Ecosistemas Zip

The model that we present in the exhibition of ecosistemas zip is a type of structure in unstable balance. It replicates in a 1:4 scale the concrete arches from which the chimney of our house in Burgos hangs.
This chimney works as a system of two cantilevers that balance each other and that only touch the floor and the ceiling through narrow steel bars. In a similar way, the arches of the model form a cross whose cantilevered branches stabilize each other when post-tensioned. If one of the parts of this solidary structural system fails, the whole piece collapses. In addition, it only has dry joints thanks to the tensioned rods.

We were interested in exploring a structural and material system without caring so much about the object itself or the final form it took.