Earlier this year, Chilean architects and professors Luis Pablo Barros and Gustavo Sarabia from the Federico Santa María University released a book (in Spanish) titled “Sistemas Constructivos Básicos” (Basic Construction Systems).” The book aims to be a tool to help architects translate their plan diagrams into tangible architectural works, as well as to help students learn the knowledge necessary to build what they plan. 

The main teaching objective here is for students to gain sufficient knowledge to allow them to select a suitable and coherent construction system for each of their projects. At the same time, the students can use this to draw generic templates, to describe with precision the position and construction sequence of the building elements to be used.

Below are 17 diagrams from the book showing templates for basic building systems using handcrafted processes, which are ideal solutions for low-rise buildings (up to four floors). The details collected here depict local Chilean construction, and thus show designs which respond to challenges such as seismic activity and the topographic complexity of the coast of Chile. Though currently only available in Spanish, ArchDaily hopes to work with the authors to provide English translations in the future. In the meantime, these templates may still be an important reference document for architects all over the world.

1. Generic section for a 1-story building (from the chapter on Layout and Excavations).

Courtesy of Luis Pablo Barros and Gustavo Sarabia

2. Retaining wall for living space (from the chapter on Foundations).

Courtesy of Luis Pablo Barros and Gustavo Sarabia

3. Improved quincha wall (from the chapter on Raw Earth).

Courtesy of Luis Pablo Barros and Gustavo Sarabia

4. Balloon frame wall filled with adobe brick (from the chapter on Raw Earth).

Courtesy of Luis Pablo Barros and Gustavo Sarabia

5. Post-tensioned rammed-earth wall (from the chapter on Raw Earth). 

Courtesy of Luis Pablo Barros and Gustavo Sarabia

6. Adobe wall (from the chapter on Raw Earth).

Courtesy of Luis Pablo Barros and Gustavo Sarabia

7. Steel-reinforced masonry wall (from the chapter on Masonry).

Courtesy of Luis Pablo Barros and Gustavo Sarabia

8. Concrete frame wall with brick infill (from the chapter on Masonry).

Courtesy of Luis Pablo Barros and Gustavo Sarabia

4. Balloon frame wall filled with adobe brick (from the chapter on Wood).

Courtesy of Luis Pablo Barros and Gustavo Sarabia

10. Timber shear wall (from the chapter on Wood).

Courtesy of Luis Pablo Barros and Gustavo Sarabia

11. Mixed wood and steel wall system (from the chapter on Steel).

Courtesy of Luis Pablo Barros and Gustavo Sarabia

12. Metalcon ® / Volcometal ® wall system (from the chapter on Steel).

Courtesy of Luis Pablo Barros and Gustavo Sarabia

13. Covintec ® wall system (from the chapter on Mixed Construction Systems).

Courtesy of Luis Pablo Barros and Gustavo Sarabia

14. Structural insulated panel (SIP) wall (from the chapter on Mixed Construction Systems).

Courtesy of Luis Pablo Barros and Gustavo Sarabia

15. 3-layer wall system, part 1 (from the chapter on Horizontal Platforms).

Courtesy of Luis Pablo Barros and Gustavo Sarabia

16. 3-layer wall system, part 2 (from the chapter on Horizontal Platforms).

Courtesy of Luis Pablo Barros and Gustavo Sarabia

17. Window section (from the chapter on Doors and Windows).

Courtesy of Luis Pablo Barros and Gustavo Sarabia

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Rendering of Deltawerk 1:1. Image Courtesy of RAAAF | Atelier de Lyon

This article was originally published by Metropolis Magazine as “‘Hardcore Heritage’: RAAAF Reveals Its Latest Experiment in Historical Preservation.”

In the practice of historic preservation, there is often a temptation to turn a building into an object on display—meticulously restored, unchanging, physically isolated—in order to remove it from the flow of history. The multidisciplinary Amsterdam-based studio Rietveld-Architecture-Art-Affordances (RAAAF) situates itself in opposition to this method of dealing with architectural remnants. Instead, it proposes to make history tangible by altering these decaying structures in a way that makes their stories plainly visible. The practice has a name for this approach—”hardcore heritage.”

Founded and led by brothers Ronald and Erik Rietveld, RAAAF has completed several projects that together form a kind of built manifesto for hardcore heritage, with the next iteration due out in 2018. The procedure changes with each project—there are excavations, but also deletions—but in every case, the end result charges them with a new special significance. In Ronald’s words, the works are “about the spatial experience that triggers imagination.”

The first stirrings came in Vacant NL, the studio’s installation for the Dutch pavilion at the 2010 Venice Architecture Biennale, which cataloged thousands of vacant properties in the Netherlands. The Rietvelds see these dormant structures as resources to be awakened and reused—and their most famous project shows how it can be done.

Bunker 599, which cut a 19th-century concrete pillbox in half, sheds new light on Dutch and UNESCO policies on cultural heritage while making people look at their surroundings in a new way. Image © Allard Bovenberg

Bunker 599, designed with Atelier de Lyon, made the team aware of the vast challenges in preserving structures so they can be truly reused, not just conserved as museum pieces or recycled as anchors for retail. The project entailed reviving a concrete bunker by cutting it in half, transforming it from an inert solid sitting in the landscape to something that could be walked through and interacted with. But experimental approaches like these can often be difficult to mount, Ronald says, because local authorities are wary of diverting public funds to them: “There is a lack of vision on this topic; policies concerning heritage are far too conservative.”

After Image shows the world below the Netherlands’ terrain, constructed on millions of pillars. RAAAF’s intervention reveals part of the exciting underworld of a former sugar silo, where uncovering the foundation of just one silo exposes an enormous concrete cathedral below ground. Image Courtesy of RAAAF

Named a Dutch national monument two years after it opened in 2010, Bunker 599 has thankfully opened up the door to other hardcore heritage undertakings. For instance, After Image, an excavated “forest” of concrete foundation piers that stand beneath a demolished sugar factory in Groningen, is set to open in 2018.

Rendering of Deltawerk 1:1. Image Courtesy of RAAAF | Atelier de Lyon

And if the renderings are anything to go by, RAAF’s latest will bring their plays in mass and scale to an altogether more powerful level. Deltawerk 1:1 adapts another Dutch national monument, a portion of the former Dutch hydrodynamics laboratory at Waterloopbos, which once tested one-to-one scale models of engineered water defenses. Now sitting empty, RAAAF and Atelier de Lyon propose excavating the 820-foot-long concrete structure to fully reveal its enormous volume.

Rendering of Deltawerk 1:1. Image Courtesy of RAAAF | Atelier de Lyon

The final stage of the project will involve cutting panels from the tank’s walls and turning them 90 degrees. Their huge size and precarious positions recall images of seemingly robust and monumental objects tossed around by wind, storms, floods, or waves. As the seasons change, daylight will spotlight different facets of the structure, even as its original use becomes more and more forgotten. Ronald hopes that it will “open up ways of interpreting history toward the future, rather than just telling stories from the past.”

The designers are looking into how their unique take on preservation can be adopted beyond the Netherlands, where they would have greater opportunities to generate the new from the old, rather than simply halting decay. That is the urgent next step, Ronald says. “Preservation by itself doesn’t bring us further into the future. We need radical new perspectives.”

RAAAF and Atelier de Lyon Reveal a Monumental Tribute to the Dutch Delta Works in Waterloopbos

See more of the Deltawerk 1:1 project here.

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The Aggregate Architectural History Collaborative has organized a collection of essays, entitled The Destruction of Cultural Heritage: From Napoléon to ISIS, which examines several centuries of the demolition of monuments in the Middle East. With world events like ISIS and the protection of architectural heritage growing to be more and more topical, this collection is a useful tool in considering the role of violence, how ancient architecture is perceived as a cultural entity, what role the media has to play, and beyond.

Palmyra site overview. Image © <a href='http://ift.tt/2jdvNzG user Jiří Suchomel</a> licensed under <a href='http://ift.tt/2jdvwwD BY-NC 2.0</a>

In the essay collection, prominent scholars in the field discuss the above issues and more in the hope of expanding readers’ frames of reference concerning the nuanced issue of threatened monuments. For example, the introductory essay of the series delves into the historic destruction of cultural heritage, as well as changing motivations for destruction, and the use of documentary imagery to accentuate violence and evoke horror.

Arch of Triumph (detail), destroyed by ISIS, October 2015. Image © <a href='http://ift.tt/2ie7w8s user Alessandra Kocman</a> licensed under <a href='http://ift.tt/2az4bMy BY-NC-ND 2.0</a>

This and other essays go on to discuss various views on the subject, including the role of museums in cultural destruction, how Islamic culture is perceived abroad, how cultural damage affects local citizens, whether buildings deserve the same protections as people, Napoleonic forms of looting, and how the structure behind war can be influenced to prevent destruction.

Temple of Bel, Destroyed by ISIS, August 2015. Image © <a href='http://ift.tt/2ieexG9 user Jiří Suchomel</a> licensed under <a href='http://ift.tt/2jdvwwD BY-NC 2.0</a>

Learn more about The Destruction of Cultural Heritage by reading the full essay collection here.

Tetrapylon in the Great Collonnade. Image © <a href='http://ift.tt/2iea1Yu user Jiří Suchomel</a> licensed under <a href='http://ift.tt/2jdvwwD BY-NC 2.0</a>

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© Wieland Gleich

• Architects: MLB Architects
• Location: Bellville, Cape Town, South Africa
• Architects In Charge: Erik Janse van Rensburg, Peter Kraus, Xico Meirelles
• Area: 10000.0 ft2
• Project Year: 2014
• Photographs: Wieland Gleich

• Client Team (Su Facilities Management):: Gretha Jacobs, Maggie Walters, Kevin Matthew, Anton Kriel, Junaid Gafieldien
• Structural Engineers: KFD Wilkinson Consulting Engineers
• Mechanical Engineers: Triocon Consulting Engineers (Pty) Ltd.
• Electrical Engineers: Triocon Consulting Engineers (Pty) Ltd.
• Acoustic Engineers: Andrew Wade – Sound Research Laboratories – South Africa (Pty) Ltd.
• Landscape Architect: Danielle Cloete DCLA
• Quantity Surveyor: DV Boland Consulting (Pty) Ltd.
• Consultants/Other Specialists: Health & Safety Consultant: Safe Smart

© Wieland Gleich

The client for this project was SU’s Facilities Management,with the end user being SU’s Faculty of Medicine. The brief called for two 450 seater auditoriums, with break out areas. The budget was tight, the program fast-tracked and siting crucial.   

© Wieland Gleich

This building had to be located close to the existing Teaching Hub, while not affecting campus parking & landscaping. Of the three potential sites identified, this one was selected for its ability to comply with the above prerequisites, while offering more. 

© Wieland Gleich

By ‘docking’ into the Teaching Hub, with auditoriums straddling the axis, the opportunity arose to create a new iconic entrance. This also reinforced the axis, linking the Student Union to the Teaching Hub, bringing it indoors, transforming the row of trees into columns. 

Ground Floor Plan

Scale & Massing were important urban design considerations. A low profile was maintained, so to not block a visual connection to the Teaching Hub building behind it. Even so, ± 4,5m internal ceiling heights were maintained appropriately-scaled to internal public space. 

© Wieland Gleich

The Tygerberg campus lacked a focal outdoor space, as in UCT’s Jameson steps. These new entrance steps were thus designed to establish symbolic interface. The platforms out of which steps were carved, also serve as seats, while also having planters for trees. 

© Wieland Gleich

The low profile also gave the building good human scale. Straddling the 2 auditoriums over an axis,created the opportunity for a looser composition of solids. These were fronted by a biomorphic break out area, its asymmetry held together by the axis cutting through it.

© Wieland Gleich

The West-facing, glazed ‘fish bowl’, break-out area presented its own difficulties, which in turn, triggered design solutions. Firstly was the need for precise sun control measures. Secondly the quest to also capture good outward views to the campus gardens.  

© Wieland Gleich

A layer of vertical sun control fins was thus added to the West elevation, manufactured from Hulabond sandwich panels, perforated with stylized DNA patterns. The patterns & signage were designed in collaboration with renowned graphic designer, Robin Lancaster.

© Wieland Gleich

Considerable effort went into auditorium design – size, shape, raking, seating, finishes, lighting & services. The faceted plan was found to be efficient for sight-lines, acoustics & distance from lecturer, while strict lines of geometry where imposed on services, for visual order. 

© Wieland Gleich

A complex arrangement of communication, climate control, power, lighting, audio visual, acoustic & fire detection services were incorporated. The consultant team was managed by a high level of coordination, to achieve functionally efficient, visually uncluttered interiors.

© Wieland Gleich

Product Description.

The most significant material used in the project is that of the Hulabond aluminum screens.

Part of the client’s vision was to have break-way spaces from the main auditorium that would have a visual connection with the campus surroundings. Due to the orientation of the new building with relation to the old, a clear, unshaded Western façade was not possible. In response to this climatic barrier, the architects decided to introduce vertical sunscreens that were pivoted in such a way that the sun would be blocked out, and the view only partially obscured. 

© Wieland Gleich

Using aluminum made sense for various reasons. The product is light weight which made the manufacturing of these large fins easy. Being in a coastal area the corrosive properties and durability of the material is also advantages. From an aesthetic point of view, aluminum has a clean and contemporary appearance and could be punctured with a DNA pattern to let in additional filtered light. 

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In an exclusive half-hour episode focusing on the life and legacy of Jane Jacobs, “one of the most influential urban thinkers and city activists of our time.” Featuring interviews with a carefully selected range of city planners, historians and activists, alongside recordings of Jacobs herself, this special episode of Monocle 24’s The Urbanist examines why Jacobs was—and remains—so influential when considering the contemporary city.

Opinion: Why Our Cities Need Less Jane Jacobs
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