Otros modos de hacer arquitectura. Una mirada crítica al singular proceso proyectual y constructivo de Danilo Veras (Texas, 1949)

Resum

Architect Danilo Veras Godoy was born on December 19, 1949 in Houston, Texas. He lived his childhood in Mexico and later moved to Guatemala where in 1975 he graduated in Architecture at the Universidad de San Carlos. In 1982 he returned to Mexico where he built an original architecture through an evocative and unique projection and construction craft process. He died in Cuernavaca, Mexico, on April 3, 2007. Where do reside and which components configure and / or condition the work of Danilo Veras, which can be considered a critical contribution to architecture? To answer this, the thesis is divided into two parts: The first one recognizes the architecture of Danilo through the identification of the author (his architectural biography and his work). The product offered by this first part of the thesis is the catalogue (a digital version is available in: https://archivodaniloveras.wordpress.com) and classification of the work, a set composed mostly of dwelling houses that share elements of a same formal repertory and the ferrocement with burnished finish, self-construction material that allows Danilo to explore the complexity of a work process that is shaped by conditions of method, technique and materiality. Describe it is the ultimate goal of this first part. The second part of the thesis interprets the work of Danilo from the existentialist and humanistic relation of the architecture, understanding it as a result of a particular sensorial experience lived jointly by the architect, the builders and the dwellers, provoked by a sense (attitude) produce and inhabit the work. In this way the idea of technique, craftsmanship, construction and drawing, present in Danilo's work, is defined, as well as analyzing how architecture can be configurate by the sensorial experience of produce it and dwell it. Finally, the thesis defends the idea that Danilo's conception of living spaces is an evocative and creative process. This architecture creates us as dwellers, sublimating not only our being in the world, but also our well-being in the world. Thinking architecture from these areas is to aspire to a more conscious and sensitive to the circumstances of our societies life is to think the creative action of architecture as a critical-radical and political strategy against the establishment. Danilo claims the image of the architect as a builder, not as a designer. So their work process is more like an artist, sculptor or ceramist as a much freer, sensory and subjective creative method of work.