People interested in architecture evolution will find in this book an opportunity to verify the advances and transformations that have occurred in this area, based on a compromise between form and function, between aesthetics and pragmatic judgement, which accepts scientific truth only in function of practical application, but in the other hand, in the search of harmonic balance between both tendencies.
Within the Mediterranean construction tradition, sacred architecture has always played a very prominent role, giving rise to the most numerous and best preserved historical buildings prior to the 18th century that have survived. Throughout 5,000 years the visual plot has been shown as the systematic alphabet that Mediterranean cultures have used to write multiple architectural accounts of a sacred and ceremonial nature. We will begin this memory — a true travel notebook — by presenting what the Christian temples of discipline have taught us. Then we travel to Egypt, Rome and finally to Malta and Gozo. The systematicity and similarities in the crystallization of the ideological discourse were incredible and we invite the reader to verify those teachings. To facilitate this, the text includes more than 360 sketches and 300 images of more than 200 buildings belonging to 17 countries.
Para El paisaje de la arquitectura la autora ha superado notablemente la contradicción entre una exposición necesariamente lógico-lineal, que facilite la inteligibilidad del contenido, y la extensa complejidad de éste. Complejidad ineludible para una solvente descripción y análisis del conocimiento contemporáneo. Comprometerse con nuestro tiempo histórico conlleva asumir que el paradigma positivista-lógico ha sido envuelto, que no desplazado, por el paradigma de la complejidad. El principio de la causalidad, y la independencia de “causa-efecto” del observador, es cuestionado por el paradigma complejo, para el que en la gestión del conocimiento el propio observador está imputado como un dato o suceso en el propio proceso. La profesora García-Hípola nos conduce por su ensayo a escenarios teórico-críticos a través de su propia experiencia, incluso de su protagonismo en los procesos, reflexiones y cuestiones que analiza. Es desde esa complejidad desde la que reivindica implícitamente en su texto la transversalidad entre autor, espectador, docente y creador, literalmente en las citas referidas a experiencias sobre la obra de El Bosco, o en las que somete al arquitecto a nuevos roles que devienen del comportamiento de la materia como un auténtico ecólogo o los del propio antropólogo que explora la acción del ser humano y sus detritus en el paisaje, como en su proyecto para Villajoyosa, verdadero tratado de “arquitectura de campo”. In The Landscape of Architecture the author has remarkably surpassed the contradiction between a necessarily logical-linear explanation, to facilitate the intelligibility of the content, and its vast complexity. This is an inescapable complexity for a trustworthy description and analysis of contemporary knowledge. Commitment to our historical time involves assuming that the logical positivist paradigm has been wrapped, not displaced, by the paradigm of complexity. The principle of causality, and the independence between “cause and effect” of the observer, is questioned by the complex paradigm, for which, in the management of knowledge, the observer is ascribed as data or event of the process itself. In her essay professor García-Hípola leads us to theoretical-critical scenarios through her own experience, including her protagonism in the processes, reflections, and issues that she analyzes. From this complexity, the transversality between author, spectator, teacher and creator is claimed, literally in the quotes of the experiences about Hieronymus Bosch’s work, or in those where the architect is subjected to new roles that come from matter’s behavior, as a true ecologist, or those of the anthropologist who explores human action and its detritus in the landscape, as in her project for Villajoyosa, veritable treatise of “field architecture”.
This book may seem a simple accumulation of twenty-one public space projects in eight Latin American cities. On closer inspection, the presentation of project descriptions, photographs, and annotated drawings reflects a concern to analytically explain the operative aspects at work. The publication is not intended to serve only as a catalogue, guide, or manual on how to produce public space in spontaneous settlements. Rather, it goes beyond the aims of an index of best practices. It is intended, instead, as an empirical base for a critical and theoretical engagement with the problematic of development, social inclusion, public investment, (in)formal settlement, civil society and the public sphere. The publication achieves its final function at this third level, by providing a compelling argument to expand the agency of architects and urban designers and creatively find ways of justifying, financing, and building public spaces in communities —spaces that have a catalytic effectiveness in achieving significant urban and social transformation. This book was awarded by a Graham Foundation Grant and CAF Development Bank of Latin America. FEATURED CASE STUDIES: CONSERVATION 72 Linear parks along the Estero Salado | Guayaquil, Ecuador 80 National Park Babil.nia and Chap.u Mangueira | R.o de Janeiro, Brasil 88 Urban agriculture along the Rimac River | Lima, Peru WASTE MANAGEMENT 96 Moravia Ecological Park | Medellin, Colombia 104 Plaza La Cruz, La Palomera | Caracas, Venezuela RISKMANAGEMENT 112 El Guasmo Beach, floodable park | Guayaquil, Ecuador 120 Safety plazas in Santa Mar.a El Triunfo | Lima, Peru 128 Recovery of the Juan Bobo Creek | Medellin, Colombia INFRASTRUCTURE 136 Northeast metrocable parks Comuna 1, La Popular | Medell.n, Colombia 144 Barrio Las Independencias escalators and walkways | Medellin, Colombia 152 Funicular in Dona Marta | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 160 Complexo do Alem.o | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 168 Ecotecnia Urbana Miravalle | Mexico City, Mexico PAVEMENT, PATHS AND THE SPACE SURROUNDING BUILDINGS 176 Pavement, paths and stairs Cerro Santo Doming and Cerro Toro | Valpara.so, Chile 184 Cerro Santa Ana urban rehabilitation | Guayaquil, Ecuador 192 Fernando Botero Library | Medellin, Colombia 200 Moravia Cultural Center | Medellin, Colombia 208 Espa.o Crian.a and community programs | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 216 Plaza in Villa Tranquila | Buenos Aires, Argentina ACTIVITY 224 Casa Kolacho Comuna 13 | Medellin, Colombia 232 AfroReggae Cultural Center | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 240 Alto Per. | Lima, Peru 248 El Calvario Puertas Abiertas | Caracas, Venezuela
