Doing It Better: An Architecture of Variation with Repetition

Actar, Ángel Martínez García-Posada, Clinical, Essay, expanding design practices, Low Density

Architect’s role, Architectural theory, Critique, Cultural agitator, Design, Design process, Design strategies, Design-based research, Essay, Functionality, Geometry, Health, History of Architecture, Madrid, Public buildings, Spain

Learn more about "Clinical: An Architecture of Variation with Repetition", by María Hurtado de Mendoza, estudio.entresitio -- https://actar.com/product/clinical/

A few years ago estudio.entresitio won an unusual competition held by the public healthcare system of Madrid which consisted of building two healthcare clinics, both with the same budget and the same design in two different locations. From this intriguing starting point, they explored the possibilities of an autonomous architectural system that, free from a specific context, could operate on the ideas of materiality, structure and order within the architectural space, with the same interior structure and a distinct outer shell. Subsequently, after winning another competition with a similar design in a third location with a suitable building site, a third building was proposed that would also use the same layout and a distinct exterior. The set of buildings, referred to as “3×1”, is resonant and suggestive in relation to architectural creation and the artistic notion of variation.