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Juan Pablo Aschner

Architect and academic with a PhD in Art and Architecture, an MBA in Arts Innovation, a Postgraduate Master's in Architecture (laureate thesis) and a licensed Bachelor in Architecture. He is the founding Dean and full professor at the Faculty of Creative Studies at Universidad del Rosario, established in 2020 with a focus on arts, crafts, design, architecture, and creative industries in the Global South.

Previously, Juan Pablo directed the DEARQ Journal of Architecture and was an associate professor at Universidad Nacional de Colombia and Universidad de los Andes. He co-directed and co-authored the award-winning film "Euritmia," and has published numerous books, articles, and book chapters. His interdisciplinary research spans textual, graphic, visual, and sound media, drawing from social sciences, humanities, arts, music, literature, and film studies.

Juan Pablo's recent research delves into creative education in the Global South, studies of Colombian and Latin American architects, and the intersections of music, film, and architecture. His design expertise includes participatory design and architectural projects at various scales.

His accolades include the Intercultural Achievement Award 2024, the 1st prize at the XXVI Colombian Architecture Biennial 2018 and an International Honorable Mention at the XXI Pan-American Architecture Biennial of Quito 2018 for DEARQ Journal. He has also been awarded research and creation grants from IDARTES, CESED, and OSUN. His work has earned selections, awards, and honorable mentions at Colombian and Ibero-American Architecture Biennials and international film and architecture festivals.

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Papers by Juan Pablo Aschner

The article describes the educational approach followed in the optional course How Should we Conc... more The article describes the educational approach followed in the optional course How Should we Conceive the Architectural Project and the reflections that led to its creation. The overall inspiration comes from the theories contained in Christian Norberg Schulz’s book Intentions in Architecture, first published in 1967. The course, however, seeks to transform reflection into practice through the development of five discrete exercises in design that respond, in each case, to precise variables. Taken together, these variables, though examined separately in the article, constitute the unique totality of a completed architectural work. Each of the five modules begins with an analysis of variables and case studies –so that the experiences of others may serve as a basis for our own actions– and culminates in the design of a pavilion reflecting the particular variables of each module.

Crime, Media, Culture: An International Journal, 2020

This research applies an interdisciplinary approach to the bidirectional relationship between ill... more This research applies an interdisciplinary approach to the bidirectional relationship between illicit drug trafficking activities (specifically, cocaine and opioid trafficking in Colombia and Mexico) and the architectures, spaces, and territories in which they are located. Certain spaces that determine or are determined by the actions of drug trafficking organizations are described, analyzed, and classified based on various methodologies and the use of academic, official, and press information. In addition, case studies are reconstructed using architectural and geographic representation mechanisms to exemplify and illustrate the main arguments. The paper examines the three stages of activity that constitute the illegal drug economy: production (involving the placement of crop fields and laboratories), distribution (which entails exploitation of mobility infrastructure), and cross-cutting activities in relation to drug trafficking support spaces. The research provides an articulated ...

Revista de Estudios Sociales No.35, 2010

In 2016 and responding to the Pritzker Price given to socially committed Chilean architect Alejan... more In 2016 and responding to the Pritzker Price given to socially committed Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena, Patrik Schumacher [Partner at Zaha Hadid Architects] complained that the Pritzker Prize had mutated into a humanitarian design award and announced a worrying symptom of a political politeness flowing over architecture practice. With examples in recent humanitarian architecture laureates such as Alejandro Aravena, Shigeru Ban or Balkrishna Doshi we are experiencing a shift in recognition towards a more socially committed practice by comparison with the beginning of this century and that had witnessed celebration of exclamatory poetical building expression in the works of starchitects such as Zaha Hadid or Frank Gehry, amongst others. Using this recent debate as starting point I would like to explore the conflictive oscillations of architecture when referring and relating to the poetical, the polite and the political. The use of these three notions is limited to specific understandings associated with material practices that might be summarized as follows: POETICAL having an imaginative or sensitively emotional style of expression. POLITE relating to 'refined' cultural expressions. POLITICAL having some reference to the polis and thus considering the social and political community as a primary instance. It is my intention to trace the understanding, interpretation and implementation of these three notions within some Latin-American architecture practices of the last 50 years. In order to do so I will go over some ideas published by academia and I will present some building examples that help illustrate some points; mostly low-income housing and public infrastructure which are the most pressing architectural subjects in the region.

Crime, Media, Culture: An International Journal, 2020

Bitácora Urbano Territorial, 2006

El artículo procura develar la existencia de un acontecimiento urbano complejo al interior del pr... more El artículo procura develar la existencia de un acontecimiento urbano complejo al interior del proyecto para la Biblioteca Virgilio Barco. En el transcurso del escrito se aborda la implantación de la Biblioteca en el lugar, estudiando para ello los elementos naturales que la dotan de temporalidad, su relación con el paisaje circundante y la incidencia de este último en la construcción de un límite. Se analiza luego el espacio concebido. ¿Cómo surge la idea arquitectónica y se funda con ella una ciudad; qué vueltas da, qué elementos y partes la componen y bajo qué premisas se dirige hacia un resultado formal concreto? Se develan las relaciones y los actores que participan en la composición de la planta. Es posible comprender el proyecto arquitectónico como un acontecimiento urbano singular, en la medida en que la composición apela a elementos diversos y en ocasiones disímiles para reconstruir en un solo tiempo el proceso acumulativo que compone una ciudad a lo largo de un trayecto histórico prolongado invocando para ello experiencias y recuerdos atemporales del arquitecto.

IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering, 2019

Este artículo refiere a los componentes con los que Rogelio Salmona compone su obra arquitectónic... more Este artículo refiere a los componentes con los que Rogelio Salmona compone su obra arquitectónica. Por componentes se entienden las unidades que articulan la forma y que se pueden delimitar, por categorías, de un menor a mayor grado de complejidad. Este artículo plantea la existencia de cuatro categorías para estos componentes y las presenta en una secuencia inductiva: el artículo comienza con la presentación de los materiales y las técnicas que el arquitecto emplea para su manipulación. Al estudio de la sustancia primaria y los medios de manipulación le sucede el estudio de los elementos; al estudio de éstos le sucede la formación de las partes, poniendo determinados elementos en relación, y termina la indagación por las totalidades que resultan de combinar partes.

This text refers to the current state of the art in our discipline from a different perspective, ... more This text refers to the current state of the art in our discipline from a different perspective, exploring which I consider is its main feature: its plurality. In my opinion, the main differentiating factor of the architecture of the early twenty-first century with respect to the twentieth century is the coexistence of different trends and expressions of the discipline at the same times and places. Even though a similar phenomenon occurred early last century, most of the twentieth century was characterized by the assimilation of prevailing architectural doctrines or the succession of trends in contradiction. By contrast, today we serve the coexistence of spatial processes and results that on the one hand, enrich and diversify our urban and rural areas and, on the other, evidence the complexity of the profession, as well as the pursuit of individual languages and innovative
procedures by designers and other professionals associated with architecture. The seven trends that I will refer to result from the reiterated exaltation or prioritization of any—among numerous—variables inherent in the discipline, because of the intentions of the designer or the particularity of the request. Then they derived to state what I consider are the seven main variables that any architectural project should tackle with greater or lesser intensity.
Understood as an equalization exercise, any good architectural project should ensure a minimum level of attention to each of the seven variables, and then privileging one or some of them depending on the project, the client, the context or their own interests. Thus, thanks to this opportunity to focus on some aspect of the project, as architecture acquires identity and authorship.

DEARQ: Revista de Arquitectura de la …, 2010

DEARQ: Journal of Architecture

Revista Bitácora Urbano Territorial, 2006

... invocación de la Sabana estudio de consideraciones urbanas en un proyecto arquitectónico Juan... more ... invocación de la Sabana estudio de consideraciones urbanas en un proyecto arquitectónico Juan Pablo Aschner Rosselli ... Un contexto más amplio, una enorme plaza geo-gráfica entre montañas a la cual acude el cielo. El lugar que el proyecto invoca es genérico y uni-versal. ...

Bordering a sinuous avenue that suggests the preexistence of a river, in the frontier between the... more Bordering a sinuous avenue that suggests the preexistence of a river, in the frontier between the north and south of Bogota and neighboring important cultural and historical buildings of Colombia’s capital, lays the National General Archive, projected by Rogelio Salmona between 1988 and 1994. This text procures an interpretation of the memory of a building for the memory, tracing the compositional processes that preceded its construction, and the phenomena that occur as it is experienced. It is divided into four parts that explore, respectively, the building’s cultural and physical context, its anthropomorphic features, its composition and the experience that follows its encounter. The analysis is based on the existing documentation on the building, texts written by Rogelio Salmona, the drawings and layouts of the project, and tries to reach, from a particular case study, a more general reflection on the multiple relationships that architecture sustains with memory both collective and individual.

Crime, Media, Culture: An International Journal, 2020

Revista de Estudios Sociales No.35, 2010

Crime, Media, Culture: An International Journal, 2020

Bitácora Urbano Territorial, 2006

IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering, 2019

DEARQ: Revista de Arquitectura de la …, 2010

DEARQ: Journal of Architecture

Revista Bitácora Urbano Territorial, 2006

Coloquio Colombiano de Historia de la Cosntrucción, 2018

This communication proposes a journey through the different materials, techniques and constructio... more This communication proposes a journey through the different materials, techniques and construction systems that Rogelio Salmona uses in his works. The architect mainly uses solid and skeleton systems in his buildings. In fact, it is in the use of these two systems that we can find an explanation, from a project perspective, to the degree of introversion or spatial extroversion in his work. The early buildings in Salmona's career account for the stereotomic work with the masonry walls, the intermediate works combine the materials and systems and the later works account for the tectonic work with the concrete in columns and beams. In the buildings that will be seen throughout the communication, the presence of wood, metal and glass complement, refine and sometimes mediate the presence and behavior of the masonry and concrete that are, in general, the two materials that determine the degree of massiveness or lightness of the buildings or the level of introversion or spatial extroversion. To better understand this evolution, it is important to analyze the materials used by the architect, the evolution in the techniques to manipulate them and the gradual consolidation of architectural elements associated with each of these materials.

Conference Proceedings The 4th International Conference S.ARCH 2017, 2017

This paper proposes a methodology of analysis of contemporary architecture that deconstructs it i... more This paper proposes a methodology of analysis of contemporary architecture that deconstructs it in seven major trends based on variables that architects undertake when developing a project. This deconstruction of different practices derives in a mapping of contemporary architecture in which buildings can be classified within a specific trend. This methodology is intended to replace a classification of architecture according to scales, location or use with a mapping that emphasizes design processes and intentions. The development of this mapping of contemporary architecture is based on the identification of variables that determine our practice [figure 1]. The design process is understood as an exercise of equalization in which these variables are raised over each other depending on the particular interests of the designer or the character of the commission This equalization allows classification of buildings by affinity with others even if they are unrelated in terms of use, scale or location; but because they share deeper aspects associated with the design methodology behind. In light of the seven variables seen in figure 1, the following seven trends arise [figure 2]: Rationally Rigorous Architecture [1] that privileges technical premises and rational thought; Expressively Organic Architecture [2] that prioritizes an individual and phenomenological approach towards space, materiality and site; Socio-Economically Resourceful Architecture [3] that works with contingency and under social and economical restraints; Objectified Architecture [4] that strongly focuses on formal and esthetic explorations; Symbolic architecture [5] that prioritizes the spatialization of concepts; Regionally Characterized Architecture [6], that shows a special rapport with vernacular building traditions and eco-sustainability; and Nondescript Establishment Architecture [7] that privileges commercial premises. While there are complex cases that can be ascribed to more than one tendency or intention, this paper will present research conducted over three years in a course entitled: “Contemporary Architecture Criticism” [figures 3,4], with architectures designed between 2000 and 2016, in order to demonstrate the relevance and effectiveness of the deconstructive method in teaching contexts, and in the analysis and dissemination of contemporary architecture.

The following paper explores phenomena underlying the meaning of primordial space. It aims to cas... more The following paper explores phenomena underlying the meaning of primordial space. It aims to cast some light on certain fundamental aspects of the origins of architecture and rock art that lie concealed or that remain at an unconscious level within contemporary disciplinary practices and experiences of built environments. The narration focuses on two notions that are apparently antithetical: the cabin and the cavern, and that are respectively associated with tectonic and stereotomic systems. The text examines their respective meanings, the phenomena that characterize their spatial properties and their possible durability and readability in recent architectural manifestations.

By means of an interdisciplinary approach, the text falls between the analytic and the literary, in the hope to reenact, through reverie, a current and argued interpretation of the meaning of primordial space.

La presente comunicación propone un recorrido por los diferentes materiales, técnicas y sistemas ... more La presente comunicación propone un recorrido por los diferentes materiales, técnicas y sistemas constructivos que Rogelio Salmona utiliza en sus obras. El arquitecto emplea principalmente los sistemas macizos y de esqueleto en sus edificaciones. De hecho, es en el empleo de estos dos sistemas en donde podemos encontrar explicación, desde una perspectiva de proyecto, al grado de introversión o extroversión espacial en la obra. Las edificaciones tempranas en la trayectoria de Salmona dan cuenta del trabajo estereotómico con los mampuestos en muros, las obras intermedias combinan los materiales y los sistemas y las obras tardías dan cuenta del trabajo tectónico con el concreto en columnas y vigas. En las edificaciones que se verán a lo largo de la comunicación, la presencia de la madera, del metal y del vidrio complementan, afinan y en ocasiones median en la presencia y con-ducta de los mampuestos y del concreto que son, por lo general, los dos materiales que determinan el grado de masividad o de ligereza de las edificaciones respectivamente o el nivel de introversión o extroversión espacial. Para comprender mejor este devenir resulta importante a esta ponencia analizar los materiales empleados por el ar-quitecto, la evolución en las técnicas para manipularlos y la gradual consolidación de elementos arquitectónicos asociados a cada uno de estos materiales.

This communication proposes a journey through the different materials, techniques and construction systems that Rogelio Salmona uses in his works. The architect mainly uses solid and skeleton systems in his buildings. In fact, it is in the use of these two systems that we can find an explanation, from a project perspective, to the degree of introversion or spatial extroversion in his work. The early buildings in Salmona's career account for the stereotomic work with the masonry walls, the intermediate works combine the materials and systems and the later works account for the tectonic work with the concrete in columns and beams. In the buildings that will be seen throughout the communication, the presence of wood, metal and glass complement, refine and sometimes mediate the presence and behavior of the masonry and concrete that are, in general, the two materials that determine the degree of massiveness or lightness of the buildings or the level of introversion or spatial extroversion. To better understand this evolution, it is important to analyze the materials used by the architect, the evolution in the techniques to manipulate them and the gradual consolidation of architectural elements associated with each of these materials.

Il apparaît dans notre ère de l'information un nouveau site pour l'emplacement de l'architecture.... more Il apparaît dans notre ère de l'information un nouveau site pour l'emplacement de l'architecture. Il s’agit de l'espace virtuel dans lequel les bâtiments, soustraits de leur contexte immédiat, sont exposés à travers des images réelles ou virtuelles avec beaucoup d'autres. Les architectures, construites ou prévues acquièrent sur ce site une condition d'archi-objets de désir, gravitant devant nos yeux, séparées d’un certain contexte incertain dans le monde.
Ce qui est décrit ci-dessus montre une objectivation croissante de l'architecture. Les édifications sont aujourd'hui archi-objets de désir en raison de la couverture médiatique de leur apparence et l’inférence de la couverture médiatique sur les processus de projet.

With this paper I intend an approach to the composition of Rogelio Salmona’s architecture and it... more With this paper I intend an approach to the composition of Rogelio Salmona’s architecture and its influence in the later experience of the built work. Apparently accidental phenomena that we experience in his work, can be explained in the light of the previous processes of composition; and compositional processes, in turn, are informed and supported in phenomena that are revealed in the experience of his buildings. By stringing processes of composition and experience it is possible to find continuities and ruptures in the architect's career.