By Flynn Carr
The final day. All good things come to an end. A visit to regional Spain where this country kid and his colleagues made the local paper!
As we leave the bustling streets of Madrid for the quiet repose of the regions, I reflect on how this mirrored my own journey post-study.
The intensity of the city gives way to the mountains as we head northwest, into the agricultural plains and a landscape not dissimilar to home. I can breathe easier here.
We continue through fields of myriad wind turbines to regional towns that find themselves fighting to retain their young people and provide sufficient services to encourage their return and support an aging population.
Careful consideration of the context and the cultivation of community connection is joyfully evident in the works of Óscar Miguel Ares of Contextos de Arquitectura y Urbanismo. Óscar greets us at Ayuntamiento en Valverde De Campos with a broad smile and hands that subtitle his passion as he describes how this municipality building provides for so much more.
Ayuntamiento en Valverde De Campos facilitates the primary function of a municipality town hall, with additional public amenities including childcare, a senior care centre, a single consulting room for a GP who visits weekly, and a cafe/bar. The mixed-use programming is split to allow for a public pedestrian boulevard to wind its way through the building from a cul-de-sac to the Plaza Mayor (Main Square). For accessibility, the primary public amenities are on the ground floor with the inclusion of a single elevator that the former Ayuntamiento building was sorely lacking. Recollections of citizens having had ballot boxes brought down to them in order to have their voices heard are a fundamental reminder of the need for architecture to provide equity of access and amenities for all.
While touring Ayuntamiento, we are treated to the first-hand impact the building has had on the community it serves and the staff that interact with it daily. The secretariat is keen to show us the details, delighting in designer door handles, playfully showing off his “aquarium-like” modern office while “swimming” behind the glass. He lowers a projector screen to the “oohs” and “aahs” of the group, and unlatches a concealed door within the finely detailed oak panelling to reveal the multimedia cupboard.
The materiality is thoughtfully considered in its use of local limestone predominantly recycled and reused from other demolished buildings in the region – admirably ensuring an active, circular economy. The interior palette is restrained but warm, the limestone has an inherent tactility that demands engagement. On more than one occasion I found myself running my hand along a stone or off-form concrete edge, the quality of local craftsmanship on display is enviable, Óscar Ares understands the capabilities of his region and elevates them with thoughtful detailing. This building is clearly loved by those who engage with it – and you can count me among them.
Continuing with Óscar to the town of Castromonte, we are treated to a preview of Piscinas Muncipales Castromonte (The Municipal Pools) while undergoing a fit out for the coming summer months. The materiality is close to identical to that of the Ayuntamiento though in Castromonte Óscar has cleverly interwoven an orchestrated consideration of context that elevates the experience of the pools to the sublime.
Prefabricated beams fly overhead in a meticulous formation that provides considered shadows that dance across the walls of local sandstone reclaimed from the fences that used to bind the lot they now inhabit. In-situ concrete beams feature exposed local aggregates. The pools embody the thoughtful consideration of vernacular meeting technical advancement, architecture as the fulcrum holding weightless and heavy, light and shadow, and heightening of community experiences. On entering the space I couldn’t help but have an incidental emotional response with shivers running down my spine, akin to entering a cathedral. There is an undeniable rhythmic quality to the spatial considerations at play -–I can’t wait to one day see it in use in the summer.
The pools will host an outdoor cinema during summer with a public bar that opens to the pool during the day and the street in the evening. This well-considered project has made the most of funds derived from the wind turbines surrounding the town to create a community building that encapsulates and enhances the freedoms of summer and the delight of the community.
Óscar said his works are more than buildings, they are built for the people. He decries vanity in architecture, that we often see architects thinking only of the image, rather than the people. Here, the buildings must be multifunctional as you may only get the chance to build one building in a town, so you make sure it can do as much as possible, to serve many functions and with a simple structure comes the best solution – and yes, as Óscar reminds us, “less is more”.
– Flynn Carr is a generalist architect based out of Mparntwe (Alice Springs), Northern Territory.