Uploaded on 2017-03-13 by Elizabeth Cárdenas Arroyo

"Construction used to be a localised activity, but with the advancement of construction processes and construction materials almost every building contains components of a globalized economy." The images of this collage are all in the same central district of San Isidro, in Lima, PE. San Isidro is known as the financial centre of the city, and buildings are rising in height and they are being built with so called “modern materials in a contemporary fashion”. Pre-inca construction was usually made of adobe, wood and stone. Inca construction was more of stone and wood. And the colonial construction of Lima was made with adobe at first level and “quincha” at second level to better resist seismic movements. As you can see from them, the globalized economy can be seen in the type of the construction materials and how different from traditional and ancestral buildings were. At the beginning of the 20th century this area was mostly occupied by two-level rich houses with private gardens. Construction was brick and cement, walls and windows in facades. The new high-rise buildings are mostly reinforced concrete (we’re not yet used to steel frame for high-rise). And facades are mostly glass. And as beautiful or slick people tend to see glass facades, they’re not environmentally friendly. First, climate in Lima is very strange. Temperature is never below 14ºC at winter and never more than 32ºC at summer. But humidity is sometimes 99%, so we are used to feel very cold or very hot. And that feeling gets worse with all glass panel facades. Because is just one layer dark or mirror glass. Air-conditioned offices all year round. So, our buildings look modern but they do not fit our thermic needs. Second, Peru does not produce glass. We import the totality of the “architectural glass”, mainly from China (78%) and other producers like Chile, México or Brasil. Architectural glass industry in Peru is limited to processing (30%) and distribution (70%). We produce cement and steel, but in order to used reinforced concrete, we need to import machinery for mixing and transport. And formwork changed from localized wood to imported metal. El mercado del vidrio para la construcción. (2016, September 26). Retrieved March 13, 2017, from http://www.peruconstruye.net/el-mercado-del-vidrio-para-la-construccion/