This property is a traditional Basque house that has been fully renovated to offer all kind of current amenities. ...continue reading "Charming Country House in Hondarribia, Guipúzcoa"
Tag: Basque Country
Social Housing Units in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Basque Country
In Vitoria-Gasteiz, a town in northern Spain, a housing block has created 242 apartments for the socially disadvantaged.
The U-shaped structure is capped on one end with a 21-storey tower. The remaining three sides rise between four and seven stories, creating a gently sloping roof. Since this roof is visible from the tower it was treated as a ‘fifth façade,’ the architects say, meaning it was coated in the same red hue as the exterior-facing walls.
The tower maximizes sunlight onto windows and patios. Inside, bedrooms have been positioned to overlook the central garden, while kitchens face outwards toward surrounding streets.
‘The public area of the house is linked with its urban equivalent,’ says architect Iñaki Garai Zabala of ACXT. ‘The more private one destined for rest is linked with the inner courtyard as a space of peace and quiet.’
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Contemporary Architecture in Spain: Bilbao Airport, Basque Country
On 19th November 2000 during the inauguration of La Paloma, the Bilbao International Airport, architect Santiago CALATRAVA announced that the new terminal was “a message of love to Baskland”.
White and very expressive, Bilbao International Airport is a gigantic three storey block of steel and glass with a sharp silhouette expressing the idea of flight and the leap that the metropolitan area had begun to take.
The steel and concrete structure , nicknamed La Paloma (the Dove) because of its resemblance to a giant bird about to take flight, is integrated into the hilly green landscape in the Txoriherri Valley in close proximity to Bilbao. The aluminium skin of the Central Terminal sweeps across the 140 meter long terminal entry, providing cover for multiple levels of arrival and departure.
The layout was designed to limit the impact of auxiliary buildings on the vista of the main building. An elegant four-story parking structure, with a skylit walkway leading to the Terminal Building, is tucked into a grassy embankment.
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Architecture: Modern House by Roberto Ercilla and Miguel Ángel Campo
The house, located in Uleta (Basque Country) Spain, and completed in 2002 is surrounded by a high fence. Most of the house is top lit via a series of rooflights set in a sawtooth roof. On the ground floor there are large glazed windows looking over the terrace but generally the house is inward facing.
The interior it is light and white, full of Modernist simplicity with a touch of heroism, but on the outside it appears demure, toned down using simple timber cladding.
The architects see this as a critique of the unsatisfactory nature of the luxury housing round about, but a case could be made that the design provides a penetrating insight into a sense of unease about the site and the neighbours.
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