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Architects: Adhoc Arquitectura y Territorio
- Area: 1561 ft²
- Year: 2020
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Photographs:David Frutos
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Manufacturers: Finsa, Madera Pino Soria, Moratal, Siber
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Lead Architects: Juan Antonio Sánchez Morales, Joaquín García Vicente
Text description provided by the architects. Next to the southern slope of the steep Sierra de Abanilla lies a well-cared-for farm of organic mandarins whose surface, at first glance, is estimated to be enormous. However, it does not reach the production necessary to be able to exert a minimum of influence on the market. The Common Agricultural Policy (known as the CAP) demands even greater sizes for its actors. For this reason, together with other farms in the area, they formed a cooperative with which to reach the necessary threshold; and they needed a headquarters. An administrative headquarters, where to organize, and representatives, be visible.
Our proposal is developed as an intersection of two strategies: inhabiting the garden itself and incorporating a viewer of the farms. Domestic offices are inserted in the layout toward a landscape viewpoint. At one edge of the estate, a sloping itinerary will start that will lead to a small platform from which there will be a 360º view of the surroundings; in between, we will cross the offices when we have already managed to get deep enough into the large orchard. The views from the viewpoint are far-reaching: the entire valley over which the infinite mandarin trees extend, the mountains that surround it, the town of Abanilla, the birds that cross the sky, the sunset... The views from the offices are short-range: flowering, fruit development, the work of insects, raindrops,...
During the implementation, an attempt has been made, as much as the economy has allowed, to remain within the parameters of bioconstruction. A wooden structure that is reduced to a central portico in which two bays converge, also made of wood, and with a slope for the collection of water. A perimeter structural wall of thermoclay that is perforated to establish small relationships with the orchard, inserting varied carpentry, also made of wood.
The concrete sanitary floor is finished with a polishing of the compression layer in the interiors and roughing in the central area to form slopes towards an updated version of impluvium. The wall will be plastered inside and thermal insulation and a metal envelope will be added on the outside to generate an elemental ventilated façade. The facilities are projected completely autonomous (off-grid), with an integrated system for water: collection, accumulation, purification, purification; a photovoltaic collection in a nearby warehouse; and a double-flow air conditioning system by a Canadian well.
But beyond reassuring sustainability, the project aims to insert architecture into the cycles of life, offer a platform for interaction with the ecosystem typical of a primary activity that develops agricultural, cultural, and technical practices that are respectful of the environment and that in turn is inserted into a broader and more complex context. And of the many stories that intersect, we particularly like one in which this small architecture could be a great device for attracting a certain arthropod fauna that is capable of covering the need to protect mandarins from undesirable pests.
