Obsolete Infrastructure: Reuse of Underground Silos in Rosario

The project proposes the reuse of obsolete buildings. This mechanism allows, on the one hand, to rethink alternative solutions to the growth modalities of our cities, and on the other, to signal a commitment to the historical and collective construction of the city. In correspondence with the particular history and territory of the region, the underground silos of the city of Rosario are selected —within the infrastructure of the agro-export model— as a specific case for its study and intervention.
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Designer(s) : Diego Costanzo y Juan Cruz Ferreyra

University : Facultad de Arquitectura, Planeamiento y Diseño. Universidad Nacional de Rosario

Tutor(s) : Alejandro Beltramone

Project Description

Introduction

Historically, the construction of the city was a process based on the constant overlapping of different layers. In its continuous transformation, buildings have been, and are being, reused. Reuse implies turning to another use, either with the function they previously performed or for other purposes. This means opposing the idea of turning back into a new start and indicates a starting point with material, symbolic and historical content that cannot be ignored. In this line of thought and relation to the historical and territorial specificity of a region, the agro-export model infrastructure reuse is presented as a topic to be developed.

In the Pampa region, Argentina, the structure and organization of the productive activity have been determining elements in the configuration of the territory and have left traces through a vast repertoire of constructions. These buildings, most of them anonymous and rarely considered as objects with architectural interest, become unique artifacts as soon as they give up their primary function and become unused structures inserted into the urban fabric. In this way, they become potential sites for the development of urban-territorial projects. Their potential correspond, in a way, to the intrinsic ability to be reused and, on the other hand, to the strategic territorial positions of certain cases.

Pre-existing urban elements deserve special attention. The previous study of existing edifications is an essential activity to evaluate their capacities and possibilities of either total or partial conservation. Ignoring its presence reveals an indifferent attitude that negates the historical and collective construction of the city. In this line of thought, the proposal is to observe buildings as constructions that still have a useful life, recognizing alternatives to demolition and test strategies or operations to reactive them.

Regarding the constructions mentioned above which come from the agro-export model, the underground silos are selected as specific infrastructure for its study and intervention. These are semi-buried horizontal structures with a formal result that represents a technical solution that meets an operational concern rather than an aesthetic one. They have, however, a unique beauty and spatial richness that deserves attention.

Urban Proposal

The urban proposal aims to recover and revitalize a degraded area of the city, giving it new uses related to the needs of the site. However, instead of demolishing existing structures, the work intends to study their potential to generate a new project.

By considering the silos as containers -no longer for crops but people and activities- the possibilities and limitations of intervention are explored to achieve different spatial scales and attend to different programmatic requirements. This study yields possible operations which, in turn, are determined by a preliminary understanding of the structural logic of the element itself. In this way, the formal and spatial possibilities of an element are tested independently of a specific program.

Modulation, subtraction, fragmentation, addition, repetition, and changes of scale are the plausible operations in charge of transforming the pre-existences to host new uses; guaranteeing the habitability conditions and achieving an appropriation of the interior space. The modulation, as a first procedure, identifies the rhythm of a piece and recognizes it as an independent element for later manipulation. The subtraction removes certain modules in search of modifying the length of the covered interior spaces and guaranteeing their access. The fragmentation, with horizontal and vertical planes, splits the big space into smaller ones. The repetition and change of scale of these operations generate multiply results that can respond to diverse programmatic requirements. The limitations presented by the pre-existence to growth in the height require a final operation that acts externally: the addition of new elements.

Finally, the operations studied in isolation overlap with the requirements of the site in order to define areas of intervention with specific programs of housing, equipment, and landscape. Each of these programmatic activities proposes both the occupation of the pre-existing structure and the incorporation of new building blocks.

Architectural Proposal

Raised the urban strategy and its guidelines, the architectural project focuses on the specific development of the housing program and proposes as its strategy the occupation of the pre-existence.

The operations -studied previously- match together with the requirements of the dwelling to define a specific sequence of interventions: modulation, subtraction, fragmentation, and addition. The subtraction of the upper element guarantees access to the unit, ventilation and lighting conditions, and dimensions according to the program. Horizontal fragmentation enables a better use of the space. Furthermore, vertical fragmentation -by adding cores- allows unit division. These operations enable the adaptation of the existing spaces into liveable places.

Finally, the addition of new blocks that, although their independence, are organized following the defined rhythm and modulation. Likewise it is intended not to physically interfere with the silos in order to preserve their original appearance.

Once defined the operations and the ways of intervention of the pre-existence, plausible forms of occupation of the silos are studied. The inner modulation makes it possible to find multiple variations: housing units with one, two, three, and even four bedrooms; units with workshops or shops are considered also.