ARQ 78 | Foreigners | Ediciones ARQ

ARQ-78-Ingles

English versions of the following articles are available online

Title: Ciudadela la Granja: A Chilean Work in Ecuador
Author: Andrea Masuero. Academic Coordinator, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile Doctorate in Architecture and Urban Studies Program, Santiago, Chile. / Romy Hecht. Assistant Director of Undergraduate Studies, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile School of Architecture, Santiago, Chile.
Abstract: The acceptance of Modern architecture in Chile was somehow connected to the acceptance of the garden city model, particularly in the central valleys. This is a case of transference of that planning pattern, where real estate and exile met.
Keywords: architecture – Ecuador, collective housing, modern movement, Sergio Larrain García Moreno
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Title: A Diferent Reception: Modern Brazilian Architecture and Chilean Architectonic Culture
Author: Horacio Torrent. Director of Investigation and Postgraduate Studies FADEU, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile.
Abstract: The circulation of modern Brazilian architecture in the late 40’s was organized around an image of exuberance, ease and free forms. However, Chilean publications were looking to Brazil from a different angle.
Keywords: architecture – theory, architecture – Brazil, architecture magazines, modern architecture
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Title: Flexible Frameworks. Another way to concrete
Author: David Jolly. Professor, School of Architecture and Design, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Valparaíso, Chile. / Miguel Eyquem. Professor, School of Architecture and Design, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Valparaíso, Chile. / Victoria Jolly. Professor, School of Architecture and Design, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Valparaíso, Chile.
Abstract: Taking advantage of the Open City laboratory-condition and an ongoing research on flexible formworks, this international collaboration explores working with mortar weight to create complex, continuous bodies in concrete.
Keywords: concrete architecture, prefabrication, reinforced concrete, Open City, CAST
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Editorial. Foreigners

OIt was 1932 when Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson– from a museum, by means of an exhibit and its catalogue– identified a number of features present in the new architecture of their time. As Tournikiotis stated, the establishment of such a clear standard allowed for easy reproduction and diffusion of these fresh architectural ideas. Their initiative contained a veiled “how-to-be-modern” manual, an unusually pragmatic product arising from the realm of critics in the 20’s promoting another way to design and build; the authors and curators called it “International Style”.

Leaving its relevance aside, this term was ahead of its time in many ways. It emphasized the appealing prestige that the absence of frontiers, circulation and ubiquity acquired some years later. More recently another word keenly embodied this same aspiration, to the point of weariness: “global”. This time, the image of a complex network takes over the idea of nationality; after a century of empires and another of countries, the century of cities has arrived.

Of course both the absence of frontiers and the global world seem like an illusion coming from naïve enthusiasm rather than elaborated thought. Does it make sense to talk about a single, global culture when differences between people’s customs and ideas are potentially appealing and conflictive at the same time, being the reason for change and reflection? It is a scenario of mixed emotions: while airport and borderline controls toughen throughout the world, and with it immigration regulations, there is an exceptional increase in overseas traveling, international scholarships and visiting faculty programs, just to name a few examples.

Has the “international” domain become widespread, in the sense pointed out by Hitchcock and Johnson? Facing that early definition that pictured a homogeneous, highly standardized world, the present ARQ issue aims to examine the broken points and cracks of the global realm, embracing its contradictions and gaps. ARQ 78 – Foreigners tries to highlight those areas where knowledge and cultural transfers are possible and differences are significant and productive; it focuses on ideas, shared technologies and customs. This time, ARQ presents three contributions on architecture and cultural exchange in the Americas and six works that show different levels of friction between different architectural cultures: urban behavior and its space transferred from one city to another; the encounter with vernacular building techniques; research on new strategies in material form meeting the tradition of concrete silos in the countryside, amongst others, recalling a sometimes uncomfortable but fruitful experience: that foreign feeling.