THE PROJECT FOR THE ENVIRONMENT: THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE 7 ELEMENTS
“There is no art without magic, no science without alchemy, no architecture without poetry”

Let's talk about the 5 fundamental elements of natural philosophy - Earth, Fire, Air, Water, Ether. Plato, in the cosmogony of Timaeus, spatialized them through geometry. Bachelard's phenomenology rehabilitated them and revealed their poetic potential for creative imagination about matter. It is under this poetic meaning that we use them as materials and design strategies for the environment in crisis, to postpone the inevitable. We add two more and illustrate them with projects and works.

Architecture of the Earth

"Architecture belongs to the Earth" due to its tectonic condition. Typological proposals (basements, underground spaces, rooftop gardens: bringing the roofs of buildings back to the ground) and materials (stone, rammed earth, wood). The "Cornerstone Project" achieves the conversion from residual stone to the philosopher's stone, starting from quarry waste and marble heaps, transforming it into various products and stages of valorization: structural masonry (Marble Foundation Project), modules and lamellar walls, urban furniture (kiosk), Land Art (transformations of a disused quarry).

Architecture of the Fire

Jorge Cruz Pinto, coord.

Fire, associated with thermal energy and the home, has its anthropological center in the hearth and its external center in the Sun. The Eco-Solar Transformer Architecture Project proposes an innovative integrated design that aims to capture energy and allows the building to have 1001 forms, through kinetic modular panels - GreenGrid Mashrabiya - composed of passive bioclimatic elements (shading and ventilation) and active elements (photovoltaic cells), as well as LEDs (light design and display). The GreenGrid panel is applied to existing buildings and urban spaces. Architecture of Air - Use of passive bioclimatic solutions for natural ventilation, GreenGrid mashrabiya, and the design of wind buildings.

Architecture of the Water

Considering the foreseeable water scarcity, integrated water management is proposed in architecture and the territory (Aqueduct Building Project, Vidigueira Library). Rehabilitation of water typologies (diving boards, dams, and floats) and the integrated use of wave and tidal energy.

Architecture of the Ether

In Praise of Emptiness (Pinto, 2010), in accordance with the integrated concept UrbArch, proposes new conceptions, the requalification of urban-architectural voids (Vasco da Gama Square), and respect for natural and agricultural spaces.

AlchemIcal Architecture

Recycling, reuse, and conversion into new materials.

Recycling, reuse, and conversion into new materials.

Corresponding to invisible fields and forces (internal geometries, form forces, strength forms, energies, flows...) assessable for metaphenomenology, geomancy, gestalt, neuroscience..."