DESIGN STRATEGIES WITH TRADITIONAL MATERIALS Juan José Blasco Giménez. Architect Introduction In the context of A.L.I.C.E platform , that pr etends to find out new thinking and acting of sustainable form by using design as a tool, we plan a investigation line under the title “Design Strategies with Traditional Materials”. With this title we don´t mean, in the inte rior design field in which w e are working on, the standard utili zation of common m aterials in architecture or construction (ceramic materials, concrete, glass, steel, ….). W e pretend, instead of that, the recovery of techniques and/or materials used in traditiona l cultures and architec tures (in m any cases joined to craftsmanship processes), which have felt down into disuse in front of industrially made materials, apparently more economical and with a higher quality level. It is not either about using a specific type of material from an exclusively historical point of vi ew, but it is a line of investigation that p retends to analyze and ex plore new possibilities of use by m eans of basic technologies of design (analogies, scale changes, to take out of context, contrast, and so on…) Different examples are exposed below as a guide and a reference: Example nº 1: Designing with straw Traditionally straw has been being used by m ixing it up with sand, clay a nd water to create sun- dried bricks (Fig. 1) for the bearing walls construction. It is a worldwide extended technique, and it is still being used in underdeveloped countries. Actually, it is getting more frequent the cases of self-built housing with structural bearing walls made of straw blocks (Fig.2), which offer good isolation properties (besides its natural origin and to be easily recyclable). Through the use of packing-m achines, pieces of dim ensions standard 1,00x0,45x0,40 m and 20 kg of weight can be obtained, and the construction is m ade up in a similar way to the traditional bearing walls construction with adobe bricks. Fig.1. Sun-dried blocks Fig.2. Self-builte housing with straw blocks as a structural system 1
Transcript
DESIGN STRATEGIES WITH TRADITIONAL MATERIALS
Juan José Blasco Giménez. Architect
Introduction
In the context of A.L.I.C.E platform , that pr etends to find out new thinking and acting of sustainable form by using design as a tool, we plan a investigation line under the title “Design Strategies with Traditional Materials”. With this title we don´t mean, in the interior design field in which w e are working on, the standard utili zation of common m aterials in architecture or construction (ceramic materials, concrete, glass, steel, ….). W e pretend, instead of that, the recovery of techniques and/or materials used in traditiona l cultures and architec tures (in many cases joined to craftsmanship processes), which have felt down into disuse in front of industrially made materials, apparently more economical and with a higher quality level. It is not either about using a specific type of material from an exclusively historical point of vi ew, but it is a line of investigation that p retends to analyze and ex plore new possibilities of use by m eans of basic technologies of design (analogies, scale changes, to take out of context, contrast, and so on…)
Different examples are exposed below as a guide and a reference:
Example nº 1: Designing with straw
Traditionally straw has been being used by m ixing it up with sand, clay a nd water to create sun-dried bricks (Fig. 1) for the bearing walls construction. It is a worldwide extended technique, and it is still being used in underdeveloped countries.
Actually, it is getting more frequent the cases of self-built housing with structural bearing walls made of straw blocks (Fig.2), which offer good isolation properties (besides its natural origin and to be easily recyclable). Through the use of packing-m achines, pieces of dim ensions standard 1,00x0,45x0,40 m and 20 kg of weight can be obtained, and the construction is m ade up in a similar way to the traditional bearing walls construction with adobe bricks.
Fig.1. Sun-dried blocks
Fig.2. Self-builte housing with straw blocks as a
structural system1
Another example, even more interesting than the straw as a building material is offered to us by the architect Antón García Abril in the constru ction of “La Truf a”2, a s mall house or guest pavilion 25 m ² built in Costa da Morte in Galic ia. In th is case, a s the author e xplains, “we materialized the air building a volume with hay bales and flooded the space between the earth and the built air to solidify it”. The straw is used in this case as a plank mould to make a solid of concrete in m ass (Fig. 3-4), and after being reti red we discover an interior where the vegetal element has given its texture to the artificial stone of concrete (Fig. 5-6)
Fig. 3. “La Trufa”3 Constructive process
Fig. 4. Constructive process.4
Fig. 5. Final aspect of the interior once retired the Straw blocks.5
Fig. 6. Final aspect of the interior.6
Example nº 2. Designing with stones
Another traditional construction technology is about the using of stone elements to build bearing walls, by the use of irre gular pieces (masonry) or regular ones (ashlar work). We can also find examples where this techniques, reviewed from an actual point of view, offer new possibilities to the designer. That is the case of Dominus 78 winery designed by Herzog&deMeuron in California (Fig.7-8-9), or in a smaller scale the façade of a little office building projected by the architect Manuel Cerdá Perez (Fig. 10-11-12) near Valencia.
Fig.7. Winery Dominus façade, with Stone cages9
Fig.8. Detail of Stone cages 10 Fig.9. Interior winery view11
Fig.10. Detail of façade12 Fig.11. Picture of façade13
Fig.12. Interior view of offices14
Example nº 3 : Designing with cane
In the rural m editerranean architecture, cane has been used as a construction ele ment for the making of supporting roofs framework, false ceiling or partition walls (Fig. 13-14).
Fig.13. Supporting roof cane framework
Fig.14. Supporting roof cane framework
We can find som e examples of m odern architecture where the uses of cane as desig n element goes farther than those in vernacu lar architecture in which they inspire. An example of this is a house designed by Kengo Kuma in Beijing, in which he uses bamboo as the main material (Fig. 15 to 18)15 or a house projected in China by Shigeru Ban, where he uses laminated bamboo as a structural element (Fig. 19-20)16.
Fig.15. Exterior view Fig.16. Interior view of the house
Fig.17. Interior view of the house Fig.18. Interior view of the house
Fig.19. Interior view of the house Fig.20. Interior view of the house
