Climate and architecture
El árbol urbano privado: problemas y estrategias de actuación para la ciudad de Quito
Este artículo ha sido dictaminado favorablemente en julio 2023 y se publicará como capítulo del libro Manta
2021, de la colección Ciudades Ecuatorianas, que actualmente está en proceso de revisión
de estilo editorial, diagramación y diseño.
Resumen:
El objetivo de este texto es reflexionar sobre la situación de los árboles privados no patrimoniales en el contexto urbano de Quito desde un punto de vista de legislación. Los árboles urbanos públicos son los que están en veredas, parterres, calles, o parques, mientras que los árboles privados son aquellos que están dentro de una propiedad privada. El texto empieza con una sección que describe los problemas que enfrentan los árboles privados no patrimoniales. Otra sección lista la legislación y normativas que regulan a estos árboles, y una sección final incluye recomendaciones de diseño y sugiere caminos a tomar para mejorar la relación de la gente con los árboles privados en las ciudades.
Ponente "Deleite Térmico: Estudio de tres patios en contextos urbanos" PUYO- NOVIEMBRE 23-25 DE 2023
Ponente de Charla Magistral "Salud, arquitectura y vida" 23 al 27 de octubre de 2023 en Universidad Regional Amazónica Ikiam
CONGRESO ARQUR 1.23
Desarrollo del Programa de Maestría en Arquitectura Sostenible - aprobado en septiembre de 2023 por la Dirección General de Investigación UCE.
La piel del patio de Quito: estudio comparativo de tres casos representativos del crecimiento de la ciudad (centro histórico, ciudad jardín y valles)
Antecedentes:
Esta investigación pretende ampliar el conocimiento sobre el espacio arquitectónico arquetípico del patio, entendiendo su comportamiento climático, sus características físicas, y la experiencia que pueden generar, usando el crecimiento de la ciudad de Quito como caso de estudio.
Objetivo general:
La finalidad es medir de forma cuantitativa y cualitativa los límites de los patios, o su piel, a través del estudio comparativo de patios de tres épocas de desarrollo de Quito (Grupo 1 translucido centro histórico – Grupo 2 transparente ciudad jardín Mariscal – Grupo 3 opaco conjunto habitacional Valles). Permitiendo así entender cómo se ha transformado el patio junto con la ciudad, develando un tejido urbano consecuente con el periodo histórico al que pertenece, así como un cambiante rol de los patios como modificadores climáticos, fuentes de placer estético, centros sociales y refugios individuales.
Metodología:
Se seleccionarán los patios según el método de llenos y vacíos de Nolli y Sennett, para luego catalogar sus características morfológicas, tipológicas y físicas usando una combinación de métodos de Reynolds y Baker, registrar sus características climáticas con una combinación de métodos de Olgyay y Schiller/Evans, y finalmente una interpretación escultórica de la esencia y textura de la luz de cada patio basada en las máquinas luminosas de Moholy-Nagy.
Resultados esperados:
R1 Se espera mostrar cómo cada etapa de crecimiento de Quito desde la Colonia hasta la actualidad ha presentado diferentes tipos de tejido urbano donde puedan observarse variaciones en la espacialidad y morfología del patio.
R2 Se espera mostrar cómo estos patios han tenido diferentes roles ambientales, estéticos, sociales e individuales debido a la configuración de sus bordes y límites o, piel del patio, en tres categorías marcadas por sus características materiales (Grupo 1 translucido centro histórico – Grupo 2 transparente ciudad jardín Mariscal – Grupo 3 opaco conjunto habitacional Valles).
R3 Se espera replicar la esencia y la textura de la
luz de los 3 grupos de patios mediante interpretaciones escultóricas,
permitiendo visualizar las posibilidades estéticas y espaciales que el proceso
de abstracción permite.
Climate in architecture: revision of early origins - University of New Mexico-Doctoral Dissertation 2019
"This dissertation expands the comprehension of the history of climate in architecture by examining the evolution of the architectural meanings, uses, representations, and simulations of climate between 1800 and the present by means of a historical critical analysis of two scientific artifacts that attempted to model climate for the first time in the fields of geography and architecture. The Naturgemälde (1799 - Alexander von Humboldt) was a type of infographic image that simulated conceptually climate as a global system. The Climatron (1954 - Victor Olgyay) was a laboratory machine that physically simulated climate to test building scaled-models.
Primary data was collected in the places where both artifacts were created, and where related archival materials are currently held. The method of analysis compared the models against each other, against contemporary computer simulations of climate for architects, and against their early theoretical foundations. The dissertation reflected on the universality of science in architecture and the role of the places and the technology involved to produce knowledge about climate, while challenged the concept of climate in architecture. It endeavored to find more holistic scientific approaches to design-with-climate that consider hard data alongside art.
The tangible outcomes are four articles advised by one of the committee members according to their expertise: MODELS OF CLIMATE AND WEATHER explains the attempts to simulate conceptually and materially climate and weather in order to reduce their complexity to a human scale; ARCHITECTURAL INSIGHTS FROM EARLY DRAWINGS OF CLIMATE AND WEATHER: NATURGEMÄLDE, ISOTHERMS, CLIMATE PORTRAITS, AND THE BIOCLIMATIC CHART, reflects about the paradox of drawing climate and weather; PACKAGING NATURE FOR ARCHITECTS: EARLY ORIGINS OF DESIGNING WITH NATURAL MORPHOLOGY AND CLIMATE, focuses on how ideas travel from environmental sciences into architecture; and UNDERSTANDING THE CHARACTER OF PLACE: HUMBOLDT'S PHYSIOGNOMY OF NATURE, VICTOR OLGYAY'S BIOCLIMATIC REGIONALISM AND THE OUTLINE OF A PHYSIOGNOMY OF CLIMATE examines, from an architectural standpoint, the role of the beauty of climate in the understanding of the character of a place."
Please read this research here:
https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/ltam_etds/49/
uafreire@uce.edu.ec
OVERVIEW OF METHODS AND INSTRUMENTS FOR
MEASURING THE EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL
DIMENSIONS OF CLIMATE FROM C.1800
The abstract of the following paper read: "This paper provided an account and analysis of the methods and
instruments used for measuring climate in architecture focusing on the late modern
period from c. 1800 to the present. The methods were classified after identifying
two major trends according to their ultimate objective: measuring the external
dimension of climate (meteorological statistics and facts about temperature,
humidity, wind, sun radiation, or/and pollution) and measuring the internal
dimension of climate (Healthcare outcomes and climate narratives). This report
provides key examples, and evidence of their impact over human experience.
Revealing a neglected inner dimension that needs a cultural approach to be
measured.
Climate is experienced on a local and particular level as individuals feel,
embody, and are engaged with the rhythms of their environment in a visceral and
emotional way that statistics alone cannot register. As climate is not only the
temperature of the air, and as climate is chained to land, vegetation, animals, and
life, new hybrid methods for measuring simultaneously its inner and external
dimensions are needed. New methods that can collect, and interpret climatic data
tandem to human well-being and their sensorial environments."
Please read the full article here:
https://revista_ciencia.espe.edu.ec/volumen-20-2-ano-2018/
https://ia601000.us.archive.org/31/items/Artculo10_20180705/Art%C3%ADculo%2010.pdf
Earth climate comfort: new techniques and instruments for evaluating land architecture
Research accepted to be presented at the World Congress of the Architectural Heritage of Tierra Terra 2022 to be held in Santa Fe June 2022 www.Terra2022.org
In order to understand the relationship between construction with earth and climatic comfort, "data loggers" were used to measure and record the climatic variables of spaces with earth walls at a 1-1 scale; managing to measure the temperature, humidity and natural light of these spaces under different types of roofs, contributing with information to the knowledge of contemporary bioclimatic and traditional architecture on land in the climate and latitude of Quito.
Groups of students built 3 identical spaces of 1m long x 1m wide x 2m high on the campus, on which sloping roofs were placed that faced the side with the greatest need for solar capture. Three types of roofs with different thermal behavior were placed on these spaces: polycarbonate, asphalt sheet (chough) and straw. Inside the spaces, data loggers were placed that measure the levels of temperature, humidity and natural light in three representative seasons: near the solstices of December and June, and the equinox of March.
Conclusions were obtained in two aspects: learning and thermal behavior of adobe with different covers. First, it was observed that adobe combined with thatch cover maintains a more regulated interior temperature, that is, when it is hot outside, inside it is cooler, or when it is cold outside, inside it is warmer. Polycarbonate was reported to be the material that causes the most discomfort when intensifying high and low temperatures. Second, active learning (learning by doing) and by comparison (learning by comparing the thermal capacities of materials) were generated.
Evaluation of the bioclimatic quality of selected buildings of the main campus of the Central University of Ecuador
This research aims to expand the knowledge on the bioclimatic quality of the Central University within a context in which the concept of sustainable development influences architecture as a discipline, higher education institutions and sustainability certification systems in an effort to reduce humanity's environmental impacts on the planet and the global climate system.
The purpose of this research is to quantify the bioclimatic quality of 6 building complexes (from the faculties of Architecture, Arts, Administrative Sciences, Economic Sciences, Jurisprudence and the Rectorate complex) of the main campus of the Central University of Ecuador to propose based to the results a plan of minor architectural interventions that correct bioclimatic problems and obtain conclusions that serve for a future certification of the sustainability of the campus.
This research will evaluate the bioclimatic quality through physical and virtual simulations of the buildings to evaluate the quality of sunlight and through an in situ record of variables that determine the bioclimatic quality such as: temperature, relative humidity, ventilation, quality of air, natural lighting, materials, vegetation and visuals, this record will be made by direct observation and using Data Loggers measurement instruments. Based on this, the bioclimatic analysis of each group of buildings will be carried out using a combination of the methods of Victor Olgyay, Baruch Givoni and Silvia de Schiller / John Martin Evans.
A1: It is expected that the evaluation of the bioclimatic quality of the building complexes that were part of the sample will reveal considerable bioclimatic problems that are causing unnecessary energy consumption of the campus and that are damaging the health and performance of its users.
R2: The plan for minor architectural interventions is expected to point the way to solving the bioclimatic problems of the campus.
A3: This research is expected to provide conclusions that suggest the most appropriate strategy to certify the sustainability of the campus in the future.
The research has been concluded.
XIII SIMPOSIO NACIONAL DE DESARROLLO URBANO Y PLANIFICACIÓN TERRITORIAL
CUENCA 26.27 y 28 DE OCTUBRE DE 2022
Article: RETOS BIOCLIMÁTICOS DE 6 EDIFICIOS EN LA UNIVERSIDAD CENTRAL DEL ECUADOR
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There was an interesting work on Social interest housing prototype passively adapted to the climate of a specific area of Ecuador
A climatic evaluation was made of two houses of social interest built on the coast and in the mountains, showing problems of climate adaptation that cause discomfort in their inhabitants (too hot houses on the coast or too cold houses in the mountains). Based on this, a new housing prototype was proposed that manages to adapt to a specific climatic zone of Ecuador while maintaining the budgets allowed by the MIDUVI.
Please read: https://www.dspace.uce.edu.ec/handle/25000/21825
Conferencia: "Modelos de clima" en el VII Congreso Binacional de Arquitectura del Perú - Ecuador, denominado "Ciudades y gestión territorial sin fronteras frente al cambio climático", Colegio de Arquitectos del Ecuador y Colegio de Arquitectos del Perú, 7 al 9 de noviembre de 2019.
Conference: "Models of climate" in VII Binational Congress of Architecture Pero-Ecuador, named "Cities and territorial management without borders against climate change," 7 to 9 of November 2019. https://www.congresobinacional.com/conferencistas
Conferencia: "Uso e importancia de la Información Hidrometeorologica para el desarrollo sostenible." IMAHI Instituto Nacional de Meteorología e Hidrología, Agosto 2018. Conference: "Use and importance of Hydrometeorological Information for sustainable development." IMAHI National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology, August 2018
Artículo: El encanto en arquitectura, Revista TRACE, Universidad de Nuevo Mexico, 2016. Article: On architectural enchantment, TRACE journal, University of New Mexico, 2016.
Artículo: Comportamiento urbano neoliberal (ciudad maquina) como patología terrestre. Revista Anuario de la Universidad Internacional SEK, 2011. Article: Behavior of the urban neoliberal development (Machine City) as a planetary pathology, Journal Yearbook of the International University SEK, 2011. https://www.scribd.com/document/384152332/3-Ursula-Freire-2011-Comportamiento-Del-Desarrollo-Urbano-Neoliberal-Ciudad-Maquina-Como-Patologia-Terrestre