Industrial Palace, Stretching What Graphic Narratives Can Do for Architecture

Abstract

Architects work with graphic narratives frequently dedicated to the elaboration of images that either inspire or surprise; typically for architectural competitions. These images, unlike architectural drawings, have clear communicative objectives aimed at persuasion. Frequently, they are created purposefully with an intentionality that has some kind of narrative attached to them, rather than for the sake of their own existence or the necessary relation of instrumentality characteristic of architectural drawings and the representation of architecture itself. What we did in this project is literally the opposite: images of the industrial ruins taken at mining sites were post-processed and reworked as such digital images, with their pixels, colours, contrasts, and possibilities of composition. A new imaginary was built over the images of the pre-existent abandoned and forlorn remains of an industrial past. Rust, mechanisms, machines and smoke were our raw materials to try to drive architectural narratives to the limit, exploring the confines of digital image postproduction. This has been done based on the same material transformations of the world that have been so much a part of these problems.