Estudio de la configuración geométrica y material de viviendas de construcción vernácula en un sector de Cuenca

Abstract

Earthen construction is one of the oldest and most widely disseminated techniques worldwide. Besides being recognized for its material qualities, it is an important value within the tangible heritage of cities. Over time, the building techniques have undergone rehabilitation or adaptation processes, marking effects on their structural behavior. The city of Cuenca was cataloged as a World Cultural Heritage Site by UNESCO, in the year of 1999, due, among other criteria, to the architecture of the Historic Center of the city, in which ancestral building techniques such as adobe stand out. In the Gil Ramírez Dávalos parish, delimited as the study area, in which 298 buildings with architectural value and made up of adobe walls on their facades and its internal structure were identified. Therefore, it is important to study the structural configuration of the houses of vernacular construction to guarantee an optimal conservation of the built heritage. The applied methodology proposes to analyze the architectural surveys of the selected buildings through information and evaluation files, with the aim of knowing the characteristics of geometric and material configuration of the buildings. Subsequently, by means of statistical studies, quantitative values were identified about the analyzed criteria. The results obtained highlight the loss of adobe as the main material in the structural configuration of the houses. Finally, recommendations are made for further research about heritage buildings, so that their exceptional qualities can be preserved without affecting their behavior in the face of seismic events.