JUAN BORCHERS

ARCHITECT 1910-1975

Patricio De Stefani

'Architecture is Physics made flesh'

EARLY LIFE & UNIVERSITY

VOYAGES

THEORETICAL INFLUENCES

ARCHITECTURAL INSTITUTION

META-ARCHITECTURE

PROJECTS & BUILT WORKS

COPELEC BUILDING

LEGACY & BEYOND

BIRTH: August 4, 1910, Punta Arenas

COUNTRY: Chile, South America

HIGH SCHOOL: Deutsche Schule

UNIVERSITY: University of Chile

MAIN INTERESTS: Poetry,

Storytelling, Drawing, Art

1937 - VOYAGE UTIL

He realized Le Corbusier’s

famous second journey passing

by Argentina, Germany,

Netherlands, Italy,

Greece, France

1938 – PARIS

He meets Le Corbusier

1948 – TEN YEARS JOURNEY

He studied the foundation of

South American cities and

travelled to Spain, France, Italy,

Egypt, Morocco, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Germany

PHILOSOPHY

Descartes, Kant, Wittgenstein

PHENOMENOLOGY

Uexkull, Husserl

ARCHITECTURE

Alberti, Palladio,

Le corbusier, Van der Laan

MATHEMATICS

Euclides, Poincaré, Riemann

ART

Victor Hugo, Van Gogh,

Baudelaire, Rimbaud

ARTIFICIAL ORDER & NATURAL ORDER

Architecture is based in mental laws that

contradict natural laws.

Architecture inserts itself between the

natural world and man.

‘Architecture is the language of

substantial immobility’ (AI, p. 174)

PROJECT & PLAN

A model of reality

PROGRAM

What makes a project an architectural

project, and not the motive or brief

(underlying conceptual structure)

THING & OBJECT

Thing: Something perceptible

to human senses

e.g. a stone

Object: a thing that performs

an action to the service of

human beings, action scheme

e.g. a stone used as a weapon

PLASTIC ORGAN

Unifies human external senses

producing a sensation (things)

ORGAN OF THE WILL

Unifies human internal senses

producing an action (objects)

PROPORTIONAL RELATION BETWEEN

THE HUMAN BODY AND THE WORLD

The human body (O) is to

the separating wall (X) as the

separated space (Y) is to the world (M)

O : X = Y : M

X : Y = Architectural Proportion

Postulate: what initiates the work of

architecture is the number (MA, p. 28)

ARCHITECTURAL EXTENSION

The capacity of scope and

discernment that the

human senses possess

Nearness / Nearby Contour = 0-20 m

Transitional Zone = 20-100 m

Remoteness / Horizon = 100-5000 m

ARTIFICIAL MAGNITUDE

Measurement produced in

thought and introduced into

the natural order,

composed by quality and

quantity (height, width,

depth)

CUBIC SERIES

additive series generated

through the numeracy

of the cubic figure

MODULOR CUBIC SERIES

THE ACT

A Human Act is the abstract form of an

action, a crystallized human action

(structure, quality, quantity)

e.g. wedding, procession, ritual, sports

‘The Act is the most simple unity in

architecture; it is the element, like colour

in painting or sound in music’

(quoted by Jorge de la Cruz, p. 136)

THE ARCHITECTURAL OBJECT

An action scheme

contained in a thing, a non-visible

ordering scheme

‘The world becomes, to my

radical reduction in movements

and actions’ (AI, p. 158)

1) ATELIER FOR ARTISTS

(1940)

2) OLALLA HOUSE

(1942)

3) MATETIC HOUSE

(1943)

4) MENESES HOUSE

(1960)

5) STUDENT MEDICAL

CENTER

(1966)

1) 2)

3)

4) 5)

This building was Borchers’s first

opportunity to put into practice his

theory through the application of

his proportional system and the

cubic series.

The building has 21m depth,

12,6m width,10,5m height, and is

composed by different elemental

unities or projects.

The main materiality is exposed

concrete and the structure is

based in a set of double

cone columns, 5,88m height.

In 2008 was pronounced National

Monument.

Borchers’s legacy and original contribution to

architecture is acknowledged not only in Chile

but also in Spain, where Rafael Moneo

dedicated an article to his theories.

In 2010, a book containing part of his memories,

entitled Hiperpolis, was published.

Also part of his work was exhibited at Museo

Reina Sofía in Madrid.

In searching for a ‘pure’ architecture Borchers

used to claim:

‘THE WORK OF ARCHITECTURE IS

WITHOUT FURTHER ADO LIFE ITSELF’

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Borchers

Revista CA N° 98. Santiago, September, 1999

De la Cruz, Jorge. Alquimia: El Acto y el Número. Santiago, Escuela de

Arquitectura Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, November, 2000.

Bochers, Juan. Institución Arquitectónica. Santiago, Andres Bello, 1968.

Bochers, Juan. Meta-Arquitectura. Santiago, Mathesis, 1975.