Interpretación constructiva de la fábrica de tapia de tierra del castillo de Serón de Nágima (Soria)

The article analyzes the particular construction history of the Castle of Serón de Nágima (Soria, Spain). Its constructive technique is the rammed-earth and it has not any singular or stylistic element which could be taken as chronological: for this reason the castle has been traditionally understood as a hispanic-muslim building. However, the analysis and constructive lecture and interpretation of the rammed-earth walls, putting them in comparison with others contemporaries and the study of the documentation can be used as a method to know the date of construction. The town of Serón is mentioned several times during the frontier wars between the Crowns of Castile and Aragon, but the castle is only mentioned in written documents since the 15th Century. The constructive characteristics of the rammed-earth walls are very different to the hispanic-muslim rammed-earth whereas similar to those of the Late Middle Age castles. The article also shows the constructive process of these rammed-earth walls through graphical methods.

La iglesia de Santiago de los españoles en Roma y su entorno entre los siglos XV y XIX. Una historia a través del dibujo

Plaza Navona representa una de las visitas obligadas de Roma, pero solo algunos advertirán en ella la presencia española en la sala de exposiciones del Instituto Cervantes o en la inmediata Libreria Española. Todavía serán menos los que se percatarán de la huella española dejada en aquella iglesia de fachada anónima situada, en el extremo sur de la plaza: la antigua iglesia de Santiago de los Españoles. La presente tesis pretende, utilizando el dibujo como guía, herramienta y fin del proceso de análisis y estudio, reconstruir el proceso de conformación y construcción de la que fue iglesia española principal, cuya fundación hace patente el destacado papel jugado por la “nación” castellana en Roma durante la Edad Media; y en torno a la que se aglutinaron las actividades religiosas, diplomáticas y financieras de los castellanos que vivieron en la actual capital italiana. Se intentará recrear en el tiempo la que es hoy la iglesia de Nuestra Señora del Sagrado Corazón, sometiéndola a una restitución gráfica disciplinada, homogénea y objetiva en la medida de lo posible de las varias etapas que la han caracterizadas, desde su fundación hasta cuando en 1878 España se deshizo de ella, ya en ruina, vendiéndola. Como nos comenta Gaetano Moroni, de todas las comunidades nacionales que se encontraban en Roma la española parece ser efectivamente una de las más rica y prestigiosa. Aunque lo que no cuenta Moroni no haya sido todavía demostrado, dicho enunciado resulta de todas formas interesante puesto que pone el acento sobre el hecho de que ya desde el siglo X parece ser habitual de ocupar y reutilizar antiguas ruinas, usándolas como base para la construcción de hospitales para los peregrinos. Esta operación se hizo particularmente frecuente sobre todo antes del Gran Jubileo de 1450: de hecho desde la primera mitad del Quattrocento se fundan distintas iglesias y hospitales nacionales para acoger y prestar una adecuada asistencia y socorro a los innumerables peregrinos que llegaban a la ciudad, edificios que se van construyendo sobre los restos de antiguos edificios de época romana. Prueba de ello es en efecto la fundación originaria de la iglesia y hospital de los Españoles que, parte del conjunto de edificios que compone la Plaza Navona, situada en el corazón de Campo Marzio y cuya posición y forma corresponden a la del antiguo Estadio de Domiciano, y que ahora es en sus dimensiones, en su imagen arquitectónica y en su consistencia material, el resultado de la definición proyectual y de las transformaciones que se llevaron a cabo sobre lo que quedaba del antiguo templo español del siglo XV, entre finales del ‘800 y los años 30 del siglo XX . Transformaciones devastadoras, huellas grabadas o canceladas que encuentran una justificación en los acontecimientos históricos reflejados en el patrimonio urbano. El análisis de todas las fuentes permite trazar, si no la totalidad, buena parte de las modificaciones que la antigua iglesia de Santiago ha sufrido. La construcción del templo se puede dividir en tres momentos decisivos: una primera etapa de fundación en 1450-1478 en la que la iglesia tenía fachada y entrada en via de la Sapienza, hoy Corso Rinascimento; una segunda de significativa ampliación hacia Plaza Navona con una nueva fachada monumental hacia ese espacio público en 1496-1500; y una última importante ampliación entre 1525-1526, llevada a cabo por el arquitecto Antonio da Sangallo el Joven. Tras la intensa vida del templo, en el siglo XVIII, éste cae en ruina y finalmente es vendido en 1878 a la orden de los misioneros franceses de Nuestra Señora del Sagrado Corazón que la reconvierten en iglesia reformando totalmente el conjunto en 1881, según proyecto de Luca Carimini. En 1936, en plena fase de rectificación de trazados urbanos por obra del régimen fascista, según proyecto de Arnaldo Foschini, se mutila su extremidad hacia vía de la Sapienza dejando su estado tal y como se contempla en la actualidad. ABSTRACT The objective of this thesis is the reconstruction of the design and edification process -using drawings and sketches as a guide, tool and the end of the analytical process- of a church which was once the preeminent Spanish church in medieval Rome, known today as Nostra Signora del Sacro Cuore (Our Lady of the Sacred Heart). The founding of this church illustrates the important role held by the Castillian “nation” in Rome during the Middle Ages. It was the focal point of all the religious, diplomatic and economic activities of the Castillian community residing in today’s Italian capital. The aim of this proyect is a recreation the church in time by submitting it to a disciplined, homogenous and objective graphic restitution of the various stages most characteristic the temple, starting from its foundation until 1878 when, in a state of ruins, the church was finally sold off by Spain. Gaetano Moroni once commented that of all the international communities found in Rome, the Spanish community seemed to be one of the wealthiest and most prestigious. Such a statement proves interesting as it emphasizes that starting in the 10th century we see there was a widespread custom of occupying and reusing old ruins for use as the bases of new constructions of hospitals for pilgrims. This custom became especially frequent just before the Jubilee Year of 1450: in fact, in the first half of the Quattrocento we see the founding of many different national churches and hospitals which provided shelter and care to the countless pilgrims arriving in the city, buildings which were constructed on top of the ruins of ancient buildings left over from Roman times. Proof of this is the original foundation of the Spanish church and hospital forming part of the Piazza Navona, built upon and following the outline of the Stadium of Domitian, in the heart of Campo Marzio. Now, in its dimensions, its architectural image and its material substance, it represents the predominant result of the planning definitions and the transformations which affected the old 15th-century Spanish temple. Ocurring between the end of the 19th century and the 1930s, the transformations were devastating, erasing original peculiarities and engraving new ones, transformations made justifiable by the historical events reflected in its urban environs. Analyzing all sources allows us to trace, even if not in entirety, still a sizeable portion of the modifications undergone by the old Church of Saint James. The construction of the temple can be divided into three decisive moments: its foundation, from 1450 to 1478, when the church’s façade and main door looked out on to the Via della Sapienza, today’s central avenue of Corso del Rinascimento; the second stage being a major expansion towards the Piazza Navona (1496-1500) with a new, monumental façade facing the public space; and the third was the last significant expansion, carried out from 1525 to 1526 by the architect Antonio da Sangallo the Younger. Despite an intense and bustling life during the Modern Age, in the 18th century the church began to fall into ruin and was finally sold in 1878 to the order of French missionaries of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, who reconverted it into a church and completely renovated the structure in 1881 in a project supervised by Luca Carimini. In 1936, the corrective urban redesign of Rome carried out by the fascist regime and implemented by Arnaldo Foschini mutilated the part bordering Via della Sapienza, leaving it as we see it today.

Crossed-arch vaults in late-gothic and early Renaissance vaulting: a problem in building technology transfer

Crossed-arch vaults are a particular type of ribbed vaults. Their main feature is that the ribs that form the vault are intertwined, forming polygons or stars and leaving an empty space in the middle. The firsts appear in Córdoba in the second half of the 10th Century. Afterwards, the type diffused through Spain and North Africa, 11th_13th Centuries. These vaults reappear in Armenia in the 13th Century. In the 14th and 15th Century a few examples are found both in England (Durham, Raby) and Central Europe (Prague, Landshut, Vienna). At about the same time, Leonardo da Vinci produced designs for the Tiburio (Ciborium) of Milan cathedral with a cross-arched structure and proposed tests to assess the strength; he also, made use of the same pattern of vault for Renaissance centralized churches. Eventually, the type can be tracked through the 17th (Guarini) and 18th (Vittone) Centuries, until Spanish post war architecture in the 1940-60s (Moya). Some questions arose, which so far, have not been answered. How was it possible that a particular type of vault had such enormous geographical spread? How was it transmitted from Córdoba to the Caucasus? The matter is one of transfer of knowledge, ideas, and technology; it relates both aesthetics and construction.

Gender differences of the spanish adult population in barriers to active living

Proyecto I+D+i DEP19801: Gender differences of the spanish adult population in barriers to active living

Initializing the DSSAT-Century model: inverse calibration of carbon pools from apparent soil N mineralization

The CENTURY soil organic matter model was adapted for the DSSAT (Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer), modular format in order to better simulate the dynamics of soil organic nutrient processes (Gijsman et al., 2002). The CENTURY model divides the soil organic carbon (SOC) into three hypothetical pools: microbial or active material (SOC1), intermediate (SOC2) and the largely inert and stable material (SOC3) (Jones et al., 2003). At the beginning of the simulation, CENTURY model needs a value of SOC3 per soil layer which can be estimated by the model (based on soil texture and management history) or given as an input. Then, the model assigns about 5% and 95% of the remaining SOC to SOC1 and SOC2, respectively. The model performance when simulating SOC and nitrogen (N) dynamics strongly depends on the initialization process. The common methods (e.g. Basso et al., 2011) to initialize SOC pools deal mostly with carbon (C) mineralization processes and less with N. Dynamics of SOM, SOC, and soil organic N are linked in the CENTURY-DSSAT model through the C/N ratio of decomposing material that determines either mineralization or immobilization of N (Gijsman et al., 2002). The aim of this study was to evaluate an alternative method to initialize the SOC pools in the DSSAT-CENTURY model from apparent soil N mineralization (Napmin) field measurements by using automatic inverse calibration (simulated annealing). The results were compared with the ones obtained by the iterative initialization procedure developed by Basso et al., 2011.

The normalization of the "Active-Sedentary" lifestyle in spanish youth

Sedentarism has become one of the major concerns of our times. Nowadays people spend most of the time sitting down and moving by mechanical means instead of exercising themselves. Younger generations do only a little more sport today than their counterparts did a decade ago. In other words, sedentary habits have become common in our society, especially among the young. What cultural mechanisms have contributed to this? What are the consequences of a sedentary lifestyle for our health and well-being? These are the questions we have posed in this study. We conducted qualitative research among Spanish young people, and the results have provided important clues to help us understand better how ?active sedentarism? has become the norm among young people.

Gender differences of the spanish adult population in cultural barriers to active living

Proyecto I+D+i DEP19801: Gender differences of the spanish adult population in cultural barriers to active living

Gender differences of the spanish adult population in barriers to active living

Social research on the needs, barriers and innovations in sport and physical activities to adult women in Spain

Changes in the governance system for higher education in Peru to meet the challenges of the 21st century

The competition in markets, the distribution of limited resources based on productivity and performance, and the efficient management of universities are changing the criteria of trust and legitimacy of the educational system in Peru. Universities are perceived more as institutions of the public sector, while the services they offer must rather contribute to the modernization of the emerging society and the knowledge economy. Higher Educations reforms - initiated in the 1980s - have been inspired by the successful university organizations that have managed to change their governance and addressed to transform certain bureaucratic institutions into organizations capable of playing active role in this global competition for resources and best talent. Within this context, Peruvian universities are facing two major challenges: adapting themselves to new global perspectives and being able to develop a better response to society demands, needs and expectations. This article proposes a model of governance system for higher education in Peru that gives a comprehensive solution to these challenges, allowing dealing with the problems of universities for their development and inclusion within the global trends. For this purpose, a holistic and qualitative methodologic approach was developed, considering an integrated method which considered educational reality as a whole, understanding its facts, components and elements that affects its outcomes. It is proposed to define a policy for university education in Peru that permeates society, by changing the planning model from a social reform model to a policy analysis model, where the Peruvian State acts as sole responsible for responding to the demanding society as its legal representative complemented with some external and independent bodies that define the basis of best practice, as it is being done in many university models worldwide.

Leslie Martin, Colin St. John Wilson y James Stirling : revisión de la modernidad en la arquitectura británica = Leslie Martin, Colin St. John Wilson and James Stirling : review of modernity in British architecture

La búsqueda de nuevas formas de modernidad se convirtió en la cuestión principal de la obras desarrolladas por Leslie Martin, Colin St. John Wilson y James Stirling entre los años 1955 y 1970. Enmarcadas dentro de la sensibilidad surgida en la posguerra británica, su profundo sentido crítico supone una renovada interpretación de alguno fundamentos del Movimiento Moderno así como la reflexión sobre la modificación y el uso de formas que tienen sus raíces en la tradición cultural. Esta investigación se estructura en cuatro temas ampliamente debatidos y que han articulado parte de la revisión moderna a lo largo de la segunda mitad del siglo XX: » la abstracción y el realismo » la revisión de la idea funcionalista » la reconsideración de los arquetipos formales » la relación entre forma y contexto urbano se muestran como base crítica para las obras seleccionadas. La tendencia hacia el realismo surgió como respuesta a la voluntad de universalidad (y objetividad) que representó el lenguaje abstracto, del mismo modo que la revisión de la idea funcionalista pretendió superar la consideración de la obra arquitectónica como producto racional de su función y tecnología. La reconsideración de los arquetipos de la tradición, a su vez, muestra una preocupación por el significado de las formas culturales del pasado, una cuestión igualmente decisiva en la renovada atención a la estructura de la ciudad histórica. Estos temas evidencian un interés por ampliar la arquitectura moderna sin que el reconocimiento de las formas del pasado suponga un distanciamiento respecto al futuro. La idea de revisión, asimismo, se convierte en estrategia a la hora de encontrar nuevas respuestas. Si algunos de los principios del Movimiento Moderno surgen como reacción al clasicismo Beaux Arts que le precedió, las propuestas analizadas muestran la validez operativa de este enfoque para crear obras de una intensa modernidad. Su interés, por lo tanto, no solo radica en su consideración como objetos de estudio que amplían nuestro conocimiento de un período determinado, sino como tradición reciente que sirve de base crítica para la práctica actual. ABSTRACT The search of new forms of modernity became the main theme of the works developed by Leslie Martin, Colin St. John Wilson and James Stirling between 1955 and 1970. Belonging to the sensitivity emerged in postwar Britain, their deep critical sense encourages a renewed interpretation of some principles of Modern Movement and a reflection about the modification or the use of forms that are rooted in cultural tradition. This research is divided into four themes widely discussed and which has articulated part of modern review along the second half of the twentieth century: » Abstraction and realism » Review of Functionalism » The reconsideration of the formal archetypes » The relationship between form and urban context are shown as critical base for the selected works. The trend toward realism arose in response to the will of universality (and objectivity) that represented the abstract language, just as the review of Functionalism aimed to overcome the consideration of architecture's work as rational product of its function and technology. The reconsideration of traditional archetypes, in turn, shows a concern for the meaning of the cultural forms, a matter equally decisive in the renewed attention to the structure of the historical city. These themes evidence an interest to extend modern architecture, without thereby the recognition of the past forms imply a distancing regarding the future. The idea of review also becomes strategy in finding new answers. If some principles of the Modern Movement arose in reaction to Beaux-Arts classicism which preceded it, the analyzed proposals show the operational validity of this approach to create works of a strong modernity. Their interest, therefore, lies not only in its consideration as study cases that broaden our knowledge of a certain period, but as a recent tradition which serves as a critic basis for the current practice.