The Cathedral of San José, the Church of Our Lady of Candelaria, and the Church of Our Lady of Carmen. The methodology is divided into four parts: configuration of simulation variables, simulation execution, data analysis, and thermal characterization of different types of roof enclosures. Conducting heat transfer simulations in ANSYS is based on previous research on solar incidence and heat transfer on church roof surfaces. The results highlight the importance of geometry in mitigating exterior and interior temperatures in warm climates such as that of San José de Cúcuta. This provides valuable information for architects and designers, enabling them to make informed decisions to optimize building thermal efficiency and improve occupant comfort, making this research valuable for architectural practice.

BIM information exchange for improving energy efficiency in buildings based on wooden construction systems in the European Southwest

Tue, 30 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0200

This paper addresses the development of a methodological process and sustainable architectural design through the exchange of information between construction models created using the BIM methodology and the most common energy certification programs. Historically, this transfer of constructive information has been a manual task that the designer has had to face, often through the generalization and simplification of the energy models. This document describes a methodology and a proprietary free web application, which enables the reading of information contained in IFC and GBXML files, and incorporates, in an automated manner, the necessary data into the energy model, facilitating its rating, contributing to its evaluation, improving its energy performance, and, consequently, reducing its carbon footprint. The application has been successfully evaluated based on case studies and pilot tests conducted over the course of the IMIP project, simulated energetically with the assistance of the tool. This approach represents a new strategy in the fight against climate change as it: (a) reduces the working time in energy certification processes; (b) facilitates the interaction between different digital models promoting a more informed decisionmaking process in environmental design, which ultimately should contribute to reducing the impact of public and private buildings in Southwestern Europe.

Revealing the governmental architecture photography of Lola Álvarez Bravo

Alicia Fernández Barranco — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0200

This article introduces the acclaimed Mexican photographer Lola Álvarez Bravo (1903–1993), renowned internationally for her portraits and photomurals. A comprehensive examination of her archive, maintained by the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona, reveals that approximately 12,000 of her negatives focus on architectural photography. During the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, Álvarez Bravo served as an architectural photographer for the Mexican government. Notably, she was also commissioned by eminent modern architects such as Augusto H. Álvarez, Luis Barragán, Félix Candela, Mario Pani, and Enrique de la Mora, among others. The article delves into five specific reportages she produced for government agencies, capturing the essence of La Escuela Normal Superior de México, El Conservatorio Nacional de Música, El Centro de Asistencia Materno-Infantil Maximino Ávila Camacho, La Sede del Fondo de Cultura Económica, and El Puerto Aéreo Central. Subsequent sections explore government publications that featured her work, underscoring her distinctive and modern perspective. Her contributions achieved a significance that remains undervalued in the history of photography, positioning her among several modern Latin American photographers whose work, unfortunately, has been overlooked.

Architectural research facing the challenges of the 21st century: Criticality, creativity and diversity

Tue, 30 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0200

As we enter the 21st century, a new era of digital technologies is offering increasing possibilities, but at the same time, posing serious challenges to architectural research. Therefore, the recovery of a critical approach is more necessary than ever. This should encompass not only the critical evaluation of the aforementioned technologies, but also counteract models of thought associated with them, such as the standardization of languages or the hegemony of solutionism. Likewise, it is also necessary to reclaim imagination and brilliance as attributes of a seriously threatened freedom. Working on the challenges of our time must emphasize the ideation, development and definition of mental processes and structures, mechanisms that are still outside the scope of technologies such as Artificial Intelligence. Finally, it is still important to reassert that all architectural postulates should be understood in the cultural environment and physical surroundings in which they are produced, admitting their diversity and avoiding a Eurocentric view. Current environmental degradation can be understood as a symptom of a crisis of civilization, marked by a model of living that does not recognize the need to understand ourselves and our built environment in relation to nature.

Other Limits, Other Aesthetics: New Parameters of Habitability in Architectural Composition

Tue, 30 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0200

How can we approach architectural composition nowadays? Should we maintain the theoretical substratum that is established only in the architectural design practice, or should we contribute concepts that channel the problems derived from our intervention on the environment, taking it as the ultimate foundation of any architectural creation process? First, by formulating a new environmental aesthetic that values it as such. And secondly, by analyzing its risks within the new limits set by the climate emergency we are faced with. The Architectural Composition Area at the University of Alcalá exemplifies this approach through ongoing research projects. One such project is “EXTREME CITY,” which analyses the challenges of designing for intense and extraordinary urban environments that go beyond the typical urban experience. Another is the “HETEROTOPIC AND HUNGRY CITY,” which envisions a floating city as a defense mechanism, expanding its reach and influence on the territory while simultaneously demonstrating its independence from the natural world that sustains it. The intelligent application of cutting-edge technologies could pave the way for a future of BIOTECHNOLOGY-based architecture, seamlessly integrated with the natural world. In a contrasting yet complementary and resistant approach, NEO-RURALISM offers a compelling alternative form of habitation. By embracing the vast potential of increasingly depopulated rural areas, it incorporates risk assessment as a key “compositional” parameter in exploring these new ways of living.

Convent cloisters in Toledo: Order and composition in the Historic City

Ignacio González Varas — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0200

In the research conducted within the Architectural Composition Department at the Toledo School of Architecture, we have addressed various issues related to built heritage and urban landscape. Within this research area, over the past few years, we have focused on a complex heritage system such as the urban convents of the city of Toledo. These architectural complexes, which once numbered just over fifty in the city and of which the buildings of about thirty still remain, have played a decisive role in shaping the urban structure of Toledo as well as in characterizing its prevalent image as a “convent city”. Each of these architectural complexes takes on the character of isolated and self-sufficient “micro-cities”, articulated around a key element: the convent cloister. Our research, while not overlooking the usual lines of typological, morphological, and stylistic classification of convent cloisters, is distinguished by focusing on the analysis of the role played by the convent cloister in a twofold sense: firstly, as a fundamental architectural element for understanding the structure, character and composition of Toledo’s convents; and secondly, in terms of the role played by the cloister and/or convent courtyard in granting order and composition to the city to the extent that the cloister becomes one of the most characteristic elements of the cultural heritage of the historical city of Toledo.

The place of theatre at ETSAB. Mapping

Guillem Aloy Bibiloni, Antoni Ramon Graells — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0200

The aim of this paper is to present – like the unfolding of an atlas’s maps – a set of studies carried out at Barcelona School of Architecture (ETSAB) that examine the relationship between the performing arts and architecture. At the start of the twentieth century, some notes by Lluís Domènech i Montaner provide evidence of a Composición de Edificios (Composition of Buildings) lesson on theatres. However, it was not until the academic year of 1978–1979 that Ignasi de Solà-Morales dedicated a substantial part of the programme of the subject Composición III (Composition III) to “theatre architecture”.
In the paper, research and knowledge transfer to society merge. In reference to teaching, the approach to the subject is described, from Composición III (Composition III) to Introducción a la Escenografía (Introduction to Scenography); from typological study to the set design workshop. In the field of research, a map is drawn up of doctoral theses and competitive projects related to the performing arts. The mapping constructed in this way will reveal a certain analytical method that, like a zoom lens, after an initial frame focused on the urban role of theatres in the city, considers the architecture of theatres and finalises by examining the stage space.

Curatorship of exhibitions as research and transfer projects: Somos Agua

Héctor Navarro Martínez, Manuel Blanco Lage — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0200

The Canal de Isabel II and the Universidad Politécnica of Madrid, with researchers from the ETSAM Department of Architectural Composition, have been collaborating for decades and continue to do so. This has resulted in numerous studies focusing on water which have taken on a materiality in the form of exhibitions. This text aims to analyse works of exhibition design and curatorship as valuable research projects, which ultimately aim to address key issues relating to the transfer of knowledge to society. Following a review of earlier research and exhibition work, the latest curation project, titled “Somos Agua”, is analysed. It reflects an evolving line of research, taking on challenges linked to the current context of extreme climate change. Following this analysis the key ideas defining a curatorship are showcased, as is the installation in a given space, creating a playful learning experience which appeals to both general and specialist audiences.

Editorial VLC#11.1

Juan Serra Lluch — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0200

Editorial Findings in Architectural Composition

Javier Poyatos Sebastián — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0200