Tectonics for Non-Extractive Architecture

The first ALEC Seminar explored whether an alternative paradigm in design and construction is possible, and what values it might be founded on.

Introduction to

Tectonics for NonExtractive Architecture

Rosa M. Alsina-Pagès

Josep Ferrando, Jordi Mansilla

Ricardo Devesa, Francisco

Cifuentes, Marta Bugés

Research at La Salle, URL

Rosa M. Alsina-Pagès

La Salle Research and Development is focused on applied research to benefit society in the short and medium term. One of its main strengths is its multidisciplinary and collaborative teams, formed by highly qualified and creative researchers who guarantee excellence and transversality. La Salle R+D promotes the transfer of technological knowledge to companies and society in the areas of Engineering, Architecture and Management at La Salle Campus Barcelona, Ramon Llull University.

Related to the field of architecture, La Salle R+D fosters innovation and integrated architectural design with the contributions of construction technologies, environmental analyses, mapping practices, advanced layout, representation techniques, social studies, and conceptualization tools, among other areas of knowledge.

Currently, La Salle R+D oversees two research groups, one chair, and one institute: Human-Environment Research Group (HER), Smart Society, the Innova Institute (involved in industrial R+D and academic research projects in the areas of Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and IT Management), and Barcelona Chair (connecting and exchanging knowledge with other cities in Europe on urban innovation). They all pursue a realistic and practical approach, with an eye to the evolution of technology, design, and integration in business processes.

The two research groups, HER and Smart Society, are dedicated to lines of research relevant to design and technology, including acoustics and audio, architecture representation and computation, Mediterranean architecture, smart cities, animation and digital arts, among many other lines of research.

La Salle R+D is a recognized center with the TECNIO certification created by the government of Catalonia, through the ACCIÓ agency (Catalonia Trade & Investment), which identifies providers and facilitators of differential and applied technology.

The two research groups are recognized as consolidated and funded by AGAUR, the Agency for Management of University and Research Grants.

Research at ETSALS

Rosa M. Alsina-Pagès, Josep Ferrando, Jordi Mansilla Ricardo Devesa, Francisco Cifuentes, Marta Bugés

The model and aims of the research department at the School of Architecture at La Salle Campus Barcelona (ETSALS) is part of the broader vision of the three axes of knowledge (design, technique, and culture) and the three attributes (interdisciplinarity, customization and Campus Barcelona) that have characterized the new stage of the School of Architecture since Josep Ferrando was appointed Dean of the school in February 2020.

ETSALS is establishing agile transfer mechanisms that will allow teaching to be nurtured from research interests, in addition to feeding research from all academic programs, while fostering collaborative initiatives with industry, society, and other campuses worldwide.

The research activities developed at ETSALS, from academic programs (undergraduate and graduate studies) to research projects and doctoral theses, are focused on implementing visions of the intersections between the three areas of knowledge and five logics of integrated architectural design: tectonic, environmental, social, digital, and cultural.

Research Line: Architectural Logics for Emergent Contexts (ALEC)

Architecture is not an isolated area of knowledge, quite the contrary. The logics of architectural design and construction are continuously adapting to the context in which they operate. The methods and principles are expanded to face challenges such as climate change, technological disruptions, economic and geopolitical collapses, social and demographic movements, among other major global changes. This context calls for comprehensive solutions that are attuned to new situations.

ALEC is a new research line that proposes research projects to be developed in collaboration with the current research lines in La Salle R+D and in its research groups, which will promote a comprehensive vision of the areas under analysis, grouped into five research sub-lines:

ALEC_TECTONIC

To analyze the capacity and correlations between new materials and traditional materials, as well as constructive techniques to adapt to new tectonic paradigms in a more efficient and sustainable way.

ALEC_ENVIRONMENTAL

To explore and follow how the construction of architectural space is carried out in order to minimize the impact on the environment under the thermodynamic principles.

ALEC_SOCIAL

To inspect and investigate how architecture addresses social changes resulting from the increase in migratory movements and rising social inequality, among other causes, in order to ensure access to housing on equal terms.

→ The logics of architectural design and construction are continuously adapting to the context in which they operate. This context calls for comprehensive solutions that are attuned to new situations.

ALEC_DIGITAL

To research the influence of new digital technologies, such as robotics, parametric design, data management and visualization, or artificial intelligence, and to promote their application both in design phases and in constructive practice.

ALEC_CULTURAL

To examine the new theoretical proposals and possible cosmovisions that propose an extended concept of architecture. To implement new pedagogical actions that incorporate this comprehensive view of architectural design.

These five research sub-lines compile and demonstrate innovative practices and, at the same time, serve to ask the appropriate questions regarding how to reorient technical and design strategies in the architectural discipline, as well as its theoretical principles, in the face of new emerging and changing contexts.

Martina Blázquez

ALEC TECTONIC and its First Seminar

ALEC_TECTONIC aims to articulate a clear path between design experimentation and construction practice, industrial production and bio-based materials, theory and education, utopia and reality. We advocate for a profound reform of the construction economy across the academy, industries, designers, builders, and supply chains. We work across different scales, from materials and building to the landscapes from which they emerge.

ALEC_TECTONIC questions one of the fundaments of the modern project: namely the neutrality of design; because every decision a designer makes in the conception of a project impacts wide-ranging locales and processes, and if a resolute desire for change guides each of these simple yet relevant decisions, the prospect of an emancipated form of practice emerges.

The assumption that the building industry can only fulfill humanity’s needs with the irreversible exploitation of the environment, of people, and of the future needs to be reconsidered. That is why we organized the first ALEC Seminar on June 15, 2023, at ETSALS under the title Tectonics for Non-Extractive Architecture, in which we explored whether an alternative paradigm in design and construction is possible, and what values it might be founded on.

The Seminar program was organized in four panels: context, research, practice, and industry. It included theoretical and practical approaches from academia; experiences and approaches from the public sector and industry, in local and international contexts; and an exchange of knowledge between all the stakeholders involved specifically in timber construction and research, together with architects and engineers.

We chose timber as a material because it is at the center of most bio-based construction technologies. With both compressive and tensile strength, it can be processed to make almost any functional element of a building, from structural frames and infills to roofing tiles and interior floors. While growing, trees provide habitat, create local cooling through shade and moisture transpiration, prevent soil erosion and fix carbon. If left in situ when the trunk is felled, their extensive root networks can lock carbon deep underground.

Managed properly, timber can be a full regenerative resource, but trees need to be carefully nurtured to grow without the bends and knots or bowing that compromise structural integrity.

The Seminar looked at a possible construction process removed from the carbon cycle, deploying regenerative resources and sustainable forestry, advocating for care and maintenance as efficient approaches to existing buildings, and using slower and nearer supply chains in response to simpler designs grounded in this bio-based material.

We had the chance to see some practices that are moving forward in both the use of and demand for timber grown in Catalonia. With stakeholders, we also talked about the challenges associated with increased timber use, spanning practices including forestry, design, engineering, and construction, as well as regulatory and policy frameworks.

Publication

→ Managed properly, timber can be a full regenerative resource, but trees need to be carefully nurtured to grow without the bends and knots or bowing that compromise structural integrity.

This publication is a summary of the content, ideas and thoughts that were discussed in the seminar on the current situation of the Mediterranean forest, systems of timber construction, stakeholders, designers, and industries that are shaping the non-extractive architectural principles it fosters.

With the seminar The Tectonics of Non-extractive Architecture, compiled here, ETSALS introduced ALEC, a new research line in the framework of La Salle R+D, aimed at making our society, industry and designers ready for a postcarbon future based on new strategies for architectural design and construction.

Ricardo Devesa & Margarita Jover

Steve Webb, José Toral, Francisco Cifuentes & Ricardo Devesa

#seminar

Webb Yates Engineers Craft not Carbon

15 Clerkenwell Close is a mixed-use sixstory building with a stone façade by architects Groupwork and Amin Taha. © Agnese Sanvito.

Today, the built environment is responsible for 40% of carbon emissions. Construction is deeply steeped in the fossil fuel era, with most mainstream building materials like steel and concrete being produced at the expense of huge amounts of energy derived from coal and gas.

This period, only 300 years since serious coal extraction began, is a brief blip in the millennia of building history and an enormous aberration in energetic terms. Everything built before that period was built with fractions of the energy we use today. The building style synonymous with that period is what we, in Britain, call Tudor and late Gothic. It consists of lightweight timber frames, an almost high-tech-like structural expressionism, gothic arches and vaults.

What would be the arc of technological development from that period to today in the absence of fossil fuels?

We examine how contemporary engineering can reinterpret the principal materials of the Tudor period for modern use and low-energy, post-fossil-fuel construction. We are building with timber stone, tensioned stone and novel hybrid mixtures of timber and stone in an attempt to find a new post-fossil, low-carbon vernacular.

Equanimity at the RA

A collaboration between Webb Yates Engineers and The Stonemasonry Company, ‘Equanimity’ is an 11-meter post-tensioned stone beam demonstrating how structural stone can be used in place of concrete, saving massive amounts of carbon in the process. The piece was originally commissioned as part of the 2022 Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition. © Agnese Sanvito

Provost Road © Agnese Sanvito

→ Why build with concrete when you can build with stone? Stone is typically stronger than concrete, with one-third of the carbon impact.

The Catalan Institute of Wood (INCAFUST) aims to promote the development and recognition of wood as a material in the Catalan territory. Its effort contributes to improving competitiveness, promoting innovations, and increasing productivity in the wood sector.

INCAFUST’s mission is to assist companies, entities, and institutions in the sector through research, the provision of technological services, the transfer of technology, as well as education and training. The institute’s areas of action include raw materials and derivatives, the processing industry, and construction, rehabilitation and restoration.

Egoin is a timber company with 30 years of experience in the design of structural wood solutions. Their commitment to operating sustainably is supported by third-party certification under PEFC, EPD certification and a KM Zero approach using local wood fiber and integrating the entire wood value chain.

With three production plants in the Basque Country, they support the economic viability of the local forest products industry to introduce a positive social dynamic and to regenerate and preserve natural resources through a sustainable forest management strategy.

True World is an organization driven by a strong sense of responsibility towards the custody of environmental data, dissemination of real-time scientific information, and a commitment to providing high-tech tools that enable everyone in society to participate in accelerating climate action globally. Through the monitoring of forests, their team can keep accurate and up-to-date data on the state of forestry. This scientific knowledge of our environment allows them to predict future scenarios for these areas and develop strategies for how to manage them.

World Wood Future is an organization aiming to promote a shift in mindset towards the need for building a healthy, sustainable, and resilient environment. By adding value to wood as a material and recognizing the entire production chain, these goals can be achieved. The organization’s expertise is applied by assessing and managing timber projects on all scales throughout the value chain of the wood sector. Salvador Ordóñez, CEO of World Wood Future has lectured on the importance of wood in our history as human beings on the planet and how the use of wood has evolved along with us.

The Seminar looked at a possible construction process removed from the carbon cycle, deploying regenerative resources and sustainable forestry, advocating for care and maintenance as efficient approaches to existing buildings, and using slower and nearer supply chains in response to simpler designs grounded in this bio-based material.

7—9 Margarita Jover Novel ‘Planetzenship’ Condition for a Democratic Anthropocene #design #culture #seminar 10 Martina Blázquez, Pau Garrofé & Lisa Marie Guerrero Extension of ‘The Arimunani School’ in Marratxí #design #technology #workshop

1—3 Rosa Maria Alsina-Pagès, Josep Ferrando, Jordi Mansilla, Ricardo Devesa, Francisco Cifuentes & Marta Bugés Introduction to Tectonics for Non-Extractive Architecture #design #culture #technology #seminar 4—6 Francisco Lloret Winning Time to Confronting Forest’s Fate #culture #seminar