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Architects: Picado - De Blas Arquitectos
- Area: 498 m²
- Year: 2017
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Photographs:Eugeni Pons
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Lead Architects: Rubén Picado, María José de Blas
Text description provided by the architects. The Camino de Santiago runs through the valley and village of Ezcaray, an enclave that has a great natural heritage and one of the most interesting sets of popular architecture in La Rioja. Inevitably his “genius loci” is the key of the process of this project.
This project set in the grove that all of us has in memory, through the film by Victor Erice, “El Sur”. The entire soothing team settled in the Echaurren 35 years ago and the grove that gives its name to the project remains exactly the same, as if the time had not passed.
There is a sustainable response to the sporadic use of various events. Initially we think of “nomadic” textile systems, but the place requires a more stable approach to the inclemencies of strong winds, heavy snowfalls and intense cold, so not only is shade necessary on hot days, but also strong environmental protection.
The construction with “light” techniques takes technical advances of the industry with a modular system of self-supporting panels of galvanized steel. On the other hand, it incorporates a sustainable material: the wood with PEFC certificated (Gabarró) wrapping the facades with a threshold, becoming camouflaged with the environment of the garden.
There were only four months to build it. Our systems weighed eight times less than a traditional one, which made the project sustainable.
It is a landscaping intervention: the control of the near views and the horizon, are determining to get the right atmosphere. Native species with low maintenance has been selected. The territory, being the only element that remains in time, is incorporated into the ecological thinking of the project.
The strategy of reducing the scale of the whole intervention, is defined by a sequence of small pieces comparable to the rural domestic landscape. Francis Paniego’s kitchen, refrigerating rooms, lockers and toilets, add 173m2.
The largest piece is a diaphanous Pavilion with 325 m2: a space that can be open completely to the exterior, in order to enhance the environment.
The social strategy incorporates local workers, industry and craftwork of the surroundings.
The severity of the construction is complemented with the wood lattices and the garden, thought as a live element that will invade with natural laws every piece.
The mediation of the landscape design with the architectural scheme allows time to complete its integration into “la arboleda del sur”.
