ARQ 77 | Urgency matter | Ediciones ARQ

ARQ-77-Ingles

English versions of the following articles are available online

Title: Earthquake discipline. The construction of a cathedral
Author: Marco Barrientos. Research Coordinator, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile. / Macarena Ibarra. Assistant Professor, Instituto de Estudios Urbanos, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile. / Fernando Pérez Oyarzún. Chief Doctoral Program in Architecture and Urban Studies, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile.
Abstract: A central disciplinary debate for Chilean architecture took place in the middle of 18th century at the Cathedral of Santiago. This collective work was the place where the tension between built form and resistance to quakes met.
Keywords: architecture – theory and criticism, heritage, structure, seismic architectural design
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Title: We have weapons too
Author: Rubén Alcolea. Sub-director, Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura, Universidad de Navarra, Pamplona, Spain. / Director of Studies, Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura, Universidad de Navarra, Pamplona, Spain.
Abstract: There is a connection between popular architecture and the late 20th century deconstructivism, that also links design, improvisation, transfer of technology and recycling. Architecture for emergency could take some valuable clues from it.
Keywords: architecture – theory and criticism, deconstructivism, ready-made, improvisation
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Editorial. Urgency matter

Less than two weeks after the anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami that left the city of Concepción 12 meters away from the spot it had occupied the last half of the 20th century, the Miyagi disaster reminded the world again, live from Japan, the fragility of the built environment around us. This same environment that, preferably, has been the same field of action of architecture throughout history or that, at the very least, has served as a reference and backdrop for the development of the discipline.

Evidently it is not the first time that these kinds of acts are repeated. And as such, one can expect that devastation (independent of the generating factor) will occupy one of the most important reflections of western culture. The earthquake of 1960 in Valdivia, the most intense of those registered until today, left an imprecise count of the victims ranging between 5,000 and 20,000 depending on the source. In the Chilean memory, the limited conscience of a tragedy of this magnitude could also be explained by the limited means of communication of the time: maybe the proliferation of video-recordings, photography and witness accounts that characterize the recent earthquakes in Chile (and Japan) could give greater prominence to a discussion that should occupy a more central place in our collective memory. Or maybe the abundance of information only contributes to anesthetizing such a difficult reality to swallow.

This new edition of ARQ –a little more than one year from February 27th, 2010– tried to contribute to that reflection over the relationship between devastation and architecture, frequently crossed by resistance. There were the reconstruction of the first debates over the work of Santiago’s Cathedral (marked by the tension between desired form and that which a seismic reality allows) and a group of works in which the materials were put to the test in order to satisfy a variety of demands: lightness, velocity, economy, or maximum contention to the occasion of a disaster. In all of these works, however, a detachment to known codes existed: sometimes urgency pushes towards the new and even the subversive, in the same spirit present in the origins of the Frank Gehry house in Santa Monica. Just one month before releasing this issue, the Miyagi disaster gave it an unexpected presence.

Between earthquakes, ARQ begins the year with a new design by art director Sergio Ramirez and designer Amelia Ortúzar, which returns to the red, white and black identity that characterized the magazine in its beginnings. The renovation has touched various levels: the Queltehue typeface, designed in Chile by Francisco Gálvez, will give form to the texts while a collaboration with Galeria AFA and ARQ will introduce the work of three artists within 2011 issues. The series begins with the work of Juan Martínez who, coincidentally, documents a fading urban reality, affected by some kind of catastrophe; his work, as in architecture, attempts to resist the extinction.