Modern timber tectonics:from construction technique to building systems

Every form of construction is based on a set of rules (or system) which is the result of the properties and conditions of the materials employed and the requirements they have to meet. Analysing if new systems are changing traditional timber tectonics is the aim of this paper. First, the paper looks at the two fundamentally different prefabrication principles we can use nowadays. These relate to the two ways of designing and building with a system: systemised building and system building. Also, a large number of innovative new systems are making the relationship between various design aspects more and more complex. All these changes have an impact on the design process and the way architecture is formed: the paper shows how new systems and semi-finished products that have been developed in the past ten years are changing the traditional tectonics of timber, making possible a modern tectonic form

The Domínguez House:Alejandro de la Sota's investigation of dwelling

The few discussions of Alejandro de la Sota’s Domínguez House which currently exist cite a retrospective text, dated 1976, where he developed activity and repose as two distinct images within human dwelling. While the Domínguez House has previously been understood in relation to biological rhythms, this paper presents a different reading of this remarkable project – as a deconstruction and reformulation of the contemporary dwelling, one which challenges the inward-looking understanding of human dwelling as shelter. I therefore propose that Alejandro De la Sota was as an architect with a theoretical agenda, far from the conventional view that his was an empirical approach to architecture

The influence of timber panels on architecture

Since timber is naturally directional, timber products become directionally neutral only due to the progress in manufacture technology. This work studies timber panels with a view to analyse their influence on the architectural form. From a design point of view, two sub-categories are defined. These are solid panels, and optimised panels. Solid panels have a homogeneous and compact section and their thicknesses are relatively small. Composite panels are generally made up with two boards and an inner structure to which they are bonded. The work concludes that the two main typologies of timber panels influence design in a different way: due to their homogeneous inner structure, solid panels allow flexible cutting of the openings, and loads and supports can be placed with few limitations. In the other hand, optimised section panels require more planning and should be treated as finished elements

Timber:materialization and abstraction

In The Origin of the Work of Art, Martin Heidegger explores the conception of ‘things’ as formed matter: if we appeal to use, function or purpose, form is prior to matter, since matter (-mater) wouldn’t be distributed in such manner where this not because of the form. If we elaborate this idea of “determination” or intention, the determinative character of the form is bound up with the purpose of the component made with a particular material, because material is something to be shaped according to intention. In the other hand, a second etymological meaning through the root –mater presents material as an agent of development: it spurs on processes than can be seen as extensions of the substance of matter, instigating perceptual possibilities, acting: absorbing, smelling, degenerating… Instead of the idea of determination, we are elaborating now the idea of “understanding”. Triggered by this discussion on materiality and within the scope of timber as an architectural material, the following question is yet to be answered: is there an ideal form of the material, a form that gets closer than any other to that which timber should be? This work looks at the processes that have shaped and shape timber as a material in order to analyze if it can be released from culturally expected formal notions and respond to applications which extend its material history

Towards a definition of ‘place’. Cross-disciplinary methodology for interpolating architectural and sociological data in Claremont Court, Edinburgh

This paper introduces our novel cross-disciplinary methodology developed under the research project ‘Place and Belonging: what can we learn from Claremont Court Housing Scheme?’. This original methodology integrates research methods from architecture and sociology in order to investigate the relationship between place and sense of belonging to a community, using the case study of Claremont Court, a post-war housing scheme in Edinburgh. The research’s theoretical framework defines ‘place’ as the physical space together with the spatial atmosphere, or phenomena that give meaning to it (Norberg-Schulz 1996, Gieryn 2000). Through individual and collective spatial practices, people attach meanings to a place that they can then claim belonging to (Benson & Jackson 2013). Thus, the meaning and (co-)production of place become critical in the presentation of the self (Cooper 2004), and in establishing belonging to a collective identity. Consequently, our methodology is underpinned by the theory of non-verbal communication, according to which people generate the meaning of a place through ‘personalisation’ (Rapoport 1982:21) of their environment. Drawing on these premises, we developed a qualitative research design which combines architectural research methods (laser-tape survey, photo-survey, contextual mapping and visual narratives); with research methods from the social sciences (biographical, walk-along and photo-elicitation interviews). Through visual (or non-verbal) methods, we study physical cues from which we infer inductively the meaning of place. Through interview (or verbal) methods we study verbal behaviour, which further uncovers the meaning of the place through thematic analysis. From the synthesis of both analyses we elicit the meaning of place for the dweller. The variety of research strategies, from architecture and the social sciences, that we have applied to the Claremont Court case-study, responds to the understanding of place as a physical and socio-cultural reality. Therefore, the research design is structured upon the idea of considering visual methods as cross-disciplinary means, which are able to integrate the physical and socio-cultural aspects of the research problem, enabling the dialogue between different disciplinary areas. The findings of this work are two-fold. First, as part of our original methodology, this paper introduces ‘contextual mapping’ as a novel research method for visualising and interpreting the data collected in relation to the lived spaces and their phenomena. ‘Mapping’ is here intended as suggested by Deleuze and Guattari (1980: 13) in opposition to the action of ‘tracing’: “the map does not reproduce an unconscious closed in upon itself … it fosters connection between fields”. We assume here that architecture can be an interpretative tool for the situations of daily life: thus, it follows that drawing is “a way of re-presenting those situations, […] of communicating a plot, of revealing a situation” (Troiani et al., 2014: 6). Secondly, this paper questions commonly used methodologies to study environmental meaning that rely on linear models (such as those studying semiotics or symbols); we suggest instead that visual methodologies can support the synthesis of physical and socio-cultural data in a cyclic model that brings together research approaches coming from two different, yet interconnected, fields of knowledge such as architecture and the social sciences

Relocation and Place Attachment: Housing Design as an Enabler of Belonging

Place attachment can be described as an emotional bond between people and places, usually residential, implying securing feelings in the object of attachment, sense of belonging, desire of proximity, and wish to come back when away. Moreover, the disruption of place attachment through forced relocation (such as in a context of conflict or natural disaster) can have severe health and psychological effects. Potentially complicated in any context, the need to provide housing becomes very difficult when limited land for a growing number of population forces to relocate from the rural to the urban environment, and it may involve breaking with long established socio-cultural traditions and structures. The aims of this paper are therefore threefold: first, to critically review previous evidence that relates place attachment and unconscious place-specific daily routines, presenting time-space routines as a key element in the development of a sense of belonging; second, to illustrate spatial sequence in Malaysian domestic space as an enabler of belonging for those dwellers that relocate from traditional housing to modern apartments. And third, with the results of the aforementioned study, to provide further evidence of the social dimension of place attachment as played out in a residential context. In doing so, this article expands on current literature supporting the need for a perspective on place attachment that reflects its socially constructed nature

Serviço Social e Questão Racial no Brasil: A percepção dos jovens do Centro Cultural Escrava Anastácia a partir do seu pertencimento étnico racial

TCC (Graduação) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina. Centro Socioeconômico. Serviço Social.O presente trabalho foi realizado com jovens participantes do Programa rito Jovem Aprendiz do Centro Cultural Escrava Anastácia, SC - Brasil a partir da experiência de estágio por meio do projeto de intervenção. A pesquisa teve como objetivo geral: Discutir e refletir a percepção dos jovens a partir do pertencimento étnico racial e seus desdobramentos no cotidiano. Para responder esse objetivo geral estabelecemos os seguintes objetivos específicos: Facilitar a compressão e a reflexão sobre o tema; Abordar alguns autores do Serviço Social que trabalhe a temática e a pesquisa empírica com os jovens. O segundo capítulo abordamos aproximações conceituais de: Democracia racial, Branquitude, Negritude e finalizamos com a trajetória da discussão do tema raça e etnia no contexto brasileiro. O terceiro capítulo é composto pelas contribuições da autora Elisabete Aparecida Pinto (2003) e do autor José Barbosa da Silva Filho (2004), finalizando com a pesquisa dos artigos da revista Serviço Social e Sociedade no período de 2010 a 2016 sobre questão racial no Brasil. O último capítulo fundamenta-se em uma pesquisa empírica voltada a apreender a percepção dos jovens sobre o seu pertencimento étnico racial e seus desdobramentos. A metodologia utilizada foi abordagem qualitativa, de natureza exploratória e procedimento de pesquisa participante. Para à análise utilizou-se de matérias produzidos durante projeto de intervenção a partir das três categorias: Pertencimento; experiências cotidianas e perspectiva profissional. As principais considerações que a pesquisa nos permite afirmar é que: A percepção dos jovens negros e seu cotidiano acerca de seu pertencimento são em grande parte afirmativa. Essas são permeadas de práticas e ações racistas, sejam de maneiras objetivas e diretas ou de formas subjetivas e indiretas. Para o jovem pertencente ao grupo étnico branco, esse pertencimento não foi evidenciado. Alguns relataram situações de discriminação, porém sem ligação a raça e etnia. Por fim, os diferentes grupos étnicos raciais percebem em proporções diferentes o que lhe causa o pertencimento, no entanto esses reconhecimentos não propiciam unidade para reivindicações coletivas