Contents
General Researh Topics
A metaphor to think about the narrativist theory in history. The plot of Jurassic Park and the historical representation
Juan José Gutiérrez
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In this article we will use metaphorically the plot of the Jurassic Park movie to think about the mechanisms by which historical representations are produced. The function of this text is to contribute to the understanding of how meanings are produced in the history of architecture. Our interest lies in constructing a theoretical instrument that later will be useful for us to apply it to the narratives on historicist architecture in the Argentine historiography of the second half of the 20th century. We rely on the hypothesis according to which said historiography has been written as the heir of the modern movement, who produced an intellectual environment that narrated the preceding architecture with the vision of its present, asking questions that do not correspond to the internal mechanisms of the production of the so-called historicist architecture.
We will pay special attention to the fictional character of historical representation based on the narrativist theory with which the authors Hyden White and Frank Ankersimit have explained the internal mechanisms of historical productions.
Resignify the observation and the photographic record of public spaces. An experience from Quito
Andrea Cevallos Aráuz y Cristhian Parrado Rodríguez
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This article seeks to reflect on the use of observation and photography in urban research of public spaces, thereby trying to resignify the way in which the results of both techniques are applied and presented. It assumes as place of study the park of Cotocollao of the city of Quito (Ecuador), where a floating observation exercise was applied, seeking at the same time the photographic record of its urban practices. Concludes by appealing for a reflexive observation that reconsiders the way of observing, question what is registered and, with that, account for the scopic regime that supports their choice.
The Parque Almirante Brown programme and the Team 10 as a process of creative appropriation (Buenos Aires, 1961-1976)
Adriana Laura Massidda
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This article offers elements for a critical revision of modern planning and architecture in mid-twentieth century Buenos Aires within the international debate of its time through the analysis of a paradigmatic case study. In particular, the article focuses on the programme Parque Almirante Brown (PAB), an urban development initiative designed for the South West of the city throughout the 1960s, and on its perspective toward shantytowns. The PAB creatively intertwined elements from different design and planning traditions, including urban design approaches fostered by the early CIAM (Congresos Internacionales de Arquitectura Moderna). This article argues, however, that the selection of concepts undertaken by the PAB largely responded to the government’s political agenda, filtering out those contemporaneous architectural ideas which may imply different social dynamics than the state was looking for. Specifically, with regard to informal settlements, the PAB followed ideas of slum clearance, distancing itself from perspectives such as that of Team 10 which celebrated slum life, took interest in self-built architecture or promoted users’ participation.
“Possible but improbable spaces”. Creation of a jewellery collection
Mónica Romãozinho
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A jewel can convey different appropriations and emotions such as a habitat, poetic and intangible space. In this project, we had started with the experimentation around asymmetric architectures inspired by nature and its capacity to metamorphose. The purpose was not the construction itself, but the transposition of this process to the universe of the jewellery would imply the concretization of spatial concepts. This article focuses on the methodology underlying the creation of a contemporary jewellery line, as well as three fundamental principles: mutability, versatility and reuse. We had resorted to sketches, cardboard models, 3D software, 3D printing and traditional techniques.
Housing as a social reproduction strategy. The case of the puestos of La Puntilla (La pampa, Argentina)
Antonela Mostacero y María Eugenia Comerci
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This article researches about rural territoriality in spaces that were deprived of their water resources located in the west of La Pampa province, Argentina and the role of vernacular housing in the social reproduction strategies of the rural domestic units. Thus, we analyze the case of La Puntilla area and the spaces that constitute the puestos (domestic, peridomestic and grazing areas). Finally, we focus on the meanings of the enramada between the farmers, examining the symbolism and usefulness of this characteristic architectural element. From the methodological point of view, we recover empirical material guided by the qualitative methodology. In addition to several field trips to La Puntilla rural area, located in the center of the country, we count with the farmers’ testimonies, interviews made to public officers and territorial professionals, photography, cartography and various documents that enable the methodological triangulation.
Accessory linkage. Towards an object relational perspective
Lorena Bonilla, Leonel Brandetti y Gabriel Oubel
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In an environment where new technologies interpellate the existing conceptions about knowledge, the models and limits that constitute the objects to be studied in different disciplines within their memories, it seems fundamental to propose a new approach that understands the accessory object from a conception which allows a perspective that exceeds the current dominant model.
The new perspective proposes to approach the object, moving from a functionalist to a systemic model that reinforces the idea of a network where objects are linked to each other, to the body and space, complemented and interdetermined. A complex systemic thinking mode allowed the advance on clothing accessories design research from a relational structure approach, which emphasizes the linkage condition of the object.
Form as imprint. A landscape speech from sensitive experience – [pdf]
Dimas González
Landscapes are eminent outcomes of existential realms; imbued with meaning by its dwellers, these landscapes integrate for them an imaginary branded by identity, memory and sense, filled by emotion and experience.
We share great respect regarding this imaginary because we agree in the idea of landscape as a comprehensive binder of the experiences lived in a given space, articulating a kind of discourse that gives meaning to the collective experience of dwelling. Therefore, if this exchange between dweller and landscape eventually loses its drive, particularly if (as participants throughout design practices) we are unable to rearticulate its emotional link as the experiential and sensitive components of the landscape structure, we will end up with estranged places, inhabiting a discourse that unveils incomprehensible to us. Our landscapes, the lives that we carry in it, the meanings that casts in our minds, will conclude losing its sense when its discourse dissolves.
Based on this premise, we aim to raise the relevance of a currently vacant research field, focusing on the scope of anchoring roots implied in the survey and record process to acknowledge place and landscape. Understanding place-rooting as our design practice bedrock, we will seek to discover the form of a site standing from a perception language, unraveling senses, logics, techniques, traditions; unveiling through morphology links between understanding and representation.
Territory. One word, multiple meanings
Mijal Orihuela
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As a concept, territory is one of the main categories used in urban studies. However, over time it has been repeatedly redefined.
In this way, it has become a polysemic term and its various meanings are sometimes used in the same research. In this paper, we review the main approaches from which it has been defined and the way in which the resulting notions relate to each other, in order to reach a comprehensive definition, which can be used to address complex 21st century urban-regional processes.
Classification and evaluation of the residential sector for the implementation of massive energy retrofit strategies
Micaela Andersen, Irene Martini y Carlos Discoli
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The aim of this work is to evaluate the existing residential building stock of the Argentine Patagonia, using as case of study the city of San Carlos de Bariloche, in order to enable future studies that propose strategies to minimize the energy consumption of the sector. To achieve this, houses that share similar characteristics such as construction systems, materiality and energy consumption are systematized and grouped. This classification is presented through a “catalogue of residential representative typologies” that contains the base matrix of building types, and a “specific and detailed file” of each type. This study focuses on a typological classification based on a historical survey and an on-line survey.
Designs, project and work. The socio-labor component in the action of (re)-urbanization in the Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires territory
Pedro Emiliano Senar y María Soledad Clavell
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This piece aims to analyze actions within the framework of (re)-urbanization of slums in the city of Buenos Aires (CABA) in order to provide information about the potential articulation strategies of the different components, in particular about the synergies sought between the transformation of popular habitat and the socio-labor conditions of their populations. The crossing of statistical data allows us to review those positions that support the social-labor context of the popular habitat in CABA from the official point of view, as well as from popular organizations; and from those, reflect about a possible role of designs in the process of strengthening the socio-labor component of inclusive (re)-urbanization.
The informal settlement also has a project. For an anthropology of the architectural in the urbanization of Villa 20
María Eugenia Durante
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The present work problematize and analyze the conflict provoked by the urbanization of Villa 20 and the conformation of the Barrio Papa Francisco, at the beginning of 2014. It is tried to explore, from the voices of the different actors, the representations in dispute, around the architectural, on the problems and urban conflicts. It seeks to make visible the opposing meanings, identities, values and interests, even within the same disciplinary field.
Architecture of music. The influence of music on architectural spaces
Juan Manuel Cañonero
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The text covers references throughout the twentieth century both in the experiences of musicians in the use of architecture, and in that of architects in relation to music, taking relations with painting as a link. The review of basic concepts of acoustics in architecture allows a better understanding of some examples to be treated as a concrete understanding of possible relationships between the arts. The analysis focuses on music room and their typical shapes, as well as the link with different uses and geographical variations and over time.
Massive diagnosis of the thermal behavior of buildings through the use of the infrared thermography
Carolina Ganem y Gustavo Barea
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The objective of this work is to diagnose the thermal behaviour of buildings through the use of infrared thermography, and to evaluate the usefulness of this tool for a fast and reliable diagnosis. A district, representative of the existing building, was selected in the city of Mendoza, Argentina (32°40′ Lat. South, 68°51′ Long. West, 750 m a. s. l.). We worked with 48 urban profiles, 12 in each of the four orientations of the grid. A specific protocol was followed: 1) Thermographic images were taken at two times of the day, in the evening and in the early morning, to avoid possible errors due to the incidence of direct solar radiation. 2) The emissivity was introduced into the chamber according to local materials studies. At the same time continuous measurement of air temperature inside and outside were taken with data-loggers with the objective of examining in detail the obtained results by the thermographic survey.
Towards sustainable housing in Southern Patagonia
Hernán Baulo Darhanpé
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Housing in the southern extreme of Argentina is mostly based on models created in other regions of the country; reproduce trendy prototypes, designed for an environmental context with very different conditions than the local ones. The Official Housing Institute, in the central area, also creates models believed to be suitable for a global implementation. The architectural languages, aesthetic criteria determined by cultural references, that are usually linked to very different environmental contexts and closed budgets, prevail over an environmental architecture which takes the physical and climatic factors into account.
In this way, its implementation and design do not respond to the extreme local climatic conditions.
These issues, in addition to the high subsidies that have been implemented in recent years in energy matters throughout the region and the lack of regulations in relation to thermal conditioning and energy consumption requirements, are crystallized in housing typologies decontextualized from the local environment and of the harsh climatic conditions, with low environmental quality and low energy performance, non-consistent with housing responses for sustainable development.
The magnifying glass, the mirror and the veil. 9 de julio, Av., Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires. Four images, four cities
Adriana Guevara
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The question that guides this paper is about how the city is built, particularly Buenos Aires’s city. The interest is focused on the non-solid dimensions, the immaterial components that are conformed and superimposed, at different times, with survivals or dissolutions throughout history.
For that, we worked with four images to talk about four Buenos Aires, through one of its most recognized symbols, 9 de Julio Avenue. All these cities, in the same city, live and survive through footprints and marks: this paper intends to dive in those tracks, as clues that tell us about what happened and what is to come, and about this way remove the veils, and show the polyphony of voices that speak through urban operations.
Review
The territorial productive dynamics
David Kullock
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