Oswaldo de la Torre’s project for the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the National Polytechnic School of Quito

Oswaldo de la Torre’s project for the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the National Polytechnic School of Quito

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The decade of the 1960s in Ecuador, and particularly in the city of Quito, was a key moment for the consolidation of local modern architecture. This period was characterised by the introduction of an imported language and the use of new materials. The new architecture implied a paradigm shift for the architects who were trained during this period. It brought with it the emergence of a new form of graphic definition of their projects. This article aims to show how this change in the definition of the project document and the emergence of a new architectural language were closely linked. In 1963, Oswaldo de la Torre drew the plans for the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the Escuela Politécnica Nacional. On that occasion he developed a project system for the elaboration of both compositional and constructive solutions, which served also as a basis for translating the ideas into a built reality.