town with a building of 11,000 sqm is no small task, considering its density. Each time the challenge is different and each time you respond differently. We look especially at the context, that’s where we find the keys; the architect must always keep their eyes wide open and must be very sensitive. I never investigate in the abstract, it is always very specific for the place, the program, the context and the culture with the desires of the client. The challenge is always to do something if not new, at least fresh, but not vulgar or common. - In Massana not only you intervened the school, also the surrounding space, the square, the façades. In the same logic, for Saint Dizier -a small French city for which you developed a master plan, a bridge, a housing project, landscaping- how do you as an architect see the opportunity to transform it?
It was also by competition. I traveled first, and I walked, watched, listened. And I say that architects should always have their eyes open because while they were explaining some things about the competition I was looking at others. Then the people from my studio went and stayed for several days, where they not only gathered drawings and photographed, they also asked, they observed how the space was used, how the inhabitants lived. And then you have to be willing to give unity to all that. I always say that urban planning and architecture in the end are about having or trying to have clear ideas. They gave us three areas of action, but none of them considered the river that crosses the place. And there it was, this wonderful feature, with people living with their backs to it. We went to investigate, and we saw how people used to live facing the river, all the grandparents had memories of having bathed in it, but young people hardly knew it existed. With the project that memory and the relationship with the river is being recovered.
Planta primer piso 1 st floor plan
Planta segundo piso 2 nd floor plan
Planta tercer piso 3 rd floor plan
89
Made with FlippingBook Annual report maker