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Brazil Cuisine

Dekton - 28.05.2020

Brazil Cuisine RCB

Neutral textures by Cosentino fill the spaces in the restaurant designed by RCB. Located in the Museum of Image and Sound (MIS) of São Paulo, Pipo Restaurant offers a gastronomic experienceduring which the clients can follow and enjoy the reparation and plate presentation process of the menu designed by famed chef Felipe Bronze, distinguishedwith two Michelin stars. The architects Renata Castilho and Camila Buciani, of the São Paulo-based studio RCBArquitetura, were commissioned to design this open-plan space, connected with nature, sunlight, and the fresh breeze. Both the countertops of the grill area and the main wall are clad with Dekton Orix, a tone included in the ‘industrial’ collection and that gives a neutral image, in contrast with the colorist decoration signed by the artist TOZ. Along the same line, the walls and countertops are covered with Dekton Nilium, which reproduces a natural texture scattered with golden and gray metallic dots. Thismaterial is highly resistant to UV light, so it can also be used on the terrace, creating a uniform aesthetic and blurring the boundaries between indoor and outdoor spaces. Following this same aim, the main space is enclosed with permeable doors of timber strips designedspecifically for this project. The design for Pipo Restaurant includes 138 m² of Cosentino materials: Dekton Nilium on tables and countertops, Dekton Oriz on worktops and main wall, andSilestone Blanco Capri for bathrooms.
Light Walls

Interior - 25.05.2020

Light Walls

RCR

A sequence of glazed courtyards renovate the spaces of an old industrial building. Located in the city of Bordeaux, the project renovates an old warehouse with vaulted spaces that were once cellars for storing fish and supplies. The intervention seeks to reactivate the area by making the most of its central location and the existence of a cozy garden adjacent to the property. The construction is reconverted into a mixed-use building that includes an exhibition gallery, a workshop, and the home of one of the studio’s members. The separation of public and private defines the intervention, organizing the uses vertically and dividing the space transversally. The basement storage spaces are transformed into exhibition halls, the street level houses the architecture studio, and the upper floor, with a characteristic sloping wooden ceiling, contains the dwelling spaces. The roof, fragmented by skylights and courtyards, creates a series of transversal bands that organize the different uses and circulation elements. These layers of glass create an ethereal image that blurs the limits between rooms. In the last one of these, which combines the main exhibition hall and a large library, the height of the slabs varies so that they are in greater continuity with the other rooms.  Light enters the building through a series of glazed courtyards, and becomes a key element in the renewal of this old warehouse that now contains a residence, an architecture studio, and a public exhibition gallery. 
Ingels & Thorsen

Interview - 21.05.2020

Ingels & Thorsen

In Dialogue

The Danish architect Bjarke Ingels (1974), founder of BIG, and the Norwegian Kjetil Thorsen (1958), co-founder of Snøhetta, talk in Pamplona about the importance of landscape in design and architecture. Founders of two of the leading Scandinavian architecture studios, Bjarke Ingels (BIG) and Kjetil Thorsen (Snøhetta), coincided in Pamplona during the IV International Congress of the Fundación Arquitectura y Sociedad, held under the motto ‘Change of Climate’. Though their works are readily distinguishable and evidently different, their approach to architecture is practically the same. They both take inspiration from the landscape, the one they have known since their childhood, and that, as in the case of so many Nordic authors, has marked their career and work. Bjarke Ingels: Maybe this is a cliché in the concepts of Scandinavia but the fact that you guys do this annual hike to the Snøhetta mountain is very interesting to me. We also go on an expedition every year, but last year there was a terrible snowstorm in which seven people had died, so we had to stay in the valley. It was so shocking though that we haven’t actually planned this year’s trip.Kjetil Thorsen: But you have to do it. It is like a car crash, you have to go straight back to the car, or you will be always scared of driving. For us it is important because you build many new kinds of relationships. When you get so close to landscape, you are almost having sex with the landscape…  “Nature is a like a gigantic playground for grown-ups” BI: I have been thinking that I get so much out of getting into nature. Not just staying in a nice hotel and then seeing a lot of nature, but mostly disappearing into it in a way that is so fully unprogrammed and uncategorized that it is entirely up to you to enjoy or inhabit it. It is a gigantic playground for grown-ups. KT: It is also a way of learning about architecture. Skiing, for example, is the best way of describing the section of a landscape, through height and speed. You are following the contour lines of landscape continuously, so you get a really close perception of the abstraction of the landscape when you are skiing. But it is the same with the slowness of climbing. When you are climbing, and you are hanging from the wall, you get the feeling  of being far from everything, but at the same time the wall could not be any closer.BI: I remember this amazing experience. We were walking up this pass, it was like an 1,800-meter ascent and it was raining non-stop, endless rain for a week. Everything was slippery, so climbing up was super hard. It was beautiful. Up there we were in the clouds, and once in a while they would open and you would have this magnificent view, but right after they would close again, very fast. Finally, when we walked down, we constantly had to lie down, flat on the stomach – we could not do it on our backs, because we had the backpacks – and slide down this kind of greasy mountain. It was a complete surrender to the elements.   KT: We keep drifting in the direction of having sex with the landscape… For me there are only two situations in the world: the mountains or the sea. Everything in between is kind of boring.BI: I totally agree. KT: But I like that. That type of challenge. I have this feeling sometimes, that if we don’t have enough wind I would close the office sort of thing, because you need the forces against to get there. If it is not windy enough, stay home. If you see where our offices are located in Oslo, we are completely exposed to the weather. The location is directly south towards the fjord, twenty meters away from it, and it is this huge warehouse that sits in the outermost peak of Oslo, below the castle. So you are getting all the weather: the winter, the spring, the autumn, the summer… We have all the fisherman in front. It is actually this kind of closeness to these things, as we were   discussing before, that makes you learn from them. To design something you need to be filled with it. You have to be under the skin of things. Landscape does that to you. BI: Just to finish this landscape theme, I think that there is something that our work shares, this idea of invitation. You called it generosity. It’s an invitation to something different. One of our first buildings, the VM Houses, has these triangular balconies, 5 meters long. The idea was to get so far out into the air that you could actually turn around and look at your building. When you are standing there, you feel in the air, surrounded only by your neighbors. Obviously also with The Mountain and the Eight House, where you climb up a ski slope. In other words, the idea that each project somehow tries to make available something that would normally be off limits, so that you end up having not an accumulation of private domains, but rather a new kind of man-made landscape. KT: We talked about architecture being active. To me it is about prepositions: in, over, through, within… Anything that can relate to many prepositions all of a sudden moves into active positioning in relation to people. If you can walk through, over, in, under, and so forth and so forth, then you are close to the landscape. Because the landscape and our whole language is based on the fact that we develop prepositions to define our position. Where we are in relation to something else. If architecture is only ‘in’ then it is not active, because it only defines one preposition. It has to have a whole range of prepositions in order to be active. This was the discussion we had at the Venice Biennale, and that is why I am no longer happy with the separation between inside and outside in the debates on public space, simply because I believe that it is limiting to the architecture, and to the public space. These are the type of things that I try to follow, and I see in your designs that you are trying to create active buildings too.   “The separation between inside and outside in the debates is limiting to  architecture and to the public space” BI: Definitely. We normally differentiate when there is a need, “a must have,” or a desire, a “nice to have.” The more “nice to haves” you can add to what the client is asking or to the program, the better. KT: For instance, there’s a debate now at the urban city planning offices in Oslo because they don’t know how to represent the Opera House in plans. Is it a building? Do they cut the building below? Or is it outer space? They don’t know! And that’s fantastic.BI: That is exactly my dream. I have been saying this all the time, in a city map building is yellow, public building is red, park is green… and I have been focusing on this idea that industrial is gray. It is like this cancerous tissue in the city map, but I am curious to see how are they going to label the power plant. It should be green, or maybe red… but definitely not gray, even though it is also gray.  KT: I agree. These are the kinds of hybrids you learn about by moving back to nature and landscape. Landscape was never only one thing. Unless we accept the complexities of the systems we are dealing with, we will get nowhere. And I think that is something to learn from nature. We cannot copy nature, but whenever we create a new building, it is not an abstract landscape but a new reality. And reality can learn things from how nature operates, hybrid aspects. You have been focusing a lot on that when it comes to your social infrastructures, where you add one function on top the other. It is a fantastic strategy because it is what landscapes do. They provide you with water but you can also ski. They provide you with trees, but you can also walk.  BI: In my view there are two tendencies. One is an extreme centralization. For instance, global companies (Amazon, Walmart…) have bigger and bigger distribution centers but are more and more centralized, as if they were trying to create a single warehouse for all of America. But there is another process, happening in cities, which is extreme decentralization, or mixing. Roof farming in New York, for example. There is a huge desire for it, almost as an ideology, maybe as a hobby, though most people living in cities are too busy to grow their tomatoes. But I really think that if you get a company to call out warehouse owners and say: “we would like to take possession of your roof, we will install, manage, operate, maintain and you will get 50% of the crops,” everyone would benefit.  KT: We have also studied it and we calculated the weight of the earth and the productivity of the earth that you could get straight out of the agriculture soil that was already on the ground once its clean. The 30-centimeter layer of agricultural soil is full of embodied energy. To throw it away and not use it as food production is kind of a waste. BI: We are doing this power plant in Vancouver, and aside from several sustainable energy systems we are using a fairly commodified Dutch farming system where you don’t have soil. You have these tubes where plants grow out of the tubes, so it consumes much less water. Everything is painted white, the floor is white, the tubes are white, so that no photon is swallowed by light-sucking colors,  everything is bouncing around. A completely effortless roof farming concept. KT: That is cool. Also, we have to rely on the future technologies, and their development. So much could happen in the field of industrial design. It is one of the areas where I feel that we have done a lot but at the same time, nothing. The industrial design elements in architecture, for instance, are completely missing, so one of the few things that we are starting to do now is actively moving more into the hardware production line of smaller things in life. Pocket lamps, for instance. A torch is a fantastic invention because you carry the light with you. There was this fiction writer who talked about glass that retains light, and for light to penetrate through the glass it takes about twenty years. So that means that you have this panoramic window, and then you build it into your home. You don’t have a TV, you have a one to one vision to Niagara Falls in New York, because the delay of twenty years actually puts the real image in your living room. Simply through the delay of light penetration. It is science fiction of course, but it is actually beautiful.  “We have to rely on the future technologies, and on their development”
Aerial Abstraction

Arts - 18.05.2020

Aerial Abstraction

Tom Hegen

After an intensive process of research on the concept of Anthropocene, the Munich-based photographer Tom Hegen has flown over different regions to document the human impact on the Earth’s natural landscapes.  The shine of the colors, the geometries of the landscapes, and the almost tactile textures make the images of Tom Hegen (Königsbrunn, 1991) look like impressive abstract paintings, when they are actually objective documents of reality. Through aerial images the photographer and designer shows the human impact on Earth, searching for artificially transformed territories and inviting the observer to discover the world from a different perspective, placing them face to face with the dimension of their interventions and making them aware of their responsibility in the preservation of our planet.  ‘The Salt Series’ is an abstract collection of images that explore human intervention in the production of salt. The presence of microorganisms and salinity change the color of the ponds. ‘The River Veins Series’ reflects the patterns left when the glaciers melt on black volcanic sand in Iceland, and ‘The Iceberg Series II’ captures the shapes of Ilulissat Icefjord in Greenland.  ‘The Quarry Series’ and ‘The Marble Series’ both show the various  methods developed for mining and processing of the raw materials needed in the construction of growing cities and infrastructure. 
Interpretation Centre of the Romanesque

Architecture - 14.05.2020

Interpretation Centre of the Romanesque

Spaceworkers

A facility designed to show visitors the ties between Portuguese Romanesque and current architecture. Spaceworkers is a studio in Paredes, in northern Portugal, that likes to work out connections between emotion and forms through contemporary architecture. One project it is known for is the Information Center of the Romanesque Route, near the town of Lousada. Through its play of volumes the building maintains the town’s urban continuity, tying in closely with the church and square – the Church of Senhor dos Aflitos and the Praça das Pocinhas. It also tries to forge a link between current architecture and the Portuguese Romanesque tradition. Volumes varying in dimensions form a unity while showing the diversity of features typical of Romanesque style. Each one contains a distinct exhibition space and is entered from an inner courtyard, the roof of which is a glass structure that ensures natural lighting and further unifies the complex. Inside, the monumentality of the space and the finishes, with the ceilings of the various volumes taking on the forms of Romanesque roofs, all contribute to the visitor’s sense of being transported to the past. Furthering the symbiosis of past and present, the facade presents surfaces of exposed concrete with a natural finish. 
Stockholm

Travel - 11.05.2020

Stockholm

Sweden

Main home of the Nobel prizes, the Swedish capital extends the pursuit of excellence to fields like design, ecology, and cuisine.  59.327450,18.054346 Architecture Stockholm City Hall The subtle delicacy characterizes the Swedish romantic style is reflected in the town hall building -designed by Ragnar Östberg between 1909 and 1923- with a towerthat offers views of the Old Town or Gamla Stan Hantverkargatan 1, 111 52 Stockholm, Sweden stadshuset.stockholm +46 8 508 290 00 59.343402,18.054749 Modern Architecture Public Library Generously filled with toplight, the municipal library – designed by Gunnar Asplund between 1918 and 1927 – is an emblematic example of refined classicism and was the first in Sweden to include open bookshelves. Sveavägen 73, 113 80 Stockholm, Sweden +46 8 508 309 00 59.326809,18.071618 Monument Royal Palace Located by the water in Stockholm’s city center and organized around a square-shaped courtyard, the Royal Palace (or Kungliga slottet) is the official residence of the King and Queen of Sweden.  Slottsbacken 1, 111 30 Stockholm, Sweden kungligaslotten.se +46 8 402 61 00 59.273754,18.102451 Woodland Cementery Skogskapellet With references to both a cabin and a temple, this chapel designed by Asplund was the first construction in Woodland Cemetery, which the architect designed with Sigurd Lewerentz in 1915. Sockenvägen 492, 122 33 Enskede, Sweden +46 8 508 301 00 59.269136,18.101677 Woodland Cementery Resurrection Chapel At the end of a road surrounded by trees in Woodland Cemetery, Resurrection Chapel – also by Lewerentz – is made up of two subtly connected bodies that confront classical and modern language.  Sockenvägen 492, 122 33 Enskede, Sweden +46 8 508 301 00 59.275719,18.100458 Woodland Cementery Crematorium The formal refinement of the portico is taken to the limit at the Crematorium, Asplund’s last work in the Cemetery.  Sockenvägen 492, 122 33 Enskede, Sweden +46 8 508 301 00 59.362922,17.870426 Religious St. Thomas Church Located in Vällingby – a district designed in 1950 following the CIAM’s organic urbanism principles –, St. Thomas Church was built by Peter Celsing and stands out for the tactile materiality of its brick walls.  Kirunagatan 9, 162 68 Vällingby, Sweden svenskakyrkan.se 59.362711,17.876065 Religious Västertort Church According to Le Corbusier, this church by Carl Nyren is an essential visit for any architecture student.  Solursgränd 4, 162 65 Vällingby, Sweden vasterortskyrkan.se +46 8 87 21 87 59.292337,18.117182 Religious St. Mark's Church St. Mark’s Church was the first building in which Lewerentz adopted the rule of not cutting bricks, which involved a careful attention to detail and stressed the expressive character of mortar joints. Malmövägen 51, 121 53 Johanneshov, Sweden svenskakyrkan.se +46 8 505 815 00 59.329355,17.852725 Architecture The Box This ‘box’ – of 6 x 3.6 m –  is a minimal shelter that Ralph and Ruth Erskine built for themselves in 1941. Rörby 33, 178 93 Drottningholm, Sweden arkdes.se 59.337355,18.059422 Architecture Social Security Administration Building Modernity and classicism are fused in this office building designed by Sigurd Lewerentz, where square openings of the same size pierce the rectangular perimeter and the oval-shaped courtyard.   Adolf Fredriks kyrkogata 8, 111 37 Stockholm, Sweden marginalen.se +46 77 171 77 10 59.362168,18.057825 Architecture Stockholm University Within the Frescati university district, the library building designed by Ralph Erskine in 1974 adopts a functionalist structure that, with its bold shape, leaves a distinctive landmark on the campus.   Frescativägen, 114 19 Stockholm, Sweden su.se +46 8 16 20 00 59.331787,18.065923 Architecture Riksbank building Large black granite blocks clad the facade of the Riksbank built by Peter Celsing in 1976.  Brunkebergstorg 11, 111 51 Stockholm, Sweden riksbank.se +46 8 787 00 00 59.326046,18.084692 Cultural Center Moderna Museet Moderna Museet, designed by Rafael Moneo in 1991, goes up across from the industrial buildings of Skeppsholmen, melding into the harbor landscape with its metallic roofs pierced by skylights. Exercisplan 4, 111 49 Stockholm, Sweden modernamuseet.se +46 8 520 235 00 59.357641,18.056513 Infrastructure Ventilation Tower Located in the Royal National City Park, this tower – developed by Rundquist Arkitekter using parametric tools – is designed to fulfill the function of purifying the air of the underground highway.  Roslagsvägen, 114 19 59.329565,18.055510 Congress Center Stockholm Waterfront An undulating skin of metallic rods, which reflects the dynamism of the waterfront, wraps the main volume of this congress center with capacity for 3,000 people, designed by White Arkitekter in 2010. Nils Ericsons Plan 4, 111 64 Stockholm, Sweden stockholmwaterfront.com +46 8 505 060 00 59.328010,18.091477 Cultural Center Vasa Museet The popular Vasa Museet contains the only ship from the 17th century that remains intact.  Galärvarvsvägen 14, 115 21 Stockholm, Sweden vasamuseet.se +46 8 519 548 80 59.340231,18.112232 Housing 79 & Park Hillside As an extension of the historical Gärdet Park, the building designed by BIG is covered with plants and arranged in terraces thanks to which all the apartments have panoramic views over the city.  Sandhamnsgatan 79, 115 28 Stockholm, Sweden oscarproperties.com +46 8 510 607 70 59.329230,18.075470 Infrastructure Ferry Terminal Completed by Marge Arkitekter, the three new buildings serving the ferry terminal are designed as pyramid-shaped volumes that direct the views of visitors towards the monuments nearby.  Strömkajen 111 48 59.346061,18.034140 Housing Norra Tornen Designed initially by Aleksander Wolodarski and carried to completion by OMA, this is the first in a set of two towers that rise 125 meters high, and that will be the tallest residential buildings in Stockholm.  Torsplan 8, 113 65 Stockholm, Sweden brfinnovationen.se 59.347464,18.072276 Architecture KTH School Designed by the local studio Tham & Videgård, the architecture school goes up on the KTH Campus. Osquars backe 7, 114 28 Stockholm, Sweden arch.kth.se +46 8 790 60 00 59.332095,18.064868 Cultural Center Kulturhuset In spite of not having its own collection, the Fotografiska is the world’s largest photography museum, located in an old industrial brick building on the Södermalm island harbor.  Sergels torg, 111 57 Stockholm, Sweden +46 8 506 202 12 59.317911,18.085666 Photography Museum Fotografiska In spite of not having its own collection, the Fotografiska is the world’s largest hotography museum, located in an old industrial brick building on the Södermalm island harbor.  Stadsgårdshamnen 22, 116 45 Stockholm, Sweden fotografiska.com +46 8 509 005 00 59.363166,17.997191 Urban Art Solna Centrum Since 1957, the subway stations in the city of Stockholm show installations by different artists who place sculptures or decorate walls, transforming this infrastructure into an underground art gallery. 169 51 Solna 59.315327,18.030613 Cinema Bio Rio This single screen movie theater opened its doors in 1940, offering a variety of films and cultural events.  Hornstulls strand 3, 117 39 Stockholm, Sweden biorio.se +46 8 669 95 00 59.340159,18.103136 Cultural Center Svenska Filminstitutet Designed in brutalist style, the Swedish Film Institute – built by Peter Celsing in 1970 – offers a program that spans all genres, aiming to support, promote, and keep record of local filmmaking.  Borgvägen 1-5, 115 53 Stockholm, Sweden filminstitutet.se +46 8 665 11 00 59.335478,18.060039 Theater Skandia-Teatern Envisioned as a stage where reality and fiction are fused, the Skandia Theater – designed by Erik Gunnar Asplund in 1923 – takes visitors to the dreamlike atmosphere of the twenties decade. Drottninggatan 82, 111 36 Stockholm, Sweden sf.se +46 8 562 600 00 59.311831,18.075602 Eating Out Bistro Bananas Around a circular bar, Bananas offers local and Italian dishes, including gluten-free recipes.  Skånegatan 47, 116 37 Stockholm, Sweden bistrobananas.se 59.335770,18.051071 Hostel Generator Generator is the perfect option for those seeking affordable accommodation as well as unique design.  Torsgatan 10, 111 23 Stockholm, Sweden +46 8 505 323 70 59.345473,18.067595 Hotel & Restaurant Ett Hem En una mansión modernista de 1910 en el barrio residencial de Lärkstan, el hotel Ett Hem —que en sueco significa ‘una casa’— ha sido cuidadosamente diseñado para crear un ambiente doméstico y acogedor.     Sköldungagatan 2, 114 27 Stockholm, Sweden etthem.se +46 8 20 05 90 59.3325806, 18.0648994
OMA*AMO for Prada

Style - 08.05.2020

OMA*AMO for Prada

AMO

Envisaged as true architectural projects, the runway show designs developed by AMO permit a high level of creative experimentation that resonates with Prada’s innovative character. Since their first collaboration in 2004, every year AMO – the research and design branch of OMA, the office founded by the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas – designs the sets for the runway shows of the Milanese luxury fashion house Prada. Proposing issues like the relationship of spectators with fashion, the hierarchy of the industry, or the use of performative spaces, AMO’s projects transform industrial facilities like those in the group’s headquarters on Via Fogazzaro or those of Fondazione Prada – built by OMA in 2015 in an old distillery – into dazzling stages, turning the fashion shows into true sensory experiences protagonized by fashion and architecture alike. The design of the settings is not necessarily related with the collection presented, but seeks challenging the established conventions, placing the audience in an unexpected place or reinventing the way of walking down the runway. Through resources like lighting, materiality, or color, the catwalks evoke theater scenes, extreme landscapes, or futuristic atmospheres inspired by different cultural or artistic references that take spectators to an oneiric world. The collaboration between AMO and Prada has turned the runway shows of the Italian fashion house into spectacular events that modify and alter the perception of the industrial spaces chosen to present the collections. The catwalks are inspired in different artistic or cultural references like theater, the landscape, or the city, and take to the extreme expressive resources like lighting, material quality, or color. 600 cubes of blue foam create a uniform grid of seats where the audience watches the fashion show, multiplying the runway paths and transforming the point of view of spectators.
House in Maitamon

Architecture - 05.05.2020

House in Maitamon

Tomohiro Hata architect & associates

A box of wood and glass set over the woods for admirable views of the natural landscape of Hyogo, in Kobe Prefecture. The design philosophy of Tomohiro Hata Architects & Associates involves creating spaces that adapt to the topography of the site and can maintain their essence as the years go by. The Japanese firm endeavors to make each project unique, and with the idea that the building is to be inhabited for a long time.‘House in Maitamon’ rises on the slope of a mountain outside a quiet residential district. Taking advantage of a 4-meter clearing in the woods, the wooden dwelling is raised over the ground to give it expansive views. It progressively inserts itself into the forest, growing in height and emerging amid the foliage. Nature is treated with respect: the project refrains from altering the geological features of the place, as well as from felling trees. The facades are almost entirely glazed, and the transparency makes the interiors merge with the surroundings. The house is only 3.6 meters wide, enabling the branches of the nearest trees to embrace it, not to mention the privacy provided by natural means. The long volume is held up by a structure of pinewood (selected and treated by local carpenters), a steel-reinforced framework of ‘flying 3D trusses’ that can move and bend, designed to withstand earthquakes and wind pressures.Inspired by tradition, Tomohito achieves a modest work of modern architecture in harmony with its environment.
House A12

Interior - 30.04.2020

House A12

Lucas y Hernández-Gil

Imagination and the original treatment of lighting as tools for the creation of different atmospheres in House A12. Occupying what used to be a store, with direct access from the street, this dwelling is conceived as a mix between the Mediterranean house – introverted and spilling out into a courtyard – and the phenomenological house as described by Gaston Bachelard: a space governed by the power of imagination. The former’s functional and climatic efficiency thus combines with the latter’s capacity to transcend reality, and this is possible thanks to the importance given to sunlight, which shines into the atrium through skylights, windows, and even an English courtyard-garden that works like an all-tropical urban oasis into which the entire lower level of the house spills, as in a dream.From a functional angle, another challenge was to resolve the circulation elements, given the extensive program and the linear composition of the house. The solution was to concatenate a series of different atmospheres whose particular qualities result from a free interaction of geometry, lighting, and color. Warm finishes and colder, more industrial textures are placed side by side. 
Interview with María Crecente & Pablo Castro

Dekton - 28.04.2020

Interview with María Crecente & Pablo Castro

Cosentino

The architects María Crecente and Pablo Castro of the firm COTECNO describe their everyday life carrying out local and international projects from home. María Crecente and Pablo Castro, both from the Galicia region, have been a couple for 26 years and professional associates for 9. They head COTECNO, an architectural practice with engineering services built into it. The firm is busy with major ongoing projects in Spain and abroad.Like many other enterprises in the sector, COTECNO has had to adapt to the current situation and embrace telework. It’s about these new challenges in their day-to-day activity that we have conversed with María and Pablo.María and Pablo, you are at the helm of COTECNO, your own company. How did this come about?María: When we finished architecture school, we found work immediately, separately. The important thing was to learn. At that age we had no responsibilities, no obligations, just a lot of enthusiasm. Straight out of school, I joined the COTECNO team. I was very lucky to be able to start that way. You get out of school and real life is a wholly different matter. You think you know everything there is to know, but suddenly you have doubts, gaps in knowledge, fear… It’s essential to have good professionals at your side.Pablo: I started out as an intern in a large office that now happens to be among our best clients. When the internship was over I moved to another firm, but it wasn’t my thing, so I set up my own studio.M: Years later, the opportunity to acquire the company arose. It was 2011, the peak of the crisis… An important decision and a decisive moment. We were familiar with its workings, its strong and weak points, and above all we believed in COTECNO’s market potential. And that’s how Pablo and I, with our partner, José Manuel, who’s an engineer, embarked on the project that we are today.About the current situation, how are you functioning in confinement? In what ways are you trying to make the best out of it?M: Well, actually it’s the same at home as in the office, just “a bit more together” in the case of the two of us, since the workspace here is smaller and we don’t do the safety distancing [María smiles]. We keep the usual workday schedule, exactly the same as before the lockdown.What’s changed is the contact with our colleagues. Our work method relies on direct collaboration between the different parties, from the very start of each project. The idea of this being done from home was at first worrying, but thanks to everyone’s availability and flexibility, we soon worked it out perfectly.Ditto with clients and suppliers. Meetings are held via the web. Many of our works and projects are located outside Galicia, and so – leaving aside visits to construction sites and face-to-face meetings, which are irreplaceable – we already had a routine of online meetings with many of them.P: The main advantage is that every contribution to the team decision is later traceable. The system creates a register – which is instantaneously saved – of all information dealt with in chat after chat, whether graphic or audiovisual… Because the information is generated and stored in real time, we can go back to it as many times as is necessary, and analyze data. This is instrumental in reinforcing and improving the decision making. We’re going to continue with this new work mode when the lockdown ends.The main disadvantage is the absence of “day-to-day” with coworkers. A while ago you were saying that digital communication with suppliers has intensified. In these circumstances, how are Cosentino and its digital platforms helping you make headway in projects? P: Cosentino’s website features a section where professionals can find all the information they need for a project, such as construction details for different solutions, finishes, and applications. Its participation in social networks is also very useful, keeping you abreast of its latest products.In addition to digital platforms, Cosentino understands the importance of backing all the information it gives with personal attention. A team of experts offers you personalized advice and a detailed study of each item of the project, and is always on hand for you. You can call them for help in finding solutions, and this is really what makes a difference, more so in times like these. María: Cosentino also has a major R+D department which, besides the best solution, offers you the option of the custom-made. This is often a fundamental tool in obtaining the effect desired in a project. For some architects this lockdown has got to be a particularly interesting episode, almost like a major market study. Do you foresee changes in how we engage with our homes? M: The situation has indeed changed us. In our case it’s not so much the working at home as a physical space; rare is the weekend, in normal circumstaces, that we don’t do some work at home – and in my case during maternity leave. What’s new is the extent to which we are capable of getting work done outside the office as a workplace. For example, up to now, planning a private trip was a problematic matter. We want to be constantly connected to the office and keep ourselves up to date, especially when deadlines were looming or during some critical phase of a project. Now we know for sure that as long as we have an Internet connection, we can reconcile everything perfectly. I should also say that, besides the good fortune of having a fine team, 80% of us have been working together for more than 15 years, so the team’s capacity to adapt to changes is total and we are always moving in the same direction. This, too, makes things easier. Do you think that the architectural world will look back on this pandemic as a turning point, with a before and after? What will change? P: Yes, for sure. It’s already happening, and our clients are demanding it. From now on, buildings – workplaces, in particular, and before everything else – will have to be safer from a health point of view. Regulations will change, as will interest in their enforcement. An exciting new challenge.
Landaburu Borda

Architecture - 23.04.2020

Landaburu Borda Jordi Hidalgo Tané

Jordi Hidalgo Tané merges old and new in Landaburu Borda, a country house to rest in and relish the landscape. The owner of an old farmhouse on the slope of a mountain close to the town of Bera, in Navarre, joined hands with the architect Jordi Hidalo Tané to give the place a makeover. While creating a dialogue of new and old, the project made a clear differentiation: the original building on one hand, and on the other a modern construction anchored to the slope, facing the breaktaking landscape of the Navarrese mountains.The preexisting stone caserío maintains its long-time relationship with the surroudings, cutting a figure in keeping with the architectural tradition of the area, but we are in for a surprise inside, where rooms for use by guests present new concrete walls and oakwood claddings. The other building becomes part of the mountain as it is embedded into it. Connected to the caserío by a glazed passageway, it contains a large living room and a kitchen with views of the exterior. Concrete and wood reappear in the bedrooms to reinforce the project's discourse, pursuing the rapport between traditional and contemporary, past and future.