Archinect - Marcelo Gardinetti

Via Appia Antica

2024-12-11T16:39:08-05:00

The Appian Way, built in 312 BC under the direction of the censor Appius Claudius Cecus, owes its name to this magistrate, who also promoted the construction of the Aqua Appia, the first Roman aqueduct. With a length of 365 kilometres, this road was a strategic infrastructure for the expansion and military control of Rome.
Conceived as an alternative to the Via Latina, the Appian Way chose a faster and safer coastal route, away from the war fronts in the hills of Monte Laziali. Its route improved the connection between Rome and southern Italy, facilitating the mobilisation of troops and the control of key ports on the trade routes linking Rome with North Africa, Greece and the East.
Construction of the Appian Way began after Rome's defeat at the Battle of the Caudine Forks in 321 BC during the Second Samnite War. Its main purpose was to improve military logistics to southern Italy, thereby increasing Rome's responsiveness and territorial control. The road was designed with rectilinear...

Archigram, vestiges of the future

2024-11-22T18:06:31-05:00

Archigram was a revolutionary group in the world of architecture that emerged in the 1960s. Their proposals and reflections were considered radical and challenging at the time. The founding members, Peter Cook, David Greene and Mike Webb, began by publishing an amateur magazine called Archigram. This name was a combination of the words 'architecture' and 'telegram', reflecting the idea of conveying a message through architecture.

As the group grew, they were joined by other talented architects such as Ron Herron, Dennis Crompton and Warren Chalk. Together they began to explore new ways of thinking about and designing architecture, challenging established conventions and seeking a more dynamic and flexible approach.

One of the most prominent aspects of Archigram's work was its rejection of the historical legacy and its critique of the static rigidity of architecture and the city. At a time of pop culture euphoria, the group sought to break with tradition and explore new technol...

Coop Himmelb(l)au Pavilion 21

2024-11-22T17:57:10-05:00

Pavilion 21 is a temporary stage for experimental performances of the Bavarian State Opera. This cultural module can be moved and set up anywhere in the city, providing a novel experience for artists and audiences. Its versatile design adapts to any urban space to become a cultural and artistic meeting point. The modular structure allows for easy installation and dismantling, guaranteeing temporary use of the pavilion.

As usual at Coop Himmelblau, the scheme of Pavilion 21 is gestated through a psychogram which is usually a drawing, a graphic expression freed from the restrictions that bind conventional architectural design processes. This scheme, which represents an architectural body reduced to be adaptable to any site, requires special criteria to generate the necessary conditions for good acoustics. In this case, Coop Himmelblau adopts an unusual solution by shaping the space through sound sequences.

Acoustic criteria

Coop Himmelblau has used a series of Jimi Hendrix's ...

Palladio Il Redentore

2024-11-22T17:47:47-05:00

One of the outstanding features of the design of Il Redentore is that it achieves an overall unity through a skilful arrangement of autonomous parts. This quality, which can be seen in the layout of the plan, in the harmonious succession of volumes and in the layered composition of the façade, is the result of the fine balance that Palladio achieved in his mature design. Each part has its own compositional root, subordinated to a longitudinal order that makes it possible to achieve a homogeneous space.

The church had its origins in a declaration of the Venetian Senate, which proposed its construction to commemorate, with an annual procession, the end of an epidemic that had killed more than 40,000 Venetians. The building had to harmonise with the slanting view of St Mark's Square offered by the site. For this reason, Palladio was asked to design a central plan, which was discarded because some members of the Church objected to the pagan origin of the shape, and another in the for...

Acropolis Atenas

2024-11-22T17:37:46-05:00

The Acropolis of Athens is located in the southwest of the Attica region, surrounded by smaller hills. This rock formation is one of the most prominent elevations in the city. Its slopes are very steep, except on the western side where there is a natural slope for easy access. The upper terrace, where the main buildings are located, occupies an area 300 metres long and 150 metres wide and rises 91 metres above the level of the city.

The city of Athens was named after Athena Polias, one of the most important deities of Greek mythology. The daughter of Zeus and Metis, Athena was born in a strange way. It is said that Zeus feared that a child of Metis would dethrone him, so he devoured her while she was pregnant. Shortly after swallowing Metis, however, Zeus suffered a severe headache. Hephaestus, the god of blacksmithing, split Zeus' head open with an axe and a fully grown and armed Athena, the goddess of wisdom and strategy, emerged.

The heyday of the Acropolis was in the class...

Richard Rogers' Zip-Up House

2024-08-29T16:48:32-04:00

Richard Rogers' Zip-Up House is an innovative housing concept that sets the standard for sustainable and efficient living. Designed between 1967 and 1969 in response to a competition for innovation in domestic architecture, the Zip-Up House and its subsequent development, Zip-Up 2, represented Rogers' first speculative exploration of the possibilities of modern housing. Although never built, these projects served as a model for the house Rogers built for his parents in Wimbledon.

The design of the Zip-Up House responded to the need for new affordable housing in densely populated urban areas. Rogers sought to create compact, functional living spaces that maximised the use of available land. Inspired by Charles and Ray Eames' house in California (1949), which was designed as a kit of prefabricated parts, Rogers used panels originally intended for refrigerated trucks and windows manufactured for the automotive industry. These elements, sealed with neoprene zips, provide excellent th...

Roman Colosseum

2023-10-21T12:16:06-04:00

The Roman Colosseum, built in the 1st century AD, is one of the iconic monuments of ancient Rome. It was designed to host public events such as gladiatorial contests, mock naval battles and theatrical performances. With a capacity of between 50,000 and 80,000 people, its monumentality is reflected in its name, 'Colosseum', which means 'colossal' or 'giant'. Built by the emperors Vespasian and Titus, it was inaugurated in 80 AD with a series of spectacular games and celebrations that lasted for 100 days.

History of the Colosseum - Flavian Amphitheatre

The first great amphitheatre to be built in Rome was in the Field of Mars, built in 29 BC by the Roman consul Statilius Taurus. However, this building was destroyed by the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD, which reduced the amphitheatre to ashes. After the fire, Emperor Nero appropriated much of the land to build his residence, the Domus Aurea. An artificial lagoon was also built and the aqueduct Aqua Claudia was extended to reach this...

Festina Lente

2023-09-19T11:35:41-04:00

Festina Lente, Adnan Alagic, Bojan Kanlić y Amila Hrustic

Festina Lente is a Latin expression that gives its name to this bridge over the Miljacka River in the city of Sarajevo. It means 'to hurry slowly' and suggests proceeding with a sense of urgency, but also with careful and deliberate attention to detail. Although this is seemingly paradoxical advice, it encourages a balanced approach to tasks, emphasising the importance of neither rushing nor taking too much time.

Built to connect the iconic building of the Vienna Secession - now the Academy of Fine Arts - with the opposite bank of the river, where a vital part of the city unfolds, this passageway is intended to become a symbol of a unified community.

A symbolic link in the city

The bridge represents the union of the secular and the spiritual, the link between the past and the present, between history and the flow of modern life. The loop of the bridge represents a symbolic gateway to the historic cities, charact...

Le Corbusier Curutchet House: the beginnings

2023-09-14T17:44:05-04:00

Doctor Pedro Curutchet wrote to an architect living in the city of Buenos Aires to design his future home/office, but the architect did not respond to his request. The architect's lack of interest and his desire to create a work that would incorporate the spatial qualities of the unique enclave led him to search for an architect who could express the spirit of modernity, such as Le Corbusier.

Curutchet prepared a dossier containing the cadastral plan, photographs of the site and a letter expressing his intention to commission him, together with a brief programme of requirements: three bedrooms with two bathrooms, a service bedroom with toilet, a living-dining room and a garage, as well as the consulting room and waiting room. Curutchet was particularly concerned to enhance the views from the living room and bedrooms onto the tree-lined boulevard 53 and the forest: "the sun and the panorama must be incorporated into the house".

The file travelled to Paris in the hands of his si...

Kazimir Malevich, supremacy of sensibility

2023-09-14T11:49:10-04:00

After passing through Impressionism and the figurative arts, Kazimir Malevich set out in search of a new representation of pictorial art, far removed from any historical reference. Influenced by the geometric fragmentation of Cubism and the dynamics of the image proposed by Futurism, Malevich sought to eliminate any notion of volume in his painting. His aim was to erase objects from the canvas. To liberate painting from any objective representation, from any socio-historical reference. Malevich waged a tenacious spiritual battle to achieve the supremacy of plastic sensibility in his painting.

While developing his new artistic concept, Malevich was commissioned to design the costumes for the Futurist opera Victory Over the Sun, a story about a group of peasants who set out to conquer the sun. Malevich composed an unprecedented formal repertoire for a theatrical work. He designed geometric costumes made of cardboard, painted in bright colours, similar to his cubo-futurist paintings...

Eye Bank Foundation, Emilio Ambasz

2023-08-26T16:37:54-04:00

Banca degli occhi foundation

The Fondazione Banca degli Occhi carries out various activities related to eye research and transplantation. The 5,000 square metre medical centre houses surgical facilities, stem cell research laboratories, an eye treatment centre, the EIDON Foundation's educational centre, as well as a 450-seat auditorium and administrative and service facilities.

The site of the foundation is flat, very close to a main road and a branch of the local railway. The triangular-shaped building is defined by a series of individual design decisions that combine to form its architecture. These formal definitions are clearly identified and formulated independently of each other.

The walls of the triangular layout

The building is set in a triangular-shaped architectural body. It is contained in its two sides visible from the road by two 12-metre high trapezoidal walls. These blind planes are arranged at right angles to each other, with sloping lateral sides. The walls...

Herzog & de Meuron Elbphilharmonie

2023-08-19T16:04:24-04:00

Una característica llamativa de la arquitectura de la nueva Filarmónica de Elba es la fusión de dos edificios atemporales. El antiguo edificio, originalmente destinado a almacén, ha sido reforzado, sin desconocer que su mala calidad constructiva podría dar lugar a su demolición.

La nueva Filarmónica se asienta sobre el antiguo almacén y tiene la misma geometría en planta, pero crea un espacio entre lo antiguo y lo nuevo. De esta forma, el volumen inferior conserva el carácter rústico y pesado del edificio portuario, mientras que el volumen superior ofrece una experiencia sensorial diferente. Las superficies curvas de la Philharmonie y las ondulaciones del techo sustentan la ligereza estructural de la sala. También aportan una identidad formal con una apariencia variable creada por el reflejo de la luz y el agua en los paneles de vidrio curvo.

Se crea un gran espacio público entre los dos bloques, lo que permite a los visitantes experimentar la ciudad desde un punto de vista privi...

Marcel Breuer, Ariston Club

2023-04-17T12:24:46-04:00

En 1947, el arquitecto húngaro Marcel Breuer visitó Argentina invitado por la Universidad de Buenos Aires.

Su estadía apareció ocho semanas, durante las cuales el maestro de la Bauhaus dictó un curso de arquitectura y diseño y participó en un proyecto de urbanización con estudiantes de la facultad de arquitectura del sur de la ciudad de Buenos Aires. Además de sus actividades académicas, Marcel Breuer impartió cinco conferencias sobre temas arquitectónicos.

La Universidad de Buenos Aires nombró a Breuer como asesor del comité para redactar el plan de construcción del edificio de la Universidad y recibió una propuesta formal para presidir la Escuela de Arquitectura de la Universidad, que Breuer no decidió.

Breuer fue convocado por la Universidad Nacional de La Plata para crear y dirigir una nueva Facultad de Arquitectura, tarea que prosiguió meses después de salir del país, sin resultados positivos.

El artífice de la visita de Marcel Breuer a la Argentina fue Eduardo C...

Coop Himmelblau, the explosion of the functionalist box

2021-09-15T18:36:19-04:00

A principios de 1990, Frans Haks, director del Museo Groninger, le pidió a Alessandro Mendini que diseñara la ampliación del museo en el canal en el borde del sitio del edificio histórico. Mendini podrá atomizar el programa en tres partes, con el fin de diluir el impacto del edificio en su entorno1. Proponer un esquema lineal para unificar las tres áreas y planificar las áreas administrativas y de servicios. Para el diseño de los pabellones expositivos, Mendini invitó a Philipe Starck, Michele de Lucchi y Coop Himmelblau2 a cada diseño de una parte del edificio.

En esos años, Coop Himmelblau estaba en una búsqueda persistente para desarticular el objeto arquitectónico. Su método de trabajo investiga la definición de la forma arquitectónica mediante un boceto gráfico que surge de un impulso creativo originado en el subconsciente. El diseño del Pabellón Este del Museo de Groningen es el resultado de esta acción. Un boceto que llamó "Arquitectura líquida" porque representa una peq...

The distensions of space in Zaha Hadid

2021-09-15T18:22:32-04:00

En términos de investigación metodológica, el trabajo inicial de Zaha Hadid fue el más fructífero. En ellos explora y reformula búsquedas de las vanguardias de principios del siglo XX abortadas por las condiciones políticas de esos años.

Las raíces genéticas de estos trabajos se encuentran en el lenguaje suprematista de Kazimir Malevich. El tránsito por la obra del artista ruso comenzó en su estudio de tesis, un complejo hotelero en el río Támesis. El proyecto adapta la morfología de los "Arkhitektons". Su propósito no era retomar iconografías del movimiento moderno, sino forjar una estrategia para revelar nuevos campos constructivos a partir de esas obras.

Como describió Hal Foster, la pintura suprematista fue vista como un aplanamiento radical del plano pictórico; Hadid lo utiliza como una irrupción dramática en el espacio-tiempo infinito, en un intento de "forzar la apertura" de sus objetos, de "comprimir y expandir mismo" sus espacios, de intensificar y liberar sus estruct...