ARQ 84 | Wood structures | Ediciones ARQ

ARQ-84-Ingles

English versions of the following articles are available online

Title: Domo House in Carbondale, Illinois. R. B. Fuller, 1960
Author: Miguel de Lózar de la Viña. Co-founder of estudio2arquitectos, Soria, España.
Abstract: Fuller takes the construction of his own house as an opportunity to build “more with less” and develops a geometric and constructive exercise that renews the 20th century affordable housing standards and stretches out towards today’s mandatory sustainability.
Keywords: architecture – U.S.A., wood structure, geodesic geometry, dome, sustainability
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Title: Emergency and Continuity. A Case of Applied Investigation and Prototyping
Author: John Saffery Gubbins. Architect, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile / Juan Ignacio Baixas Figueras. Professor, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile.
Abstract: Toolkits, low-cost structures and the (not always welcome) consolidation of provisional infrastructure lead the reflection that originated this proposal: a minimum emergency dwelling, which can be easily dismantled or expanded.
Keywords: architecture – Chile, wood prefabrication, prototype, panels, emergency dwelling
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Title: Wood’s Potencial as a Structural Element
Author: Enzo Valladares Pagliotti. Professor, Universidad Finis Terrae, Santiago, Chile.
Abstract: This article focuses on the use of wood to build medium size structures with large spans. In this particular case, the construction uses metal connectors to combine sawn and laminated timber.
Keywords: architecture – Chile, engineering – Chile, wood structure, large spans, round-logs
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Title: Wood’s Composite Constructions for Free-standing Enclosures
Author: Khaled Saleh Pascha. Professor, Technische Universität Wien, Vienna, Austria.
Abstract: This article understands construction as an exercise that aims to articulate pieces and different materials. From this point of view it presents building components that combine wood with concrete or glass, to be used in horizontal or vertical envelopes.
Keywords: construction, wood structure, enclosures, envelope, building components
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Editorial. Wood structures

Few works grasp with such density and eloquence the rare multi-scaled capacity of wood (recognized by Fernando Pérez in the “From wood” conference that started off the academic year for the Master of Architecture at the UC) like the Cabanon by Le Corbusier. Build as an annex to a small, coastal bar meters away from the celebrated Eileen Gray house in Cap Martin, the Cabanon is as much building as furniture and condenses the complexity that the scales of wood consider.

How does one approach wood from a contemporary perspective? Leaving aside the attributes that make it so attractive to today’s promoters of the unavoidable sustainability (under appropriate management, wood is a renewable, biodegradable and recyclable resource) the hypothesis that this edition considers is that, perhaps, and thanks to this versatility of scale, wood offers the rare opportunity to resolve the architectural project with equal forcefulness in both the fronts of construction and engineering as with the business of atmospheric and sensorial quality of the space.

This edition of ARQ pauses particularly in projects and articles that see, simultaneously, this double scale of wood. On one hand, it deals with a material capable of deploying a notable, structural potential, in some cases arriving at large spans and medium height buildings. At the other extreme, wood appears as fertile terrain for the development of the detail, thanks to its tactile condition (it is soft, light and kind to the grasp of a hand) and its plastic properties: warm, colored, aromatic, moldable, precise. The interesting part is that this combination of scales can exist from the economy of material mediums using low impact technologies, like in the notable example of the Dome House by Buckminster Fuller, presented lucidly in the essay the opens this edition.

Two thesis projects exemplify paths of development that, from the building prototype or the architectural project, explore the expressive and structural possibilities of wood and that, like the lamella vault or the housing complex in Constitucion, consider a use of the material capable of reaching magnitudes of a larger order.

As insinuated by the texts of Pascha and Valladares, in a context like Chile, it is time to update building standards while simultaneously moving from the sphere of the production of raw timber materials to the production of compound building components oriented, above all, to the local reality.