Eladio dieste

Theories of Architecture

Le Corbusier said that concrete was the 20th century stone. Eladio Dieste didn’t agree with him. He said that the 20th century stone was brick. The literal use of thismaterial gave him the nickname: Lord of bricks. Within all of the masterpieces he created through his long career, there is one that outstands the most. Parroquia de Cristo Obrero.

It is a buildingmade all out of brick. It has this complex curves and this interesting holes where the light can trespass into the interior of this church, creating this different sensations through the connectionbetween the exterior with the interior. For Dieste, the play of light is very important, and that is why the building also has this brick surfaces interposed so that the light can enter in an indirectway.

What Dieste is trying to tell us by using brick to create complex curves, is that there is no boundaries between material and forms. Brick is a 3 dimensional rectangle, and he breaks thisparadigm and uses it to make smooth waves.

An interesting thing that Dieste has is that he’s an architect and an engineer. In a very summarized way, an engineer designs a space thinking that it willfunction within itself; an architect designs a space thinking in how a person will function inside it. Having the 2 professions, he can create very functional spaces with the creativity in them, withthe play of lights, shadows and shapes.

The grammar is brick. Everything is brick here; everything is made out of brick. There are no windows, only small spaces where there is no brick. We canappreciate that this architecture is an iconic one. Dieste creates not only buildings, but symbols for different places. The church is functional thanks to its free plan, its innovating a new way of usingand seeing brick. Nature is not very important, but environment is. Most of his masterpieces are public spaces so that people can interact. He uses technology to invent a new way of building spaces....