Architecture workshop in the desert
26/10/2015.
by Jorge Losada. [Piura] Perú
metalocus, LEONOR MARTÍN
metalocus, LEONOR MARTÍN
A workspace in the desert. This is what the architect Jorge Rodriguez along with Lola Losada and Carlos Berián have achieved in Sechura, Peru, as part of the campus of the University of Piura.
Exterior view. Architecture workshop in the desert by Jorge Losada. Photography © Jorge Losada. Click above to see larger image.
Exterior view. Architecture workshop in the desert by Jorge Losada. Photography © Jorge Losada. Click above to see larger image.
Exterior view. Architecture workshop in the desert by Jorge Losada. Photography © Jorge Losada. Click above to see larger image.
Interior view. Architecture workshop in the desert by Jorge Losada. Photography © Jorge Losada. Click above to see larger image.
Interior view. Architecture workshop in the desert by Jorge Losada. Photography © Jorge Losada. Click above to see larger image.
Interior view. Architecture workshop in the desert by Jorge Losada. Photography © Jorge Losada.
Exterior view. Architecture workshop in the desert by Jorge Losada. Photography © Jorge Losada.
Exterior view. Architecture workshop in the desert by Jorge Losada. Photography © Jorge Losada. Click above to see larger image.
Exterior view. Architecture workshop in the desert by Jorge Losada. Photography © Jorge Losada. Click above to see larger image.
Interior view. Architecture workshop in the desert by Jorge Losada. Photography © Jorge Losada.
Interior view. Architecture workshop in the desert by Jorge Losada. Photography © Jorge Losada.
Interior view. Architecture workshop in the desert by Jorge Losada. Photography © Jorge Losada.
Interior view. Architecture workshop in the desert by Jorge Losada. Photography © Jorge Losada. Click above to see larger image.
Exterior view. Architecture workshop in the desert by Jorge Losada. Photography © Jorge Losada. Click above to see larger image.
Site plan. Architecture workshop in the desert by Jorge Losada. Click above to see larger image.
Axonometric view. Architecture workshop in the desert by Jorge Losada.
Floor plan and north elevation. Architecture workshop in the desert by Jorge Losada.
Roof plan and longitudinal section. Architecture workshop in the desert by Jorge Losada.
North elevation and longitudinal sections. Architecture workshop in the desert by Jorge Losada.
Cross sections. Architecture workshop in the desert by Jorge Losada.
Construction details. Architecture workshop in the desert by Jorge Losada.
Exterior night view. Architecture workshop in the desert by Jorge Losada. Photography © Jorge Losada. Click above to see larger image.
The Spanish architect Jorge Losada, not only works as a teacher at the Peruvian University of Piura, he has also designed this architecture workshop for its campus. Facing a radical climate with a very tight budget, he has built a simple pavilion, but that is implanted with force in the desert, offering possibilities to an inhospitable terrain.
Description of the project by Jorge Losada
Piura is located in the Sechura desert, a city surrounded by sand dunes. The river, which evaporates before reaching the sea, just generates a small green corridor. In this difficult context, the University of Piura has got a hundred hectares reforested with a dry forest, an oasis of carob trees in which to implement its facilities.
The architecture workshop tries to cope with these extreme conditions through two strategies: creating a large shadow and a ventilated space. They avoid the massive architecture that accumulates heat and is either uncomfortable and requires air conditioning, involving an unaffordable energy waste.
They opted for a steel frame and a steel plate roof whose height ranges from 6 to 9 meters. Under this membrane (3 vaults of 12x21m), ther is a large air cushion that is renewed with the slightest breeze to dissipate the roof’s radiation. A second roof, made of plywood boards painted in white and hung of the structure, prevents from radiation and limits the space. With room for up to 120 architecture tables, the workshop is open to the landscape by a 36 meters and 3 meters high long rip. An horizontal framework that responds to the equally horizontal component of the carob forest in which it is inserted.
The longitudinal axis of the workshop is oriented east-west to open to the south, from where the prevailing winds blow. The roof covers four meters over the slab to avoid direct sun light that, at this latitude, comes from both the north and the south. In the interstitial spaces, there will be plant species adapted to the climate that will help curb the sand particles in suspension that could drag the wind and to ward off insects.
The facade, like everything else, barely exists. A metal net subtly veils the landscape and prevents from the entrance of big animals. The limit disappears and you get the feeling of work directly in the forest, under a shade and with a pleasant thermal sensation. At the top, after passing an horizontal gutter which assumes the torrential rains that eventually hit the region, the enclosure is a mesh of tensioned fisherman nets. In short, the Architecture Workshop encloses a space in the desert and responds to the context using the possibilities of the program. Paraphrasing Koolhaas, where there is nothing, the project of the workshop tries to make everything possible.
CREDITS. DATA SHEET.-
Architect.- Jorge Losada.
Collaborators.- Lola Rodríguez and Carlos Berián.
Location.- University of Piura, Piura (Perú).
Date.- 2015 (finalisation).
Client.- Piura University.
More information
Jorge Losada, Lola Rodríguez. Losada Rodríguez Arquitectos
Losada Rodríguez Arquitectos. Architecture studio founded in 2015 by Jorge Losada and Lola Rodríguez, in the north of Peru, the office where they develop their ideas. His first project in this country, the Architecture Workshop in the desert, was widely awarded and published in various media: Arkinka and Proyecta in Peru, Summa+ and Plot in Argentina, and in Mexico the Arquine publishing house included it in its book “RADICAL, 50 Latin American architectures” in which, in his opinion, were the 50 most outstanding young Latin American offices. He was selected as the representative of Peru for the X Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism of Sao Paulo. In 2018 they won the First Prize in the International Competition for Bicentennial Schools, taking charge of the design of the Costa Lluviosa region. In 2019, within the Plan A 0100 collective, they won the competition for the new headquarters of the Universidad Científica del Sur in Lima, which is now under construction. And in 2020 and 2021, the competition for the University Clinic and the Ate Headquarters, from this same university.
Lola Rodríguez has a Master's degree in Theory and History of Architecture from the University of Navarra and an architect from the same university. She enrolled in the Doctorate Program "History and Critical Analysis of Spanish Architecture of the 20th Century" with a research on modern ephemeral architecture. She has done research stays at the Architectural Association, Columbia University and the Getty Research Institute. She has participated in numerous congresses and published in different national and international magazines. Previously, her teaching and research career has been developed in the Department of Architectural Projects of the Higher Technical School of Architecture of the University of Navarra. She currently works as an Ordinary Professor in the Projects area of the Architecture Program of the University of Piura and co-directs the Losada Rodríguez Arquitectos office.
Jorge Losada is a Doctor of Architecture from the University of Navarra. His research focuses on theory, criticism and history of the modern and contemporary project. He has a two-year Specialization in Landscape and Environment. His work is divided into the professional field, research and teaching. He has taught Project courses at the University of Navarra and the University of Piura. He has been Visiting Scholar at Columbia University and the Milan Polytechnic, Visiting Critic at Otaniemi University, and Visiting Researcher at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles. He has participated in numerous congresses and published research articles in different national and international journals. Since 2014 he works in the Architecture Program of the University of Piura (Peru) as an Ordinary Professor in the Projects Area, of which he is also coordinator.
Lola Rodríguez has a Master's degree in Theory and History of Architecture from the University of Navarra and an architect from the same university. She enrolled in the Doctorate Program "History and Critical Analysis of Spanish Architecture of the 20th Century" with a research on modern ephemeral architecture. She has done research stays at the Architectural Association, Columbia University and the Getty Research Institute. She has participated in numerous congresses and published in different national and international magazines. Previously, her teaching and research career has been developed in the Department of Architectural Projects of the Higher Technical School of Architecture of the University of Navarra. She currently works as an Ordinary Professor in the Projects area of the Architecture Program of the University of Piura and co-directs the Losada Rodríguez Arquitectos office.
Jorge Losada is a Doctor of Architecture from the University of Navarra. His research focuses on theory, criticism and history of the modern and contemporary project. He has a two-year Specialization in Landscape and Environment. His work is divided into the professional field, research and teaching. He has taught Project courses at the University of Navarra and the University of Piura. He has been Visiting Scholar at Columbia University and the Milan Polytechnic, Visiting Critic at Otaniemi University, and Visiting Researcher at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles. He has participated in numerous congresses and published research articles in different national and international journals. Since 2014 he works in the Architecture Program of the University of Piura (Peru) as an Ordinary Professor in the Projects Area, of which he is also coordinator.
Jorge Losada
Jorge Losada is an architect from the University of Navarra since 2005, specializing in Landscape and Environment and PhD in Architecture in 2012 at the same university. He has been invited as a researcher and critic in different schools such as the Polytechnic of Milan, the Helsinki University of Technology and Columbia University in New York. He has worked as an associate teacher in various departments of the University of Navarra and currently as a professor of architectural projects in Peru's Piura University.
Jorge Losada, Mario Alonso Ricci, Michele Albanelli. Plan A
Plan A is an architecture office based in Lima and Piura, Peru, led by Jorge Losada, Mario Alonso Ricci and Michele Albanelli. The partners have studied their careers in Peru, Spain and Italy and have taken postgraduate courses in the United States, Germany and Spain, practicing as professionals and enriching themselves in different contexts. Their team includes architects, interior designers and graphic designers, who allow a comprehensive approach to the architectural project and respond to its complexity from different angles; from spatial quality, technical construction or structural aspects to territorial, urban or landscape dimensions, going through economic or commercial aspects. This polyhedral composition allows them to develop pertinent and specific projects where the skills of each one will be put at the service of the client's proposals.
Jorge Losada is a Doctor of Architecture from the University of Navarra. His research focuses on theory, criticism and history of the modern and contemporary project. He has a master's degree in Landscape and Environment. His work is distributed in the professional field, research and teaching. He has taught Project courses at the University of Navarra and at the University of Piura. He has been a Visiting Scholar at Columbia University and the Milan Polytechnic, a Visiting Critic at the University of Otaniemi, and a Visiting Researcher at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles. He has participated in numerous conferences and published research articles in different national and international journals. Since 2014 he has been working in the Architecture Program of the University of Piura (Peru) as Ordinary Professor in the Project Area, of which he is also coordinator.
Mario Alonso Ricci is an architect from the Peruvian University of Applied Sciences (UPC) with a master's degree in product design research from the IED (Istituto Europeo di Design) in Madrid and a master's degree in User Experience Design (UX) from the International University from La Rioja, Spain. He has been teaching project courses for almost 15 years, and is currently the academic director of the professional interior design program at the UPC and Co-founder of the design collective Peru Design Collective. He has been an exhibitor at Milan Design Week (2017 and 2018), a speaker at MADE18 (Sao Paulo, Brazil) and Pecha Kucha Night Lima.
Michele Albanelli is an architect, Master of Architecture, Stäedelschule Architecture Class in Frankfurt am Main, 2009. In 2008 he received the Gunther Bock Prize scholarship. He is co-director of the architecture studios DIADIA Arquitectura and Plan A0100, both in Lima (Peru), from where he conceives and develops projects of various kinds and scales, collaboratively and with particular emphasis on the playful and educational dimension of space. He is the author of the book Learning Spaces, in the process of being published by the UPC Peruvian University of Applied Sciences (Lima, 2021). Albanelli is a Professor at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú and Professor of Design, Architecture and the City at Colegio Aleph, where he promotes the integration of architecture as a cultural form in the school curriculum.
Jorge Losada is a Doctor of Architecture from the University of Navarra. His research focuses on theory, criticism and history of the modern and contemporary project. He has a master's degree in Landscape and Environment. His work is distributed in the professional field, research and teaching. He has taught Project courses at the University of Navarra and at the University of Piura. He has been a Visiting Scholar at Columbia University and the Milan Polytechnic, a Visiting Critic at the University of Otaniemi, and a Visiting Researcher at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles. He has participated in numerous conferences and published research articles in different national and international journals. Since 2014 he has been working in the Architecture Program of the University of Piura (Peru) as Ordinary Professor in the Project Area, of which he is also coordinator.
Mario Alonso Ricci is an architect from the Peruvian University of Applied Sciences (UPC) with a master's degree in product design research from the IED (Istituto Europeo di Design) in Madrid and a master's degree in User Experience Design (UX) from the International University from La Rioja, Spain. He has been teaching project courses for almost 15 years, and is currently the academic director of the professional interior design program at the UPC and Co-founder of the design collective Peru Design Collective. He has been an exhibitor at Milan Design Week (2017 and 2018), a speaker at MADE18 (Sao Paulo, Brazil) and Pecha Kucha Night Lima.
Michele Albanelli is an architect, Master of Architecture, Stäedelschule Architecture Class in Frankfurt am Main, 2009. In 2008 he received the Gunther Bock Prize scholarship. He is co-director of the architecture studios DIADIA Arquitectura and Plan A0100, both in Lima (Peru), from where he conceives and develops projects of various kinds and scales, collaboratively and with particular emphasis on the playful and educational dimension of space. He is the author of the book Learning Spaces, in the process of being published by the UPC Peruvian University of Applied Sciences (Lima, 2021). Albanelli is a Professor at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú and Professor of Design, Architecture and the City at Colegio Aleph, where he promotes the integration of architecture as a cultural form in the school curriculum.
