Last Wednesday, November 15th, the Culinary School in a former slaughterhouse in Medina Sidonia, by Estudio SOL89, was granted first prize in the Category of Architecture of the Ceramics Architecture and Interior Design Prize. This year´s edition was the 11th one and it standed out for the high standard of the submited projects the same as for the prestigious jury composition. The competition was chaired by the recognized architect Juan Navarro Baldeweg and composed by the architects  Luis Martínez Santa-María; Francisco Aires Mateus from Portugal; Joseph Grima, director of Domus magazine; designer Matali Crasset; architecture critic from El País newspaper, Zabalbeascoa Anatxu; and Ramón Monfort, from the Castellón College of Architects.

The competition for the Tile of Spain Awards of Architecture and Interior Design is organized and promoted by ASCER, the Spanish Ceramic Tile Manufacturers’ Association. The prizes aim to improve awareness and understanding of ceramic tiles made in Spain amongst architects and interior designers and promote their use by these professionals. Besides Architecture, there are awards for the following categories: Interior Design, Honourable Mention for Architecture and Thesis Project.

Continue reading…

A few days ago we had a chance to see an Article by Zabalbeascoa Anatxu published in the newspaper El País, dated 23rd of October, 2011, and with a note od satisfaction we observe that the concise analysis of Culinary school in a former slaughterhouse in Medina Sidonia confirms all the impresions we had about the project, while realizing the photographic report and through the contact we had with its authors, the architects Juanjo González and María de la Cruz.

Continue reading…

The Casabella magazine, in its 804th edition, has published an extensive report on the statement made by the architects Mercedes Heritage Varela and Luis Castillo Villegas in the Tower “The Castle” Huércal-Overa. It is a thirteenth-century watchtower Nazari, which was built in the final moments of this kingdom. Located atop a hill overlooking the surrounding valleys, this ancient fortress of which have retained only the central elements, was part of a defensive belt of the border.

Continue reading…

A culinary school in a former slaughterhouse in Medina Sidonia © Fernando Alda

Recently we published on our website's architecture photography last finished work architects Maria Gonzalez y Juanjo Lopez de la Cruz. We do not believe that this project should go unnoticed. This is an interesting intervention that responds to the request to install a hospitality school in the old building of the abattoir, Cadiz in the town of Medina Sidonia. The project developed from an initial position of engagement with the place and the existing building (analysis, development and respect for the town and its old slaughterhouse), further the search for architectural, more personal, a certain formal abstraction. It reaches its expansion in areas not built and annexes, being especially notable and free decks. As we show some images of all, this solution is not at all the result of a rhetorical exercise. The aim is rather fit and “shelter” the building in its urban reality. The right look, established some distance, forms reveals that, color and materials are anything but capricious and, perhaps- were present between the lines in a text that this project has been able to read in poetic form.

Continue reading…

Renovation of an old water mill, Lanjarón, Grenada

Text: Juan Domingo Santos, architect

Photography: Fernando Alda

The town of Lanjaron is located on the southern slope of Sierra Nevada. Known for its craftsmanship, the production of quality honey and its healing waters, it is one of the most renowned resorts in Spain.

Continue reading…

This year, 2011, we celebrate the first centennial marking the begining of the archeological recovery of Madinat Al-Zahra in Córdoba, Spain. The celebration schedule included a conference on April 29 related to the Aga Kan Award for Architecture 2010 granted to the architects Nieto and Enrique Sobejano Fuensanta for the new museum building.

Continue reading…