Coberturas Rígidas Adaptáveis na Arquitectura. Possibilidades de Transformação e Mobilidade

Abstract

This essay focuses on the study of covering systems in contemporary architecture within the resolution of collective programs, of sporadic nature. This means that the study focuses on adaptive light covers, considering the change of shape and location. Thus, this type of coverage seems to fit the current socio-economic context - having the economic crisis and the imbalance of the environment as dominant concerns. The adaptive covers is a type of building in which there is a wide variety of shapes and structural solutions. So, its study is structured according to two adapting methods - mobility and kinetics - and seeks to clarify it, through a classification, its properties. By mobility, it's understandable the possibility of moving the structure, validating the reuse and containment of the material. By kinetics it's understandable the formal change of the structure, quite useful for adapting the same to various circumstances such as weather, versatility functions to the same space, and transportation logistics. The consideration of the kinetics and mobility lead to the need of reducing the weight of these covers, which are intended to be light. The mobility, kinetics and lightness are characteristics inherent to the field of biology. To this condition, are added the fact that natural systems are efficient structures because they are based on resource savings and their improvement over time. In this way, this work summons biomimetics as a field of interest for thought and design of adaptive rigid covers, discussing authors like Antoni Gaudí, Joseph Paxton, Buckminster Fuller, Frei Otto, Mies Van der Rohe, Santiago Calatrava and Renzo Piano. To provide a more detailed understanding of the operating method of the adaptable rigid covers, are identified a number of authors that have provided an important contribution to this topic. For this, we propose a division of labor according to a type of systems "Umbrella" and "pantograph", seeking to expose the limitations and potentialities of each of these building systems. Among these authors, we stand out Buckminster Fuller, Frei Otto, Emilio Pérez Piñero, Félix Escrig and Chuck Hoberman. At the end of this research it builds up a reflection on the relevance of this theme. Amongst the conclusions, highlights the fact that the kinetic transportable structures facilitate a faster and more flexible deployment, compared to transportable structures systems that do not incorporate mechanisms of movement. Are autonomous covers concerning the structural point of view, in other words, they are self-transportable, and therefore are not subordinated to the physically built. This way allowing extended application domains, oscillating in between its autonomy and as a complement to the built, such as the natural landscape or public space. Note also that the studied type of covers promotes a more current conscious intervention regarding environmental and economic terms, seen by the pointed out adaptable characteristics.