METAPLAZA
This semester’s goal was to design an urbanistic intervention in Santiago square through an analysis of the public space.
Nowadays, Santiago’s Square acts as a mere passage space, since all the public activities, such as bar terraces, are grouped in the nearby streets.
The main objective of the proposed project is to reinvigorate the urban space allowing a flexible and always changing way of inhabiting the square, answering the new needs of modern cities. These urbanistic ideals are close to the ones approached by Archigram in projects such as The Immediate City, the Walking City and the Plug-In City, and by Spanish architect José Miguel de Prada Poole with his dreams about a “non-existent” architecture, that would materialize, mutate and disappear following the citizen’s whims.
The space is divided by deployable domes made with metallic tubes and semi-transparent textile elements, creating squares inside the square, ever changing structures inside a pre-existent urban context.
The folded structure will be stored on a nearby building roof and it will be easily accessible from the ground through a series of small cranes and goods lifts that will be operated by the citizens, making them able to transform the square according to their needs, like a grand scale Do It Yourself.
Regarding the technical aspects, Emilio Pérez Piñero’s work on deployable structures in the sixties and, more recently, the research group SMiA’s projects (Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña) have been my main reference.
The node system of the domes is based on the one Perez Piñero developed while trying to optimize curved structures by making all the bars the same length.
The module configuration in two layers with two opposing articulations allows the deployed structure to be stable without needing ulterior elements.
The domes can be assembled in a myriad of configurations and lend themselves to different activities, from religious to sportive or religious. They could also be used to support the ongoing pandemic, as vaccinations or PCRs pavilions, making Archigram’s and Prada Poole’s dreams about a modern, ever-changing city more real than ever.
Nowadays, Santiago’s Square acts as a mere passage space, since all the public activities, such as bar terraces, are grouped in the nearby streets.
The main objective of the proposed project is to reinvigorate the urban space allowing a flexible and always changing way of inhabiting the square, answering the new needs of modern cities. These urbanistic ideals are close to the ones approached by Archigram in projects such as The Immediate City, the Walking City and the Plug-In City, and by Spanish architect José Miguel de Prada Poole with his dreams about a “non-existent” architecture, that would materialize, mutate and disappear following the citizen’s whims.
The space is divided by deployable domes made with metallic tubes and semi-transparent textile elements, creating squares inside the square, ever changing structures inside a pre-existent urban context.
The folded structure will be stored on a nearby building roof and it will be easily accessible from the ground through a series of small cranes and goods lifts that will be operated by the citizens, making them able to transform the square according to their needs, like a grand scale Do It Yourself.
Regarding the technical aspects, Emilio Pérez Piñero’s work on deployable structures in the sixties and, more recently, the research group SMiA’s projects (Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña) have been my main reference.
The node system of the domes is based on the one Perez Piñero developed while trying to optimize curved structures by making all the bars the same length.
The module configuration in two layers with two opposing articulations allows the deployed structure to be stable without needing ulterior elements.
The domes can be assembled in a myriad of configurations and lend themselves to different activities, from religious to sportive or religious. They could also be used to support the ongoing pandemic, as vaccinations or PCRs pavilions, making Archigram’s and Prada Poole’s dreams about a modern, ever-changing city more real than ever.
- 00 - Description
- 01 - Analysis
- 02 - Transformation
- 03 - Plan
- 04 - Section 1
- 05 - Section 2
- 06 - Street views
- 07 - Possible uses
- 08 - Deployable model
- 09 - Deployable structure
- 10 - Folded structure
- 11 - Video