Boundary and skin

Wall

Timelesspartition · solid wall · muro (Spanish)

housingschoolpublic buildingpublic space

A continuous vertical element that encloses, divides or supports a space. It can be made of earth, stone, brick, block, timber or concrete.

Solves

What it solves

It separates inside from outside, gives privacy and protects from rain and wind. Depending on its mass it stores heat or coolness. In seismic zones it must work together with the structure so it does not overturn.

Today

Choose the wall according to the climate. In hot, humid zones a light, ventilated or shaded wall is best, while in highland zones mass helps store the day’s heat. Every masonry wall in a seismic zone needs reinforcement and ties to the structure.

Common mistake

Building walls without reinforcement or ties, or without a plinth to keep them away from ground moisture.

Tomorrow

Walls of earth, reclaimed block or crushed construction waste close the materials cycle. Designing dry joints makes it easier to take them apart and use them again.

Where it comes from

1Neolithic village of Çatalhöyük Anatolia, present-day Turkey, around 7500 to 5600 BC
Adobe houses built against one another formed a continuous fabric of walls without streets, entered through the roof.
2Inca Empire Central Andes, 15th and 16th centuries
Walls of cut stone fitted without mortar, leaning slightly inward, that have withstood strong earthquakes.
3Guayabo archaeological site Turrialba, Costa Rica, around 1000 BC to 1400 AD
Circular bases and stone walls supported conical timber houses next to causeways and water channels.
4Bahareque tropical America, highly developed in Caldas, Colombia, ancestral, with variants since 1840
A framework of poles or cane covered with mud which, combined with rammed earth in the so-called temblorero style, withstood earthquakes.

Masters

Wang Shu Ningbo Museum, Ningbo, China, 2008
He builds walls with tiles and bricks salvaged from demolished houses using the local wapan technique. The uneven pieces bound with lime make a strong, flexible wall.
Luis Barragán Cuadra San Cristóbal, Mexico City, Mexico, 1968
He composes the space with large smooth walls painted pink and purple beside a pool. He shows that a wall can order a place with color and proportion.

Sources