Who are we? We are Big Arch Theory. We are are a practice of young - - PDF document

Who are we?

• We are Big Arch Theory. We are are a practice of young architects, engaged with

the environment and the city Philosophy

• We work hard to develop a better place for everyone, being always respectful to

mother nature.

• Our philosophy doesn't reject the idea of the city. In fact we heavily support it.

But we don't like how the city is currently spreading all around the world.

• We work towards an alive city. Where the resources, the nature and the

cosmopolitan culture can coexist .Where the citizen feel proud of where they live.

• Citizens don't appreciate their closest environment. They don't feel they belong to

the city. Why? Why don't you feel that your city is yours? Now I ask to the public

• Nacho : 1lacked of green spaces

You nailed it!

• Persona 2:Slums

Great job!

• Persona 3: Degraded urban areas

Awesome!

• Persona 4: High demand of energy

Well done!

• As Professor Ubeda told me, I see you are intellectually brilliant.

Introduction to the topics

• Now I would like to explain briefly the 4 problems of our cities:

LACK OF GREEN SPACES

• Nowadays building have become the most important part of the cities. It's true

that our home should be an important place for us. But what does it happen, when we want to stroll, to meet a friend, to lie on the grass and read a book?

• Parks and green spaces are necessary for the society. They don't only help

avoiding pollution, but also they create a nice atmosphere where citizen can relax.

SLUMS AND SHANTY TOWNS

• It's well known that Spain is an economically developed country. That's why

people want to come here to work and to live-

• But when they arrive, they find the reality. It's not that easy to get a proper job in
• rder to rent a good house. So they decide to set in slums and shanty houses as

they are cheap and illegal

• The solution was easy: building social housing. But actually it turns out to be not

as adequate as it should be.

• That's why we have created new slums, where the quality of the building is not

the most important thing.

• We have created endless flashy brick neighborhoods, where the aesthetic is

always the same and there's no side for ecology. URBAN AREAS IN DERELICTION

• While we build fabulous new building, old parts of the cities stay neglected.

These buildings are in risk of collapse and have a strongly bad visual impact on the city.

• .Many people think that the best solution for these parts of the cities is the

bulldozer.

• But that's not true. Conservation and area enhancing are two ways of improving

the cit. HIGH DEMAND OF ENERGY

• Our cities require many electricity in order to be efficient. Street lights, traffic

lights underground trains are indispensable for our cosmopolitan way of living.

• The 70% of the electricity we consume, are produced by non renewable and

polluting energies. These generates CO2 pollution and other wastes such as radioactive wastes or radical catalysts that destroy the ozone layer.

• We should promote the use of green energies that help to reduce the greenhouse

effect and comes from renewable sources. In order to reduce pollution, we highly recommend to use the public transport or riding bicycles. Every small steps it counts. Lack of Green spaces As my colleague Guillermo said, I am going to talk about the first problem we have found in the city.

The lack of Green Spaces. To start with, We have to have a knowledge about the meaning of a Green area. “Green spaces” are the trees and grass and shrubs in yards, parks, medians, anywhere intermingled throughout the built environment. Green space is any piece of land covered with vegetation. Usually refers to parks, golf courses, sports fields and other open land within the built‐up area, whether publicly accessible or not. Guillermo has explained the main problems of not having enough Green areas and vegetation within the cities. And I am going to follow his discourse, concerning the main risks of that lack of vegetation. What is the risk I am going to be classifying the risks in three groups: the ones that affect the environment, the ones related with health and human life, and the last but not least, economy problems. Environment: Trees, grass and other green vegetation provide wildlife habitat, prevent soil erosion, absorb air pollutants, and lower surface temperatures. Lack of green spaces leads to higher air temperatures and more ground level ozone, with fewer trees and plants to clean the air and provide oxygen. Without soil to receive the rainfall and filter the water, sewers become overloaded, causing neighborhood flooding problems as well as polluted water problems which is harmful to aquatic ecosystems. Health: Green space has a positive impact on mental health. People living in areas with green spaces are less likely to have anxiety disorders or depression, and they are more likely to be physically active, which leads to reductions in respiratory diseases such as asthma, COPD, and upper respiratory infections. Some studies suggest that green spaces reduce common health conditions including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer. Economy: Use of green space for bike trails and recreation may lead to reduced use of automobiles and transportation systems, thus reducing the use of fossil fuels and energy

• expenses. Additional tree and vegetative growth provides shade and lowers urban

temperatures reducing the demand for air‐conditioning and energy costs. Solutions We are able to solve this issues in many ways, here I am going to be classifying them attending to the number of people involved

In our practice we are aware of the lack of Green spaces and the significance of them in

• rder to keep our cities alive. That is why, we worked on it and made a Project in Vitoria,

called Vitoria’s Green Ring. Vitoria’s Green Ring Vitoria's Green Ring is a set of urban parks with high ecological value, strategically linked by eco-recreational corridors. It is the result of an ambitious project with the main

• bjective of restoring and recovering the periphery of Vitoria-Gasteiz, both

environmentally and socially, to create a large green area for recreational use around

• town. Currently, it has 5 parks already established: Armentia, Olarizu, Salburua,

Zabalgana and Zadorra. Since the itinerary is circular we could start anywhere, the park serves as an example of the recovery of a natural setting threatened by impoverishment. Meadows, pools and a gall-oak forest-island mix together in this pleasant place. Living inside a Green belt sounds great but… how does it contribute to By reducing the pollution and improving the quality of the air, moderating the climate and… more climate facts. But…. What is really interesting about introducing more Green areas is the life that generates inside it and around it. I am not just talking about the biodiversity and the animals, which is essential, but talking about the activities that unconditionally are taking part in a city with Green spaces. And I am refering to a wide range of age, since the new born, where you can wander among the parks, and relax when there is a good weather, until the elders, where they just can scape from the stress of the city and the quick rythm of worker’s life. I don’t know about you, but I have never imagined a pleaseant life in a city, with no Green spots. What do ‘shanty towns’ refer to? Shanty towns are slums on the outskirts of many cities – especially in third world

• countries. Normally there are not many shanty towns in more economically developed

countries but we can still find some. It was at the end of last century when we had serious problems with this issue in Spain. Here in Spain we can see them settled in empty plots or waste grounds close to rubbish dumps, banks of rivers, etc. and as a result the residents suffer the effect from industrial toxines in the water and in the air. All of them are built on land without a permit and have no roads, electricity or telephone lines.

Shanties are low cost irregular structures, often good enough to keep the rain away or protect from the summer sun but they are badly built with plywood, corrugated metal, sheets of plastic, cardboard or any other available material that could protect their inhabitants from the climate. It is also common to see animals roaming all over the place, what makes the place unhealthy and harmful, as the lack of clean water, sanitation, toilets, etc. that expose the dwellers to many different illnesses. What problems can arise from ‘shanty towns’? The main problem that we found about having slums in different locations around the world, was that it clearly shows where the population is disaggregated, where there is a non-integrated minority who has to live in dreadful and appalling conditions. Because of these way of living, residents of shanty towns have poor health, lack of education, suffer from high levels of crime and suicide, and they have a shorter life expectancy. From a more architectural point of view, it is also important to remark that these towns affect to the view and the feeling or impression of the city that foreigners, and even locals can get, making it look poorer, disorganized, and not well politically managed, clearly proving housing inequality. What are the solutions that the Government is proposing? To solve these problems, Governments have found 3 main solutions which involve us as citizens and architects.

• 1. Site and Service schemes

This is a scheme whereby the Government will provide a small concrete ‘hut’ and basic amenities or supplies such as water and sewer facilities. This is how the migrant is given rights of ownership and then expected to complete the work at his or her expense. In

• ther situations, the authorities just provide the plot and building materials for the

migrants to construct their own homes. This method is commonly used in places like India and Brazil.

• 2. Rehabilitation

Another alternative is to provide the residents of shanty towns with materials to improve their already existing shelters. Residents are also encouraged to set up community schemes to improve education and medical services. They may also be given rights of

• wnership whilst local authorities come in and provide electricity, water and sewerage
• disposal. It is a cheaper option than the site and service scheme but it only hides the real

problems.

• 3. Housing developments

Some countries have embarked upon a massive re-housing programmes. Large areas of shanty towns being cleared, tower blocks built and the shanty town residents re-housed. This is the principal way we are acting here in Spain, and this is what our project is going

to talk about. It consists on the residents of the shanties getting redistributed and reorganized into proper buildings where they can live in better conditions. Each housing development is designed to be self sufficient, with shops and services, and employment in light industry, such as clothing. This way the citizens are being encouraged to work, to have a normal daylife and to live healthy and comfortable.

• 4. Sewage rehabilitation

Several cities have taken on major projects to try and repair damaged water and sewerage

• pipes. This improves the safety and quality of the water in the city and would reduce

mortality rates. The sewage is one of the main lacks in the slums so this measure would solve loads of problems. What is public housing? And social housing? Public housing is a way of housing ownership in which the property is owned by the Government, which may be central or local. Social housing is a term referring to rental housing which may be owned and managed by the state, by non-profit organizations, or by a combination of the two, usually with the aim of providing affordable housing. Social housing can also be seen as a potential remedy to housing inequality. In Spain, a scheme for viviendas de protección oficial (VPO) has been widely used, consisting of local councils allowing for building contractors and developers to build in public sites or with public loans on condition that a certain percentage of apartments remain subsidized and under control of the local authorities. This is known as VPP de promoción privada (privately developed), as opposed to the VPO de promoción pública (publicly developed), in which the whole property is owned and managed by a government authority. Where did we act on? When? Why? Our project was developed in the Carabanchel area, where the EMVS (Empresa Municipal de Vivienda y Suelo) has proposed several contests since 2001, to achieve the right of giving every citizen a proper house and refurbish the area designing new and innovative buildings. This place had some zones where shanty towns were placed, particularly in front of this plot there was a gypsy community settled illegaly for some

• decades. We have built plenty of these kind of houses but today we are going to talk

particularly about one. Objectives At first, I would like to talk about the objectives that the Government was proposing, solving the different problems that we could find on this area.

• ­‑

The main idea was to promote 35.000 homes for all the citizens with any kind of protection between years 2003-2008.

• ­‑

Help the citizens to meet the constitutional right of living in a decent house.

• ­‑

Mainly attend young people who have economic problems to emancipate and cannot afford it.

• ­‑

Set up a new model of public housing, characterized by its quality, sustainability, design and innovation.

• ­‑

Continue to seek new architectural proposals, innovative typologies, using contests as the way of achieving it. In our project all these objectives have been achieved, some with more difficulties, and

• thers with less, but always doing our best.

The project The main interest of the project is the way that it is established and organized. It presents an empty space in the middle, removing two of the seven floors at one side, making the building taller and creating better views. It also opens the building to the closest part of the square, improving the relations between the building and the streets. The facade is coated by concrete panels, with air cushion and insulation, and the windows are made of lacquered aluminium. It has a heating system and hot water with termical production by individual boilders for each house, natural gas fired. It is formed by 7 floors, with 106 apartments: 28 of them have two bedrooms, there are 66 of three bedrooms and 12 more houses with four bedrooms. Every flat has parking slots and storage rooms. Degraded urban areas What does degraded area mean? Another important problem that we live with is the widespread existence of various forms

• f degradation of natural resources and environmental conditions such as pollution, waste
• f land or loss of vegetation; degraded systems are ecosystems whose diversity,

productivity and livability has been greatly reduced. If we are talking about buildings, a degraded building can be dangerous as it can fall down. This problem is mainly caused by human activities that destroy the surrounding environment. How can we solve this current problem? (In order to solve this problem and considering our philosophy…) Ecological restoration is the intentional process of modifying a site to establish an

• ecosystem. It is used in order to solve the problem of degrated areas and all of its

consequences and impacts.

There are three basic ways to restore a degraded area: the first one is based on covering the ground with appropriate species of vegetacion as my college Sara

• explained. The second one consists of rehabilitating the area using a mixture of native

and exotic species that recover the zone; the last one is based on restoring the original set of plants and animals which used to live there before degradation. Architectural restoration describes the process of rebuilding or renovating any element of a damaged building. There are two main ways to restore a building: repair, consisting on consolidation of deteriorated elements over the time; substitution, based

• n reconstrution of badly damaged elements.

Matadero Madrid: (example of our project that solves urban degraded areas) It is a set of 48 buildings dedicated to industrial and purchase-bought of cattle in the city of Madrid during the middle decades of the 20th century. In 1996, after some remodelations and change of uses, the slaughterhouse was closed and the facility was unused until its transformation into a cultural space known as Matadero Madrid, which was opened in 2007. A large portion of land was being wasted for a long time so we thought about giving it a new use in order to link and connect that huge space with the city. The aim was quite clear: to create a contemporary city inside de big city of Madrid employing sustainable materials on the interior remodeling and refurbishing and taking advantage of the existing buildings. Its areas of activity are visual arts, performing arts, literature and reading, thinking, music, film, design, fashion, architecture or landscaping. All of these activities promote and improve arts and brainstorming so it brings citizens closer to their culture what makes them feel that they belong to the city where they live, Madrid. It is opened to the participation of everybody to create, learn and enjoy. Because of it success, some extensions has been carried out during the past few years. Conclusion To sum up, Matadero Madrid is the best of the projects we designed that turns a urban degraded area into an alive space. The whole place has been thought to supply cultural services to every single citizen of Madrid; and it also integrates sustainable architecture with volunteering and low-cost activities. High Energy Demand Thank you, Ángela, and good afternoon. As you may have checked, our practice has great experience in the field of urbanism. But, however, for the problems we are trying to solve we must get closer to the building itself, to each and every brick of its walls. The

high energy demand is one of these subjects: I'm Fernando, and this is the way we build

• ur buildings.

The alive city we are walking towards goes along with the challenge of non-energy demand buildings. Green rings, social plans we have talked about have no sense if our sky is getting darker day after day. Therefore, it is necessary to drastically reduce the energy demand of our cities in order to fight against pollution –but also looking for an economic profit–. It is said that sustainability is the opposite of progress, that technology has filled our clouds with ash. We say: "Let's use technology the way it was thought for: to truly improve our lifes." Big Arch Theory works hard to be in the avantgarde of tectonic innovation, studiyung and designing solutions that enable us to reach our goals. Material science and industry have developed wonderful products that together with a deep knowledge of the environment we are working on help us to create buildings actually close to the energetic standards to be achieved on 2020. Maybe the best example of this way of thinking is UC3M Building 18, awarded with the platinum LEED certificate by the United States Council for Green Construction. What Building 18 taught us was that a sustainable solution was not enemy of the design, it is

• ne of its most powerful allies: façades are nothing but the tectonic answer given to the

thermal insulation problem. As Louis Sullivan said; "Form follows function." The function is perfect; the form, appealing. We don´t want to make new architecture just because is new, which we consider

• irresponsible. We want to make comfortable, efficient, good architecture. Sustainability

doesn't only depend on innovation: recalling ancient techniques and recovering traditional methods bring us quite useful and interesting solutions. This is shown in Building 18: most fancy materials –such as the photocatalytic, precast, decontaminant concrete planks– don't define building image since it is composed by ceramic panels. The ceramic ventilated façade, besides its perfect thermal behaviour, integrates the building in the campus and its surface treatment generates a very attractive shadow pattern. To sum up, an intelligent use of the plot, integration in the building urban and natural environment, and energetic efficiency are key to design every work of our ideal urban hatch. We have talked quite a lot about our past. Now that we have such an strong foundation, why don't we take a look to the future through the eyes of my partner Helena? OUR CHALLENGES

• In accordance with all our investigation and beliefs, Big Arch Theory intends to

contribute in making a significant environmental improvement in Madrid, starting from the Southern neighbourhoods such as Carabanchel, Alcorcón and Móstoles. We wish to provide these areas with more green spaces, when possible, like we did in Vitoria’s Green Ring, creating new parks, gardens, and any other forms of having vegetation and some wildlife in the city, so as to be nearly 24 hours connected with

• nature. Because nature provides us with tranquility and makes us stop and think about
• ur lives, and we humans need to do so. Our aim doing this, is to help society be

more natural and have a much calmer, healthier and happier life, in which people would know themselves much better and dedicate themselves to what they really have enthusiasm in. Besides, reducing energy consumption, who knows if the money which is saved thanks to this could be used to make inversions in basic needs which are a little forgotten nowadays.

• Secondly, we know how demanded shopping and leisure centres are, and we do not

try to deny it. That is the reason why we would like to make use of these built surfaces into into completely green spaces with shops and all the installations which are required in these types of buildings. We will use efte domes to cover these spaces, which are now being used for green houses due to their contribution to reducing energy consumption and their characteristical capacity for natural light diffusion, which would save lots of electricity in artificial lighting too.

• Recently we presented an alternative project for the restoration of the old fruits-and-

vegetables market in Legazpi, where a new enormous shopping centre is being planned to be built next to Madrid Rio. The original project intended to make a thirty- five-thousand-square-metre construction full of shops, restaurants, a sports centre, a public library, and no vegetation at all. As soon as we heard about this news, we became very concerned about the situation, because we truly believe that in such a huge building, plants are more than necessary for oxygenating air, and even more if it is going to be crowded with people. So, after presenting our alternative to the promoter, he inmediately accepted. Our design consists in creating an indoor forest, introducing the same uses that were originally planned, but all integrated with the natural space and in a completely respectful relationship. This way, air will be constantly purified and energy consumption will be significantly reduced, thanks to the regulation of temperature and humidity vegetation naturally provides.

• One of our main challenges is to turn every single shopping centre in Madrid into

shopping green houses: Plaza Norte, La Gavia, La Vaguada, Plenilunio, Zielo, Príncipe Pío…and then little by little expand our idea to whole Spain.

• Another project we have in mind is deepen our investigations about adobe and how

to adapt this traditional and exceptionally efficient way of construction to our days. These are some of the houses we have already built in areas where people were living in complete poverty, and some months after their construction, we have noticed that those people have been able to improve the quality of their lives, precisely due to the reduction of energy consumption they have experienced, which has helped and is helping them save a lot of money. So that’s why we believe that this material could highly contribute to sustainable architecture. We wish to discover all the benefits of adobe in new architecture, in order to improve significantly the physical and mental well-being of our society.