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The purpose of this document is to gather architectural research together with ceramics as the main focus. It aims to synthesize the work done in the field of ceramics in three specific scenarios within the wide range of possible applications of this material in architecture. It should be emphasized that the framework of the document is to respond to a personal search, always with an architectural drift, from a constructive and decorative perspective, drawing a necessary path with an process of testing and learning. The motivation behind this TFG is to discover a possible personal architectural stance with ceramics. I am from both Aragonese and Catalan origin with a common denominator: clay soil. Customs that until very recently was total but still very present, everyday and construction are related to ceramics. Be it a pitcher or a brick, it has been present since I became aware. A long time ago, I read a quote by Antoni Cumella, a Catalan ceramist related to the world of architecture, in which he compared a glass to a building justifying that ‘both have an interior and exterior space, a color, a texture and, of course, a particular use’. Clay is a basic material of ceramics and one of the most used, abundant knwon since the dawn of humanity, together with wood and stone. It has been used with various degrees of intensity, despite technological advances, to the present day, when it is currently in a stage of redefinition. It is true that the ceramics are treated with ancient and modest techniques, almost until the intervention of artificial intelligence, with counted advances but always remaining unchanged. This fact, in my opinion, makes the ceramics a high-tech material. This technological vision is based on the fact that the ceramics has endless desirable characteristics like thermal, structural, decorative, environmental ... among others, always with well-known aptitude and competence, being a very abundant and workable material. We can realize that at any age, it has played a key role, no matter the weather or the latitude. The emergence of other materials, such as concrete or steel, left the ceramic in the background. This usually happens as new techniques, materials, or simply modes change are discovered. However, a new technical revolution can be initiated by looking back to remember and rediscover a solution that was surely forgotten. With all that said, I will focus, as I mentioned at the beginning, on three different but interrelated scenarios where the ceramics are applied in architecture. Isfahan, the site of a decorative technical revolution. Eladio Dieste, an innovative construction solution for reinforced ceramics. Finally, Friedensreich Hundertwasser, an extraordinary sensibility in functional organic representation. Each one of them is confronted by placing the context and the technique with each application in each of them. The choice of scenarios, a personal journey through time and my experiences, which I intend can give reasons and emotions of particular and general order.

[EN] In accordance with Casa Batlló’s Conservation Plan, the initial project contemplated a minimal intervention of maintenance and conservation. Prior to the start of the intervention, studies and tests were carried out, to find out, check and determine the different methodologies and materials to be used. However, a careful inspection of the façade revealed pathological processes and undocumented findings about the construction techniques. These studies and the results of the tests allowed to agree upon the procedures and materials to be used., [ES] De acuerdo con el plan director, el proyecto inicial de restauración de la fachada de la casa Batlló del arquitecto Antoni Gaudí, contemplaba una mínima intervención de mantenimiento y conservación. Previamente al inicio de la restauración, se realizaron estudios y ensayos para conocer, testar y determinar las diferentes metodologías y materiales que se iban a utilizar. Desvelaron procesos patológicos y hallazgos hasta la fecha no documentados sobre las técnicas constructivas. El estudio organoléptico y los resultados de estos ensayos permitieron consensuarlos procedimientos y materiales a emplear.

La presente tesina de final de Master expone el estudio numérico de la influencia de diversas variables que definen una bóveda de cerámica armada con directriz parabólica en su capacidad portante. El estudio paramétrico, que cuenta con más de 200 casos analizados, pretende obtener conclusiones precisas acerca de las variables que tienen un mayor impacto en la capacidad resistente de esta solución constructiva y definir las características que debe tener un buen predimensionado, optimizando al máximo el rendimiento de los materiales. Las variables analizadas son la curva directriz, luz y flecha de la bóveda, la resistencia combinada mortero-cerámica, la posición más desfavorable de una carga puntual, el peso propio del material, la posición del armado y las resistencias características de los materiales. Con el propósito de fundamentar teóricamente el estudio realizado, previamente se exponen los orígenes históricos de la cerámica armada, así como su aplicación concreta a la tipología constructiva de bóvedas. Para ello, se presenta un breve resumen que repasa cronológicamente las primeras construcciones de bóvedas de gravedad de mampostería con directriz circunferencial hasta las aplicaciones de la cerámica armada por Eladio Dieste (1952) y las propuestas de semiprefabricados, como en la tesis doctoral de Vicente Sarrablo (2002). Se presenta el método de cálculo utilizado para la obtención del estado de colapso de las estructuras, el método del análisis límite. Primeramente, se exponen los conceptos y formulaciones necesarios para la aplicación del método de una manera genérica para, en segunda instancia, adaptar el método a la solución constructiva estudiada. Este proceso de cálculo es automatizado en una hoja Excel que sirve para agilizar la fase de obtención de resultados del estudio paramétrico. Estos pasos previos permiten abordar el cuerpo de la tesina, el estudio paramétrico, que analiza por separado las variables comentadas anteriormente. Se observa la influencia de los parámetros en la capacidad resistente de las estructuras, graficando y analizando los valores de las cargas puntuales últimas y los empujes que éstas generan en los apoyos de las bóvedas. También se propone un método que permite generar ábacos adimensionales para el predimensionamiento de bóvedas de cerámica armada en función de la calidad del mortero y la cantidad de armado. Las conclusiones parciales, obtenidas para el estudio de cada una de las variables, se agrupan y unifican formulando conclusiones generales y específicas acerca del comportamiento estructural de bóvedas de cerámica armada. Se establecen criterios prácticos para el dimensionamiento, así como las ventajas e inconvenientes de la aplicación de diversas caracterísitcas globales y seccionales en la solución estructural estudiada. Para finalizar, debido al alcance parcial del estudio, se recomiendan futuras líneas de investigación que sirvan para completar y corroborar las conclusiones finales obtenidas.

Recent excavations at the Fatimid and Zirid site of Sabra al-Mansuriya near Kairouan (Tunisia) provide the first evidence of lustreware production in medieval Ifriqiya, in the 10th–11th centuries AD. As the Fatimid dynasty moved from Ifriqiya to Egypt to establish its capital in Fustat (Cairo), technological connections with the Egyptian lustreware could be expected. Tunisian lustreware may also be the link in the transmission of the technique towards Muslim Spain. It represents a new piece of the puzzle of understanding the diffusion of lustre technology from the East to the West of the Mediterranean. The composition and microstructure of the bodies and glazes, and the micro- and nano-structure of the lustre layer are compared in a preliminary approach to the technological relationships between Tunisian, Egyptian, and Spanish lustrewares.

A selection of lustres including 9th century AD polychrome and 10th century AD monochrome Abbasid lustres from Iraq, and 10th to 12th centuries AD Fatimid lustres from Egypt and Syria is studied in the present paper. The selection is based on previous studies that demonstrated that all of them contain metal silver nanoparticles and copper, which, when present, appears either as Cuþ or Cu2þ dissolved in the glaze. They show different colours, green, yellow, amber, and brown, and may also show or lack a golden-like reflectivity, which results mainly from average size and concentration in the layer of the silver nanoparticles. In this paper, a depth profile composition of the lustre layers is determined using Rutheford Backscattering Spectroscopy, allowing the determination of the total silver content, concentration of silver, copper to silver ratio, and thickness of the lustre layers. We show that the enhanced golden-like reflectivity occurs only for layers with a high concentration of silver, and that the addition of PbO to the alkaline glaze helps the formation of more concentrated layers. The results obtained provide new hints concerning the lead enrichment of the glazes during this period.

This conversation with Toni Cumella takes place with regardto the recent exhibition entitled Cerámica Cumella:Shaping Ideas at the Architectural Association in London.Cerámica Cumella, a family business started by his grandfather,is dedicated to the manufacture of ceramic productssince 1880. Cumella reveals the origins of his profession bytaking us along a path between tradition and innovation inthe ceramic industry. He tells us about some of the projectsin which he is currently involved in collaboration with someof the most internationally recognized architects worldwide.Merging technology and fine arts, Cumella defineshis profession as a combination of the work of an artist, acraftsman and a technician. At every project, the collaborationprocess with the architect starts at the very earlieststage of design. Without pre-established limits, Toni Cumellaenjoys the challenge of every new single assignment,continuously testing himself at any of them.