An Architecture by means of Anthropology. Beyond learning the tools of social science

Los arquitectos y urbanistas tienen una larga tradición en el aprendizaje de las herramientas de las ciencias sociales, especialmente las que les permiten analizar y describir mejor los entornos y las personas para las que trabajan. Esto ha llevado a los arquitectos a desarrollar mejores herramientas de observación y descripción del ámbito social y no sólo el material. Sin embargo, la mayoría de las veces este acercamiento interdisciplinar ha identificado las ciencias sociales, especialmente la antropología, con la etnografía. Este artículo parte de la crítica a esta identificación hecha por el antropólogo Tim Ingold y se centra en lo que él propone como el método central de la antropología, la observación participante. Para después revisar varias propuestas actuales de científicos sociales que tratan de desarrollar una disciplina no representacional y orientada al futuro, un objetivo más cercano al de la arquitectura. El artículo intenta imaginar cómo esta práctica transdisciplinar podría desarrollarse.

Digital Fabrication and Free Culture. One More Minor Becoming?

Diferentes autores se refieren a la fabricación digital como la Tercera Revolución Digital, después de las revoluciones de la computación y la comunicación. Como ocurriera con las dos revoluciones precedentes, se generaron grandes expectativas en torno a las virtualidades políticas de estas nuevas tecnologías para dar lugar a relaciones de producción más libres e individuos más autónomos. Sin embargo, como también ocurriera con la computación y la comunicación, lo que realmente está ocurriendo demuestra que las supuestas virtualidades no llegarán a hacerse actuales sin una intensa implicación, organización y trabajo por parte de sectores activistas técnicos y sociales. Se discute el caso de la compra corporativa de la empresa pionera de hardware libre Makerbot, como ejemplo de la situación y punto de inflexión en las expectativas de los nuevos tecno-visionarios. Para concluir se propone una serie de posibles estrategias que podrían promover el desarrollo efectivo de un ecosistema libre y open source de fabricación digital.

¡…Prescindible Organizado!: Agenda Docente para una formulación afectiva y disidente del Proyecto Arquitectónico

El texto que a continuación se presenta se corresponde de manera bastante fidedigna con el texto que el autor leyó en el acto de defensa de su tesis doctoral, realizada en la Universidad de Alicante el 14 de junio de 2012. El tribunal estuvo compuesto por Remedios Zafra, Federico Soriano, Jessica Jaques, Miguel Angel Hernández y Juan Freire. Los directores del trabajo fueron José María Torres Nadal y Pedro Alberto Cruz. Después de lo vivido, lo pensado, y lo contado, descubro perplejo al final de esta investigación que la relevancia de lo que hemos realizado junto con otrxs muchxs en la Universidad de Alicante, radica precisamente en una obsesión infantil por organizar lo prescindible, todo aquello que no nos es requerido para el cumplimiento de nuestras estrictas funciones académicas. O por utilizar otros términos, descubro con un cierto horror que casi nada de lo que en algún momento nos ha llegado a excitar parece atravesado por los dispositivos maquínicos institucionales.

Reuse of Spanish civil war air-raid shelters in Alicante: the R46 Balmis and R31 Seneca shelter

More than a hundred public air-raid shelters were constructed beneath Alicante during the Spanish Civil war. Their architectural uniqueness and humanitarian purpose render these shelters a tangible testament to our recent history. The Alicante Municipal Archives hold reports written by technicians who inspected the shelters in the 1940s, which were subsequently included in the Special Plan for public shelters in 1953. Half a century later, in 2003, information on the air-raid shelters was included in another Special Plan aimed at protecting Alicante’s archaeological heritage. Thanks to the work of the Municipal Heritage Conservation unit (COPHIAM) and the Special Protection Plan for Urban Archaeology (PEPA), the exact or approximate locations were identified for almost 90% of the shelters known to have existed. This paper describes interventions in two of these architectural spaces using advanced museology techniques. The first concerns air-raid shelter R46, located in the Plaza del Dr. Balmis in the city centre. This was built in 1938, and is rectangular with two entrances. The second is air-raid shelter R31, located in the Plaza Séneca.

Summary of the evolution of the fortifications of Santa Barbara Castle in Alicante from its origins to the beginning of the eighteenth century

Since ancient times, Alicante has been considered a strategic location on the east coast of Spain. Situated close to the sea, it is protected to the southeast by the Cape of Huerta and to the southwest by the Cape of Santa Pola. The city lies at the foot of Mount Benacantil, a high outcrop which has been the site of defensive buildings since time immemorial due to its naturally strong position: it was undoubtedly one of the strongest natural sites in the Levant. Its summit, lying 160 metres above the sea, is topped by a series of fortified enclosures now known as Santa Barbara Castle. This paper briefly describes the alterations made to the castle fortifications from its origins through the Renaissance, including the Muslim and Christian periods until the late fifteenth century and subsequent alterations to adapt new bastioned fortification techniques, and depicts the status of the fortress in each period. This paper is the result of doctoral research carried out at different national and international archives and leading to a thesis presented in 2011.

Engineer Leandro Badarán’s project to safeguard the fortresses of Alicante in 1794

After the construction of the San Carlos bastion in Alicante in the final decade of the seventeenth century, and the great trench which the English built around the district of San Francisco during their years of dominance in the War of Succession, the waters of the San Blas gully caused serious damage to these fortifications of the city and to the trade buildings of the port. In 1772, the diversion canal was built. It was designed to divert the riverbed of the gully and send the waters directly to the sea. The project had been initially designed by the Engineer General, Jorge Próspero de Verboom in 1721. This unique work of engineering had some defects, principally in the breakwater which prevented the waters from flowing down the former river course. On several occasions, the water returned to its original riverbed due to the weakness of the breakwater, the narrowness of the channel’s bed and its lack of regularisation, causing serious damage to the bastion, the Babel-facing façade, the traders’ warehouses and other buildings. This study describes the project that the military engineer Leandro Badarán carried out in 1794 in order to technically improve this canal and examines his report on the state of the fortifications. Similar works built in Spain are also explained. It also analyses the repeated disputes between the war department and the port throughout these years over finding a technical solution to the problem.

Tiburzio Spannocchi’s project for the fortifications of Fuenterrabía in 1580

Fuenterrabía (Hondarribia) is a town located on the Franco-Spanish border. Between the 16th and 19th centuries it was considered to be one of the most outstanding strongholds in the Basque Country due to its strategic position. The bastion system of fortification was extremely prevalent in this stronghold. It was one of the first Spanish towns to adopt the incipient Renaissance designs of the bastion. The military engineers subsequently carried out continuous fortification projects that enabled the structure to withstand the advances being made in artillery and siege tactics. After the construction of the citadel of Pamplona had begun in 1571, following the design of the prestigious military engineer, Jacobo Palear Fratín and being revised by Viceroy Vespasiano Gonzaga, the aforementioned engineer undertook an ambitious project commissioned by Felipe II to modernise the fortifications of Fuenterrabía. Neither the plans nor the report of this project have been conserved, but in the year 2000, César Fernández Antuña published the report written by Spannocchi on the state of the fortifications of Fuenterrabía when he arrived to the Spanish peninsula, discovered in the Archivo Histórico Provincial de Zaragoza. This document conducts an in-depth analysis of Spannocchi’s project and how it was related to Fratín’s previous project. It concludes that this project encountered problems in updating the new bastions at the end of the 16th century, and identifies the factors which prevented the stronghold from being extended as was the case in Pamplona after Fratín’s project.

Numerical analysis of the modal coupling at low resonances in a Colombian Andean Bandola in C using the finite element method

The work presented in this thesis is concerned with the dynamical behavior of a CBandola's acoustical box at low resonances -- Two models consisting of two and three coupled oscillators are proposed in order to analyse the response at the first two and three resonances, respectively -- These models describe the first resonances in a bandola as a combination of the lowest modes of vibration of enclosed air, top and back plates -- Physically, the coupling between these elements is caused by the fluid-structure interaction that gives rise to coupled modes of vibration for the assembled resonance box -- In this sense, the coupling in the models is expressed in terms of the ratio of effective areas and masses of the elements which is an useful parameter to control the coupling -- Numerical models are developed for the analysis of modal coupling which is performed using the Finite Element Method -- First, it is analysed the modal behavior of separate elements: enclosed air, top plate and back plate -- This step is important to identify participating modes in the coupling -- Then, a numerical model of the resonance box is used to compute the coupled modes -- The computation of normal modes of vibration was executed in the frequency range of 0-800Hz -- Although the introduced models of coupled oscillators only predict maximum the first three resonances, they also allow to study qualitatively the coupling between the rest of the computed modes in the range -- Considering that dynamic response of a structure can be described in terms of the modal parameters, this work represents, in a good approach, the basic behavior of a CBandola, although experimental measurements are suggested as further work to verify the obtained results and get more information about some characteristics of the coupled modes, for instance, the phase of vibration of the air mode and the radiation e ciency

Plan de ordenamiento territorial de la ciudad de Biblián:

Este compendio de planificación comprende el área urbana del cantón Biblián como ambiente de actuación. Durante este proceso se establecieron diversas recomendaciones en cada capítulo para establecer una respuesta sencilla a las partes que requieren mayor urgencia, como el uso de ocupación del suelo, el equipamiento, la vialidad, y la formación de un conjunto normativo que permita la actuación municipal, en actividades de prevención, control y sanción. Todos estos vinculados también a otros aspectos destacándose la demografía, la delimitación territorial, el socio-económico, la infraestructura, la vivienda, el medio ambiente, etc. El documento final se ha desarrollado en seis fases generales. Diagnóstico preliminar, plan de acciones inmediato, diagnóstico integral, prognosis la imagen objetiva, plan de ordenamiento territorial y programas y proyectos

Tratamiento paisajístico aplicado a obras viales: estudio del entorno de la variante vial Cuenca-Azogues, sector Nulti

Siendo el paisajismo una de las ramas que más contribuye al anhelo ancestral de forjar espacios funcionales, dignos y hermosos en los cuales desenvolver los afanes de los seres humanos, su aplicación abarca la totalidad del hábitat. Es pues en un ámbito en el que se conjugan lo urbano y lo rural, que se ha decidido poner en juego conocimientos sobre paisaje, a través del análisis de los efectos globales del proyecto de la Variante Vial de la Autopista Cuenca-Azogues; Parroquia Nulti, Cantón Cuenca, mismo que se encuentra en plena etapa operativa.

Urban Planning 3. Informal notes from the course's theoretical and practical content

This document compiles in an informal manner, some of the theoretical teaching content considered for the Urban Planning 3, course 2013- 2014. It also includes the outline and hand-in instructions of the two practical exercises developed during the course. The purpose of this compilation of teaching notes is to serve as reference and basis for future courses taught in English, as this was the first experience for the subject Urban Planning 3.