Estoa. Journal of the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism

Evaluation, assessment, and validation of research in architecture, construction, and urbanism: justifying perceptions

David Fonseca Escudero — 2024-07-31

Estoa journal´s editorial emphasises the increasing importance of evaluation and validation processes in scientific publications, particularly in architectural research. It highlights the necessity of generating and contextualising processes to ensure replicability, functionality, and sustainability in research studies. The integration of new technologies, such as digital simulation, virtual reality, and biomaterials, has revolutionised these processes, enhancing the precision and rigour of evaluations. The journal's current issue focuses on the impact of these technologies on architectural and urban studies, presenting 16 diverse articles that explore various aspects of this transformation. Key themes include the application of innovative technologies in architecture, urbanism, and public policy, emphasising sustainability, bioclimatic efficiency, and heritage preservation. The editorial concludes by encouraging readers to reflect on improving evaluation processes and responsibly educating future generations to use these new technologies effectively. It underscores the critical role of precision, sustainability, and adaptability in modern society and the significant impact of technological advancements on architectural and urban environments.

In response to the specific. The Space Between in Alison and Peter Smithson

Nieves Fernández-Villalobos — 2024-07-31

Some terms, such as neighbourhood, doorstep philosophy, or space between, take on particular significance in the work of Alison and Peter Smithson. The latter, especially, is a recurring term in their writings and works. Exploring the origins of their interest in this concept, the influence of Nigel Henderson and his impact on the Team X, as well as their reflections on the quality of the space between, based on the paintings of Pieter de Hoch, is the main aim of this writing. It is therefore proposed to explore some of the approaches that invite us to unravel the concept: through the void, the sky, the layers and lattices, the trees, we can observe how the space between enriches Smithsons’ architecture in order to serve each person and each place precisely and, in this way, offer answers to the specific; an approach that is, ultimately, at the origin of all their reflections.

Sound and Space as Compositional Tools: Using the Reverberation of a Basilica as part of a Musical Composition

Francisco Pérez Mora Bowen — 2024-07-31

Classical composers such as Wagner, Mahler, Handel, and Debussy, among others, noticed that a space’s acoustic qualities affected their compositions, so they made intuitive arrangements to their performances to suit the space. Some contemporary musicians, on the other hand, incorporate those sonic characteristics as part of their composition. Pauline Oliveros, John Butcher, and Paul Bavister are some composers who produce site-specific works, compositions that include the site’s sound as part of their sound works. This project proposes site stimulation as a methodology to extract Basilica del Voto Nacional’s reverberation, a neo-gothic church in Quito, Ecuador, to produce a site-specific sound work: Composition for a Jazz Quartet and for a Basilica. This research aims not only to use spatial sonic qualities for music composition but also to propose a friendly, day-to-day activity, such as listening to music, as a learning method to acknowledge spatial sound phenomena.

Between media influence and pedagogy in architecture: production of meaning from Luis Barragan’s Pritzker Prize acceptance speech

Andrés Román Guerrero — 2024-07-31

This text proposes a methodology for teaching and learning the history of architecture, based on the temporal influence of certain legitimizing media as a source of interpretation of architectural languages. The resulting pedagogy is based on the immediate, the mediatic and the mediatized forms, derived from research in architectural communication that analyzes the acceptance speeches of the Pritzker Architecture Prize between 1979 and 2015 and their impact on contemporary architectural culture. It examines the architectural signs enunciated by Luis Barragán and compares them with those of other editions, crossing the information gathered with other approaches, such as that of the languages of the architectural collective imaginary in different contexts, to obtain an alternative didactic for this type of readings. The resulting non-canonical teaching methodology interweaves theories, concepts or terms that reflect the understanding of architecture at a specific time thanks to the work of certain media actors.

Superblock Model for Social Housing in the context of the Modern Movement Review: Lucio Costa’s proposal for Alagados

Carla Conceição Barreto — 2024-07-31

The approach to the urban development plan by Brazilian architect Lucio Costa for the Alagados neighborhood (1972) emphasizes the dimension of social housing in its urban planning, highlighting the incorporations carried out in response to the revisions of the modern movement. The study contextualizes revisionist approaches in urban plans, focusing on housing clusters in superblocks and their relationship with public facilities, bringing out the organicist paradigm, aiming for flexibility in urban planning. An approach is taken that includes a specific architectural historiography and design theory, reviewing Lucio Costa’s proposal through the analysis of documents, plans, and works. Given the disagreement between social housing policy based on utopian ideals and real estate interests, Lucio Costa’s superblock proposal presents its adaptable morphology, concluding that the implementation of Lucio Costa’s proposal could possibly have provided substantial positive results to Alagados.

A Comparative Study driven by Spatial Performance and VR toward Wayfinding in Architectural Space: Healthcare Buildings as a Case Study

Bahar Okuyucu — 2024-07-31

Healthcare buildings can be complicated to navigate, causing patients to experience stress and lose time if not adequately planned. This study aims to identify the relationship between the spatial layout in healthcare buildings and wayfinding for users, by utilizing Behavioral Sequence Analysis (BSA) and Space Syntax through Immersive Virtual Reality (iVR). The methodology is based on behavioral and spatial data and was tested by using the experimental setups in VR environments. Space syntax analysis is applied to collect spatial data. Experiments were conducted by assigning wayfinding tasks in virtual hospitals with various plan configurations. Behavioral data obtained from BSA was associated with the spatial data driven by the space syntax analysis to gain a comprehensive understanding of the participants’ wayfinding behavior. The results indicate that the semi-centralized floor plan layout with high visibility levels performs better in wayfinding while the decentralized layout with low visibility values performs worse.

Bioclimatic analysis of three buildings by Gilberto Gatto Sobral. Study case Universidad Central del Ecuador

Ursula Freire Castro — 2024-07-31

The bioclimatic quality of three buildings by architect Gilberto Gatto Sobral at Universidad Central del Ecuador was evaluated with two objectives: to find problems that might affect users’ health and productivity, and to establish if climate had a significant role in the design of these buildings The buildings included two faculties: Law and Economics, and the General Administration. Bioclimatic quality was established by comparing existing levels of temperature, relative humidity, and natural light against comfort standards and the local climate. Data were measured over two years in space samples using data loggers. It was concluded that all buildings have spaces outside of comfort being too cold and dark; and climate played a minor role because despite attempts to control natural light, the thermal behavior of materials and the sun’s apparent movement were ignored.

Repairing and destructive effects of microorganisms in buildings

Liliana Carolina Córdova Albores — 2024-07-31

In architecture, microorganisms can act as heroes or villains. However, research on microorganisms has been delegated to engineering sciences and is usually conducted in parallel with architecture. This study analyzes scientific advances in biomaterials, including microorganisms that benefit materials and microorganisms that degrade buildings. The methodology consisted of a literature review, followed by a classification and description of the microorganisms to facilitate the analysis of the findings. The results revealed that some microorganisms provide materials with positive characteristics, such as greater durability, self-repair, increased compression and absorption, and most importantly, environmental sustainability. During destructive processes, microorganisms primarily affect heritage buildings because of their destructive properties. The biodegradation of buildings can be slowed, delayed, or inhibited by microorganisms; therefore, this analysis can provide an opportunity to advance materials research.

Composite fabrics: Typological - exploratory study for permanent tensile structures in Ecuador

ANDREA Goyes Balladares — 2024-07-31

Tensile structures represent a notable evolution of construction materials, from their incipient construction using fabrics made with natural fibers to fabrics developed with high-performance synthetic fibers, which show the transformation of engineering and the design of new materials. The purpose of this document is to explore the use of composite fabrics in permanent tensile structural systems in Ecuador. Exploratory descriptive research is carried out, which identifies the types of application through a systematic classification. The results obtained focus on the characteristics of the use of tensile structures, construction region and detail of the technical, mechanical and physical characteristics, from the structural element approach in tensioned systems.

Morphology and photovoltaic architectural integration: students’ explorations on the ‘fifth façade’ in Lima’s multi-family projects

Richard H. Valdivia Sisniegas — 2024-07-31

The aesthetic integration of solar systems with multi-family buildings remains rare in Latin American countries. This article considers sixty-five projects by architecture students in Lima (Peru) to establish compositional criteria using typological classifications of the solar system layout on the roofs, volumetric composition, and their relationship with façades and lower spaces. The results show a wide range of variables that must be resolved. However, there are limitations to understanding this integration when dealing with the inclination of roofs as well as the coherence and geometric arrangement in irregular configurations. More emphasis is required on understanding the interior organisation and its implications for solar systems when designing multi-family houses. Previous research on the quantification of solar incidence has already been published; however, more research for further aesthetic assessments in medium-density multi-family dwellings could be carried out in the future.

Eclecticism, openness and reflection. Interior design through Spanish architecture magazines 1925-1936

María Villanueva Fernández — 2024-07-31

With the arrival of modernity, the architect assumed a leading role in the interior design and furniture scene. New proposals from Europe designed by international architects, began to be introduced in Spain through architectural periodicals. The national magazines echoed these contents and became the vehicles for the dissemination of the new forms. This research, based on a study of articles published in eleven Spanish architectural journals between 1925 and 1936, aims, on the one hand, to provide a global perspective on the evolution of interest in interior design in Spain in that period, on the other hand, to reflect on the role of the architect in the development and dissemination of modern interiors and furniture.

Authorship, co-authorship, and creativity in architecture. Drawing, notation and representation

Carlos L. Marcos Alba — 2024-07-31

The notion of authorship in architecture has been connected to the prominence of drawing as an autographic record of the design process since the Renaissance. The conditions and limits considering the co-authorship of a work are analyzed and a classification is proposed in relation to the different ways of considering authorship within the complex process of architectural production when several actors are involved. The role of creativity in this process is also studied regarding the context of the disciplinary past. Finally, we analyze the progressive fading of authorship concerning this graphic record of the process with the emergence of new technologies or the progressive transdisciplinary specialization that spurs the consideration of other kinds of non-graphic relationships between author and work.

Museum reinvention in the face of the pandemic challenge: digitization strategies, heritage, and audiences

Yolanda López López — 2024-07-31

The pandemic period served as a catalyst in the museums’ adaptation, leading them to embrace innovation, collaboration, and resilience. As they emerged from the covid-19 crisis, these institutions found themselves in a unique position to play a vital role in society’s rebuilding and in preserving cultural heritage in an ever-changing world. The article aims to explore the main measures adopted, review the scientific literature on the subject, highlight some relevant cases in European, Asian, and American museums, and identify the challenges and dynamics driven in the post-pandemic period. The text stems from a thorough literature review to determine how the museum field should reconfigure its presence, considering three factors: technology, heritage, and audience. A landscape in which the presence of social networks, the rise of online exhibitions, and other digital resources are considered fundamental.

The role of heritage and citizenship in the configuration of a sustainable city model supported by the new urban agendas. From the international scale to a regional model, the case of Andalusia

Juan Antonio Calderón Torres — 2024-07-31

In the current situation marked by a necessary ecosocial transition, the new urban agendas have been acquiring a leading role, establishing strategies for the transformation of cities based on the principles of sustainability, where the cultural approach takes on a relevant role. The aim of this article is to analyze, the framework agendas drawn up at different levels of government, from the perspective of heritage and culture.

To this end, the documents that make up the International, European, Spanish and Andalusian urban agendas are analyzed by means of a bibliographical review, considering heritage and citizenship as key components in the urban configuration. As a result of the multilevel analysis, a series of key factors are identified as a reference framework for the implementation of new urban agendas in cities from a heritage and citizenship approach.

Urban system and complexity. Socio-spatial fragmentation as a systemic process of inequality

Mariano Adrian Ferretti Ramo — 2024-07-31

The shape of cities has historically been the expression of complex processes of material and energy differentiation. Like any open and self-regulating system, it needs to evolve by exchanging flows of information and matter with its environment based on non-linear interactions made up of hierarchies and complementarities necessary for its adaptation. In order to establish causality with the phenomenon of socio-spatial fragmentation, structural inequality has been analyzed as a stratifying factor of spatialities in urban space. The dialectical hermeneutic method has allowed the modeling of concepts from information theory and thermodynamics to explain the interaction logic of the operating subsystems and their consequences in the hybrid structuring of urban space. The identification of cycles and morphogenetic causality in the production of spatialities forms a theoretical-conceptual contribution to the study of urban dynamics when spatial proximity coexists with social distance as a norm.

Urban expansion and conflicts in the management of the territory: Case of Santo Tomás (Cusco, Peru)

Sisko Fernando Rendón Cusi — 2024-07-31

The urban-rural conflicts in the city of Santo Tomás have contributed to the disorderly growth of the population, due in part to the deficiencies of urban planning and especially due to the territorial conflict. The study has focused on the urban-rural relationship (district and provincial capital versus peasant community) that is framed in a scenario of rapid growth of the city towards the territory of the peasant community. The objective of this study was to identify deficiencies in territorial and urban management, as well as their relationship with regulatory mechanisms related to urban development. The work methodology consisted of the analysis of the legal instruments for urban management and territorial management by the peasant community; For this, interviews were carried out with key social actors. The results indicate a gap in these aspects in Peruvian legislation, as well as a complex network of interests that does not contribute to the resolution of urban management problems.

Sociocultural valuation of public space in a context of rural-urban transition. Case of Morelos Avenue, San Juan Cuautlancingo, Puebla

María Lourdes Guevara Romero — 2024-07-31

The municipality of Cuautlancingo used to agricultural production was interfered by the insertion of new urban areas causing land use speculation resulting in the reconfiguration of public spaces such as streets and avenues. The objective is to illustrate how urban expansion, through changes in land use, has interfered with the socio-spatial valuation among the inhabitants of the neighborhood of San Juan and the new housing areas, leading to conflicts in the use, access, and appropriation of public space, exemplified by Morelos Avenue. The methodology used is of a mixed nature, using GIS for the spatial analysis of urban growth. Among the main findings, it is presented how the changes in land use in the last three decades and the appearance of new housing complexes affected the sociocultural valuation of the neighborhood of San Juan Cuautlancingo.