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Exit Architects have brought light into a 19th century prison by replacing the roof with a zink steel cover full of skylights.

1 1 94591 slide2 300x225 - Palencia Cultural Civic CentreSituated in Palencia, Castilla y León,  a city in northern Spain, the historic Neo-Mudéjar brick building has been transformed into a civic centre. The new dynamic hub combines both ancient and modern walls. Exterior walls of the four existing structures were retained and extended with five pavilions. The entire unit is crowned with stepped roof units to guarantee light-infused interior spaces.
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OmasC arquitectos designed a functional and bright house, ideal for families, nearby the sea, on the Northern Coast of Spain. Marking the boundaries between public and private, a large wooden gate serves as an entrance. A narrow paved alley meanders through the green courtyard and then it stops. You’re at the entrance. As your steps wriggle on the alley and search for imposing details, the house raises on a small plot of land, luring you to step inside. The architects played with volumes and different angles and eventually completed a residence that houses a kitchen, a living room and a dining room on the ground floor and three bedrooms on the first floor.

The inside is welcoming, as expected. The wide windows adorned with translucent blinds surprise with their omnipresence. Each room is flooded by the natural light, creating through such a simple detail, an optimistic and luminous space.

Exterior View Spanish House - Modern design in a private house in Northern Spain
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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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Spanish architects XPIRAL Architecture created this eclectic house design in their home town of Murcia, Spain. The house features a cantilevered concrete volume that extends across an outdoor entertaining area opening onto the indoors. An unusual metal enclosure of rust and adorned with colored tiles, surrounds the main structure of concrete with a mirrored volume – an unusual feature that gives this home a contemporary style. This interior courtyard house plan welcomes you in with an indoor/outdoor area, while interiors are an attention-grabbing blend of polished floors, raw concrete walls and what appear to be particle-board walls.

eclectic house design concrete steel mirror 1 - Modern Concrete House in Murcia
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The Endesa Pavilion, in Barcelona, is an experimental project from the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia which explores how technology can create architectures that are adaptive to particular environments, and particular conditions.

01 elevation endessa1 300x199 - Endesa Pavilion, Smart City Expo, Barcelona, SpainThe building starts with a simple premiss of a timber box with a grid façade on which modular components can be mounted. From an analysis of the building orientation and latitude, maps of insolation density can be created which allows façade components to be generated whose forms respond to the precise conditions expected at that point on the building. Moving across the façade each component will be different as its form is optimised to best meet the parameters to which it must respond. In this case that means providing shade and generating electricity from PV cells.

The complexity and variety of components generated is not an issue in terms of manufacture or assembly. Each component is CNC cut according to the shape sent to it from the CAD file meaning that infinite variety is possible at virtually no additional cost. Assembly issues are also resolved within the software so that when the components come to site they are pre-drilled and slotted and can be assembled like flat pack furniture. On this building it meant the whole thing could be assembled in a month.
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The old bullring of Las Arenas, in Barcelona, and the Bilbao Arena Sports Palace are among the 59 prizewinners of the British architecture awards RIBA, according to the own organization.

The 59 buildings were designed by architects settled in the United Kingdom. The next July 23rd six of these buildings will be selected in order to apply for the prestigious award Stirling 2012 ‘to the major contribution in British architecture’, that will be given in October 13th.

The buildings designers will receive next Thursday a certificate from the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) in recognition of their excellency.

Among the award winners, the RIBA has chosen the Catalonian bullring of Las Arenas, because of its radical transformation, made by Roger Stirk Harbour & Partners. The bullring has been rebuild as a shopping center, but keeping its original facade.

Plaza de Toros de las Arenas Barcelona - Two Spanish Buildings Among the RIBA Award Winners
Las Arenas Bullring (Barcelona)
Palacio de Deportes Bilbao Arena - Two Spanish Buildings Among the RIBA Award Winners
Sports Palace Bilbao Arena

Source: publico.es

Miralles Tagliabue's works shape several parts of the globe with a Spanish touch

miralles taglibue 300x168 - Miralles Tagliabue's new architectural projectsThe Spanish architectural world is a buoyant enterprise. It might surprise some to hear that Spain has a vibrant culture of contemporary architecture.

Delayed by the Spanish Civil War and the ensuing dictatorship under Franco, the emergence of modernity in Spain may have been late in coming, but today’s young architects are making up for lost time in a spectacular way.

Original personalities like César Manrique Cabrera marked a move toward the modern in the 1960s, while Richard Bofill’s innovative work in the ’70s helped bring Spanish architecture to the world stage. In the 1990s, architects such as Rafael Moneo and Santiago Calatrava began to create the look of contemporary architecture in Spain as we know it.

The book Architecture in Spain guides us through some of the most important architects. Today, we are glad to show the work of Miralles Tagliabue, whose projects, designed from his office in Barcelona, are shaping several parts of the globe with a Spanish touch.

Let us taste some of his talent.

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A solemn building but original and full of surprises that will leave no one indifferent.

starck - Hundred year-old Alhóndiga in Bilbao

No words to describe the old and modernist wine warehouse, declared “Public Property of Cultural Interest” by the Basque Government in 1999, called the Alhóndiga in Bilbao. It includes the creation of new areas under the supervision of French designer Philippe Starck.

Starck is a tireless artist. When he visited Bilbao he immediately fell in love with it and the Alhóndiga Project and started to work on it immediately after. As a result of this connection, a new urban area has flowered up. A solemn room, but original and full of surprises that will leave no one indifferent.

Let's take a look at this impressive building. Our favorite area: the library.

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