KURBI
Beizama (ES) - Special mention
TEAM DATA
Associate: Juan Mateos Corona (ES) – architect
Calle Raimundo Fernández Villaverde 45. 28003. Madrid. (ES)
juanmateoscorona@gmail.com
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TEAM PORTRAIT
INTERVIEW
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1. How did you form the team for the competition?
I decided to participate on my own because the small scale of the project invited me to materialize, in the form of an architecture project, what I learned in previous research work on collective housing in a personal way.
2. How do you define the main issue of your project, and how did you answer on this session main topic, Living cities?
The project is proposed as the contemporary continuation of the traditional Basque farmhouse, whose codes of the past and community values that emerged a solid rural identity are revalidated by the incursion of technology at all levels of our life, which have diluted productive spaces in the domesticity of the home and enhanced citizen collaboration networks. Not only constructive honesty and respectful reading of the natural environment of the traditional farmhouse serve as references, but also the participatory self-management of community spaces and neighborhood ties that in general around the new productive activities of the domestic space.
Beizama is located in the center of a network of little rural villages that complement each other by sharing resources but where only a third of the population focuses their productive activity in the vicinity, while the rest develop their activities in the area of Azpeita. The proposal consists on making Beizama take part in this network as an active subject, bringing production spaces at different scales allowing to present itself as an attractive place for external actors, holding a bigger percentage of the total population.
Since I began to develop my first research works, the subject of experimental housing has always been my main field of exploration. For the project, this knowledge already worked is combined with local references. This teaches us about the different aspects of rural life: the coexistence of domestic and productive spaces, efficiency and formal honesty without losing the global perspective of how the domestic space evolves.
The project also plans and designs the productive space self-management network, turning Baizama citizens self-sufficient thanks to their own activity and promoting the cooperation among the private productive “micro-space” and the inhabitants. They are able to self-manage in a collaborative manner their own communal spaces, holding them, organising events and reducing consumption through the boost of shared resources.
6. Is it the first time you have been awarded a prize at Europan? How could this help you in your professional career?
Yes. Being awarded always reinforces you in the convictions of your work and gives you renewed energy to continue developing your professional work.
TEAM IDENTITY
Office: -
Function: architecture
Average age of the associates: 27 years old
Has your team, together or separately, already conceived or implemented some projects and/or won any competition? if yes, which ones?
I started to develop my professional work in 2021 and since then I have participated in various competitions and public tenders. Being the most representative: Torreperogil Municipal Theater Competition (Second Prize), Nerja Municipal Library Project Competition (First Special Mention).
