Colonial Viladoms Houses / OAB
Architects: OAB - Office of Architecture in Barcelona
Location: Castellbell i el Vilar, Spain
Design Team: Carlos Ferrater, Nuria Ayala
Technical Architect: Alexandre Pararols
Project Year: 2010
Photographs: Alejo Bague
Social Housing at Boera Park / Peñín Architects + OAB + Edifica
Architects: Peñín Architects + OAB + Edifica
Location: Puerto de Castellón, Spain
Project Year: 2011
Photographs: Diego Opazo
BF House / OAB + ADI
Architects: OAB + ADI
Location: Borriol, Castellón de la Plana, Spain
Design Team: Carlos Ferrater, Xavier Martí, Carlos Escura, Carlos Martín
Project Year: 2011
Photographs: Joan Guillamat
Architecture City Guide: Barcelona
This week, with the help of our readers, our Architecture City Guide is headed to Barcelona. We recently featured an engaging video where Wiel Arets half jokingly said Barcelona is fantastic but boring. He continued to say as soon as Sagrada Família is finished Barcelona is done; there is nothing left to do there (10:50). Arets can say what he wants about Barcelona supposedly being boring, but our city guide doesn’t reflect this. Barcelona is filled with fantastically expressive architecture that springs from its proud Catalan culture. It was impossible to feature all our readers suggestions in the first go around, and we did not even come close to including some of the most iconic building such as Casa Milà. Thus we are looking to add to our list of 24 in the near future. Further more there are so many fabulous buildings on the drawing board or under construction, i.e. the projects in the @22 district, we’ll most likely be updating this city guide for quite awhile, regardless of Sagrada Família’s completion.
Take a look at our list with the knowledge it is far complete and add to it in the comment section below.
The Architecture City Guide: Barcelona list and corresponding map after the break.
Parc Central Social Housing Building / OAB + Peñín Architects
Architects: OAB + Peñín Architects
Location: Valencia, Spain
Project Year: 2010
Project Area: 24,022 sqm
Photographs: Diego Opazo
Video: Benidorm West Beach Promenade / OAB
Carlos Ferrater and Xavier Martí Galí of OAB designed a promenade as a transit area that would separate the user from the various problems currently arising at its seafront and provide more accessibility to the beaches, creating a place with its own lifestyle. By recreating the shape of cliffs and waves, the project organically developed unusual convex and concave spaces. These honeycombed surfaces generate areas of light and shadow and become a series of platforms and levels for play, leisure, and meditation. The promenade was constructed with only white concrete, incorporating the benches and street furniture in varied shapes, finishes, textures, and colors.
Video: Studio Banana TV
Benidorm Seafront / OAB
Designed by Office of Architecture in Barcelona, this urban landscape snakes along the Benidorm seascape in Spain. The region is a popular attraction outfitted with high rise buildings, promenades, the bars, and the water. Yet, OAB’s addition to the thriving seaside has created an identifying element which sets this area apart from similar places.
More images and more about the landscape after the break.
Azahar Group / OAB
The Office of Architecture in Barcelona, OAB, just finished the Azahar Group headquarters in the Castellon region of Spain. Since the Azahar Group is very active with recycling, waste-treatment plants, and the like, the building intends to serve as a manifesto, in a way, to showcase their ideas of the importance of maintaining a relationship with nature.
More about the headquarters and more images after the break.
