Ninth International Conference on The Constructed Environment

Abstract

In the architectural field, addressing physical phenomena leads to a comprehension on how works are built. When approaching a design, it is possible to consider attributes, efforts, and loads of structures from a physical world. In this regard, a studio course in Chilean Patagonia, explores the idea of design ‘in equilibrium’, which means the integration of cultural and technical inputs from the local context. Moreover, the project brief aims to organise the above under a core criterion: the structural aspect. The studio calls the above into question by focusing on vernacular bus stops along rural roads, where most cases are completed without concealing their building process and they also reveal the use of a single material (e.g., wood). In fact, many of these constructions are either feeble or temporary, and some are even dismantled shortly after having the opportunity to record them through drawings, photographs, or other formats. The hypothesis is that it is possible for students to apply a methodology that takes a design precedent of a structure in a given context, and then translates such a case study to a new architectural object. In doing so, these bus stops are analysed through graphical representations of stress, becoming physical models that reproduce the selected mechanic behaviour. Although such models succeed when simulating material efforts, they do so over a different structural proposal. Several examples are presented, in regard to the configuration of each structure, as an alternative approach to design based on the apparent quality of a precedent.