Plan Volsin

8/22/2019 Plan Volsin

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ENTRE EL PLAN VOISIN Y LA CIUDAD GENRICAUn estudio comparativo de Buenos Aires como modelo urbano

dr.arch. Peter BjerrumProfesor, Arquitecto

Instituto de Teora y HistoriaLa Academia Real Dans de Artes, La Escuela de Arquitectura

Copenhague


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PRIMERO RESUMEN DE LA INVESTIGACIN, 2005:

Entre el Plan Voisin y la Ciudad GenricaUn estudio comparativo de Buenos Aires como modelo urbano.

Hablando ambivalentemente hay una similitudpeculiar entre la descripcin de BuenosAires por Le Corbusier1 y la nocin crtica de la Ciudad Genrica por Rem Koolhaas 2..Los dos estn igualmente fascinados por la dinmica delirante y la ignorante brutalidadde la urbanizacin contempornea. La semejanza, sin embargo, acaba aqu.Mientras que el criticismo de Le Corbusier sirve como punto de partida para una utopaurbana futura, la correspondiente aproximacin crtica de Rem Koolhaas es ms bienun punto sin retorno.

Modernidad y MetrpoliEntre el Plan Voisin y la Ciudad Genricahay una gran brecha iniciada por la tabularasa del movimiento moderno. Es esta brecha la que literalmente ha desmantelado elvnculo entre la metrpoli y la megaciudad y, subsiguientemente, ha desmantelado lacoherencia de modernidad, considerando el modernismo del siglo XX comoenteramente innovador.En trminos urbansticos la modernidad podra dividirse en una primera modernidadcorrespondiendo a la poca del Historicismo, de aprox. 1840 a aprox.1920, que estambin la poca de la Metrpoli, y una segunda modernidad, que es la poca delmodernismo, de aprox. 1920 a aprox. 1990. Esta segunda modernidad es tambin la

poca del suburbio, convirtiendo la urbanizacin del siglo XIX en una suburbanizacinlocal y preparando el terreno para la megaciudad.En cuanto a la brecha mencionada anteriormente, la Metrpoli sera el punto de partidade la heroica visin urbanstica: La ciudad mundial3; la realidad de la megaciudad serael callejn sin salida de la urbanizacin genrica.

Buenos Aires Los objetivos de un estudio comparativo de Buenos Aires tienen que llenar la brechaentre el Plan Voisin y la Ciudad Genrica, trazando las caractersticas de un modelourbano contemporneo entre la metrpoli y la megaciudad.Buenos Aires puede ser considerada como un modelo urbano con origen en la pocade la metrpoli avanzando hacia la megaciudad; de ah la idoneidad de un estudio que

intente reconstruir la coherencia de la modernidad, mientras todava comparta lafascinacin hacia una amplia urbanizacin, como se ha indicado ms arriba.

La MegaciudadSiendo social y arquitectnicamente una pluralidad de rdenes sobreimpuestos, lamegaciudad no es ni la racional visin arquitectnica de la Ville Radieuse4, ni TheMetropolis of Tomorrow5. La megaciudad es, por un lado, la contemporaneidad de laimposicin de modelos urbanos clsicos y modernos y, por otro lado, el entrelazamientode los elementos locales y globales de la urbanizacin presente.

1 Cf. Le Corbusier, Precisions, Cambridge Mass.: The MIT Press, 1991, pp.169-214.2 Cf. Rem Koolhass, Bruce Mau, Hans Werlemann, S. M. L. XL, New York: Monacelli, 1998, pp. 1239-1264.3 Le Corbusier op.cit. pp. 215-231.4 Cf. Le Corbusier, The radiant City: Elements of a doctrine of urbanism to be used as the basis of our ma-chine age civilization, New York: Orion, 1967.5 Cf. Hugh Ferris, The metropolis of tomorrow,London: Architectural Press, 1986.


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PRIMARY ABSTRACT OF THE RESEARCH, 2005

Between the Plan Voisin and the generic City,- a comparative study of Buenos Aires as an urban model.

Ambivalently speaking there is a peculiar similarity between Le Corbusiers portrayal ofBuenos Aires6 and Rem Koolhaass critical notion of the generic City7. Both are equallyfascinated by the delirious dynamic and the ignorant brutality of contemporary urbaniza-tion. However, here the similarity rests.While Le Corbusiers criticism serves as the point of departure for an upcoming urbanutopia, the corresponding critical approach of Rem Koolhaas is rather a point of no re-turn.

Modernity and the MetropolisBetween the Plan Voisin and the generic City is a huge gap, initiated by the tabularasaof the modern movement. It is this gap that literally has dismantled the bond betweenthe Metropolis and the Mega City, and subsequently dismantled the coherence of mod-ernity, dating the 20th century modernism as entirely seminal.In urbanistic terms modernity could roughly be chronologized as a first modernity, theepoch of historicism c. 1840 c. 1920, which is also the epoch of the Metropolis, and asecond modernity, the epoch of modernism c. 1920 c. 1990.This second modernity is also the epoch of the suburb, dissolving the 19th century ur-banization into local suburbanization and preparing the ground for the Mega City.With reference to the gap, mentioned above, the Metropolis would be the point of depar-

ture of the heroic urbanistic vision: TheWorldCity8; the reality of the Mega City would bethe dead end of generic urbanization.

Buenos AiresThe objectives of a comparative study of Buenos Aires are to fill the gap between thePlan Voisin and the generic City, laying out the features of a contemporary urban modelbetween the Metropolis and the Mega City.Buenos Aires may be considered as an urban model originating in the epoch of the Me-tropolis and heading towards the Mega City; hence its suitability for a study trying toreconstruct the coherence of modernity, while still sharing the fascination towards intrac-table urbanization, as initially stated above.

The Mega CityBeing socially and architecturally a plurality of superimposed orders, the Mega City isneither the rational architectural vision ofVilleRadieuse9, nor is it TheMetropolisofTo-morrow10.The Mega City is on the one hand the contemporaneity of laid down classical and mod-ern urban models, on the other hand the intertwined local and global elements of pres-ent urbanization.

6 Cf. Le Corbusier, Precisions, Cambridge Mass.: The MIT Press, 1991, pp.169-214.7 Cf. Rem Koolhass, Bruce Mau, Hans Werlemann, S. M. L. XL, New York: Monacelli, 1998, pp. 1239-1264.8 Le Corbusier op.cit. pp. 215-231.9 Cf. Le Corbusier, The radiant City: Elements of a doctrine of urbanism to be used as the basis of our ma-chine age civilization, New York: Orion, 1967.10 Cf. Hugh Ferris, The metropolis of tomorrow,London: Architectural Press, 1986.


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BASIC ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK, 2006:

Space and Sociality II- notes on the role of social institutions in urban development.

0, time-spaces: More often the concept of sociality may be considered in terms dealingwith time, rather than space, such as evolution, change, transformation, mobility etc.,meaning that sociality is an ongoing series of events in time, which it truly is. Neverthe-less, this is far from any thorough conclusion of an ontological primacy of time opposedto space. As pointed out by Marx the capitalist market is constantly struggling to over-come all territorial i.e. spatial obstacles, while at the same time denying the spacethrough the time11; hence capitalisms schizophrenia to the necessary assemblage ofevents and things in time and space12. 0.1, accessibilitylimitations: Getting closer tothe present subject, this schizophrenia tends to reject the conflicting forces of the marketto attain unlimited accessibility i.e. to strive towards a smooth space, though still de-pending on inaccessible limitations to increase surplus i.e. to strive towards a striatedspace. Its not simply a question about the state apparatus versus the market. Even ifthe further is more likely to give raise to institutional limitations, it may just as well be theexecutioner of those sets up by the latter. The market is just as likely as the state appa-ratus to manage the diversity of smooth and striated spaces 13, whether its about thenation state, the city or the selfsame institutions that are in the business of regulating theflow of goods, money and people, i.e. constantly reshaping the entities of sociality. Sothe question is not just about the marginal value, its increasingly about reshaping theassemblage of all of the above mentioned entities right down to the level of buildings,

embodying all sorts of institutions and theirs topical accessibility and limitations. 1.0,sociality: Being a sort ofmeta-concept- like time and space - sociality is apriorito anyhuman experience in the sense that there can be no dealing with human behaviour be-yond sociality, including the present subject of the ongoing transformation of cities asessentially self-organizing processes. These are the processes of matter-energy shap-ing the endoskeleton of sociality, while in the same time forming the exoskeleton of allsort of social entities: cities, institutions and, still more crucial, systems of transportation.

Altogether flowing like lavas and magmas14 into a mineralization of a different nature,which is the immediate material conditions of social human behaviour and in the sametime, being the subject to change, make up the accessibility and limitations of humaninterventions. Needless to say, considering the term matter-energy, human social inter-ventions cannot be conducted as a straightforward process of means and goals. The

accessible rationality is not necessarily doable. Not only the handed over material condi-tion puts up constrains, the preferences and expectations dominating human social be-haviour does too; hence the well-known unintendedcollective consequences of planned

11 "Whrend das Kapital also einerseits dahin streben muss, jede rtliche Schranke des Verkehrs, i. e. desAustauschs niederzureien, die ganze Erde als seinen Markt zu erobern, strebt es andrerseits danach denRaum zu vernichten durch die Zeit. Karl Marx, Grundrisse der Kritik der politischen konomie, Dietz Ver-lag, 1953, p..43812 The argentine writer J. L. Borges gives without any comparison to Marxs analysis in his story, Tln,Uqbar, Orbis Tertius, a highly ironical description of the linguistic difficulties at the planet Tln, where theintuition of space is denied through time. The language of Tln does not recognize substantives or transitiveverbs, so all actions are independent and unconnected. Cf. Ficciones, Buenos Aires: Emec Editores S.A.,1996, pp 17-45.13 Cf. Giles Deleuze, Felix Guattari, A thousand plateaus, Mineapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1987,pp. 474-500.14 Cf. Manuel de Landa,A thousand years of nonlinear history, Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press, 1997, pp.25-99.


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interventions15. 1.01, projects of sociality:As will be stated below, there may be pro-jects within sociality, but sociality as such is not anybodys project. Likewise, society is

not an entity its possible to grasp. What can be grasped are entities such as the nationstate, the city or the institutions. Embedded within sociality and embodied in cities thelatter is being historically and theoretically ever more crucial to urbanity and urbanistics.1.02, projects of architecture: The assemblage within sociality of cities and institutions- both in the sense of urban social behaviour and in the sense of concrete entities suchas buildings - tends to constrain the synergetic as well as the generic wide ranging ef-fects of any project of architecture. The planned result is turned over to a different naturethat does not - even if it may be considered of our own making - respond to applicableteleology; hence the widespread disillusionment with urban reality among modern archi-tects. Albeit the architectural project of the 20th century constituted a breakthrough inspatial and social understanding, it is only just approaching the above-mentioned as-semblage as a material collectiveness16. It has been realizing the relation between build-ing and body, the conjunction of agent and medium in dealing with space, but not ne-cessarily in a sociality always already given. As recognized by Mies in 1930: The im-portant question to ask is not what but how.17, which can be seen as the end of thetabularasa of the modern movement, accepting a more limited social responsibility thanhis opposite outcry: Every how is based on a what.18, which echoed the heroic uto-pia that was the order of the day. To some extend it may still be the case that modernarchitecture is not capable to dissolve such initial opposites as figure/ground,body/building, landscape/city or nature/sociality and grasp the synthetic complexity ofcities. Its not another outcry over unplanned urbanization needed initiating a new overallvision. Whats needed is a strategy of dispersed interventions reintegrating institutionsand cities, and this may not necessarily be embodying institutions as buildings. 2.0, ur-

banity: The modern city is neither an organic unity like the medieval city, nor does itmake up cohesive compositional entities like the renaissance-baroque schemes. It issocial and architectural a plurality of superimposed orders. On the one hand the histori-cal contemporaneity of laid down medieval, classical and modern urban structures, onthe other hand the interwoven topicality of local and global entities i.e. the presence ofnational and international laws and institutions. Compared by the consistent magnitudeof the architectural projects of 19th century, the projects of modernism are far more dis-persed and far less cohesive, whether its due to the above-mentioned disabilities or tothe immensity of previous accumulated material. So, in the frame of reference on hand,it would seem valid to distinguish between the alleged historical city and the modern cityin dealing with planned interventions, provided that its not accompanied by the endeav-our of restoration. The modern city may roughly be distinguishable by a first and a sec-

ond modernity, modifying any harsh gap between modernism and previous urban his-tory. In urban terms it could be chronologized as a first modernity, the epoch of histori-cism c. 1840 c. 1920, which is also the epoch of the Metropolis, and a second mod-ernity, the epoch of modernism c. 1920 c. 1990. This second modernity is also theepoch of the suburb, dissolving the 19th century urbanization into local suburbanizationand preparing the ground for the Mega City. 2.01, globalization: In a globalized world,like that of the 21st century, the given sociality unfolds through a multitude of superim-posing webs, causing disruptions between the former balance between its concrete enti-ties: the nation state, the city and the institutions. The importance of the nation state

15 Ibid. pp 11-22.16 This could from a material point of view be seen as another conceptualization of Aldo Rossis notion of the

collective unconsciousness. Cf. The architecture of the city, Cambridge, Mass.: Graham Foundation forAdvanced Studies, 1982

17The new era, Speech delivered at a Werkbund meeting in Vienna, 1930.18A letter on form in architecture to Dr Riezler, 1927.


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tends to diminish, while that of the city and the institutions tend to increase, i.e. tend toreplace the nation state as the frontier of economics and subsequently of urbanistics. It

may still not be clear, what will be the impact on the level of planned and build entities,except that their bigness19 tends to dissolve the programmatic identity of institution build-ing into multifunctional conglomerates, -scapes of a different nature. This may be thechallenge to modern architectures theoretical and practical dealing with space, despitethe opposing trends towards architectural hautecouture that haunt each one city on theglobe. Restoring modernisms monstrous capacity might not be the adequate responseto the apparently lack of architectural identity. It may turn out that the above-mentionedcapacities of social-spatial understanding were extended to grasp not just solitary build-ings, but also the assemblage of more complex institutional entities and their urban inte-gration. On one hand globalized sociality is an infinite field of possibilities, on the otherhand it has, in each programmatic case, to be constrained to a certain institutional field,where architecture is confronted by the task of initiating temporal form to a finite socialentity in the shape of something build. 1.1, investigation: The analysis briefly statedabove, may well be investigated in the realm of past century architectural history, deal-ing with the correlation: program, institution and building. The following is the headlinesof such an investigation, which has partly been carried out at The Royal Academy ofFine Arts, The school of Architecture in Copenhagen. This investigation consists of 3preliminary studies of historical, critical and virtual nature conceived from the point ofview of architecture dealing with space as the medium and sociality as its programme. 201.1.2, institutions: A study of the 19th century development of programmes for a sub-stantial part of urban institutions: the theatre, the museum, the library, the departmentstore etc., and their corresponding building types. - This constitutes the historicaldimen-sion of the project. 1.1.3, modernizations: A study of the 20th century modernizationsand, in certain cases, new development of social programmes for housing, schools,hospitals, sport stadiums etc., and the corresponding reshaping of 19 th century buildingtypes. - This constitutes the criticaldimension of the project. 1.1.4, conglomerates: Astudy of the capacity of the globalized societies of the 21st century to renew social pro-grammes for institutions and buildings, and the equivalent revision of classical and mod-ern building typology, absorbing those into new conglomerates of the urban spatial con-struction of sociality. - This study constitutes the virtual dimension of the project. 1.2,studies: The studies are carried out partly as historic studies on the European citymodel, partly as a case study on Buenos Aires and Brasilia, mapping a record of themedieval city, the renaissance-baroque scheme and the metropolis,primarily the citiesof London, Paris, Vienna, and for the sake of provincialism Copenhagen. Buenos Airesand Brasilia are picked as ideal representations of urban models of the first and second

modernity respectively. They may in turn be seen as representations of an ideal Euro-pean city model originating from the epoch of the metropolis and of the above men-tioned suburb; hence their suitability as case studies of a heuristic assignment on theurban spatial notion at stake in modernity. The overall assumption is that the foundingand urban integration of social institutions21 are the main generator, the synergetic fea-ture, of urban development rather than the simple growth of population. 0.2, space andsociality: Space like Time is a general form of intuition, Anschauungsform22, bymeans of which we - as biological and social beings - orient in the world. Space may not

19 Cf. Rem Koolhaas, Mau, Hans Werlemann, S. M. L. XL, New York: Monacelli, 1998, pp. 1239-1264.20 Cf. Own article ConceptMediumProgrammein Villner, Lena & Abarkan, Abdellah (eds.), The four facesof architecture: On the dynamics of architectural knowledge, Stockholm: School of Architecture, Royal Insti-

tute of Technology 2005, pp. 97-116.21 The term, social, is to be understood in its broadest sense, meaning all kinds of institutionalized socialactivities whether it is private or public.22 Cf. Emmanuel Kant, Kritik der reinen Vernunft, Frankfurt: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1968, pp. 74-86.


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be seen as such, but it certainly may be measured. It may be constructed, and as suchspace is always already real - present and presenting. Indeed, it is this always already

presenting presence of Space that defines the necessarily spatial construction of theabove-mentioned endoskeleton of sociality and subsequently the exoskeleton of institu-tions. Space, as it were, is already present in the programme of architecture as a socialconstruction before its presented in space as an architectural construction i.e. as a buildentity. Space is at all level of the process staging the correlation: program, institutionand building.23 0.2.1, construction of space: The social construction of space not onlytheoretically, but historically as well, precedes the architectural construction. Not that thearchitectural and the social construction of a given poque be identical, but in the sensethat the social construction of space as programme being a corrective to its architecturalconstruction as building. - This corrective is the ethicaldimension of architecture.

23 Own article, op.cit.


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MARCO ANALTICO BSICO, 2006

Espacio y Socialidad II- notas sobre el rol de las instituciones sociales en el desarrollo urbano.

0.0 tiempo-espacio : Con frecuencia, el concepto de socialidad puede considerarseen trminos relativos al tiempo ms bien que al espacio, tales como evolucin, cambio,transformacin, movilidad, etc., entiendo que la socialidad es una serie deacontecimientos continuos en el tiempo, lo que es cierto. Sin embargo no es, ni muchomenos, una conclusin completa del primado ontolgico del tiempo sobre el espacio.Como lo observaba Marx, el mercado capitalista tiende constantemente a superar todoobstculo territorial, es decir espacial, mientras que al mismo tiempo niega el espacio atravs del tiempo; de ah la esquizofrenia del capitalismo frente al ensamblaje necesariode acontecimientos y cosas en el tiempo y en el espacio. 0.1 accesibilidades-limitaciones: Al acercarse al presente tema, esa esquizofrenia tiende a rechazar lasfuerzas conflictivas del mercado para lograr la accesibilidad ilimitada, es decir aspirar aun espacio liso, aunque todava dependiente de limitaciones inaccesibles, con el fin deaumentar el supervit, es decir aspirar a un espacio estriado. No es simplemente lacuestin del aparato del estado frente al mercado. Aunque sea ms probable que elprimero sostenga las limitaciones institucionales, puede tambin ser el ejecutor de lasreglas impuestas por el segundo. El mercado es tan creble como el aparato estatalpara manejar la diversidad de espacios lisos y estriados, as sean el Estado Nacin, laciudad o las instituciones propias encargadas de la regulacin del flujo de bienes,dinero y personas, es decir quienes reformen las entidades de la socialidad. Entonces

la cuestin no es solamente la del valor marginal, es cada vez ms la de reformar losensamblajes de todas las entidades ms arriba mencionadas, hasta el nivel de los edifi-cios, encarnando cualquier clases de instituciones y de sus tpicas accesibilidades ylimitaciones. 1.0, socialidad: De ser un tipo de meta-concepto - como el tiempo y elespacio - la socialidad es a prioricualquier experiencia humana en el sentido de que nose puede tratar con el comportamiento humano ms all de la socialidad, incluso deltema presente de la transformacin en curso de ciudades como realmente procesos deautoorganizacin. Estos son los procesos de materia-energa que forman del endoes-queleto de la socialidad, y que en el mismo tiempo forman el esqueleto de todos tiposde entidades sociales: ciudades, instituciones y, an ms importante, sistemas detransporte. Todos fluyen como lava y magma hacia una mineralizacin de distinta natu-raleza, que es las condiciones materiales inmediatas de la conducta humana social y, al

mismo tiempo, sindose el objeto de cambiar, constituir la accesibilidad y las limitacio-nes de las intervenciones humanas. Huelga decir, considerndonos el trmino materia-energa, intervenciones humanas sociales no pueden llevarse a cabo como un procesodirecto de los medios y objetivos. La racionalidad accesible no es necesariamente facti-ble. No slo la entrega de las condiciones materiales ponen limitaciones, las preferen-cias y expectativas, que dominan el ser humano social, lo hace tambin, de ah la cono-cida consecuencias colectivas non-intentadas de las intervenciones planeadas. 1.01,proyectos de socialidad: Como ser establecido ms adelante, pueden existirproyectos dentro de la socialidad pero la socialidad como tal no es el proyecto de nadie.

Asimismo, la sociedad no es una entidad que se pueda captar. Lo que se puede captarson entidades como el Estado Nacin, la ciudad o las instituciones. Encastrado alinterior de la socialidad y encarnado por las ciudades, este ltimo est volvindose,

histrica y tericamente cada vez ms crucial para el urbanismo y la urbanstica. 1.02,proyectos de arquitectura: El ensamblaje de las ciudades y de las instituciones dentrode la socialidad, tanto en el sentido de trato social urbano como en el de entidad


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concreta, como ser construcciones, tiende a limitar no solamente la sinergia sinotambin los efectos genricos de largo alcance de cualquier proyecto de arquitectura. El

resultado planeado se transforma en otra naturaleza que a pesar de que puedaconsiderarse de nuestra propia creacin no corresponde a la teleologa aplicable; deah la desilusin frecuente frente a la realidad urbana entre los arquitectos modernos.

Aunque el proyecto arquitectnico del siglo XX haya marcado un hito en elentendimiento espacial y social, ni siquiera se acerca al ensamblaje arriba mencionadocomo una colectividad material. Ha realizado la relacin entre construccin y cuerpo, laconjuncin de agente y medio, acerca del tratamiento del espacio, pero nonecesariamente en una socialidad siempre ya dada. Como lo reconoce Mies en 1930,La pregunta importante no es qu? sino cmo?., lo que se puede considerarcomo el fin de la tabula rasa del movimiento moderno, aceptando as unaresponsabilidad social ms limitada que la de su proclamacin opuesta: Cadacmo? se basa en un qu?., hacindole eco a la heroica utopa que estabaentonces a la orden del da. En una cierta medida puede todava ser que la arquitecturamoderna no sea capaz de deshacer tales oposiciones iniciales como figura/base,cuerpo/construccin, paisaje/ciudad o naturaleza/socialidad y captar la complejidadsinttica de las ciudades. No se necesita de una nueva queja sobre la urbanizacin sinplan que inicie una nueva visin total. Lo que se necesita es una estrategia deintervenciones dispersas, que reintegre instituciones y ciudades sin quenecesariamente encarne a instituciones como edificios. 2.0, urbanismo: La ciudadmoderna no es ni una unidad orgnica, como lo era la ciudad medieval, ni tampocoforma entidades de composiciones cohesivas, como los esquemas del Renacimiento ydel Barroco. Es una pluralidad de rdenes sociales y arquitectnicos. Por una parte, lacontemporaneidad histrica de las estructuras urbanas medievales, clsicas y

modernas desmanteladas y, por otra parte, la topicalidad entrelazada de entidadeslocales y globales, es decir la presencia de leyes e instituciones nacionales einternacionales. Comparados con la consistente magnitud de los proyectosarquitectnicos del siglo XVIIII, los del modernismo son mucho ms dispersos y muchomenos cohesivos, que sea debido a la incapacidad mencionada ms arriba o a lainmensidad de los materiales previamente acumulados. Entonces, con las referenciasde que disponemos parecera valido distinguir entre la as llamada ciudad histrica y laciudad moderna, tratndose de intervenciones planeadas, siempre que no vayanacompaadas por cualquier nimo de restauracin. La ciudad moderna puedeaproximadamente distinguirse entre una primera y una segunda Modernidad,modificando as cualquier brecha rigorista entre el Modernismo y la historia urbanaanterior. En trminos urbansticos se podra datar la primera Modernidad de la poca

del Historicismo, de 1840 a 1920 aproximadamente, que es tambin la poca de laMetrpolis, y una segunda Modernidad, la poca del Modernismo, de 1920 a 1990aproximadamente. La cual segunda modernidad es tambin la poca de los suburbios,que disuelve la urbanizacin del siglo XIX en la suburbanizacin local y que prepara elterreno a la Megaciudad. 2.01, globalizacin: En un mundo globalizado como el delsiglo XXI, la actual socialidad se extiende a travs de una multitud de redessuperpuestas, provocando interrupciones en el anterior equilibrio entre sus entidadesconcretas, el Estado Nacin, la ciudad y las instituciones. La importancia del EstadoNacin tiende a disminuir, mientras que la de la ciudad y la de las instituciones tiendena aumentar, es decir que tienden a reemplazar el Estado Nacin como frontera de laeconoma y, por consiguiente, de la urbanstica. Todava no queda muy claro lo queser su impacto sobre el nivel de las entidades planeadas y construidas, si no es que su

grandeza tiende a deshacer la identidad programtica del edificio-institucin enconglomerados multifuncionales, -sajes de otra naturaleza. Esto puede ser el desafodel trato prctico de la arquitectura moderna con el espacio, a pesar de las diferentes


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tendencias hacia la haute-couture arquitectnica que atormenta todas las ciudades delmondo. Puede ser que la restauracin de la capacidad monumental del Modernismo no

sea la respuesta adecuada a la ausencia aparente de identidad arquitectnica. Y puedeser que la capacidad de comprensin del espacio social anteriormente mencionada seextienda hasta alcanzar no solamente los edificios solitarios, ms que tambin elensamblaje de entidades institucionales ms complejas y su integracin urbana. Poruna parte, la socialidad globalizada es un campo infinito de posibilidades; por otra,tiene, en cada caso programtico, que limitarse a un cierto campo institucional donde laarquitectura se enfrenta a la tarea de iniciar la forma temporal de una entidad socialfinita, bajo la forma de algo construido. 1.1, investigacin: El anlisis brevementeexpuesto ms arriba puede perfectamente ser estudiado en el campo de la historia delos siglos pasados, al tratarse con la correlacin: programa, institucin y construccin.Lo que sigue son los rasgos generales de tal investigacin, que en parte ya ha sidorealizada en la Real Academia de Bellas Artes, Escuela de Arquitectura deCopenhague. Esta investigacin consiste en 3 estudios de carcter histrico, crtico yvirtual concebidos desde el punto de vista de la arquitectura, en relacin con el espaciocomo medio y la socialidad como su programa. 1.1.2, instituciones: Un estudio de losprogramas de desarrollo del siglo XIX, principalmente de instituciones urbanas: elteatro, el museo, la biblioteca, el gran almacn, etc., y sus diferentes tipos de edificios.

Esto constituye la dimensin histrica del proyecto. 1.1.3, modernizaciones: Unestudio de las modernizaciones del siglo XX y, en ciertos casos, los nuevos desarrollosde los programas sociales de viviendas colectivas, escuelas, hospitales, estadios dedeporte, etc., y la reorganizacin de los tipos de edificios del siglo XIX. Esto constituyela dimensin crtica del proyecto. 1.1.4, conglomerados: Un estudio de la capacidadpor parte de la socialidad globalizada del siglo XXI de renovar los programas sociales

de las instituciones y de los edificios, as como la revisin equivalente de la tipologa dela construccin clsica y moderna, absorbindolas en nuevos conglomerados de laconstruccin espacial de la socialidad. Este estudio constituye la dimensin virtualdelproyecto. 1.2, estudios: Los estudios son llevados a cabo en parte como estudioshistricos del modelo de la ciudad europea, y en parte en forma de estudio de lasciudades de Buenos Aires y de Brasilia, cartografiando la ciudad medieval, el esquemadel Renacimiento barroco y de la Metrpolis, principalmente las ciudades de Londres,Pars, Viena y Copenhague. Hemos elegido Buenos Aires y Brasilia comorepresentaciones ideales de modelos urbanos de la primera y de la segundamodernidad, respectivamente. A su vez, pueden considerarse como lasrepresentaciones de una ciudad europea ideal, originaria de la poca de la Metrpolis ydel suburbio arriba mencionado; de ah su pertinencia como estudios de una funcin

heurstica de la nocin espacial en juego en la modernidad. El supuesto de conjunto esque la base y la integracin urbana de las instituciones es el principal generador, elrasgo sinrgico, del desarrollo urbano ms bien que el mero crecimiento de lapoblacin. 0.2, espacio y socialidad: el espacio como el tiempo es una formageneral de intuicin, una anschauungsform, que nos permite orientarnos en el mundo,como seres biolgicos y sociales. El espacio puede no ser visto como tal, pero concerteza puede sin duda alguna ser medido. Puede ser construido y, como tal espaciosiempre es real presente y presentando. De hecho, es esa presencia siempre yapresentando del espacio la que define la necesariamente construccin espacial del msarriba expuesto endoesqueleto de la socialidad y, por consiguiente del exoesqueleto delas instituciones. El espacio, por as decir, ya est presente en el programa de laarquitectura, como construccin social antes de ser presentado en el espacio como

construccin arquitectnica, o sea, como una entidad construida. El espacio siempre esde antemano real, presente y presentando, a todos los niveles del proceso,escenificando la correlacin: programa, institucin y construccin. 0.2.1, construccin


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del espacio: La construccin social del espacio no solamente precede tericamente laconstruccin arquitectnica, pero histricamente tambin. No es que la construccin

arquitectnica y social de cierta poca sea idntica, pero en el sentido de que laconstruccin social del espacio como programa es un correctivo de su construccinarquitectnica como edificio. Ese correctivo es la dimensin tica de la arquitectura.


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SOME RELATED ABSTRACTS, FADU 2005:

1.0, sociality:

A041: THE HABITAT OF URBAN HOUSING IN ARGENTINE

Director: Arnoldo Gaite

Research on architecture of housing, embracing appearance of technology, productionand design, since one vision humanistic and social, attending especially the conditionssocio cultural that regulating the task control contemporary.It pretend to have obtain results that to be permitted to put in order knowledge required

for de future of the project activity that to digress in subject.The deficiency that it observe in actions of planning and production in the structure ofthe essential space that grants human housing, drawn almost with exclusiveness in theplay supply and demand of meagre consumer market.Its only right to add that the purpose in detail of this job is found to link oneself with theresearch about architecture and town considered as a biological instrument, made fiveyears ago. This evaluation submits a typological classification of architecture products inhousing, studying the relationship between technology-product and nature of designs;and its productions with the ways of living of its users, their habits and customs as wellas their individual an social behaving.Its work to intent to advance mean to know about discipline in architecture to think thatto make up of actions design and construction with the knowledge according to the ne-

cessities and the culture of the habitat of populations town.

0.1, accessibility-limitations:

A008: INTEGRAL ACCESSIBILITY IN URBAN SPACES- factors of conflict and alternatives of intervention.

Director: arq. Horacio Jorge Pando- Codirector: arq. Adriana Apollonio, ResearchCentre on Architecture, Urbanism and Transportation Barriers.

This Project is enrolled in a general theoretical conceptual frame referred on the rela-tionship between people and his physical environment, and within this global problem-atic it considers the particular subject of the accessibility as the first condition for peopleappropriation of this physical environment.The front basic of the accessibility resides on, conciliate in a same proposal, the re-quirements of the larger number possible of people by eliminating all those barriers orobstacles that difficult or impede a full social integration, it questions the generic, idealreferent of humankind, that is not always representative of the extensive universe ofhumankind, integrated through individuals with different characteristics and capacities.The propose of this project is to detect, evaluate and diagnose conflict situations thatappear in the urban spaces on matter of physical accessibility, through a specially de-signed instrument, and formulate recommendations to be implemented as intervention

proposals in the urban typologies to be delimited


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The output of results will compliment the theoretical conceptual point of view with theapplication on an experimental case delimited to a metropolis range (Buenos Aires -

Gran Buenos Aires) with data collection in sample areas which analysis will contributewith new information on subject.

1.02, projects of architecture:

A013: ARCHIVIST, HISTORY AND ARCHITECTURE,Archives of Argentinean architecture history: its organization, conservancy, and interpre-tation. The case of the Modern Movement and the work of Argentinean architects: An-tonio Vilar, Hctor Morixe y Jorge Sabat.

Director: Architect Alberto S. J de Paula, Seccin Archivo Documental, Instituto deArte Americano e Investigaciones Estticas Mario J. Buschiazzo.

Its undeniable the importance that has assumed the Modern Movement in the evolutionof the Argentinean architecture during the 20th century, especially between 1929-1960.The architects Vilar, Morixe and Sabat can be considered representatives of aprofessional work during this period, especially in the design of houses, hotels, andbuildings industries in between other lines.This period that embraces their works contains the changes given by the successiveNormative Codes of the City of Buenos Aires, the evolution of the constructive tech-niques, new materials, and changes in the representation system.The archives of their professional production completed with the comparison of other

sources allow us to archive a comprehension of the processes of designing and con-struction of the building of the time.The comparative analysis enables us to recognize the differences scales of the designsbetween objects, buildings and metropolitan areas.So the importance of the comparison of the unpublished primary sources and in conse-quence the necessity to tend to the conservation, organization and easy handling toconfigure as open resources for the consultation as to achieve not only a more openacknowledgement of Argentinean Architecture trajectory during the 20th century, butalso to reach the interpretative clues and original criticism and successive of beingtransferred to the fields of teaching, heritage and general knowledge.

2.0, urbanity:

A022: URBAN ARTICULATIONS,Configurations, Techniques and Mobility for Projecting the Latin American City

Director: Javier Fernndez Castro, Laboratory of Morphology.

The socio-spatial processes developed in the area during the last decades necessarilyrequire reformulating the reading categories, the project tools and the instruments forthe management of the urban entity.Starting with the proposal of new approaches and guidelines, this work will aim at setting

the basis of a SITUATED AND OPERATIVE THEORY, capable of working as a concep-tual scaffolding for the project and the urban management in the Latin American context.


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The pieces of work will be based on the notion of URBAN ARTICULATION as a strategyof projectable approach, paying attention to its diverse levels: articulation between di-

verse logics, between the formal and the informal, between territorial sections, betweenurban models, etc., taking into account the interdependencies between the spatial, thesocial, the economic, and the cultural features.The operationalism of these developments will try to be proved through the project andmanagement of exemplary cases in the metropolitan area of Buenos Aires (with con-crete antecedents in the UBACyT project A401 belonging to the 2002 programme), andin other cities of the region by means of already established research agreements.The starting point will be a notion of URBAN PROJECT, conscious of the circuits of pro-duction and occupation that determine it.The notion of CONFIGURATION will allude to a concept of space as an ambit practisedin its social and signifying dimensions.The idea of TECHNIQUE adopted will try to define operators of materialisation and con-struction.The MOBILITY will be taken as condition for the relation, interchange and continuity, instrategies of accessibility tending to the inclusion.

A023: THE PRODUCTION OF RESIDENTIAL SPACE IN BUENOS AIRES CITY,- analyses from the view of the city planning policies and the real estate dynamics

Director: Arch. Daniela Szajnberg, Institution: Urbanism and City Program, ResearchUnit on Urban and Regional Planning.This project concentrates on the process of production of the residential space in Bue-

nos Aires city, trying to improve isolated views from partial public policies, analyses ofthe real estate market, or sociological and anthropological studies, which start from theidentification of the subjects and precarious and informal habitat, in order to set the dia-lectical contradiction between these three logics. After the retreat of the constructionindustry since 1998, later than the real estate boom facilitated by the economical andinstitutional restructuring of the nineties, and considering the polarization and social-territorial segregation and the differential valuation resulting from the processes of pro-duction, use and appropriation of the residential space in that period, this project willanalyse and evaluate the links between the public policies which fulfil the residential realestate production of the private sector, and those directed to the residential space of themarginal and poor population. Spreading a trans-disciplinary approach, conceptual ele-ments coming from the Urbanism, the City Planning, the Urban Geography, the Urban

Economics, and the State Theory will be brought, in order to contribute with theoreticaland methodological issues and forming opinions for the design of urban planning toolsand territorial, housing and land policies, that link the production logic to the housingdemand in the new economical, institutional and social-cultural context.

A036: MODERN ARCHITECTURE IN THE RO DE LA PLATA 1880 1970,- meanings, allegories and symbols

Dir.: Carlos Alberto Hilger, Historia III, Professor: Roberto Fernndez

The aim of the project consists of the study of the modern architecture of the Rio de la

Plata starting from the analysis of its works, methodologies, models and discourses be-


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tween 1880 and 1970 with the purpose of arriving to its specificities, meanings, allego-ries and symbols in each historical scenes. Two historical scenarios will be approached:

one from ends of century nineteen until the beginnings of the decade of the twenty andanother during the decades of sixty and seventy. These scenes constitute two key mo-ments in the construction of differentiated concepts of modernity. In the first scene it willbe studied the production of the most important architects of the Rio de la Plata in itsinstitutional, academic and intellectual context. In the second scene it will be studied thearchitecture and the modern art and their interrelation with the State starting from theboarding of three thematic axes: the denominated artistic movements concrete andtheir influences in the modern architecture; the state architectural production (competi-tions, projects and realizations) and the experimentations about housing of social inter-est (theories and practical) that environment in the University.

2.01, globalization:

A046: STRUCTURAL DYNAMICS, PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT OF THEBUENOS AIRES METROPOLITAN AGGLOMERATE,- an Inter-actoral, Inter-institutional and Inter-jurisdictional Perspective

Director: Luis Ainstein, Graduate Institute of Planning, Faculty of Architecture, Designand Planning. Buenos Aires University

The present research Project is directed at addressing two well different, although inter-connected, kinds of knowledge: on one side, developing analytical procedures aimed at

achieving a diagnosis and explanation of a critical character related with the presentmetropolitan global structure of relations of an inter-actoral, inter-institutional - in an ex-tensive sense, considering particularly the existing inter-jurisdictional gaps, or hiatuses- as they operate in a sectorial and self-gratifying manner, and become globally ineffec-tive, inefficient, lacking in sustainability, and above all, increasingly unfair, although func-tional towards central, or privileged, individual and/or institutional actors.On the other, the inception of proposals dealing with alternative patterns in which therelationships between the mentioned types of entities -actors, institutions and jurisdic-tions- become re-articulated in terms of being directed at more appropriate levels of glo-bal effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability and equity.The Project is aimed at setting up two Qualitative Models referred to one and the otherof the mentioned issues.

From a theoretical perspective, the present Project is set within the framework of Gen-eral Systems Theory and Chaos Theory. From an epistemological point of view, it is setwithin the Hypothetical/Deductive lineage.

1.2, studies:

A0058: CONTRIBUTING TOWARDS A URBAN HISTORY FROM ANENVIRONMENTAL PERSPECTIVE.Urban and territorial representations: knowledge, practice and institutions. Buenos Airesmetropolitan area


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Director: Alicia Novick, Instituto de Arte Americano e Investigaciones Estticas, Cen-tro de Investigaciones en Habitat y Municipios (CIHaM)

The aim of this project is to provide the materials for the construction of a Buenos Airesurban history from an environmental perspective. The research project will be based ona series of previous studies about urban plans and schemes for Buenos Aires and willaddress new challenges derived from the necessity of providing a historical backgroundto the Environmental Atlas for Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area, a larger research andeditorial initiative where this project is included as a first step. The project is not intendedto construct a unified and totalising history. Rather it is based on three different nuclei,which are eloquent about the relationship between nature, society and building envi-ronment in different historical periods. Firstly, it deals with the territorial strategies of thecolonial period, which can be considered as a template for the future formation of theMetropolitan Area urban structure. Secondly, it examines the imagery of spatial regu-larity, which guided the process of territorial construction during the 19th century.Thirdly, it studies the different city planning ideas during the 20th century, which helpedtransforming the urban space. These three nuclei based approach serves to deal withthe different representations from knowledge and practice and institutions.In turn, this approach attempts to study a series of problems, which today are thought ofas environmental without being anachronistic.

A052: TERRITORIAL ADMINISTRATION STRATEGIES IN AREAS OF URBANOPPORTUNITIES.The case of Buenos Aires City and its Metropolitan Space

Director: Guillermo C. Tella, Instituto Superior de Urbanismo.

The growing processes of dispersion and territorial fragmentation that currently are at-tending the metropolises, in the face of a progressive dissipation of the traditional com-pact city constitutes the general frame of the present work. Where it is analyzed howthe emptying of the consolidated area and the decentralization of the tertiary area bringthe arise of new urban pieces juxtaposed in a conflictive coexistence with marginality,vacancy and poverty.In this context, the aims of the work are: to evaluate urban patterns that define a newterritorial structure for Buenos Aires city and its metropolitan area, to recognize and tocharacterize the obsolete and the degraded portions of fabric and to propose administra-

tive strategies which will allow potential upgrades into areas of urban opportunities.Since the new urban reality requires theoretical inputs capable of giving answers to astructural crisis situation efficiently and dynamically, it has been assigned for this taskthe application of an urban informational system, named InfoUrban. Developed thepresent year and destined to the production of knowledge in the field of reference start-ing from the digital prosecution and the analytical interpretation of the territorial basedata.

Plan Volsin

Documents

Transcript of Plan Volsin