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Badajoz is a medium-sized Spanish city located in the southern Extremadura autonomous community, next to the Portuguese border. Although Merida is the capital of the community and its touristic reference, Badajoz is the largest, most populated and probably the most relevant city of the region, both in terms of economic health and general basic services. This is mostly due to its historical existence near the border, commercial traditions (the Portuguese used to come here to buy caramels) and geophysical characteristics, such as the Gévora River (the city lies at the point where it connects with the larger Guadiana River).

The Caja Badajoz is an important bank for this proud community. It’s the main savings bank in town and it’s the most relevant economic representation of the inhabitants, who are quite conservative. The main goal of this project was to give a powerful physical expression to that immaterial importance by building the new headquarters of the bank on a plot located in the banks of the aforementioned river, next to the Puente Real Bridge. After a restricted tender back in 2007, the chosen team was the Madrid-based Studio Lamela Architects.

Caja Badajoz - Spanish Architecture: Headquarters Caja de Badajoz by Studio Lamela
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The appropriateness to the environment constitutes one of the main stakes of the contemporary architecture. Though, among all the projects we have presented, none reaches the goal as well as the “Casa de Campo” (country house) renovated according to plans of the spanish studio Abaton.

Located in Cáceres (Exremadura), the dwelling originally was an abounded stable. Preserving its structure and strengthening it, from inside, with concrete, the architects simply took profit of the perfect positioning of the building which benefits all year, thanks it faces south, from the heat and the light of the sun. From this develops all the project.

casa de campo 1 - Country House in Cáceres, Extremadura
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In the town of Casar de Cáceres, located 10 kilometres from the capital of Cáceres (Extremadura), the architect Justo García Rubio planned his most audacious work: a terminal for long-distance buses featuring complex engineering and a superbly slender design.

The most characteristic element is the curved white concrete ribbon which folds in on itself and serves as a roof and as a depot for travellers and vehicles. A laminar structure resembling a sculpture, whose shape is not only designed to be aesthetically pleasing, but also functional: it expels the contamination from the buses' exhaust pipes and diverts it away from the schools flanking the station.

The result is strongly reminiscent of the soft architecture pioneered by other architects such as Oscar Niemeyer and Félix Candela.

El Casar Bus Station - El Casar Bus Station, Caceres, Extremadura
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Skatepark, Concert area, broadband Internet, Modding, Tuning, Modeling, Graffiti, Urban Art, Street Theatre, tightrope walking, circus activities, Video Art, Electronic Music, Acrobatics, Performing Arts, Manga, Parkour, Audiovisual Art, Contemporary Dance, Dance Funk and Hip Hop, Ballroom and MACC (contemporary artistic body manifestations) are the activities that compose the Factory, situated in Mérida (Badajoz).

The building is conceived as a large canopy opened to the whole city to gather anyone who may need to shelter there. This canopy is supported by a series of ovoid plant parts holding different elements of the requested functions, which are treated as independent modules able to be used separately with whole autonomy, regulated and controlled by the direction of the Factory movement. The activities taking place below are covered from rain and sun by the big canopy, acting like a big termical one meter thick cushion, so that there will be no need to use air conditioning.

The roof is understood, and extends, like a light cloud, protective, translucent; constructed with a three-dimensional mesh structure 1 meter thick covering different levels. This canopy will rest on steel columns placed in the perimeter of the supporting ovoid elements up to the highest level, where it joins the Climbing Walls structure made with the same three-dimensional mesh. The whole proposal stands on a basement five feet tall so that the sensitive historical Roman base of the city of Mérida remains untouched.

1309980814 factory selgas cano 5298 - Merida Factory Youth Movement
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