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Permeability
Etymology: from Latin permeabilis, PENETRABLE.
According to the Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy of Language (RAE, 2001), permeable comes from the Latin permeabilis, penetrable; and it refers to that which, due to its physical characteristics, is capable of being crossed. Permeability, therefore, is permeable quality.
n hydraulics, Darcy's Law (Lambe and Whitman, 1997) defines hydraulic conductivity or permeability (K) as the capacity of a rock for a fluid to flow through it and is measured in Darcys. That is, it is the expression of the ease with which a fluid passes through a porous material and can be calculated from the volume of fluid that passes through a length of rock or soil with a constant section in a given time.
If we take this to architectural terms, in essence the concept of the ability of a material or object to allow it to be crossed without altering its internal structure is maintained.
ARCHITECTURAL PERMEABILITY
Permeability is the quality of a system referring to its ability to be penetrated or passed through by an element.
Normally oblivious to this; it could be water, air, and even vision through an object to acoustics. It can also be defined as: a specific official design of a tangible object or not, which has to do with the daily use of the object, may imply or rule out rational or sentimental factors.
Permeability is a geometric, material and urban quality that allows close and intertwined relationships with the environment and climate, but in addition to being a tectonic property it is also an important characteristic for the functioning of ecosystems and their communities linked to architecture. .
This capacity allows us to establish connections between the private and the public, the interior space and its surroundings in order to provide connectivity, both physical and visual, sound and sensory; allowing the penetrability of light, the pedestrian flow, the unification of spaces, convergence and flexibility.
Through these relationships, we can affirm that both materiality and design play a very important role in the architectural field, since it is through them that buildings provide a specific sensation or message to the community. They also allow the arrival of unexpected activities, mainly in intermediate, outdoor and public places, thus expanding the range of availability, use and spatial participation.
The open project goes beyond the simple representation of the entity it houses; hosts broad symbolic content and triggers multiple activities. The strength of the permeable architectural project lies more in the variety of relationships that it makes possible, rather than in the perfection of its construction details.
Thanks to this capacity, very varied architectures enable diverse environmental effects. For example, in intertropical regions, where climatic conditions are constant and moderate, open buildings can offer vast ranges of comfort and well-being without great effort, and this turns out to be a quality that distinguishes their architectures.
PERMEABILITY TERMS IN ARCHITECTURE
According to the book Permeability by Plan:b Architects (2013) they define key concepts around the permeable called
Permeability points of view:
• Absorption: Loss of the intensity of a homogeneous object when passing through a medium. It comes from the act of absorbing: attracting something to incorporate or consume it, the absorbance depends on the concentration and the thickness of the object.
• Penetrability: Possibility or susceptibility of being exterminated or also that it can be penetrated, inserted, embedded, introduced or driven into
something or item.
• Flexibility: Disposition of an object to be easily bent, the condition of bending according to the will of others and the susceptibility to adapt to changes according to circumstances.
• Disponibilidad: Alta disponibilidad es una cualidad de un sistema o de un dispositivo que garantiza alto rendimiento operativo durante un período de tiempo determinado.
• Exchange: Act of reciprocal exchange of one element for another. Therefore, something is given and something else is received.
• Circularity: The architectural project is inevitably immersed in material and energy cycles of diverse complexity, which is constantly expressed through its configuration: The extraction of raw materials and their transportation, industrial transformation and construction, performance and recycling: they converge and are evident in their bones and skins. As a material configuration, the open architectural project condenses and permeates the material networks that configure it and expresses its limitations and challenges.
• Convergence: Characteristic of two or more elements that come together in a certain place or point. It can also be defined as a meeting to access different services through the same space or the ability to unite different spaces that allow different sensations to be emitted.
La arquitectura permeable conduce a la configuración con abundantes transparencias. La perforación y los velos permiten que el interior de un edificio sea penetrable y visible desde el espacio público, y que el exterior sea evidente desde los espacios controlados. Al evitar las capas herméticas y los costosos recubrimientos para el control del clima, las arquitecturas perforadas hacen visibles las diversas redes técnicas que las configuran, así como su funcionamiento.
En algunos casos, el ruido externo e interno plantea problemas acústicos; también la lluvia horizontal que entra en los edificios debe considerarse con cautela; sin embargo, ambos fenómenos muestran una estrecha asociación entre los aspectos técnicos, afectivos y climáticos de un proyecto. La arquitectura permeable manifiesta situaciones cotidianas, interiores y exteriores, da la bienvenida y estimula el desplazamiento y, en lugar de ocultar actividades internas que pudieran agregar o convertirse un valor añadido en el exterior.
*If you are interested in more about this topic, I recommend you see the publication Architectural Permeability for the interior / exterior spatial relationship
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Written and curated by Sarah Tió | Publicado el 17 de Abril, 2021.
