Arquitetura como infraestrutura

Abstract

Starting from a triple issue - the obsolescence, the functional specialization and the linguistic analogy in architecture - this thesis intends to delineate an architectural design strategy beyond function and representation, identifying design principles based on indeterminacy, on an emphasis in the design of the permanent elements of the building - structures and building systems - and on a close interaction between building and city, introducing in architectural design what could be defined as an infrastructural logic. It identifies some examples of modern architecture of the first half of XXth century where non-functionalist strategies guide the design of buildings, and recognizes as a side effect of the formalism of Brazilian modern architecture the emergence of some important works with a high degree of indeterminacy and a high potential of urbanity. This work then maps some design strategies related to the introduction of an infrastructural logic in the realm of architectural object and in its relation to the urban context. It presents an empirical application of these principles and strategies in a design studio for undergraduate students of Architecture, that were supposed to design a large-scale building, without definite use, considering transformation and growth. The introduction of infrastructural thinking in the design of buildings would imply a recognition of the diachronic character of the production of both buildings and cities; the systemic nature of structures and services of the building and their potential integration with urban systems; and the unfinished character of the built works, designed as minimal structures that should be able to accommodate transformation, complementation and growth over time, blurring its recognition as objects. Finally, it implies the recognition of the non-discursive and non-representational nature of infrastructure, placing the issues of functionality and symbolic representation beyond the coercive pre-determination, but as the product of an open and changeable construct on time.