INGLÉS

ARQUITECTURA

2019

Lic. Patricia R. Allen

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TRABAJO PRÁCTICO Nº 1

Contenidos teóricos a consultar:

EL INGLÉS INSTRUMENTAL EN LA UNIVERSIDAD (pp. 7-11)

EL SUSTANTIVO (pp. 12-18)

EL ADJETIVO (pp.21-23)

1-Lea las definiciones, descubra transparencias. Identifique sustantivos y adjetivos a través

de sus sufijos.

2-Exprese las definiciones en español.

1) "Architecture is definitely a political act." - Peter Eisenman in Haaretz

2) "Architecture is unnecessarily difficult. It's very tough." - Zaha Hadid in The Guardian
3) "Architecture is by definition a very collaborative process." - Joshua Prince-
Ramus in Fast Company
4) "Architecture is a way of seeing, thinking and questioning our world and our place in it."
- Thom Mayne in his Prtizker Prize Acceptance Speech
5) "Architecture is merciless: it is what it is, it works or doesn’t, and you can clearly see the
difference." - Jacques Herzog in a lecture at Columbia University
6) "Architecture is full of romantics who think that even relatively small changes to the built
environment create the aspiration for a better society." - Mark Wigley in Surface Magazine
7) "Architecture is the work of nations..." John Ruskin in Stones of Venice
8) "Architecture is always dream and function, expression of a utopia and instrument of a
convenience." - Roland Barthes in "Semiology and Urbanism"
9) "Architecture is an expression of values – the way we build is a reflection of the way we
live." - Norman Foster in The European
10) "Architecture is the real battleground of the spirit." - Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in
"ID Merger Speech"
11) "Architecture is geometry." - Álvaro Siza in Imaginar a Evidência (Imagining
Evidence)
12) "Architecture is about improving conditions: environmental, social and sometimes also
political." - Arjen Oosterman in Volume
13) “Architecture is much more than the building of an object on a site: it is a reinvention of
the site itself." - Sean Lally in The Air From Other Planets
14) "Architecture is about serving others through the design of the built environment."
- Kevin J Singh in "21 Rules for A Successful Life in Architecture"
15) "Architecture is the petrification of a cultural moment." - Jean Nouvel in Newsweek
16) "Architecture is characterised by endurance and longevity: a long education, long
training, long hours and long lives." - Catherine Slessor in The Architectural Review
17) "Architecture is not just about building. It's a means of improving people's quality of
life." - Diébédo Francis Kéré in Washington Post

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18) “Architecture is a physical experience — it needs to be seen and touched to be wholly
understood.” - Nicolai Ouroussoff in Los Angeles Times
19) "Architecture is not just a matter of technology and aesthetics but the frame for a way of
life – and, with luck, an intelligent way of life." - Bernard Rudofsky
20) "Architecture is a discipline where you can have multivalent interests. You could be a
philosopher, a geographer, a scientist, an artist, an engineer; you can be poetic about it."
- Toshiko Mori in Metropolis
21) "Architecture is the most public of the arts, and the public are severe critics." - Eric
Parry in The Guardian
22) "Architecture is a form-maker, problem‐solver and environment‐creator, and the
international exposition is its laboratory." - Ada Louise Huxtable in New York Times
23) "Architecture is a small piece of this human equation, but for those of us who practice
it, we believe in its potential to make a difference, to enlighten and to enrich the human
experience, to penetrate the barriers of misunderstanding and provide a beautiful context for
life's drama." - Frank Gehry in his 1989 Pritzker Prize Ceremony Speech
24) "Architecture is not a purely private transaction between architects and clients. It affects
everyone, so it ought to be understandable to everyone. - Blair Kamin
25) "Architecture is vital and enduring because it contains us; it describes space, space we
move through, exit in and use." - Richard Meier in his 1984 Pritzker Prize Ceremony
Speech
26) “Architecture is not a goal. Architecture is for life and pleasure and work and for people.
The picture frame, not the picture.” - William Wurster
27) "Architecture is invention."- Oscar Niemeyer in Newsweek
28) "Architecture is a combination of science and fiction." - Winy Maas in Domus
29) "Architecture is not an inspirational business, it's a rational procedure to do sensible and
hopefully beautiful things; that's all." Harry Seidler in the Sydney Morning Herald
30) "Architecture is a complex and articulated process but if you lose the process and only
keep the form you lose the core of architectural practice." - André Tavares in Wallpaper*

Referencia: Quintal, B. (2016) 121 Definitions of Architecture. Recuperado de:

https://www.archdaily.com/773971/architecture-is-121-definitions-of-architecture

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TRABAJO PRÁCTICO N° 2

Contenidos teóricos a consultar:

ADJETIVOS Y ADVERBIOS (pp. 24-26)

TERMINACIÓN –ING: SU INTERPRETACIÓN Y TRADUCCIÓN (pp. 87-89)

TEXTO: GRABE, WILLIAM and STOLLER, FREDRICKA L. (2002). Purposes for

reading. Section 1: Understanding L2 reading in Teaching and Researching Reading.
Applied Linguistics in Action Series. Edited by Christopher N. Candlin & David R. Hall.
Longman, Great Britain, pp. 11-12.

1-Lea los datos bibliográficos, el título. Reflexione sobre el posible contenido del texto.

2-A medida que explore el texto descubra transparencias e identifique los sufijos de los
sustantivos y adjetivos.

3- Complete lo siguiente:

ADJETIVO ADVERBIO

…………. actually

initial …………..

.............. usually

.............. quickly

.............. unconsciuously

………….. surprisingly

................ finally

…………. commonly

4-Observe las palabras terminadas en -ing y determine si son verbos, adjetivos o sustantivos.

5-Identifique los núcleos de las siguientes frases sustantivas y elabore la traducción de las
mismas:

a) …some combination of search processing, general reading comprehension and

skimming…
b) …every line of a newspaper…
c) …the newspaper-story genre…
d) …some surprisingly informative part…
e) …multiple reading sources…
f) …a more critical set of goals…

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6-Desarrolle lo planteado por el texto en cuanto a los tres diferentes contextos o situaciones
de lectura: leer un diario, leer textos académicos o profesionales, leer textos con el fin de
lograr una comprensión general.

Purposes for reading

When we begin to read, we actually have a number of initial decisions to make, and we
usually make these decisions very quickly, almost unconsciously in most cases. For example,
when we pick up a newspaper, we usually read the front page with some combination of
search processing, general reading comprehension and skimming. We read partly for
information, but we also read with a goal to finish the newspaper fairly rapidly, since few
people try to read every line of a newspaper. We may initially search the front page for a
particular story we expect to be there. If the headlines cue us in the right way, we may check
quickly for the length of the article, and we may then read through a number of paragraphs
for comprehension (appropriately influenced by the newspaper-story genre, a reporting of
what, who, when, where, why and how). At some point, we will decide that we have enough
information and will either stop reading the article or skim the remainder to be sure that we
do not miss some surprisingly informative part.

In other settings, usually academic or professional ones, we sometimes synthesise

information from multiple reading sources, from different parts of a long and complex text,
or from a prose text and accompanying diagram or chart. Such reading is quite different from
searching, skimming, or reading for general comprehension. In these circumstances, a more
critical set of goals must be established for an effective synthesis: the reader needs to
remember points of comparison or opposition, assess the relative importance of the
information, and construct a framework in which the information will be organised.

Finally, and most commonly for L1 settings, people read for general comprehension
(whether for information or for pleasure). Here we might read a novel, a short story, a
newspaper article, or a report of some type to understand the information in the text, to be
entertained and/or to use the information for a particular purpose. The overall goal is not to
remember most of the specific details but to have a good grasp of the main ideas and
supporting ideas, and to relate those main ideas to background knowledge as appropriate.

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TRABAJO PRÁCTICO N° 3

Contenidos teóricos a consultar:

ESTRUCTURAS VERBALES (pp. 43-47)

TEXTO: GRABE, WILLIAM and STOLLER, FREDRICKA L. (2002). Reading to search

for simple information and reading to skim. Reading to learn from texts. Section 1:
Understanding L2 reading in Teaching and Researching Reading. Applied Linguistics in
Action Series. Edited by Christopher N. Candlin & David R. Hall. Longman, Great Britain,
pp. 11-12.

1-A medida que lea el texto observe el uso del verbo BE y determine si es verbo auxiliar o
verbo principal.

2-Observe en el texto las palabras terminadas en –ing y determine si son verbos, sustantivos
o adjetivos.

3-Identifique los núcleos de las siguientes frases sustantivas y elabore su traducción:

a)… a common reading ability…

b)… reading tasks…

c)… a type of reading ability…

d)… a specific piece of information…

e)… the meaning of a sentence…

f)… a common part of many reading tasks…

g)… basic reading comprehension skills…

4-La lectura destinada a la búsqueda de información le demanda al lector el empleo de

diversas estrategias. Desarrolle el planteo.

5-¿Qué ocurre con la lectura en un contexto académico-profesional? ¿Cómo se lleva a cabo?

¿Cuál es el rol de la inferencia en este tipo de lectura?

Reading to search for simple information and reading to skim

Reading to search for simple information is a common reading ability, though some
researchers see it as a relatively independent cognitive process. It is used so often in reading
tasks that it is probably best seen as a type of reading ability. In reading to search, we
typically scan the text for a specific piece of information or a specific word. As an example,
we usually search through a telephone directory to find key information, either an address
or a phone number. In prose texts, we sometimes slow down to process the meaning of a
sentence or to search for clues that might indicate the right page, section, or chapter.
Similarly, reading to skim (i.e. sampling segments of the text for a general understanding)

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is a common part of many reading tasks and a useful task in its own right. It involves, in
essence, a combination of strategies for guessing where important information might be in
the text, and then using basic reading comprehension skills on those segments of the text
until a general idea is formed.

Reading to learn from texts

Reading to learn typically occurs in academic and professional contexts in which a person
needs to learn a considerable amount of information from a text. It requires abilities to

 remember main ideas as well as a number of details that elaborate the main and
supporting ideas in the text
 recognise and build rhetorical frames that organise the information in the text
 link the text to the reader’s knowledge base

Reading to learn is usually carried out at a reading rate somewhat slower than general
reading comprehension (primarily due to rereading and reflection strategies to help
remember information). In addition, it makes stronger inferencing demands than general
comprehension to connect text information with background knowledge (e.g. connecting a
character, event or concept to other known characters, events or concepts; or connecting
possible causes to known events).

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TRABAJO PRÁCTICO N° 4

Contenido teórico a consultar:

VERBOS ATÍPICOS (pp. 48-52)

TEXTO: REEKIE, R. F (1972), Composition. 5 Form, Shape and Line. Design in the Built
Environment. Publisher: Crane, Russak. USA, pp.46-48.

1-Lea los datos bibliográficos, el título. Reflexione sobre el posible contenido del texto.

2-A medida que explore el texto identifique sufijos de sustantivos y adjetivos; observe el uso
del verbo BE y determine si es verbo auxiliar o verbo principal. Identifique verbos atípicos
y reflexione sobre su posible traducción.

3-Observe lo expresado en negrita y cursiva, reflexione sobre su significado y la forma de

expresarlo en español.

4-Cite la definición planteada para el concepto de “composición”.

5-¿Qué debe tenerse en cuenta al abordar un planeamiento urbano? ¿Con qué propósito todo
debería estar individual y colectivamente bien diseñado y dispuesto?

6- Desarrolle las dos definiciones de los párrafos 3 y 4.

7- Desarrolle lo planteado en lo que respecta al plan urbanístico.

8-¿Cuáles son los dos aspectos que no pueden separarse? ¿Qué se plantea en cuanto a la
selección de los sitios?

9-El texto presenta las características generales del planeamiento en el pasado y en la

actualidad. ¿Cuáles son?

10-¿Qué posibilidades ofrece el uso de puntos focales?

11- ¿Cómo se define el concepto de ‘orientación’?

12-¡Qué se observa en muchos desarrollos urbanísticos del siglo XIX y de principios del
siglo XX?

13- Los dos últimos párrafos sintetizan los aspectos más importantes que se deben considerar
en el diseño urbano. ¿Cuáles son?

Composition

Composition is the conscious arrangement of parts or elements to produce a functionally

and visually satisfying whole.

In planning, the parts include buildings and other man-made structures with the paved
spaces in and around them, roads and railways, parks and recreation areas, gardens and

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landscaping. These are elements of land use. All should be individually and collectively well
designed and well arranged to provide the means for efficient and agreeable living.

The overriding principle to be observed in the arrangement is that of integration, which is

that everything is appropriate and belongs to the whole, and that nothing is alien or
incongruous.

In urban design, the basis of integrity or unity or homogeneity is the disposition of major
plan elements so that there are discernible groupings centred about focal points of special
importance and interest.

The two dimensional town plan will result from practical considerations of the assessed
requirements of land uses and communications, influenced by a multitude of social and
economic factors. But its ultimate realization must be kept in mind from the beginning of
and throughout the process of design formulation. That is why it is so important for all
concerned to know about the principles of design, and thereby to be able effectively to
cooperate towards the final goal.

The location of focal-points is a matter of functional suitability in conjunction with visual

emphasis. The two aspects cannot be separated. In the selection of sites, advantage may be
taken of topographical and landscape features: hills, lake-sides, bends of rivers, scenic
backgrounds. In past ages towns and villages often had a church or castle as a dominant
building near which a square or green space would be the focal point. Today, we are more
likely to find high commercial buildings or tower blocks of apartments as the visual
dominants in existing towns, and the former may be in the central area, although it would
be more seemly, as does happen, for the more important civic and public buildings to have
the most prominent position.

In extensive urban areas, more than one focal-point may be necessary, arranged centrally
as a series of connected centres for commerce, shopping and public transport, with secondary
foci for outlying districts. This planned provision of nodes is a usual basis for the layout of
towns or town extensions.

By orientation is meant the location of the various component parts of the town design so
that, in conjunction with the communications network, residents and visitors are able to
comprehend the layout and to be aware of its coherence, unlike so many amorphous urban
developments of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, whose vast areas of unrelieved
dullness, endless shop-lined roads, and absence of effective focal-points produce a
depressing ‘lost’ feeling.

Summarising the above comments, a town should have a clearly defined centre where
people can gather and where the more important buildings are located, with subsidiary
centres as necessary, all interconnected and integrated in a logical and convenient way.

As regard the buildings and other elements of urban design location, size, height and
arrangement must be studied in relation to the foregoing. And while the use of compatible
materials and colours, with reasonable variety of individual design and judicious contrast

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for liveliness and interest, are valuable contributors to unity and integrity in the overall
design in an urban composition, equally important is the maintaining of harmonious
proportions and correct scale.

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TRABAJO PRÁCTICO N° 5

Contenido teórico a consultar:

LA REFERENCIA (pp. 103-104)

LOS PRONOMBRES (pp. 27-28)

ADJETIVOS Y PRONOMBRES DEMOSTRATIVOS (p. 29)

TEXTO: Texts edited and presented by Jacques Guiton (1981) Chapter VI. Housing. The
Ideas of Le Corbusier on Architecture and Urban Planning. Publisher: George Braziller,
USA, pp. 85-86.

1-Lea los datos bibliográficos, el título y subtítulos. Reflexione sobre el posible contenido
del texto.

2-A medida que explore el texto identifique sufijos de sustantivos y adjetivos; observe el uso
del verbo HAVE y determine si es verbo auxiliar o verbo principal; descubra el referente
de lo subrayado.

3-Observe lo expresado en negrita y cursiva, reflexione sobre su significado y la forma de

expresarlo en español.

4-Identifique los núcleos de las siguientes frases sustantivas y elabore su traducción:

a)…factory-produced parts…

b)…the methods and scope of building enterprises…

c)…the existing premises of architecture…

d)…the primary instinct of every living being…

e)…the most active segments of society…

f)…the present disturbance of the social equilibrium…

g)…an antiquated, hostile setting…

h)…the organic principle of his being…

i)…the beauty of good proportions…

j)…an entirely human concept…

5-Explique cada uno de los puntos enfatizados en el texto de Le Corbusier.

6-Desarrolle el planteo de Le Corbusier en lo que respecta al hombre contemporáneo.

7-¿Cómo define Le Corbusier a una vivienda? ¿Cuáles son los requisitos?

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8-¿Cuál es la observación de Guiton en cuanto a la definición?

9-Interprete las últimas citas de Le Corbusier.

Housing

Architecture or Revolution

In 1923 Le Corbusier considered housing an urgent social as well as architectural problem.

The last chapter of his book, “Architecture or Revolution”, stresses these points:

 In all branches of industry new problems have been raised, and tools for solving
them have been created. History shows that this is a revolution.

 In the building industry we have begun to make factory-produced parts; we are

successfully mass-producing small and large units to meet new economic needs.
History shows that the methods and scope of building enterprises have been
revolutionized.

 Architecture has evolved slowly over the centuries, following the development of
structure and ornamentation, but in the last fifty years steel and cement have
produced new techniques. These have created powerful construction methods and,
at the same time, undermined the existing premises of architecture. History shows
that “styles” have no further meaning and that a contemporary style has evolved. A
revolution has occurred.

 As people have consciously or unconsciously become aware of these events and new
needs have consciously or unconsciously arisen, the social mechanism has been
profoundly shaken. It oscillates between a radical reform and a catastrophe.

 A need for shelter is the primary instinct of every living being, but the most active
segments of society, workers and intellectuals, are no longer decently housed.
Building is the answer to the present disturbance of the social equilibrium: we must
choose between architecture and revolution.

And Le Corbusier writes:

“Disturbed by the pressures assailing him on every side, contemporary man is conscious, on
one hand, of a world developing around him in a regular, logical, intelligible way, which
produces useful and usable things, and, on the other hand, of the frustration of living in an
antiquated, hostile setting. This setting is his shelter: his town, his street, his house, and his
apartment have turned against him and, because they are unusable, prevented him from
pursuing in his leisure hours the human goals pursued during his working hours, preventing
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him from obeying the organic principle of his being –which is to found a family and, as all
animals and all men at all times have done, develop an organized family life. As a result,
society is watching the destruction of the family and, horror stricken, realizes that this will
bring about his own destruction.”

As here suggested, Le Corbusier viewed housing and urban planning as a single problem –
the problem of human shelter- and it is often difficult to distinguish between them in his
writings. In the interest of clarity, I have nonetheless treated them in separate chapters.

Reflections on “The machine for living”

In a 1921 L’Esprit nouveau article, Le Corbusier wrote:

“A house is a machine for living. We must have sunlight, bathrooms, hot and cold water,
controlled temperature, proper food storage, healthy conditions, and the beauty of good
proportions.”

Le Corbusier’s definition of a house as a “machine for living” is widely known, but it is not
generally remembered that this definition refers to aesthetic pleasure as well as to functional
efficiency, i.e., to “the beauty of good proportions.”

“The reading of a work, which is really what the word architecture means, goes beyond
immediate physical sensations. It reveals the dazzling clarity and inexhaustible fertility of
the intention behind the work. And as the creative act is reconstituted step by step in the
observer’s mind, his admiration is substantiated.

How far we seem to have soared above toilets and central heating, above the ‘machine for
living’!

But this is not really so. If we still believe that man has a heart and a head, we have remained
in the very center of the machine for living.”

He later explained why he had used this term:

“In 1920 I recognized the fundamental importance of a house by calling it ‘a machine for
living’ and thus demanding it answer to a well-formulated question fully and exactly. It is
an entirely human concept, making man the central concern of architecture.”

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TRABAJO PRÁCTICO N° 6

TEXTO: SCHUMACHER, P. (2012) 6. The Task of Architecture. Introduction to volume

2. The Autopoiesis of Architecture. A New Agenda for Architecture. A John Wiley & Sons,
Ltd, Publication, U.K, pp.5-6.

1-Lea el título del texto, los datos bibliográficos, reflexione sobre el posible contenido del
mismo.

2-A medida que lea el texto descubra el referente de lo subrayado, observe lo expresado en
cursiva y negrita y determine su significado según contexto.

3-¿Cómo define la teoría de la autopoiesis arquitectónica los conceptos de ‘función social

de la arquitectura’ e ‘interacción’?

4-¿Qué plantea la misma en lo que respecta a las comunicaciones como interacciones, los
artefactos arquitectónicos y el entorno diseñado?

5-¿Cuál es la fórmula que se menciona en el segundo párrafo? ¿Qué se afirma sobre la

misma?

6-Desarrolle lo planteado en torno a la función social general de la arquitectura y a las

‘funciones’ abordadas por los arquitectos.

7- Explique cuál es la perspectiva del autor en lo que respecta a las soluciones tradicionales
para problemas relacionados con los tipos de construcción; el rol que juegan la arquitectura
como sistema autopoiético y el antiguo canon; los conceptos de forma y función.

The Task of Architecture

The theory of architectural autopoiesis 1 identifies architecture’s societal function as the

innovative framing of social interaction. Interaction is defined as communication between
participants who are physically present, as distinct from remote communication via writing,
telephone, Internet, etc. All communications, and thus all interactions, are embedded within
social systems understood as social systems of communications. All social interactions take
place in designed spaces filled with designed artefacts. Architectural artefacts – as well as
other designed artefacts such as furniture, appliances and clothing – thus participate in the
reproduction of social systems of communications. Architectural artefacts frame virtually
all social communication systems, with the exception of those systems that exclusively
reproduce outside the interaction between physically present participants. The designed
environment matters: it frames all interactions. Only on the basis of the designed
environment as complex system of frames can society be reproduced on the level of
complexity it has attained.

All architectural communications, as well as all communications of the designed disciplines,

are communications in the medium of space. Architecture frames social interaction. This

1
poiesis: término griego que significa ‘creación’ o ‘producción’.

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very general formula characterizes architecture’s societal role, responsibility and raison
d’être. At this level of abstraction the formula can say nothing about how architecture might
be able to discharge its responsibility, i.e., how it might be able to order and frame the
manifold social interactions that reproduce society.

Architecture’s raison d’être – its general societal function or responsibility – must be

translated into more concrete terms that allow for the formulation of tangible tasks for
architecture. The autopoiesis of architecture itself has always – since its very inception –
provided for this translation, namely in terms of its lead-distinction: form (= frame) versus
function (= interaction). Architecture’s general societal role is thus continuously reassured,
elaborated and made concrete via the continuous application of its lead-distinction on
successive scales and levels of abstraction/concretization. The ‘functions’ architects address
refer to clusters of social interactions understood as social systems. For instance, the
function-type ‘residence’ frames families or households, the function-type ‘school’ frames
the respective social system. Many such functions can be distinguished, named and listed, at
different levels of abstraction/concretization, and then confronted with very spatial forms
that might also be distinguished, named and listed.

The historical coevolution of the built environment’s pre-architectural repertoire and

society’s pre-Modern manifold of interactions led to the sedimentation of a catalogue of
social institutions that correlates with a catalogue of spatio-types, i.e., the traditional
catalogue of building-type solutions are not yet conceptualized as solutions to problems.
Rather they are naturalized as unquestioned essences. The traditional concepts like villa,
church, palace, town hall, etc., represent the as yet undifferentiated unity of sedimented
form-function complexes. The emergence of architecture as autopoietic system - armed with
its lead-distinction – implied the possibility to break down these fixed, taken-for-granted
form-function types. The old canon becomes available for dissection and recombination, in
both the formal and the functional dimension. Now function and form can be distinguished
as aspects of the artefact. The unification of these aspects becomes problematic. The
distinction of form and function poses the question of their effective correlation. The
presumed essences are dissolved. Traditional forms can now be criticized with respect to
their ability to satisfy functional demands. Functions are now posed as problems. Forms are
probed, selected and elaborated as solutions to problems. The distinction of form versus
function marks the inauguration of architecture as rational-reflective discipline. It is the
precondition of innovation. Only the distinction of form versus function allows the framing
of social interaction – a necessary dimension of all social evolution – to become a subject of
critique and innovation.

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TRABAJO PRÁCTICO N° 7

Contenido teórico a consultar:

LA PREPOSICIÓN. La modificación semántica de los verbos a través de las preposiciones.

(pp. 41-42)

CLÁUSULAS RELATIVAS (pp.95-97)

TEXTO: SCHUMACHER, P. (2012) 8. Architecture and Society. Introduction to volume 2.

The Autopoiesis of Architecture. A New Agenda for Architecture. A John Wiley & Sons, Ltd,
Publication, U.K, pp.379-381.

1-A medida que lea el texto observe lo expresado en cursiva y negrita y determine su
significado según contexto.

2-Identifique el verbo principal de las siguientes oraciones:

a)

All communications and all local system formations take place in the global discursive
horizon provided by society.

b)

Society can be defined as the autopoietic social system that encompasses all other
communication systems and thus the totality of all communications.

c)

The overall social communication process that today spans the world constitutes an effective
world society.

d)

This global societal communication process evolves within the global spatial environment
that is planet earth.

e)

This global organization of the human habitat is the natural substrate upon which the
complex metabolism of human world society plays out, with its world-spanning
infrastructures (engendering differential time-space compressions), and with its
territorializing political structures that –like all social structures- order and constrain the free
flow of communication.

f)

Usually they exist in the safe bubble of well-tempered, technologically augmented

environment that delivers all required comforts via social communication.

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g)

This general condition, whereby issues of social communication are always the critical issues
in comparison with challenges posed by the material world, justifies the theoretical
foregrounding of communication, abstracting from the materiality of the world.

h)

This massive, evolving man-nature metabolism -that is at the same time the structured
communication process of world society- is sustained and carried forward by the evolution
of the man-made physical environment.

3-Desarrolle el planteo del primer párrafo.

4-Explique por qué se afirma que el metabolismo entre la humanidad y el resto de la

naturaleza es siempre problemático.

5-¿Por qué las dificultades en el proceso de reproducción social de la humanidad se

consideran problemas de comunicación?

6-¿Cuáles son los temas que permanecen fuera de la competencia de la arquitectura y el

diseño urbano?

7-Explique de qué manera contribuyen la arquitectura y el diseño urbano.

8-¿Cómo se define el concepto de ‘entorno construido’?

9-¿Cuál es el rol desempeñado por la arquitectura?

Architecture and Society

Whenever communication takes place, social systems are produced or reproduced. All
communications and all local system formations take place in the global discursive horizon
provided by society. Society can be defined as the autopoietic social system that
encompasses all other communication systems and thus the totality of all communications.
The overall social communication process that today spans the world constitutes an effective
world society. This global societal communication process evolves within the global spatial
environment that is planet earth. This natural space is differentiated geographically,
climatically as well as in terms of biosphere. This global organization of the human habitat
is the natural substrate upon which the complex metabolism of human world society plays
out, with its world-spanning infrastructures (engendering differential time-space
compressions), and with its territorializing political structures that –like all social structures-
order and constrain the free flow of communication.

The metabolism between humankind and the rest of nature is always problematic. The global
environmental problematic implies the danger of unbalancing the world eco-system, and the
life-process of every individual organism is confronted with the vicissitudes of physical

17
nature. However, it is a hallmark of our modern civilized condition that the problematic
metabolism with nature that confronts the modern world citizen is mediated by social
systems of communication. All problems we might face as organisms within the material
world (hunger, cold, disease) confront us as problems of communication. The sustenance of
each of our basic needs is mediated by the social communication process and transposed
into a need to communicate effectively according to regulating social structures like the
economy, the political system and the legal system. Accommodation and framing are
provided within purpose-designed buildings, patterned according to the concepts,
categories and spatial organizations provided by the discipline of architecture. Even if nature
strikes brutally with natural disasters, the problem instantly transforms into a problem of
effective social communication: we need to apply for relief, claim insurance payments,
redeem medical insurance provisions, rely upon police protection, legal rights and expert
designed shelters allocated by registered, charitable organizations, etc.

Human society exists and reproduces within a material world. However, all difficulties and
bottlenecks in this reproduction process appear as problems of communication. Material
production depends upon the communication processes of the economy, taking up the
results of the communication processes of science. Individuals rarely encounters the
underlying physicality of their existence. Usually they exist in the safe bubble of well-
tempered, technologically augmented environment that delivers all required comforts via
social communication. There are some rare moments, such in the case of accidents and
disease, where we might encounter the raw materiality of life. However, even here, beyond
the first shock, all problems transform into issues of social communication: has the
ambulance been called? Is traffic congested? Will the health insurance cover this medical
condition? Another example: if I want to travel 10,000 miles to a desired destination, my
primary problems and inconveniencies are of a social rather than a material nature. Do I have
the money to afford the air ticket? Are there delays due to congestion? The main
inconveniencies are security controls, etc. This general condition, whereby issues of social
communication are always the critical issues in comparison with challenges posed by the
material world, justifies the theoretical foregrounding of communication, abstracting from
the materiality of the world. This abstraction is real, ongoing abstraction effected by the
ongoing communication processes.

This massive, evolving man-nature metabolism –that is at the same time the structured
communication process of world society- is sustained and carried forward by the evolution
of the man-made physical environment. Many aspects of this man-made physical
environment remain outside the purview of architecture and urban design: for example,
regional planning, certain overarching aspects of city planning, overall planning of the
utilities networks and transport infrastructures. Architecture and urban design thus make a
particular contribution to the advancement of particular layers and aspects of the man-made
physical environment that sustains world society. In Volume 1, part 5 –The societal Function
of Architecture- ‘framing’ was identified as the societal function of architecture and design.
Thus, architecture and urban design are concerned with the innovation of those layers and
aspects of the man-made physical environment that contribute to the framing of

18
communicative interaction. Everything that functions as frame or interface -everything
conspicuous in our shared visual field- belongs to architecture/design’s domain of
competency. The theory of architectural autopoiesis reserves the term built environment to
these particular layers that are within architecture and urbanism’s purview. The built
environment is thus defined functionally as a framing system constituted through organized
and articulated spatial and morphological relations. Architecture has to reflect its ongoing
framing contribution to a changing society. Its development is embedded within the total
developmental process of a world society. In its own way it reflects, works through and
contributes to these changes.

19
TRABAJO PRÁCTICO N° 8

TIEMPOS VERBALES

Elabore la traducción de lo siguiente:

VOZ ACTIVA

 TIEMPOS SIMPLES
Presente

I write a report.

Pasado

I wrote a report.

Futuro

I will write a report.

Condicional

I would write a report.

 TIEMPOS PERFECTOS
Presente

I have written a report.

Pasado

I had written a report.

20
Futuro

I will have written a report.

Condicional

I would have written a report.

 TIEMPOS CONTINUOS O PROGRESIVOS SIMPLES

Presente

I am writing a report.

Pasado

I was writing a report.

Futuro

I will be writing a report.

Condicional

I would be writing a report.

 TIEMPOS CONTINUOS O PROGRESIVOS PERFECTOS

Presente

I have been writing a report.

Pasado

I had been writing a report.

Futuro

I will have been writing a report.

21
Condicional

I would have been writing a report.

VOZ PASIVA

 TIEMPOS SIMPLES
Presente

A report is written by Peter.

A report is written.

Pasado

A report was written by Peter.

A report was written.

Futuro

A report will be written by Peter.

A report will be written.

Condicional

A report would be written by Peter.

A report would be written.

22
 TIEMPOS PERFECTOS
Presente

A report has been written by Peter.

A report has been written.

Pasado

A report had been written by Peter.

A report had been written.

Futuro

A report will have been written by Peter.

A report will have been written.

Condicional

A report would have been written by Peter.

A report would have been written.

 TIEMPOS CONTINUOS O PROGRESIVOS SIMPLES

Presente

A report is being written by Peter.

A report is being written.

23
Pasado

A report was being written by Peter.

A report was being written.

24
Elabore la traducción de las siguientes oraciones prestando especial atención a las estructuras
verbales:

1)

Architecture is characterised by endurance and longevity: a long education, long training,

long hours and long lives.

2)

Reading to search for simple information is a common reading ability, though some
researchers see it as a relatively independent cognitive process. It is used so often in reading
tasks that it is probably best seen as a type of reading ability.

3)

In all branches of industry new problems have been raised, and tools for solving them have
been created. History shows that this is a revolution.

4)

History shows that the methods and scope of building enterprises have been revolutionized.

5)

As people have consciously or unconsciously become aware of these events and new needs
have consciously or unconsciously arisen, the social mechanism has been profoundly
shaken.

6)

A need for shelter is the primary instinct of every living being, but the most active segments
of society, workers and intellectuals, are no longer decently housed.

7)

And as the creative act is reconstituted step by step in the observer’s mind, his admiration is
substantiated.

8)

Interaction is defined as communication between participants who are physically present, as

distinct from remote communication via writing, telephone, Internet, etc.

9)

All communications, and thus all interactions, are embedded within social systems
understood as social systems of communications.

10)

25
Only on the basis of the designed environment as complex system of frames can society be
reproduced on the level of complexity it has attained.

11)

Architecture’s general societal role is thus continuously reassured, elaborated and made
concrete via the continuous application of its lead-distinction on successive scales and levels
of abstraction/concretization.

12)

Traditional forms can now be criticized with respect to their ability to satisfy functional
demands. Functions are now posed as problems. Forms are probed, selected and elaborated
as solutions to problems.

13)

Whenever communication takes place, social systems are produced or reproduced.

14)

It should be taken into account that the metabolism between humankind and the rest of nature
is always problematic.

15)

It is said that the sustenance of each of our basic needs is mediated by the social
communication process and transposed into a need to communicate effectively according to
regulating social structures like the economy, the political system and the legal system.

26
TRABAJO PRÁCTICO N° 9

Contenidos teóricos a consultar:

LA VOZ PASIVA (pp. 90-94)

CONECTORES (pp. 100-102)

TEXTO: GRAVES, M. (1982) A case for figurative architecture. Chapter 1. Postmodernism:

architectural responses to the crisis within Modernism. Nesbitt, K. (1996) Theorizing a new
agenda for architecture. An anthology of architectural theory. 1965-1995. Princeton
Architectural Press, New York, pp.86-87.

1-Lea el título y los datos bibliográficos del texto. Reflexiones sobre el posible contenido
del mismo.

2-A medida que explore el texto identifique conectores y determine cuál es la función de
cada uno de los mismos.

3-Elabore la traducción de las estructuras verbales:

a)

Through this relationship of tension, each form is held in check and plays on the other for
its strength.

b)

When applying this distinction of language to architecture, it could be said that the standard
form of building is its common or internal language.

c)

However, once aware of and responsive to the possible cultural influences on building, it is
important that society’s patterns of ritual be registered in the architecture. Could these two
attitudes, one technical and utilitarian and the other cultural and symbolic, be thought of as
architecture’s standard and poetic language?

d)

However, the salient tendencies of each attitude may be distinguished and reasonably
discussed. This is said with some critical knowledge of the recent past. It could be
maintained that dominant aspects of modern architecture were formulated without this
debate about standard and poetic language, or internal and external manifestations of
architectural culture.

e)

These abstract geometries might in part have been derived from the simple internal forms
of machines themselves.

27
f)

While any architectural language, to be built, will always exist within the technical realm,
it is important to keep the technical expression parallel to an equal and complementary
expression of ritual and symbol. It could be argued that the modern movement did this, that
as well as its internal language, it expressed the symbol of the machine and therefore
practiced cultural symbolism.

g)

The external language, which engages inventions of culture at large, is rooted in a figurative,
associational, and anthropomorphic attitude.

h)

However, it should also be said that the components of architecture have not only derived
from pragmatic necessity, but also evolved from symbolic sources. Architectural elements
are recognized for their symbolic aspect and used metaphorically by other disciplines.

i)

In architecture, however, where they are attendant to physical structure, basis elements are
more frequently taken for granted. In this context, the elements can become so familiar that
they are not missed when they are eliminated or when they are used in a slang version.

j)

In modern architecture, however, these expectations are seldom met and instead the window
is often continuous with the wall as horizontal banding or, more alarmingly, it becomes the
entire surface.

4-Desarrolle las ideas vinculadas por Although, so y while en el primer párrafo.

5-Descubra el referente de lo subrayado en el primer párrafo.

5-Desarrolle las ideas vinculadas por In contrast y por However en el segundo párrafo.

7-Descubra el referente de lo subrayado en el tercer párrafo.

8-¿Qué se plantea en lo que respecta al Movimiento Moderno, las geometrías abstractas, las
metáforas de la máquina?

9-Descubra el referente de lo subrayado en el cuarto párrafo.

10-Desarrolle las ideas vinculadas por for y por but rather en el cuarto párrafo.

11-Desarrolle las ideas vinculadas por However y por for example en el quinto párrafo.

12-Desarrolle las ideas vinculadas por For instance y por however en el sexto párrafo.

28
13-Relea cada uno de los párrafos y exprese en no más de una oración la(s) idea(s)
principal(es) de cada uno de los mismos.

A case for figurative architecture

A standard form and a poetic form exist in any language or in any art. Although analogies
drawn between one cultural form and another prove somewhat difficult, they nevertheless
allow associations that would otherwise be impossible. Literature is the cultural form which
most obviously takes advantage of standard and poetic usages and so may stand as a model
for architectural dialogue. In literature, the standard, accessible, simple ranges of daily use
are expressed in conversational or prose forms, while the poetic attitudes of language are
used to test, deny, and at times, to further support standard language. It seems that standard
language and poetic language have a reciprocal responsibility to stand as separate and equal
strands of the greater literary form or to reinforce each other by their similarity and diversity.
Through this relationship of tension, each form is held in check and plays on the other for
its strength.

When applying this distinction of language to architecture, it could be said that the standard
form of building is its common or internal language. The term internal language does not
imply in this case that is non-accessible, but rather that it is intrinsic to building in its most
basic form – determined by pragmatic, constructional, and technical requirements. In
contrast, the poetic form of architecture is responsive to issues external to the building, and
incorporates the three-dimensional expression of the myths and rituals of society. Poetic
forms in architecture are sensitive to the figurative, associative, and anthropomorphic
attitudes of a culture. If one’s goal is to build with only utility in mind, then it is enough to
be conscious of technical criteria alone. However, once aware of and responsive to the
possible cultural influences on building, it is important that society’s patterns of ritual be
registered in the architecture. Could these two attitudes, one technical and utilitarian and the
other cultural and symbolic, be thought of as architecture’s standard and poetic language?

Without doubt, the inevitable overlap of these two systems of thought can cause this
argument to become somewhat equivocal. However, the salient tendencies of each attitude
may be distinguished and reasonably discussed. This is said with some critical knowledge
of the recent past. It could be maintained that dominant aspects of modern architecture were
formulated without this debate about standard and poetic language, or internal and external
manifestations of architectural culture. The Modern Movement based itself largely on
technical expression –internal language- and the metaphor of the machine dominated its
building form. In its rejection of the human or anthropomorphic representation of previous
architecture, the Modern Movement undermined the poetic form in favour of non-figural,
abstract geometries. These abstract geometries might in part have been derived from the
simple internal forms of machines themselves. Coincident with machine metaphors in
buildings, architecture in the first half of this century also embraced aesthetic abstraction in
general. This has contributed to our interest in purposeful ambiguity, the possibility of
double readings without compositions.

29
While any architectural language, to be built, will always exist within the technical realm, it
is important to keep the technical expression parallel to an equal and complementary
expression of ritual and symbol. It could be argued that the modern movement did this, that
as well as its internal language, it expressed the symbol of the machine and therefore
practiced cultural symbolism. But in this case, the machine is retroactive, for the machine
itself is a utility. So this symbol is not an external allusion but rather a second, internalized
reading. A significant architecture must incorporate both internal and external expressions.
The external language, which engages inventions of culture at large, is rooted in a figurative,
associational, and anthropomorphic attitude.

We assume that in any construct, architectural or otherwise, technique, the art of making
something, will always play a role. However, it should also be said that the components of
architecture have not only derived from pragmatic necessity, but also evolved from symbolic
sources. Architectural elements are recognized for their symbolic aspect and used
metaphorically by other disciplines. A novelist, for example, will stand his character next to
a window and use the window as a frame through which we read or understand the
character’s attitude and position.

In architecture, however, where they are attendant to physical structure, basis elements are
more frequently taken for granted. In this context, the elements can become so familiar that
they are not missed when they are eliminated or when they are used in a slang version. For
instance, if we imagine ourselves standing adjacent to a window, we expect the window sill
to be somehow coincident with the waist of our body. We also expect, or might reasonably
ask, that its frame help us make sense not only of the landscape beyond but also of our
position relative to the geometry of the window and to the building as a whole. In modern
architecture, however, these expectations are seldom met and instead the window is often
continuous with the wall as horizontal banding or, more alarmingly, it becomes the entire
surface. The naming of the “window wall” is a prime example of the conflation or confusion
of architectural elements.

30
TRABAJO PRÁCTICO N° 10

TEXTO: GUARDIANI, F. (1991). The arch: presence of the past. The Postmodernity of
Marshall McLuhan – McLuhan Studies, Explorations in Culture and Communication.
Volume I, Toronto, University of Toronto Press, pp.152-153.

1-Lea el título y los datos bibliográficos del texto. Reflexiones sobre el posible contenido
del mismo.

2-Desarrolle las ideas vinculas por while y por in fact en el primer párrafo.

3-Identifique en el segundo párrafo conectores que expresen contraste.

4-Describa las características de la civilización etrusca.

5-Descubra el referente de lo subrayado en el tercer párrafo.

6-Describa al arco a través de los diferentes estilos arquitectónicos mencionados en el tercer

párrafo.

7-Desarrolle las ideas vinculadas por but en el cuarto párrafo y por even though en el quinto.

8-¿Cuál es la visión que plantea Portoghesi sobre la arquitectura?

9-¿Cuál es el propósito del arco en la arquitectura actual?

10-Describa las implicancias de las percepciones visual y acústica.

11-¿Qué significa volver al uso del arco?

12-Relea cada uno de los párrafos y exprese en no más de una oración la(s) idea(s)
principal(es) de cada uno de los mismos.

The arch: presence of the past

The arch dates back to 4000 BC in Mesopotamia. The Egyptians knew it but didn’t use it
extensively, while the Greeks, who probably were also acquainted with it, didn’t use it at all.
In more recent times it resurfaced in Etruria (modern Tuscany and adjacent regions). The
arch of Volterra is commonly reproduced in manuals of architecture as the Etruscan artifact
that announces the glories of Roman structural engineering. The Romans, in fact, soon made
it into a powerful mechanical and visual medium of strength and efficiency for bridges,
aqueducts, triumphal monuments and public buildings.

The arch for Etruscans meant a very different thing indeed. Their culture was mainly oral:
no record of literature has ever been found, but they were credited by Roman historians with
the invention of several types of musical instruments. The little we know of their language

31
comes from numerous inscriptions on tombs. We shouldn’t forget, however, that the
Etruscan civilization was highly sophisticated, as terracotta, bronze, ivory and gold statues
prove, not to mention the elaborate murals found in tombs. The Etruscans didn’t have the
use for the arch that Romans had; their temples were made of wood and they built no capital
city with rich monuments to celebrate their identity. Their extraordinary devotion to their
dead, expressed with opulence of ornaments in subterranean tombs, suggests strong
metaphysical beliefs, a view of life full of ancient recollections and trust in prophecy.
Perhaps the arch, then, was for them a form with mythical resonances, the curved space of
the mythical firmament. Whatever it might have been, given the intensive oral nature of their
culture, it must have had a magical or quasi magical significance more than a practical one.

This hypothesis should help us now to see where the postmodernity of the arch comes
from. The “modern”, visual, mechanical, Roman culture followed the aural Etruscan. For
the Empire the arch was a servomechanism2 of centralization and power. We have to turn to
Romanesque basilicas to find, once again, a pre-Roman non-mechanical arch. Here the
heavy structures are spiritualized by the minutely decorated curved lines of portals and rose
windows. When, with Gothic art, the arch narrowed on top, the utilitarian Roman arch
became even more remote, while aural mystical resonances intensified. The stained glass
windows further reinforces these feelings with a sense of participating in life with a
harmonious balance of all senses. McLuhan repeatedly insisted on the effect of “light
through” that bridges Gothic cathedrals and television screens.

This bring us to the beginning of the Renaissance, when the arch takes again Roman
characteristics but powerfully allied to the newly invented perspective, and when the
modernity we now detach ourselves from, the Gutenberg Galaxy, appears in the horizon of
history. We shall rapidly move ahead now to witness the reappearance of the curved aural
space with the first glimpse of electricity. Barilli discusses the homology that associates
Blake to the first scientists of electricity. A fully electric culture, that is to say its phase of
“applied technology”, as McLuhan calls it, will only come more than a century after Blake.
In passing, we should notice how the curved space of Paul Cézanne came to reject visual
perspective and lineality in favor of ground-based sensorial perception.

Shifting back to the problem of periodizing postmodernity, or the electric age, if we think
of the skyscraper now, which architecturally dominated the scene of the present century, it
seems as if we are generating a certain confusion in our chronology. We’ll leave it to Ezra
Pound to clear the air; in ABC of Reading : “The artists are the antennae of the race” (74).
Architecture, being the most public and physical of all the arts, was the last to respond to the
general transformation of our cultural environment already announced by Blake and Goethe,
as Barrilli clarified, even though, if we consider its imperative manifestations, it had the

2
servomechanism: an automatic device for controlling large amounts of power by means of very
small amounts of power and automatically correcting performance of a mechanism.

32
strongest and most involving impact. This is a position that does not correspond to a common
assumption in architecture; Portoghesi, for instance, says: Architecture was among the first
disciplines to perceive the crisis stemming from new needs and desires of the postmodern
society and the reason for this precocity is very simple. Given its direct effects on daily life,
architecture could not avoid the practical verifications of its premises by its users.
(Postmodern, 7.)

Obviously there is a difference in perspective here, something that leads us to ponder the
historical background of recent cultural innovations: if we choose to adopt the restricted
view of a single principle, postmodernity will remain a vague and disputable concept raising
interminable arguments of sectarian priorities. But if we take it in the context of a broad and
all-encompassing culture, its origin and development must be retraced in the transformation
of our human perception which occurred with electric technology. To be sure, Portoghesi
himself declares that: ….the statute of modernity was made to measure for a society that had
not been involved in the “information revolution” that has shaken the foundations of our
world. (Ibid.)

The fact is that the revolution he mentions is exactly the one we are discussing here, the
electric revolution, announced by the Voltas and Galvanis two hundred years ago, and
practically applied for the first time in 1830s, with the telegraph. It is certainly more correct
to date this revolution from its inception than to later effects such as radio, telephone,
television, computer, etc.

To recapitulate and conclude this digression on the anti-modern, postmodern, electric

recurrence of the arch in architecture, we shall insist on the impossibility of interpreting the
phenomenon as strictly practical, utilitarian. The purpose of the arch, in today’s architecture,
consists in rejecting what steel and concrete structures symbolize; the motive must be found
in our living in a cultural environment akin to that of the pre-Roman and pre-Renaissance
times in Western culture. As McLuhan boldly puts in Counterblast, WE ARE BACK IN
ACOUSTIC SPACE.

Just as visual perception implies lineality of thought, logical arrangements of experiences,

dialectical progression towards partial conclusion, mechanical means of exploration and
chronological arrangement of progress in human events, acoustic perception implies
recognition of the wholeness of life in fragmentary experiences, illuminations, aphorisms,
curved space, electric means of communication and production, and finally, consciousness
of the mythical nature of time. The return of the arch is the return to a mythical
consciousness of being, which defuses the anxieties of ideology and reproposes primary
concerns. It would be wrong, then, to see the arch as a mere representation of an aesthetic
form since, in its metaphorical value, it is present in contemporary architecture even when
not physically displayed. The arch is, in fact, the mythical retrieval of the past.

33
TRABAJO PRÁCTICO N° 11

TEXTO: FRAMPTON, K. Universalism and/or Regionalism. Untimely Reflections on the

Future of the New. DOMUS 782: 6-8 (Mayo 1996).

1- Explique cuál ha sido uno de los resultados del crecimiento y expansión en la Comunidad
Europea.

2- Desarrolle el planteo de Rafael de la Hoz.

3- El autor plantea dos razones por las cuales sostiene que España sufrirá el impacto de lo
que sucede en la Comunidad Europea. ¿Cuáles son?

4- ¿Qué ha ocurrido con la arquitectura como profesión en lo que respecta a la nueva

legislación?

5- Explique las ideas vinculadas por Moreover en el segundo párrafo.

6- ¿Qué permitía el control fiscal al colegio de arquitectos?

7- Frampton plantea una necesidad en el tercer párrafo. ¿Cuál es?

8- Explique las ideas vinculadas por Hence en el tercer párrafo.

9- La última oración del tercer párrafo plantea un contraste. Desarróllelo.

10- ¿Qué ha sucedido a nivel regional?

11- El quinto párrafo plantea un efecto y dos causas, cada una de las mismas ejemplificadas.
Identifique cuáles son los conectores de causa y de ejemplificación. Desarrolle el planteo.

12- Explique las ideas vinculadas por Thus en el quinto párrafo.

13- Descubra el referente de lo subrayado en el quinto párrafo.

14- ¿Qué tipo de discrepancia se menciona en el sexto párrafo? ¿A qué se debe la misma?

15- Explique las ideas vinculadas por Inasmuch as.

16- Descubra el referente de lo subrayado.

17- Explique las ideas vinculadas por not only….but also.

18- En el último párrafo Frampton sostiene su argumentación con ejemplos de lo que ha

ocurrido, por un lado, en el ámbito de la medicina y la agricultura, por el otro, en el ámbito
de la arquitectura. Desarrolle los ejemplos planteados dentro del ámbito de la arquitectura.

19- Teniendo en cuentas las ideas principales del texto elabore un resumen del mismo en no
más de 350 palabras.

34
Kenneth Frampton:

Universalism and/or Regionalism.

Untimely Reflections on the Future of the New

Professional Deregulation

It would appear that one of the effects of the growth and expansion in the European
Community has been a tendency to deregulate the architectural profession, accompanied by
a corresponding (if unintended) tendency to suppress all vestigial cultural differences in local
architecture production, by establishing (value-free) professional competition within the
confines of the common market. As the Spanish architect Rafael de la Hoz has remarked,
the project of recasting European architectural education, by shortening its curriculum and
increasing its technological dimensions has as one of its undeclared aims, the
‘commodification’ of the profession so as to increase the supply of architects and thereby
reduce the cost of architectural services.

The impact of this in Spain will be considerable. First, because Spain has produced a
particularly high level of architectural culture and second, because until now the Spanish
profession has been better organized than any other comparable body. As with other Spanish
professions every major city has its own colegio de arquitectos whose powers were
summarily curtailed by legislation promulgated by the Spanish parliament in October 1992,
with the intent of opening the country to foreign architects under the articles of the European
Community. There can be little doubt that such measures will have a deleterious effect on
the quality of Iberian architecture, since the colegio not only maintained the local standard
but also sustained a sense of regional identity. Moreover, since the colegio was the initial
recipient of the fees on behalf of the architect, from which it is deducted a percentage, it
directly circumvented any undercutting of the fee structure. This fiscal control also enabled
the colegio to function as an independent cultural institution, staging exhibitions, organizing
lectures, and subsidizing magazines. Whether it will be possible to maintain such activities
remains to be seen.

However, despite this homogenizing EC cultural policy, regional differentiation still

persists in European architecture and one needs to analyze the interplay that apparently
obtains in these instances between universal technology and ‘resistant’ regional inflection.
As I have argued elsewhere, it is possible to identify different levels of national culture amid
the plurality of contemporary practice; differences that depend on discriminating between
the media cult of the international star architect and the evidence of a high level of collective
architectural production in a given region or nation state. Hence the high quality of national
architectural culture attained, in recent years, in such countries as Finland, France, Spain and

35
Japan as opposed to the ‘star’ production of other so-called developed nations over the same
period. In these four countries one may find some twenty to thirty architects of virtually the
same calibre and commitment practicing continually across the last two decades or more, as
opposed to the more common condition where the architectural culture of a country is carried
on by a few architectural vedettes, whose importance is persistently overvalued by the media.

What applies to a national scale may also well obtain at the level of the region or the city-
state and indeed this phenomenon has been readily discernible at the regional level since
1945, particularly in so-called marginal situations obtaining in one country or another. Thus
anyone engaged in recasting the history of ‘occidental’ architecture will be able to identify,
at different times and with different strengths, depending upon the epoch, regional schools
of architecture in Chicago, Los Angeles, and the Bay area within the United States, or in
Europe like Graz, Lugano, Porto, Barcelona, Madrid and Schaffhausen, not to mention those
idiosyncratic figures who would appear to have momentarily sustained the local ethos more
or less singlehanded, as in the case of Carlo Scarpa in Venice or Gino Valle in Udine. Similar
differentiations are present of course in other continents above all in India, Latin America,
Scandinavia and Japan.

These sub-cultures have sometimes come into existence as a result of deliberate state
policies, as in the case of France under the leadership of Francois Mitterand, or, as a result
of the adoption of a strong cultural line on the part of a city-state, as in the case of Barcelona
during the last twelve years of Pascual Maragall’s tenure as mayor. In both instances a great
deal of cultural and political groundwork was already laid in place before the particular
leadership came to power to consolidate the position. Thus, as always, everything depends
not only on the capacity of the architectural profession but also on the intentionality of the
client. It can certainly be argued that in each of the regional manifestations cited above, a
certain critical synthesis was achieved between universal civilization on the one hand and
national or local cultural on the other.

Modernization and Modernity

While modernity in the sense of the utopian modern project seems to be currently
condemned to a state of suspended animation, technological modernization continues
unabated. So, one becomes increasingly aware of the discrepancy that obtains between the
ever escalating rate of technological change and our incapacity to assimilate its
consequences either culturally or otherwise. Inasmuch as universal civilization becomes
inseparable from the globalization of capitalist development, universal technology would
appear to be locked into the socio-cultural and ecological aporias of maximization and
commodification. Under such a processal rubric, the traditional hierarchical relation of ends
to means becomes reversed and, subject to this instrumental reversal, the concept of

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amortization emerges as the economic negative principle not only with regard to
environmental design, but also with respect to other practices. I have in mind for example
the maximization of both medicine and agriculture, namely the over-prescription of
antibiotics in contemporary allopathic therapy and the over-use of artificial fertilizers in the
cultivation of food; leading, on the one hand, to deleterious changes in the immunological
balance between man and nature, and on the other hand, to the pollution of non-renewable
resources - not to mention the destruction of the ozone layer through the build-up of carbon
dioxide and chlorofluoro-carbons in the upper atmosphere. In this context it is necessary to
distinguish between the maximization of technology and the deployment of critical
technique, particularly where the latter strives for some kind of homeostatic balance between
the benefits of applied techno-science and the necessity for ecological and cultural discretion
in its application. As far as architecture is concerned that which first appears to be some kind
of universal technology is also potentially open to various kinds of inflection, which at times
may even assume a contextual if not exactly a regional character. One recalls for instance
the differences that obtain between Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank designed by Foster
Associates and Le Carré d’Art cultural center that the same firm has realized in Nimes. While
one cannot classify such buildings as regional in any autochthonous sense, it is clear that
they were each quite affected by certain specific aspects of the local cultural environment;
in the first instance, of course, by the cult of feng shui, and in the second by the proximity
of Maison Carré. Similar if not more subtle inflections appear in the work of Renzo Piano,
where despite the adoption of the same rigorous methodology throughout, certain specific
inflections arise in his work that go beyond the normal differentiations that would
spontaneously arise as a consequence of scale of the nature of the subject matter. I am
thinking in particular of the difference between the San Nicola stadium in Bari and the
housing that the Building Workshop recently achieved in the rue de Meaux in Paris. This
last is particularly telling for the way in which red terra-cotta tile revetment is hung into
position (i.e. dry assembled) on a GROUP modular weather-proof membrane. In this
instance rational production yields a poetic compounded of the iteration of tiles set against
louvered windows, and of the equally rhythmic movement of the landscaped court planted
with birch trees.

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