The interpretation of contemporary architectural works as a basis for learning and research in architecture.

Application to the case of OMA's BLOX

Abstract

This proposal for architectural hermeneutics is formulated by a group of researchers from different areas of knowledge. Our objective is to enrich the research and teaching of Architecture, focusing on production of the last 30 years in an international context. It is a collective and transversal way of working that allows, by delving deeper into case studies, to find ways of doing that allow iteratively understanding growing sectors of recent architecture and preceding architecture. Our group evolves by focusing on medium-term objectives that will allow us to improve our teaching and research interaction. We present one of the cases, a work by OMA studio, BLOX (Copenhagen, 2006-2018). This example shows the usefulness of chosen methodology to reveal key aspects of the building that do not appear in bibliographic reviews available to date. Phases that are proposed in the interpretation —description, genealogy-teratology, and meaning— have been enriched by transversal contributions of the group's components. Thus, issues have been identified allowing us to find the constructive-structural approach that underlies the work and that articulates both the interweaving of functions and the volumetric decomposition of the building. These keys are also present in many contemporary buildings as a means of solving the problem of constructing complex volumes that challenge the traditional statics of Architecture. Study of BLOX provides us with knowledge about how this approach has very diverse formal results and opens the understanding of contemporary architectural production, as it is complemented by the successive study of more works.