dc.contributor
Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. Departament de Projectes Arquitectònics
dc.contributor.author
Fuzs, Gonzalo
dc.date.accessioned
2013-04-08T06:40:40Z
dc.date.available
2013-04-08T06:40:40Z
dc.date.issued
2012-12-17
dc.identifier.uri
http://hdl.handle.net/10803/109039
dc.description.abstract
The Austral group was an architectural society founded in Buenos Aires towards the end of the year 1938. It originated as a
result of a meeting that took place in París ayear earlier, in Le Corbusier's studio. On that occasion , three architects carne
together: Antonio Sanet from Catalunya, and Juan Kurchan and Jorge Ferrari Hardoy from Argentina . Once the group was
already establis hed in Argentina , sorne other members joined in.
This work is not a monograph about Austral. It aims at delving ¡nto the architecture its members were interes ted in, the
innovative ideas theyhad , the origin ofthose original ideas , and the wayin which these ideas were reflected in real objects or
projects, especially in those related to collective housing. This work also intends to look into the conception of citythese
architects had and how they inserted their architecture in the city; which ideas they had about the architectural object and how
they inserted the city dweller in that object: and what resources they used to strike a balance between the individual and the
collective needs.
This piece ofwriting deals with Austral not only as a group but also as a society of architects who explored and shared ideas
about design, the ideas that brought them together in a collective initiative known as the "Austral spirit".
This work is composed offour parts. The first one focuses on the education and training of the members of Austral . Paris as
the place where Austral originated.
The second describes how the "Austral spirit" took shape.
The third part deals with some ofthe works which show how the Australes experimented with their proposals on collective
housing. These works present an analytic representation ofthe fundamental concepts used by Austral and conflrm the
hypothesis they had formulated . In the fourth part, the conclus ion, appendixes and bibliographical references are detailed.
The Australes received an academic education based on the "BeauxArts" and they received a "modern" training outside the
academ icworld. With Le Corbusier theystarted a long path leading to an unknown horizon. Theysucceeded in bu ilding a
theoretical framework to guide their work. Far form thinking about the discipline as a tool devoid of content, Iheydecided lo
focus on the "philosophical problems ofarchitecture".
However, the theory had boundaries that the Australes were determined to trespass . They decided to move forward with the
aim of "doi ng work". Th us , they had to act somewhere in between the "Buenos Ares Radieuse" designed in the Rue de
Sévres and the "real Buenos Ares" ofthe checkerboard grid and the consolidated fab rico
They tried to transform the city from its micro-sca le, establishing new urban relations between the object and the city and
causing the concept of corridor-street to tace a crisis even though they could no! make any real changes . They had a smarter
incidence on the city than modern orthodox city planning did. Austral se! out from Le Corbusier and incorporated elements
Ihal belong to other disciplines, such as collective psychology and abstrac! surrealism in order to propase solutions which
depart from the cannons established bythe "international sty1e" and which cater for human beings ' material and spiritual
needs. ln this sense, neither surrealism nor collective psychologywas used as a design 1001 to make objects with certain
formal characteristics. Theywere used to create , through those objects , certain psychological and physical conditions in the
inhabitant. For Austral, the function does notdetermine the form ; the form makes the function possible.
In a word , this thesis Is founded on the hypothesis that Austral used a certain concept of space partition and of the grouping
of unils which derived from their search to combine "the human individual and the collective socia l". Their projects are
considered to be a quest to rework the relations of architecture with the city and of architecture with the city dweller.
eng
dc.format.mimetype
application/pdf
dc.publisher
Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya
dc.rights.license
ADVERTIMENT. L'accés als continguts d'aquesta tesi doctoral i la seva utilització ha de respectar els drets de la persona autora. Pot ser utilitzada per a consulta o estudi personal, així com en activitats o materials d'investigació i docència en els termes establerts a l'art. 32 del Text Refós de la Llei de Propietat Intel·lectual (RDL 1/1996). Per altres utilitzacions es requereix l'autorització prèvia i expressa de la persona autora. En qualsevol cas, en la utilització dels seus continguts caldrà indicar de forma clara el nom i cognoms de la persona autora i el títol de la tesi doctoral. No s'autoritza la seva reproducció o altres formes d'explotació efectuades amb finalitats de lucre ni la seva comunicació pública des d'un lloc aliè al servei TDX. Tampoc s'autoritza la presentació del seu contingut en una finestra o marc aliè a TDX (framing). Aquesta reserva de drets afecta tant als continguts de la tesi com als seus resums i índexs.
dc.source
TDX (Tesis Doctorals en Xarxa)
dc.title
Austral 1938-1944: lo individual y lo colectivo
dc.type
info:eu-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis
dc.type
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
dc.contributor.director
Jover Fontanals, Cristina
dc.rights.accessLevel
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.identifier.dl
B. 10508-2013