Opportunities and precautions in the implementation of GIS-based analysis tools to cultural landscape restoration

Abstract. The protection of cultural and natural heritage has been extended to the surrounding landscape in the last decades. This tendency has been corroborated by a series of International Charters and the European Landscape Convention (ELC) of 2000. Despite protection, management and planning proposed by ELC some structural aspects of the territory have been disregarded because of the frantic enlargement of cities throughout the Twentieth Century. In many cases, urban investments and planning associated to the expansion of the metropolitan areas have overlooked a territorial heritage that is necessary to ensure the cultural landscape regeneration. Cultural itineraries are presented as a landscape architecture strategy for valorising the territorial heritage. Well-targeted design of these itineraries can also contribute to restore the dynamics of cultural landscape formation. Research is focused on the definition of a method for designing cultural itineraries able to restore the dynamics of cultural landscape formation. Particular attention is paid to the areas around the archaeological sites. Because of the territorial scale of the intervention, software based on Geographical Information Systems (GIS) turns out to be the most suitable for representing and analysing complex spatial phenomena. This paper explores the opportunities and precautions that must be taken into account to integrate a GIS-based analysis into the design of a landscape architecture like the cultural itinerary.A systematic review of the scientific literature indexed in those databases with a wider international impact is elaborated in order to analyse the range of opportunities offered by GIS-based software in the area of theoretical and practical research on cultural landscapes. This review allows us to determine the state of the art, as well as to discover those applications and strategies that are generally used for each research field or intended aim. Knowledge of the recent discussions on the matter can be useful in that it can be integrated into the different phases of a method for designing cultural itineraries in an attempt to increase its level of technological innovation.In first place, a sample must be extracted. To this end, a series of parameters must be determined beforehand. It is considered a valid sample that formed by more than one hundred entries, which is representative of the state of the art observed. The sample is examined afterwards in quantitative and qualitative terms. The systematic review is conducted according to the methodology proposed by Gough, Oliver and Thomas (2012, 2013). The databases used to elaborate the systematic review of the scientific literature are Web of Science and Scopus. The definite search is based on the combination in groups of three of four elements: GIS, the component archaeo*, the operation (route OR path) and the expression "cultural landscape".The questions that are meant to be clarified by means of this systematic review are the following ones. First, to what discipline does the entries belong? Second, what is the research field? Third, what is the scope of application of GIS? And, fourth, what GIS-based functionalities are prevalent? Then the criteria for inclusion and exclusion are determined. The details of the flow of the review process can be observed in the diagram on the slide.The distribution of the results by discipline allows us to observe how most of the articles and papers mainly belongs to the disciplines of archaeology and history. The significative but scant collection of writings that could be identified as belonging to the disciplines of architecture or civil engineering, may be due to the fact that the number of specific journals indexed in those databases is smaller in comparison with other disciplines. Most of the entries that were ruled out, because of the thematic dispersion, belong to the discipline of natural sciences and fail in considering human activity as fundamental in cultural landscape formation. The reduced number of entries belonging to the disciplines of architecture and civil engineering is considered here to be indicative of an unexplored research field.Following a thorough review, it is concluded that the main research field in relation to architecture and civil engineering concerns the technological innovation. In this sense, scientific literature review allows us to conclude that the main field of application of GIS in relation to architecture and civil engineering, when referring to cultural landscapes, is the development of protection, management and planning actions and cataloguing. The qualitative review of these entries has been useful to outline a possible integration of GIS-based functionalities into a method for designing cultural itineraries, as well as to prevent us from following some apparently innovative paths that sometimes lack of a solid scientific basis or that are far from the intended aim.None of the articles and papers focused on the technological innovation in which the scope of application of GIS is the protection, management and planning of cultural landscapes, is centred on the design of cultural itineraries as a landscape architecture strategy. Neither were they focused on the definition of a conceptual framework to guide the design of the cultural itineraries. This allows us to verify the opportunity of a research in which GIS and, more concretely, their analysis tools assist the landscape architect when design is aimed to restore the dynamics of cultural landscape formation.Having detected the main analysis tools that can contribute to cultural itineraries design and having considered in which way they are distributed by field of knowledge, research field and scope of application of GIS, we can then suggest a hypothesis to integrate GIS into our three-step method for designing cultural itineraries. In order to guide the design actions towards the restoration of the dynamics of cultural landscape formation, the methodological approach to the ecological design of settlements set up by different authors of the Società dei Territorialisti/e is taken as a reference. The synthetical structural descriptions that constitute the first part of the method, can benefit from the use of GIS-based analysis tools as they can assist landscape architect in the elaboration and refinement of the narratives about the evolution of the territorial heritage. The use of advanced spatial analysis tools should not be encouraged, however, in the elaboration of the interpretations. GIS software is used, both in the identity interpretations and the strategic scenario (the second and third phases of the method), as a visualisation and graphic representation tool. Basic functionalities allow us to manipulate and simultaneously observe different georeferenced datasets that can support the architect's interpretative work of synthesis. As so many qualitative and sensitive factors should be taken into account when interpreting the process of cultural landscape formation, landscape architect's design cannot rely on the abstract result of a GIS-based advanced spatial analysis. Although the use of algorithms is defended to lead to more precise results based on quantitative indicators, under no circumstances may the design of a landscape architecture be constrained by them, as identity features that have determined cultural landscape formation can hardly be codified.After an in-depth review, it is concluded that the success and efficiency of the method depends on the careful balance between the designer's interpretation and the scope of application of the information technologies. It is defended that the automated result of applying advanced spatial analysis tools cannot supply the required interpretative work of the architect who pursues to restore the dynamics of cultural landscape formation through the design of cultural itineraries. Like any other operation of restauro, this restitution is subjective as it entails a revision of the past that should be necessarily interpretative. Thus, the use of predictive models based on the application of algorithms are discouraged in the interpretative phases because of the structural and historical complexity associated to the construction of the territory and landscape. Also, reluctance to ground the method on the implementation of GIS-based analysis tools lies in the fact that the highest levels of efficiency are meant to be obtained by focusing on the methodological innovation rather than on the technological one. GIS-based analysis tools integration into the different phases of the method for designing cultural itineraries mainly follows to ease the visualisation and comprehension of complex spatial processes that take place on the territory and it is always subsumed to the designer's interpretative work

Nuevas aplicaciones del corcho en el campo de la edificación

En esta ponencia se presentan algunas de las aplicaciones del corcho en la construcción de edificios, desde su utilización por los árabes hasta la búsqueda de nuevas aplicaciones del corcho, principalmente de los desechos generados por su industria. Además, se presentan algunos resultados sobre el estudio de nuevos materiales compuestos a base de desechos de corcho y los conglomerantes utilizados más frecuentemente en la construcción de edificios: hormigón; mortero y yeso/escayol

New applications of cork in building

Several types of prefabricated elements for partitions and extrados, which improve the similar systems presently in the market, are presented in this research. These elements, manufactured with cork and lightened plaster, can be classified in two well defined groups. The first group is formed by lightened plaster panels for partitions of dimensions 60 x 265 cm (width, height) and of 7cm and 10 cm thickness. In the second group, panels for extrados with the same dimensions are included but with a thickness of 9.5 and 5 cm, including the 3 cm thickness of the incorporated high density expanded polystyrene sheet

Logros de las mujeres en la Arquitectura y la Ingeniería

Ponencia presentada en el FORO UPM. Trata de resumir los logros de las mujeres en la Arquitectura y la Ingeniería, así como reconocer algunas de sus protagonistas a lo largo de la historia

Problemática de los RCD. Propuesta para su gestión y reciclaje

Durante años, los especialistas en el manejo de residuos sólidos se han ocupado sólo de la basura generada por hogares, comercios e industrias, mientras que el tratamiento seguro y eficiente de residuos procedentes de las construcciones y demoliciones de edificios (RCD) ha sido ignorado. Los residuos de construcción y demolición (RCD) se generan en actividades propias de construcción, obra nueva, remodelación, rehabilitación o reforma, demolición o derribo de edificios o infraestructuras. También se consideran RCD los residuos generados en obra menor y reparación e incluso los procedentes de desastres naturales, tecnológicos o del terrorismo. Cada año, se generan en Europa 890.000.000 toneladas de RCD, de los cuales se reciclan, de media, un 50% (excluyendo tierras sin sustancias peligrosas). Esta cifra está muy lejos de los objetivos marcados por la Directiva Europea para el año 2020. Por otra parte, y aunque es difícil obtener datos de cada país, pues esto depende fundamentalmente de su forma de construir, de la actividad económica, e incluso de la forma de cuantificar dichos residuos, en España, la situación es aún más grave, encontrándonos en los últimos puestos de la tasa de reciclaje, por debajo de la media europea. Todo ello ha dado lugar a que desde la Administración se impulsaran una serie de medidas, como las recogidas en el Real Decreto 105/2008, que obligan a seleccionar y recuperar algunos tipos de RCD que excedan de una serie de cantidades: >80t hormigón; >40t ladrillos y tejas; >2t metal; >1t madera; >1t vidrio; >0.5t plástico; >0.5t papel. En esta misma línea, numerosos investigadores, organismos públicos de investigación y empresas del ámbito de la edificación, han decidido aportar nuevas propuestas que mejoren, tanto la gestión de estos residuos como su capacidad de reciclaje. En esta ponencia se pretende hacer un resumen de algunas de estas propuestas desarrolladas por investigadores, así como algunos de los trabajos del grupo de investigación TEMA (Tecnología Edificatoria y Medio Ambiente) de la Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, en las dos líneas de investigación antes referidas: la gestión de los RCD y la búsqueda de nuevas aplicaciones y por tanto la mejora de su capacidad de reciclaje

Influences on Herman Hertzberger

In the sixties, the journal Forum voor Architectuur en Daarmee Verbonden Kunsten becomes the media employed by the Dutch wing of Team 10 to lecture on and spread the new architectural theories developed after the dissolution of C.I.A.M. Aldo van Eyck and Jaap Bakema head the editorial board in between 1959 and 1967. The editorial approach gravitates towards the themes defended by these young architects in the last meetings of the International Congresses of Modern Architecture, accompanied by the analysis of works of architecture that, in the editorial board’s opinion, give a correct response to the epoch’s needs. Moreover, the permeability and cross-sectional nature of the content, bring the editors’ board closer to the European architectural, cultural and artistic avant-garde. Thus, it is appreciated that similar theoretical assumptions than the ones that gave support to the different revolts that happened in Paris, London and Amsterdam between 1966 and 1968 underlie in great part of the journal’s writings. Its content is aligned parallel to the revolutionary phenomenon, contributing tosome degree to it. Herman Hertzberger, a young architect who worked for years as a part of the editorial board, was highly influenced by the contents of the journal. His later dedication to education as professor atDelft University of Technology, and hisassociation with Dutch Structuralism as well, turn him a key figure to study, because of the determining role of Forum’s acquired knowledge in his future professional activity.The proposed study pretends, first, to accentuate the content of Forum voor Architectuur en Daarmee Verbonden journal where the approach to the avant-gardes is produced, reflecting on the impact it had on the imagery of Herman Hertzberger based on his diverse contributions to the journal. Furthermore, it is aimed to stress the role of the cross-sectional nature architectural magazines in the transmission and contribution to the cultural and artistic avant-garde in the Sixties

Centraal Beheer. An instrument in the process of human awareness

[EN] This research focuses on the motivations and the design processes that lead us to conceive the early works of the architect Herman Hertzberger, specifically Centraal Beheer office building, as an instrument. The assumption is that Hertzberger tried to respond to the needs and demands of the society in the sixties by forcing an individual interpretation of space aimed at strengthening the ties among people and between the people and the environment. His work, while following different reasoning and design strategies, is built on the premises developed by Dutch Team 10, which is believed to be his main architectural antecedent. A theory is presented on the design strategies used by Hertzberger to turn Centraal Beheer office building into an instrument able to promote diverse interpretations by individuals as a means of fostering processes of social and spatial identification. The basis for this theory lies in the analysis of several plans and sketches belonging to the different phases of the design process, specific and general bibliography, two interviews with Herman Hertzberger and other sources.[ES] La presente investigación pone el foco en las motivaciones y los procesos proyectuales que nos hacen concebir la obra temprana construida del arquitecto Herman Hertzberger, concretamente, el edificio de oficinas Centraal Beheer, como un instrumento. Se parte de la hipótesis de que Hertzberger trataba de responder a las necesidades y las demandas de la sociedad de los años sesenta forzando una interpretación individual del espacio orientada a estrechar los vínculos entre las personas, y entre estas y el entorno en el que coexistían. Si bien siguiendo razonamientos y estrategias dispares, su trabajo se construye sobre las premisas desarrolladas por el ala holandesa del Team 10, que constituye el principal antecedente arquitectónico. Pormedio de un análisis de los planos y los croquis pertenecientes a las diferentes fases del proyecto, la bibliografía específica y general, dos entrevistas con Herman Hertzberger y otras fuentes, se presenta una teoría sobre las estrategias de proyecto empleadas por el arquitecto para convertir el edificio de oficinas Centraal Beheer en un instrumento capaz de promover distintas interpretaciones por parte de los individuos como medio para fomentar procesos de identificación social y espacial.Ayuda BES-2017-082188 financiada por MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033. Ayuda POSTDOC_21_00591 financiada por la Junta de Andalucía y por “FSE Invierte en tu futuro.”Merino Del Río, R. (2022). Centraal Beheer. Un instrumento en el proceso de concienciación humano. VLC arquitectura. Research Journal. 9(1):127-159. https://doi.org/10.4995/vlc.2022.155571271599

Elaboración y aplicaciones constructivas de paneles prefabricados de escayola aligerada y reforzada con fibras de vidrio E y otros aditivos

El objetivo de esta tesis es la definición de mejoras e innovaciones en los sistemas de prefabricados de yeso/escayola para particiones, que se comercializan en España. Para conseguir este objetivo se han abordado los siguientes temas: En primer lugar y a través del desarrollo de una base de datos sobre los sistemas prefabricados para particiones que se comercializan en España se describen las ventajas e inconvenientes de cada uno y se concluye en el más adecuado para la construcción española, así como en sus posibles mejoras e innovaciones. Entre estas mejoras se destaca: la disminución de peso de los elementos para los prefabricados y mejorar la capacidad de deformación del material que los constituye. En segundo lugar y a través del estudio de las características del yeso, como material de construcción para la realización de prefabricados y como matriz de un material compuesto, se concluye en las posibles mejoras que sobre dicha matriz se pueden realizar para conseguir disminuir su densidad y mejorar su tenacidad, de manera que el material compuesto que se proponga, sustituya de forma eficaz a la escayola con la que se hacen en la actualidad los elementos prefabricados para particiones. Posteriormente se realiza un plan experimental estructurado en tres partes. Una primera parte, en donde a través del comportamiento mecánico de los diferentes compuestos que se analizan, se determinan las adiciones y porcentajes de adición más adecuados para caracterizar el material compuesto que sustituirá a la escayola. En la segunda parte, se caracteriza el nuevo compuesto desde el punto de vista mecánico (resistencia a flexión y a compresión, dureza Shore C), desde el punto de vista del aislamiento térmico y acústico, así como de su comportamiento ante el agua. Por último, una vez analizado el compuesto, se diseñan las líneas básicas de los elementos que sustituirán a los ya existentes para particiones prefabricadas, se realizan fragmentos a escala real de los diseños propuestos y se les somete a éstos y a fragmentos similares de elementos prefabricados para particiones ya existentes, a ensayos comparativos de resistencia mecánica y comportamiento ante el agu