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Architects: Raúl Almenara
- Area: 80 m²
- Year: 2020
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Photographs:Asier Rua
"It is vital for me, and I insist on this with my students, to never lose sight of different artistic disciplines such as dance, painting, sculpture, or fashion, in order to inspire us in the task of creating architecture."
Search for inspiration. Since the oldest civilizations and cultures, dance has been intertwined with human life, becoming a sign of identity among tribes and peoples, to communicate their feelings to the environment. It should be noted that the difference between technical dance and expressive dance is that the latter requires more structured studies and techniques than expressive dances, which are usually freer. Technical dance is therefore a very precise form of expression and communication, even understood as an artistic expression. Raúl Almenara created and designed a curved space, in the shape of a spiral, in what is still his most media-covered work, the home of the director of the National Ballet of Spain, Antonio Najarro, based on this premise.
Najarro's residence was designed in coherence with his identity and his own life, taking on the characteristics and peculiarities of dance in general and the ballet director himself in particular. Reviewing his work, technique, style, and mechanics, Antonio Najarro's trajectory was studied and developed to inspire the artist. How can rhythm be extrapolated into a landscape? How can an artist capture the essence of another in a space to be inhabited?
Architecture at the service of dance. "Origen Alento," Najarro's choreography, was the inspirational piece that led Raúl Almenara to break with conventions and offer a renovation that defied all norms. The origin of this personal residence thus arises from the study of sketches made by Najarro himself to guide his dancers in the stage space.
The project used these sketches to understand the movement of the dancers around the surface, articulating the construction in line with traditional Spanish dance. In this way, the domestic spaces deform, adopting morphologies characteristic of different dance techniques. Consequently, this idea was carried out at all scales of the project: distribution, finishes, construction details, furniture, and all types of household objects. The result is a curious and successful adaptation of architecture to the artistic movements of Najarro's dance, or in other words, architecture at the service of dance.
The detail. Some materials and construction forms present in Casa Najarro are unique and characteristic of the Almenara universe. The standout element of this construction is undoubtedly ceramics, a material closely linked to the tradition of Spanish architecture. Another material with a strong presence is microcement. It covers the floors, ceilings, and kitchen island of the residence, with different shades of pink (as seen in the work "Origen Alento"), which, in a spiral manner, create an enveloping atmosphere. Special mention should also be made of the strategic positioning of the mirrors, key and customary pieces in the architect's designs. They conceal pillars, amplify the space, multiply the presence of light and figures, just as it occurs with the plants outside, playing with "displacing" those who remain in the room.
"The result of all the work done with this project is a contemporary and fluid residence that reinterprets the origin of our culture through dance to create a contemporary space. It combines the strength, passion, and energy inherited from the roots of folklore with the lightness, almost ethereal, characteristic of classical ballet."
