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Juan Borchers was a late-modernist Chilean Architect. A humanist and theorist, throughout his life he was devoted to architectural theory and research. He was also author of significant projects and built works in Chile. During his childhood and youth he lived and studied in Punta Arenas. In this southern city he developed his affinity for poetry, storytelling, drawing and art. His father (a ship-owner) instilled in him notions of mathematics and navigational instruments, as well as his desire to travel. At the University of Chile he studied the texts of Le Corbusier, Matila Ghyka, Rimbaud, Poincaré and others. In 1937 he was expelled from the university due to his involvement in the student movement that attempted to reform architectural education to include the principles of modern architecture. After his graduation, he travels to Paris to meet Le Corbusier. In 1939 he returned to Chile due to the beginning of the Second World War. In 1948 he travelled to Europe again, this journey lasted ten years where he lived in multiple locations, being the most permanent Paris and Madrid. The main categories and concepts used and developed by Borchers in his theory of architecture were derived from multiple sources such as Uexküll, Husserl, Descartes, Kant, Wittgenstein, Alberti and Palladio. These theories coupled with his vast knowledge of mathematics and geometry. In 1968, Borchers published his first book called Architectural Institution where he develops an ontology in which architecture is seen as a fundamental phenomenon of human will and only secondarily of human senses. Architecture is generated through an Artificial Order based on mental laws that contradict the laws of the Natural Order found in the Umwelt or surrounding world. The human body is the origin of all architecture and has a dual character that Borchers called the Plastic Organ and the Organ of the Will. From the Dutch architect Hans van der Laan he took the notion of architecture as a harmonious mediation between humans and the natural world, and also the plastic number as the basis to develop his own arithmetic series based on the geometric properties of the cube which he named as Cubic Series. His second book, entitled Meta-Architecture, was published posthumously. In it, he develops a practical approach to his theory through concepts like number, magnitude, the act, plastic relation and the series. In 1960 he with others two architects developed the design for the Electric Cooperative of Chillán (COPELEC), where they put into practice the principles of Borchers’s theory. The building was pronounced National Monument in 2008. In 2010, a book containing part of his memories, entitled Hiperpolis, was published. Also part of his work was exhibited at the Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid. Borchers’s influence has not been widespread in Chile, in part due to its complexity but mostly because his theory posed a radical critique to architecture and architectural practice.
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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.
![Bibliography - University of British Columbiahoos/SLS-Internal/bib.pdf · 372 BIBLIOGRAPHY [Borchers and Furman, 1999] B. Borchers and J. Furman. A two-phase ex-act algorithmfor MAX-SAT](https://img.pdfslide.us/doc/110x75/5ed3851e2c6992453d414430/bibliography-university-of-british-columbia-hoossls-internalbibpdf-372-bibliography.jpg)
