Ausma Bushfire Research : Photographic record of built work

Colour Photographs of built work of architecture: Ausma House, Ocean Beach, Shire of Denmark Western Australia. Conducted as 100% commercial research with QUT-Client agreement. Clients M & S Ausma.

Multi-events stadium Buchanan Park redevelopment

Multi-purpose Community Entertainment and Recreation Venue, catering for the Mount Isa Rodeo; including campdraft, equine sports, shows, exhibition, trade events, concerts and other community activities. The design involved redevelopment of a portion of the Buchanan Park Race Course located in Mount Isa. The project included community infrastructure planning, major landscaping and the construction of built facilities.

Close encounter, withdrawn effects

Extending Deleuze’s later writing on the cinema and engaging both film and built work, the article explores what I call the "close-up," an immanent subjectivity of architectural encounter, whereby the architectural surface aggressively colonizes the subject at close range through a touch or by another mechanism I describe as the "withdrawn effect," the surface assimilates the subject.

Heritage refurbishment : National Trust House (Basement 3) [Architectural Practice Academy Office]

The refurbishment of The National Trust House (Basement3), undertaken in 2005, represents heritage consultation, architectural and interior design of a disused and deteriorating subbasement of a historically and culturally significant building situated in Brisbane. Research into rectification and restoration work of the existing structure and interior surfaces (inclusive of masonry work sourced from the Kangaroo Point quarry in the 1860's) formed a significant component of the project. The National Trust House sub basement 3 was refurbished to house the Architectural Practice Academy, a joint initiative of the Queensland Government and the Australian Institute of Architects.

X + Y Bar

X + Y has attitude, enigma and re-establishes a venue drenched in a Valley persona etched over seven decades and surrounded by bars of a new generation. This is a bar without judgement, dress codes and without absolute refinement.

O'Neill Building Nudgee College

This project involved the complete refurbishment and extension of a 1980’s two-storey domestic brick building, previously used as a Boarding House (Class 3), into Middle School facilities (Class 9b) on a heritage listed site at Nudgee College secondary school, Brisbane. The building now accommodates 12 technologically advanced classrooms, computer lab and learning support rooms, tuckshop, art room, mini library/reading/stage area, dedicated work areas for science and large projects with access to water on both floors, staff facilities and an undercover play area suitable for assemblies and presentations. The project was based on a Reggio Emilia approach, in which the organisation of the physical environment is referred to as the child’s third teacher, creating opportunities for complex, varied, sustained and changing relationships between people and ideas. Classrooms open to a communal centre piazza and are integrated with the rest of the school and the school with the surrounding community. In order to achieve this linkage of the building with the overall masterplan of the site, a key strategy of the internal planning was to orientate teaching areas around a well defined active circulation space that breaks out of the building form to legibly define the new access points to the building and connect up to the pathway network of the campus. The width of the building allowed for classrooms and a generous corridor that has become ‘breakout’ teaching areas for art, IT, and small group activities. Large sliding glass walls allow teachers to maintain supervision of students across all areas and allow maximum light penetration through small domestic window openings into the deep and low-height spaces. The building was also designed with an effort to uphold cultural characteristics from the Edmund Rice Education Charter (2004). Coherent planning is accompanied by a quality fit-out, creating a vibrant and memorable environment in which to deliver the upper primary curriculum. Consistent with the Reggio Emilia approach, materials, expressive of the school’s colours, are used in a contemporary, adventurous manner to create panels of colour useful for massing and defining the ‘breakout’ teaching areas and paths of travel, and storage elements are detailed and arranged to draw attention to their aesthetic features. Modifications were difficult due to the random placement of load bearing walls, minimum ceiling heights, the general standard of finishes and new fire and energy requirements, however the reuse of this building was assessed to be up to 30% cheaper than an equivalent new building, The fit out integrates information technology and services at a level not usually found in primary school facilities. This has been achieved within the existing building fabric through thoughtful detailing and co-ordination with allied disciplines.

Badge : Brisbane Office

This two-storey office building and upper floor interior fit-out, completed for the 25th anniversary of Adelaide-based construction firm, Badge Constructions, is a signature building for the client, and its recently established Brisbane-based operations, and a showpiece for their commercial and industrial construction prowess and dynamic, collaborative and transparent work ethic. Situated in the industrial precinct of Bulimba’s Oxford Street, the building is a continuation of the street’s nearby commercial heart, whilst its architectural language references the adjacent industrial structures. The building’s shed-like skillion roof and western wall have been considered as a folded plane, allowing space to be considered as the inhabitation of the inner surface of this plane. The analogy of a lined garment, tailored to suit its wearer, clarifies the relationship between the western façade plane’s unadorned, monochromatic outer surface and the coloured and patterned inner surface, celebrating inhabitation. The use of typically external construction materials are re-positioned as an integral part of the building’s interior fit-out, alluding to Badge’s construction repertoire, and weakening traditional barriers between interior and exterior commercial space. In reference to its Queensland context, the external glazed line of the building is pulled back from the street, providing an eastern verandah edge and a northern court, as a part of the public realm. The upper floor office incorporates a cantilevered outdoor mezzanine within the northern court, whilst the adjacent reception area and stairwell utilises clear glazing in order to visually connect to the street. The building is designed to take advantage of natural light to the east, whilst shading habitable spaces from the north, a building strategy that reduces solar heat gain and energy consumption. Placement of the building’s amenities core to the west provides substantial bracing and allows maximum activation of the north and east street edge. A collaborative design process has resulted in an affordable commercial building with a high level of design resolution and relationship to its Brisbane context, while also challenging the traditional relationships between exterior and interior commercial space, and informed client and consultant team of allied disciplines.

Ausma Bushfire Research - BAL40 House

Construction drawings for Built work of Architecture. Completed July 2013. House designed to AS3959:2009 Bushfire Attack Level 40. 100% Commercial Research Project (HERDC Definition of Research)

Paper and fire : the images and ashes of Rudolf Steiner's architecture

On New Years Eve, 1922, the massive double-domed timber structure of Rudolf Steiner’s First Goetheanum was engulfed in flames and reduced to ashes. In an effort to make his spiritual teachings accessible to all people through the medium of architecture, Steiner had dedicated ten years to the project. Growing hostility towards his occult philosophy however, pointed to arson as the probable cause of the blaze. Not to be defeated, Steiner embarked upon a new design for a second Goetheanum that endeavoured to fulfil the same aim as its predecessor but on an even grander scale. Yet despite being borne out of the same ideational basis, the architectural expression of the second building was vastly different from the first. This paper examines these differences and investigates how the methods Steiner used to create his architecture influenced the final architectural products. Steiner recognised drawing as a creative instrument that could enrich the conceptual potential of his theoretical work, however, with no formal training as an architect and limited drawing ability, this exchange was somewhat limited. The ambiguity of Steiner’s drawings is countered to some extent though by the maquettes and models he produced, which help negotiate the gap between the immaterial idea and the material object. The shared three-dimensional nature of model making and architecture allowed Steiner a more direct means of articulating and mediating his esoteric ideas in built form than the two-dimensional nature of drawing, particularly given the undulating organic forms he enthusiastically employed. Nevertheless, models are still a form of architectural abstraction capable of leaving their own trace on the built work and the distinctive character of Steiner’s non-conventional models serve to illustrate this point. A comparison between Steiner’s models and the buildings themselves reveal the intimate relationship between process and product that exists in his work. While the loss of the first Goetheanum came as a crushing blow to Steiner, its destruction and reconstruction offered him a unique opportunity to reconsider aspects of the design that may have been flawed in the first instance – a situation he embraced unequivocally. What images recurred in his work and why? How did his architecture evolve? This essay will demonstrate how paper and plasticine were utilised in a highly individualised manner by Steiner as a bridge between idea and artefact, to allow new architectural forms to rise from the ashes and produce one of the twentieth century’s most extraordinary buildings.

La costruzione razionale della casa. Scritti e progetti di Giuseppe Pagano

The rational construction of the house. The writings and projects of Giuseppe Pagano Description, themes and research objectives The research aims at analysing the architecture of Giuseppe Pagano, which focuses on the theme of dwelling, through the reading of 3 of his house projects. On the one hand, these projects represent “minor” works not thoroughly known by Pagano’s contemporary critics; on the other they emphasise a particular methodological approach, which serves the author to explore a theme closely linked to his theoretical thought. The house project is a key to Pagano’s research, given its ties to the socio-cultural and political conditions in which the architect was working, so that it becomes a mirror of one of his specific and theoretical path, always in a state of becoming. Pagano understands architecture as a “servant of the human being”, subject to a “utilitarian slavery” since it is a clear, essential and “modest” answer to specific human needs, free from aprioristic aesthetic and formal choices. It is a rational architecture in sensu stricto; it constitutes a perfect synthesis between cause and effect and between function and form. The house needs to accommodate these principles because it is closely intertwined with human needs and intimately linked to a specific place, climatic conditions and technical and economical possibilities. Besides, differently from his public and common masterpieces such as the Palazzo Gualino, the Istituto di Fisica and the Università Commerciale Bocconi, the house projects are representative of a precise project will, which is expressed in a more authentic way, partially freed from political influences and dogmatic preoccupations and, therefore, far from the attempt to research a specific expressive language. I believe that the house project better represents that “ingenuity”, freshness and “sincerity” that Pagano identifies with the minor architecture, thereby revealing a more authentic expression of his understanding of a project. Therefore, the thesis, by tracing the theoretical research of Pagano through the analysis of some of his designed and built works, attempts to identify a specific methodological approach to Pagano’s project, which, developed through time, achieves a certain clarity in the 1930s. In fact, this methodological approach becomes more evident in his last projects, mainly regarding the house and the urban space. These reflect the attempt to respond to the new social needs and, at the same time, they also are an expression of a freer idea of built architecture, closely linked with the place and with the human being who dwells it. The three chosen projects (Villa Colli, La Casa a struttura d’acciaio and Villa Caraccio) make Pagano facing different places, different customers and different economic and technical conditions, which, given the author’s biography, correspond to important historical and political conditions. This is the reason why the projects become apparently distant works, both linguistically and conceptually, to the point that one can define them as ”eclectic”. However, I argue that this eclecticism is actually an added value to the architectural work of Pagano, steaming from the use of a method which, having as a basis the postulate of a rational architecture as essence and logic of building, finds specific variations depending on the multiple variables to be addressed by the project. This is the methodological heritage that Pagano learns from the tradition, especially that of the rural residential architecture, defined by Pagano as a “dictionary of the building logic of man”, as an “a-stylistic background”. For Pagano this traditional architecture is a clear expression of the relationships between a theme and its development, an architectural “fact” that is resolved with purely technical and utilitarian aims and with a spontaneous development far from any aprioristic theoretical principle. Architecture, therefore, cannot be an invention for Pagano and the personal contribution of each architect has to consider his/her close relationship with the specific historical context, place and new building methods. These are basic principles in the methodological approach that drives a great deal of his research and that also permits his thought to be modern. I argue that both ongoing and new collaborations with younger protagonists of the culture and architecture of the period are significant for the development of his methodology. These encounters represent the will to spread his own understanding of the “new architecture” as well as a way of self-renewal by confronting the self with new themes and realities and by learning from his collaborators. Thesis’ outline The thesis is divided in two principal parts, each articulated in four chapters attempting to offer a new reading of the theory and work of Pagano by emphasising the central themes of the research. The first chapter is an introduction to the thesis and to the theme of the rational house, as understood and developed in its typological and technical aspects by Pagano and by other protagonists of the Italian rationalism of the 1930s. Here the attention is on two different aspects defining, according to Pagano, the house project: on the one hand, the typological renewal, aimed at defining a “standard form” as a clear and essential answer to certain needs and variables of the project leading to different formal expressions. On the other, it focuses on the building, understood as a technique to “produce” architecture, where new technologies and new materials are not merely tools but also essential elements of the architectural work. In this way the villa becomes different from the theme of the common house or from that of the minimalist house, by using rules in the choice of material and in the techniques that are every time different depending on the theme under exploration and on the contingency of place. It is also visible the rigorous rationalism that distinguishes the author's appropriation of certain themes of rural architecture. The pages of “Casabella” and the events of the contemporary Triennali form the preliminary material for the writing of this chapter given that they are primary sources to individuate projects and writings produced by Pagano and contemporary architects on this theme. These writings and projects, when compared, reconstruct the evolution of the idea of the rational house and, specifically, of the personal research of Pagano. The second part regards the reading of three of Pagano’s projects of houses as a built verification of his theories. This section constitutes the central part of the thesis since it is aimed at detecting a specific methodological approach showing a theoretical and ideological evolution expressed in the vast edited literature. The three projects that have been chosen explore the theme of the house, looking at various research themes that the author proposes and that find continuity in the affirmation of a specific rationalism, focussed on concepts such as essentiality, utility, functionality and building honesty. These concepts guide the thought and the activities of Pagano, also reflecting a social and cultural period. The projects span from the theme of the villa moderna, Villa Colli, which, inspired by the architecture of North Europe, anticipates a specific rationalism of Pagano based on rigour, simplicity and essentiality, to the theme of the common house, Casa a struttura d’acciaio, la casa del domani, which ponders on the definition of new living spaces and, moreover, on new concepts of standardisation, economical efficiency and new materials responding to the changing needs of the modern society. Finally, the third project returns to the theme of the, Villa Caraccio, revisiting it with new perspectives. These perspectives find in the solution of the open plant, in the openness to nature and landscape and in the revisiting of materials and local building systems that idea of the freed house, which express clearly a new theoretical thought. Methodology It needs to be noted that due to the lack of an official Archive of Pagano’s work, the analysis of his work has been difficult and this explains the necessity to read the articles and the drawings published in the pages of «Casabella» and «Domus». As for the projects of Villa Colli and Casa a struttura d’acciaio, parts of the original drawings have been consulted. These drawings are not published and are kept in private archives of the collaborators of Pagano. The consultation of these documents has permitted the analysis of the cited works, which have been subject to a more complete reading following the different proposed solutions, which have permitted to understand the project path. The projects are analysed thought the method of comparison and critical reading which, specifically, means graphical elaborations and analytical schemes, mostly reconstructed on the basis of original projects but, where possible, also on a photographic investigation. The focus is on the project theme which, beginning with a specific living (dwelling) typology, finds variations because of the historico-political context in which Pagano is embedded and which partially shapes his research and theoretical thought, then translated in the built work. The analysis of the work follows, beginning, where possible, from a reconstruction of the evolution of the project as elaborated on the basis of the original documents and ending on an analysis of the constructive principles and composition. This second phase employs a methodology proposed by Pagano in his article Piante di ville, which, as expected, focuses on the plant as essential tool to identify the “true practical and poetic qualities of the construction”(Pagano, «Costruzioni-Casabella», 1940, p. 2). The reading of the project is integrated with the constructive analyses related to the technical aspects of the house which, in the case of Casa a struttura d’acciaio, play an important role in the project, while in Villa Colli and in Villa Caraccio are principally linked to the choice of materials for the construction of the different architectural elements. These are nonetheless key factors in the composition of the work. Future work could extend this reading to other house projects to deepen the research that could be completed with the consultation of Archival materials, which are missing at present. Finally, in the appendix I present a critical selection of the Pagano’s writings, which recall the themes discussed and embodied by the three projects. The texts have been selected among the articles published in Casabella and in other journals, completing the reading of the project work which cannot be detached from his theoretical thought. Moving from theory to project, we follow a path that brings us to define and deepen the central theme of the thesis: rational building as the principal feature of the architectural research of Pagano, which is paraphrased in multiple ways in his designed and built works.

La planta Miralles: representación y pensamiento en la arquitectura de Enric Miralles

Resulta imposible disociar la evolución de la arquitectura de Enric Miralles de lo que fue el desarrollo de un sistema de representación propio. Partiendo de una posición heredada de su formación en la Escuela de Arquitectura de Barcelona y de su práctica en el estudio Viaplana-Piñón, donde adquiere el gusto por la precisión en el dibujo técnico, la delineación sobre papel vegetal o el grafismo constituido exclusivamente a base de líneas del mismo grosor, Miralles pronto evoluciona hacia un método caracterizado por un personal uso del sistema diédrico, vinculado a una concepción fragmentaria de la planta de arquitectura y del espacio mismo. Miralles proyectará por fragmentos de planta, asignándoles una geometría característica para diferenciarlos entre sí y desarrollar su espacialidad y sección con cierta autonomía, a través de planos y maquetas independientes. Gran parte de la arquitectura que elabora con Carme Pinós, en solitario o con Benedetta Tagliabue, estará compuesta por colecciones de piezas heterogéneas herederas de los fragmentos de la planta original, que encajan entre sí no en base a esquemas clásicos de integración subordinada o jerárquica, sino a través de posiciones relativas de yuxtaposición o superposición, caracterizadas por una ausencia de compacidad en la solución de conjunto. Este sistema de representación se apoya por tanto en la geometría como mecanismo de diferenciación por piezas, se basa en la fragmentación del diédrico desde la fragmentación de la planta, y en la falta de compacidad como soporte de pensamiento separativo. Un sistema que se define como “planta Miralles”, término que incluye todas las técnicas de representación empleadas por el arquitecto, desde planos a maquetas, pero que enfatiza la importancia estratégica de la planta como origen y guía del proyecto de arquitectura. La tesis se estructura en los tres primeros capítulos como un corolario de las categorías enunciadas, explicando, en orden cronológico a través de los proyectos, la evolución de la geometría, la utilización del diédrico, y el impacto de la falta de compacidad en la obra construida. Mientras que estos capítulos son globales, se refieren a la trayectoria de este método en su totalidad, el cuarto y último es un estudio de detalle de su aplicación en un proyecto particular, el Ayuntamiento de Utrecht, a través de los dibujos originales de Miralles. Tanto en la explicación global como en el estudio de detalle de este sistema de representación, la tesis pone de manifiesto su instrumentalidad en el pensamiento de esta arquitectura, argumentando que ésta no podría haber sido desarrollada sin la existencia del mismo. La relación entre representación y pensamiento es por tanto un tema capital para explicar esta obra. No obstante, hasta la fecha, las referencias al mismo en la bibliografía disponible no han pasado de ser una colección de opiniones dispersas, incapaces de construir por sí mismas un cuerpo estructurado y coherente de conocimiento. Se ha insistido sobremanera en el análisis y contextualización de los proyectos individuales, y poco en el estudio de la técnica proyectual utilizada para pensarlos y llevarlos a cabo. En definitiva, se han priorizado los resultados frente a los procesos creativos, existiendo por tanto un inexplicable vacío teórico respecto a un tema de gran importancia. Este vacío es el marco donde se inserta la necesidad de esta tesis doctoral. La investigación que aquí se presenta explica el origen y evolución del sistema de representación de Enric Miralles, desde su etapa como estudiante en la Escuela de Arquitectura de Barcelona hasta los últimos proyectos que elabora con Benedetta Tagliabue, así como el estudio de sus consecuencias en la obra construida. Termina concluyendo que su desarrollo es paralelo al de la arquitectura de Miralles, poniendo de manifiesto su vinculación y mutua interdependencia. ABSTRACT It is impossible to dissociate the evolution of the architecture of Enric Miralles from the development of his own system of representation. Starting from a position inherited from his training at the Barcelona School of Architecture and his practice at the office of Viaplana-Piñón, where he acquires a liking for precision in drafting and a graphic style based exclusively on lines of the same thickness, Miralles soon moves into a method defined by a customized use of the dihedral system, connected to a fragmented conception of the floorplan and space itself. Breaking up the floorplan into multiple fragments, Miralles will design an architecture where each of them has a unique shape and geometry, developing their sections and spatial qualities with a certain degree of autonomy within the whole, through separate plans and models. Many of the projects he designs with Carme Pinós, individually or with Benedetta Tagliabue, will consist of collections of heterogeneous pieces, heirs of the original floorplan fragments, which do not fit together according to classical principles of subordinate or hierarchical integration, but based on relative positions of juxtaposition or superposition that lead to a lack of compactness in the overall scheme. This system of representation is thus based on the use of geometry as a way of differentiating architectural pieces, on the fragmentation of the dihedral system from the fragmentation of the floorplan, and on a lack of compactness as a device of separative thinking. This system is defined as “Miralles plan”, a term that includes all techniques of representation used by the architect, from plans to models, and that emphasizes the particular importance of the floorplan as the guiding force of the design process. The first three chapters of the thesis have been structured as a corollary of these categories, explaining, in chronological order through Miralles’ projects, the evolution of geometry, the customization of the dihedral system, and the impact of the lack of compactness on the built work. While these three chapters are global, for they refer to the overall evolution of this system, the fourth and last one is a case study of its application to a particular project, the Utrecht Town Hall, through Miralles’ original drawings. Both in the global and particular explanations of this system of representation, the thesis highlights its instrumentality in the process of thinking this architecture, arguing that it could not have been designed without its parallel development. The relationship between thinking and representation is therefore a key issue to explain this architecture. However, to date, existing references to it in the available literature have not evolved from a collection of scattered opinions, unable to build for themselves a structured and coherent body of knowledge. Great emphasis has been put on the critical contextualization of this architecture through the analysis of the projects themselves, but little on the study of the design technique used to think and carry them out. Results have been prioritized over creative processes, existing therefore an inexplicable theoretical void on an issue of great importance. This void is the conceptual framework where the need for this thesis is inserted. This research explains the origin and evolution of Enric Miralles’ system of representation, from his time as student at the Barcelona School of Architecture to the last projects he designed with Benedetta Tagliabue, as well as the study of its impact on the built work. It concludes that the development of this system runs parallel to that of the architecture it is used for, making it explicit its indissolubility and mutual interdependence.

El pensamiento creativo de Fernando Higueras

Para acercarnos al pensamiento creativo de Fernando Higueras como arquitecto, partimos del estudio de sus constantes creativas en evolución cronológica divididas en 9 direcciones de investigación. En ellas observamos la importancia de su obra NO CONSTRUIDA, como germen de las constantes creativas de su pensamiento y parte de ella la estudiamos, analizamos y reconstruimos gráficamente en 3D. Fernando Higueras aprendía de sus obras o propuestas arquitectónicas anteriores llegando a la madurez constructiva y formal colmada de Belleza a través de la composición y combinación de dichas constantes con pasmosa naturalidad. Además es importante añadir, para llegar a la comprensión de las constantes del pensamiento creativo del arquitecto, el componente de “intuición” de todo artista, de su modo de mirar y observar las cosas como fuente de inspiración. El “modo de mirar” del arquitecto nos habla de su sensibilidad al hábitat popular y vernáculo del hombre. Gracias a Antonio Miró en el período 1963-1970, Fernando Higueras pudo dar marco real a gran parte de sus ideas constructivas. El objeto de estudio del presente trabajo es llegar a las “invariantes” del arquitecto para comprender su pensamiento creativo. Los objetivos del presente estudio han sido conocer mejor su pensamiento, su obra desde un punto de vista cronológico-evolutivo para poder llegar a entender las relaciones y conexiones creativas entre unas y otras, observar y constatar la evolución de sus constantes creativas y compositivas, de analizar gráficamente parte de su obra no construida para llegar a la mejor comprensión de dichas constantes reconstruyéndolas con los medios gráficos digitales actuales. La reconstrucción en 3D de parte de su obra no construida constata la magnitud de su pensamiento creativo. La metodología empleada parte de la recopilación de toda la información necesaria, escritos, artículos en revistas o periódicos, críticas, observaciones, planos, proyectos, memorias, fotografías de la época, maquetas, opiniones de sus contemporáneos, familiares o amigos y visita de parte de su obra construida. A partir de ahí se fijan 9 direcciones de investigación para cada constante de su pensamiento creativo. En cada dirección se analiza desde dos puntos de vista diferentes. Un primer punto de vista teórico o cronológico-evolutivo a partir de la selección de algunas de sus obras construidas y no construidas. Y otro segundo punto de vista gráfico basándose en el estudio y reconstrucción de parte de su obra no construida. En resultado, se ha estudiado la evolución de su obra viendo las conexiones y relaciones entre unas y otras llegando a la madurez de sus constantes creativas en sus obras, algunas construidas y otras no construidas. Fernando Higueras se perfecciona así mismo, intentando hacer las cosas cada vez un poco mejor, llegando a dominar sus propias constantes en total madurez y expresión formal y constructiva. La elaboración de modelos tridimensionales en 13 proyectos de su obra no construida nos refresca la capacidad de su pensamiento creativo, además de analizar en parte de ellas los gérmenes constructivos y compositivos de muchas de sus ideas o constantes creativas. Finalmente, este trabajo ha contribuido a llegar a entender a Fernando Higueras en una dimensión más amplia, desde el frescor de su obra no construida hasta la capacidad de su pensamiento creativo, de la evolución de sus constantes, del estudio de sus últimos proyectos no construidos, de su sensibilidad a todas las artes y a todo lo que engloba Belleza. Las 360 láminas de dibujos que se aportan inician el estudio y análisis de su vasta obra no construida. ABSTRACT The analysis of Fernando Higueras's creative thought as an architect begins with a study of his main creative themes and their chronological evolution, divided into nine directions of research. Here we see the importance of his UNBUILT work as the germ of the creative themes of his thought, part of which we study, analyse and reconstruct graphically in 3-D. Fernando Higueras drew on his earlier architectural works and ideas and reached an ultimate constructive and formal maturity that was infused with beauty through composition and the amazingly natural combination of these keynote themes. In order to gain a greater understanding of the key themes of the architect's creative thought it is also worth noting the element of artists' intuition, their way of seeing and observing the world as a source of inspiration. The architect's "way of seeing" reveals his sensitivity to the popular and traditional human habitat. Thanks to Antonio Miró, in the period between 1963 and 1970 Fernando Higueras was able to provide a real framework for a large part of his constructive ideas. The object of study of the present work is to determine the architect's “invariables” as a means of understanding his creative thought. The aims of the present study are to explore his thoughts in greater depth, to examine his work from the chronological-evolutionary point of view for an insight into the relationships and the creative connections between them, to observe and apprehend the evolution of his main creative themes and compositional keynotes, to analyse graphically part of his unbuilt work in order to improve our understanding of these underlying themes through their reconstruction using the latest graphic digital resources. The 3-D reconstruction of part of his unbuilt work highlights the magnitude of his creative thought. The methodology used to collect all the necessary information includes an examination of his writings and articles in journals and newspapers, criticisms, observations, plans, projects, building specifications, period photographs, models, the opinions of his contemporaries, family and friends, and visits to some of his built work. Nine directions of research were then established for each main theme of his creative thought. Each direction includes an analysis from two different points of view: the first, theoretical or chronological-evolutionary aspect, based on a selection of some of his built and unbuilt works; and a second graphic aspect based on the study and reconstruction of part of his unbuilt work. The result is a survey of the evolution of his work with a view to establishing the connections and their interrelationships, through to the ultimate maturity of his creative themes in both his built and unbuilt work. Fernando Higueras is on a constant quest for excellence, a perpetual desire to do things a little better, until a point where he gains mastery over his own recurrent themes, in the fullness of maturity and of his formal and constructive expression. The creation of three-dimensional models in 13 projects of his unbuilt work offers a new look at the capacity of his creative thought, in addition to the analysis of the evidence in some of these projects of the constructive and compositional germs of many of his ideas and themes. Finally, this work has contributed to the understanding of Fernando Higueras in a broader dimension, from the freshness of his unbuilt work through to the capacity of his creative thought, the evolution of his main themes, the study of his final unbuilt works, his sensitivity to the arts as a whole and to everything beautiful. The 360 plates of illustrations provided form the basis of the study and analysis of his extensive unbuilt work.

La construcción de la transparencia : Museo de Arte Contemporáneo del siglo 21 de Kanazawa - SANAA

La tesis doctoral “La construcción de la transparencia. Museo de Arte Contemporáneo del Siglo 21 de Kanazawa / SANAA” estudia, desde diferentes perspectivas, esta obra de los arquitectos japoneses Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa / SANAA. El museo, proyectado y construido entre 1999 y 2004, supone un referente arquitectónico de gran relevancia en el cambio de siglo, y está considerado un manifiesto construido en el que resuenan ecos culturales y sociales de su época. La investigación toma como constante el Museo del Siglo 21 de Kanazawa y a través de él se realizan una serie de miradas transversales a modo de narrativas interconectadas. Estas visiones múltiples colaboran, a través de las relaciones que se producen entre ellas, a generar un entendimiento global de esta obra y sus efectos sobre la cultura arquitectónica contemporánea. La tesis se estructura en dos partes: la primera estudia de manera analítica la obra en su contexto cultural, el proceso de proyecto y el edificio construido. La segunda parte propone una triple lectura interpretativa del edificio en relación a temas de especial relevancia para el proyecto y al modelo de espacio que constituye, tomando de nuevo como constante la noción de transparencia. La tesis partirá de la interpretación que hace del museo su directora artística Yuko Hasegawa, cuya colaboración activa durante el proceso de diseño resultó de gran relevancia para el resultado final. Hasegawa define la obra como la materialización de una situación cultural característica del nuevo siglo basada en tres conceptos: La Coexistencia, la Consciencia y la Inteligencia Colectiva. A partir de dichas ideas entenderemos la transparencia no sólo desde el punto de vista de las cualidades físicas y materiales del espacio sino también, desde una perspectiva más amplia: como estrategia utilizada para clarificar la organización funcional del edificio y las relaciones entre sus partes como posición política, catalizadora del espacio público; la producción de consciencia a través de la experiencia del arte y la arquitectura; y como medio de representación y generación de una identidad colectiva basada en la visibilidad mediática. Las conclusiones de esta investigación, extraídas de las confluencias y puntos de intersección de las diferentes miradas transversales proyectadas sobre la obra, determinan una clara voluntad por parte de los arquitectos de construir un espacio donde lo público se entiende como el ensamblaje de diferentes individualidades. De manera similar al proceso de proyecto, la multiplicidad y las relaciones entre elementos autónomos generan un consciencia colectiva del espacio donde, a través de la organización programática, la construcción y el uso de los materiales y la luz, la arquitectura tiene la voluntad de desvanecerse para ofrecer protagonismo a sus usuarios y a las relaciones y encuentros que se producen entre ellos y con el espacio que habitan. ABSTRACT The PhD thesis “The construction of transparency. 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa / SANAA” studies, from different perspectives, this work, realized by Japanese architects Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa / SANAA. The museum, designed and built between 1999 and 2004, had a huge relevance as an architectural referent in the swift of the century, being considered a built manifesto that echoes the culture and society of its time. The research takes as a constant the 21st Century Museum in Kanazawa and it is studied throughout a series of transversal readings as interconnected narratives. These multiple approaches and the relations among them, help to generate a global understanding of the building and its effects on contemporary architectural culture. The dissertation is structured in two parts: the first one studies from an analytical perspective the project in its cultural context, the process of design and the built work. The second part proposes a triple interpretative reading of the building in relation to topics that are especially relevant for the project and the spatial model that it constitutes, taking again the notion of transparency as a constant concept. The thesis departs from the interpretation expressed by the artistic director of the museum, Yuko Hasegawa, whose active collaboration during the design process had special relevance for the final result. She defines the work as the materialization of the cultural context of the new century based in three concepts: Co-existence, Consciousness and Collective Intelligence. From these concepts we will understand transparency, not only from the point of view of the physical and material qualities of the space, but also from a broader perspective: as an strategy used to clarify the functional organization of the building and the relation of its parts as political stand that catalyzes the public space; the production of consciousness based on the experience of art and architecture; and as a method of representation and construction of a collective identity based in the media visibility. The conclusions of this research -extracted from the confluences and intersections of the different transversal readings projected on the work- determine a clear intention by the architects to build a space where the public is understood as an assembly of different individualities. In a similar way as it happens in the design process, the multiplicity of relations between autonomous elements generate a collective consciousness of the space. Throughout the programmatic organization, the construction and the use of light and materials, the architecture has the will of disappearance to yield protagonist the users and the relations and encounters that happen among them and the space they inhabit.

Hacer… hablar; hablar… tal vez habitar. Apuntes sobre lo dicho y hecho por Adolf Loos (1870-1933)

Ornamento y delito y Arquitectura, los dos artículos que sin duda han contribuido a difundir el ideario y a sustentar la celebridad del arquitecto Adolf Loos (1870-1933), proceden de sendas conferencias. Su origen, por consiguiente, es de naturaleza oral. Y la polémica desencadenada a raíz de ellos los convierte, en su época y para la Historia, en auténticos oráculos, cuyo sentido sus transcripciones, tanto francesa como alemana, inevitablemente en parte desvirtúan. Solo cotejando lo dicho por el maestro, y luego escrito y publicado, con su obra edificada podemos restituir el sentido original de su pensamiento. Esta es la hipótesis sobre la que discurrimos. A sus palabras y obras habrá que sumar la atención que el arquitecto y periodista, que así se confiesa, confiere a los oficios y a los materiales que los sustentan, en la línea de pensamiento de Gottfried Semper, como fundamento del diseño. Es pues a la luz de su concurrencia a la obra de arquitectura, y de ésta al espacio de habitación, y no de otros documentos gráficos y fotográficos, como ha de valorarse lo dicho y escrito por Loos, si nos atenemos a sus propias recomendaciones. Lo dicho se ilumina con lo hecho. Y lo hecho se autoriza por lo habitado.

Interdisciplinarity: perceptions of the value of computer-supported collaborative work in design for the built environment

This paper presents the findings from a study into the current exploitation of computer-supported collaborative working (CSCW) in design for the built environment in the UK. The research is based on responses to a web-based questionnaire. Members of various professions, including civil engineers, architects, building services engineers, and quantity surveyors, were invited to complete the questionnaire. The responses reveal important trends in the breadth and size of project teams at the same time as new pressures are emerging regarding team integration and efficiency. The findings suggest that while CSCW systems may improve project management (e.g., via project documentation) and the exchange of information between team members, it has yet to significantly support those activities that characterize integrated collaborative working between disparate specialists. The authors conclude by combining the findings with a wider discussion of the application of CSCW to design activity-appealing for CSCW to go beyond multidisciplinary working to achieve interdisciplinary working.