Hex · pansiva
Escuela de Arquitectura de Toledo – Toledo School of Architecture
Installation at Concentrico 06
One of the greatest aspirations of architecture has always been to build, higher and higher. Advances in technology have made it possible to move from the solid stone wall, which forms a constricted space, to the slenderness of the pillars that allow for a flexible space. What is the next step? Following the logic, these elements must disappear and leave their space to the user. The aim of this exercise is to put this concept into value while giving character to a specific space.
The proposal for this space is that of a floating element, covering the space, which changes the user’s perception when he enters. The strategy to generate this element consists of creating a system that by means of its repetition and variation allows to generate one, or several forms covering the greater possible space. The union of this element, whose triangular shape, allows the configuration of several hexagons expanding all over the yard. To achieve that the set of these triangular pieces floats inside the patio, Helium will be used. With time, due to the loss of gas, the canopy will change its position and shape adapting to the height. This makes the proposal become something that evolves, that is not static, that varies over time.
Hex – pansiva has been designed as a floating object that culminates the fifth facade of the proposed space in the Library of La Rioja, making the apparently unreal reality.
It has been designed from the most humane point of view, to occupy a space for carrying out activities, and also to transform a space for a short period of time.
This canopy will awaken concerns and will be adapted to the new realities we are experiencing.
Its composition is completely made of wood which provides a high integration to the environment, showing to be a service to the society.
“Architecture is beyond utilitarian facts. Architecture is a plastic fact. (…) Architecture is the wise, correct, magnificent play of volumes under light. (…) Its meaning and task is not only to reflect the construction and absorb a function, if by function we mean that of pure and simple utility, of comfort and practical elegance. Architecture is art in its highest sense, it is mathematical order, it is pure theory, complete harmony thanks to the exact proportion of all relationships: this is the “function” of architecture”.
Le Corbusier
Talk with E. Arquitectura de Toledo – Carlos A. Wandosell
[ Descarga / 56min29s – 20Mb ]
Escuela de Arquitectura de Toledo
It all started 10 years ago. On the figure of the great master who was Manuel de las Casas, a very small group of us started from a daring base: to teach Architecture in another way. How can we achieve that around the project, let’s not forget that house and city are inseparable? Context, Architectural Theory, Science, Matter, Representation, Structure, Instruments and Installations, Construction, Architectural Thought, History of Art and Men, City and Landscape, Energy and Reason for Consumption, Beauty. To transmit the mechanisms, the knowledge and to provide the student with the tools that allow him/her to advance in his/her search of the adequate answer to the proposed problem.
Vitrubio also reminds us that the architect must be versed in the Letters. That he must know drawing perfectly, geometry, optics, arithmetic, history, philosophy, music, medicine oriented to hygiene, law, astrology and climate. And in the face of so much knowledge, he tells us that those who doubt the learning of so much science, nevertheless will find it feasible if we think that among all of them there is an intimate connection and mutual communication.
To the cry of “the academic drawing, let’s recover it” we also insert in EAT, the free drawing. Almost in opposition to that imperative reality. Descriptive Geometry from Mathematics, from drawing and manufacturing. Let’s draw and build some Max Bill, many Isamu Noguchi, go ahead with Fuller. Physics, from its language towards the real needs, heat, cold, light, strength and resistance, radiation, the fluids that will be the future installations.
The history of architecture and art, but from the most distant to yesterday. The construction, or rather the drawing of the construction. The structure and the drawing of the structure. The installation and the drawing of the installation. Let’s distinguish the calculation and the drawing. In the drawing there is already a calculation. Not the other way around. The drawing is based on the proportion. The use of the hands, the knowledge of the trades. the botany, the ergonomics. The knowledge of climate, the science of the earth, Thus we arrive at the landscape, the construction of a place and the understanding of it. To do that we have to go through the drawing of everything we see. The study of light and shadow. The movement of people and animals, also of vehicles. Putting the streets in the right place and distinguishing a garden from a field. All this EAT tries to integrate it, in workshops where students make their chairs and on them they meet to debate. But not just any furniture, the best. At the beginning it must be interpreted, later on it must be designed. It is vital to reduce the stress of imposed creation, to make it come naturally, when ideas and knowledge overflow our thoughts.
Juan Mera, director of eAT
In co-production with
