Vénda de Ca n'Escandell

Eivissa (ES) - Winner

TEAM DATA

Associate: Claudia Ferrer Riera (ES), Milagros Machado (AR), Ventura Godoy Garcia (ES), Javier Esteve Casañ (ES) – architects

info@atzur-arquitectura.com
www.atzur-arquitectura.com

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TEAM PORTRAIT

VIDEO (by the team)

INTERVIEW
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1. How do you define the main issue of your project in relation with the theme “Living Cities Imagining architecture taking care of the milieus”? And in which way do you think your project can contribute to an ecological and/or social evolution?
The proposal is based on the constructive tradition of the island. The vénda is the minimum unit of the territorial organization of Ibiza. It works as an intermediate scale between the domestic sphere and the natural environment, and it is also a meeting space for the community. It is an ancestral way to imbalance human life and activities with the environment which has been progressively lost. The proposal updates the vénda concept to modern living standards.

2. How did the issues of your design and the questions raised by the site mutation meet?
We worked through big, medium and small scales. At urban scale we propose the pacification of the main roads while reconnecting the city with its natural surroundings. We propose a productive public space by optimizing the existing stone walls and the orographic layout. The housing building has a rich and active ground floor while the housing units, every two of them organized around an atrium, are comfortable and with great spatial autonomy, which allows a wide range of typologies.

PROJECT:

3. Have you treated these issues previously? What were the reference projects that inspired yours?
Atzur arquitectura has developed several housing projects, and in all of them the implications and interactions of life and human activities on ecosystems have always been a central point. In that sense, the utopian architecture of the seventies and early eighties such as The Barbican, Walden 7 or the Residential Espai Verd in Valencia are fundamental references. Lina Bo Bardi and Fernando Higueras are also key figures. For this competition, we have also studied the housing projects carried out by IBAVI in recent years and consulted the thesis La construccion del territorio en Ibiza by Stefano Cortellaro. The main inspiration of the project is the vernacular architectural typology of the island, la vénda, which gives name to the proposal.

SITE:

4. How can your project be implemented together with the actors through a negotiated process and in time. How did you consider this issue in your project?
This site required a higher level of specificity and concretion than the usual standards in other EUROPAN competition sites, because of the necessity of social housing that Ibiza requires. So then, it is expected to start building it in a relatively short period of time. This is both an opportunity and a responsibility for us for which we are fully motivated and committed.

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5. How did you form the team for the competition and if so what are the skills you associated?
Claudia Ferrer Riera and Milagros Machado founded Atzur arquitectura in 2021, an architecture practice based in Barcelona and Ibiza focused in developing projects from a Mediterranean and feminist perspective. For the EUROPAN competition they welcomed two more architects to their team: Javier Esteve Casañ and Ventura Godoy Garcia.

6. How could this prize help you in your professional career?
Winning the EUROPAN prize give the team a much appreciated visibility and recognition to our work. It is also a great opportunity to develop such a large-scale project with the public administration.

TEAM IDENTITY
Legal status: 
4 freelance architects
Team name: Atzur arquitectura
Average age of the associates: 32,5 years old

Has your team, together or separately, already conceived or implemented some projects and/or won any competition? if so, which ones?
Atzur arquitectura has developed several residential projects, both in Barcelona and Ibiza. Javier Esteve Casañ has carried out projects by his own and for various architecture studios in Reus and Barcelona. The landscape intervention in Caño de Hierro (Hornachuelos, Córdoba) by Ventura Godoy Garcia, has received several national and international awards.

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