Arroyo - Guidotti - Pérez architects

ITINERARY

Carlos Arroyo, Eleonora Guidotti and Manual Pérez Romero won EUROPAN 6 competition "in between cities" in 2001, on the Toledo site (E) . They are currently developing the Ecobarrio de Toledo in Benquerencia.
They met in Madrid in the late 1990’s. At the present, each of them runs their own architectural practice in Madrid. Together or separately, they continue to work on the competition themes, especially on the importance of giving spaces the flexibility to open up to different lifestyles – and therefore of creating structures with the capacity to adapt to changes – on the redefinition of the relations between private and public spaces and the importance of a sustainable qualitative approach to architecture and urban landscape.
They are interested in projects of very different kinds, but a part of their research is focused on designing new types of housing to meet specific needs: housing for the young, for the elderly people (with shared services), and for large families. They conduct a research project to determine the real demand for new forms of housing in Spain.
Their shared work has been published by international editors (an extensive dossier on Arroyo - Guidotti was featured in magazine El Croquis, n° 119 for example) and exhibited in major venues. The three are teachers in different Schools of Architecture and Art Design.

COMMUNITY

Rewriting the codes for shared space: informing our study of urban structure and ways of life, we may define a privacy gradient to frame the infinite intermediate situations between public and private. Between the public square and the bedroom, there is a whole array of examples that question the traditional divide, the black and white conception of public and private.

Sevilla (E) - Shared housing

The project explores different forms of association between people who, while preserving enough space for their privacy, can share zones, functions an expenses.
Are proposed independent dwellings, non-hierarchical, designed to be shared by individuals in a similar situation with private spaces. 7 dwellings are put together in apartment houses, included common spaces and services.

FLEXIBILITY

Applying fuzzy logic: as the complexity of a system increases, precise propositions lose relevance, while relevant propositions lose precision. Working for a large set of users, it is impossible to determine the needs of „the client", let alone foresee future changes. Rather than offering fixed solutions we propose flexible systems that will develop with user input.

Guadalajara (E) - Vertical villas

These villas’ strategy is the flexibility : to pile up the terraced-villas and divide them in two-storied levels (the constructed space and the open space of 60 m2 both).
The idea is to design an open system, but pre-designated, of growing. The project designs a wrapping facade that shows the internal movements of the villas and creates a gallery with a double function: access to the villas, and generation of an interior microclimate: water and vegetation in the ground level, and mobile system for the roof.

TEXTURE

Enriching our perception, beyond the plain surface into the hairy dimensions of time and life: blurring the limits of space into a thick texture, lumpy space with no edge, but swimming in a buffer of fluff, plants, cycles, memory... We tend to avoid limits; they do occur, nevertheless, but then they have a life of their own.

La Moraleja, Madrid (E) - House of love

The commission was: a wedding present, not an object, but a place for two, a house of love.
The place is creating by simply pulling a curtain, translucent, curtain blends in with the background in a world of reflexes and shadows. Four “furry boxes” enclose the most intimate.
All in constant mutation with the sun, nightlight, changing transparency and reflection, the curtain, the colours of the sedum plants...

SUSTAINABILITY

Reading the consequences of our architectural acts, providing awareness of the context in the widest sense: beyond image, form and money; towards experience, potential and cost.

Mengíbar, Jaén (E) - Olive Tree Centre

The communication centre, the Olive-tree deals with our relationship with the cycles of nature and the necessary balance in the mutual exchange with the earth.
The building uses advanced but simple technology to make the most of solar energy, while keeping a coherent architectural image. Waste biomass residues from the massive olive oil industry in the area are used to supply the energy plant. A geothermal exchanger gives back the energy to the neighbouring olive-oil factories.

Europan Generation, The reinterpreted city Catalogue
Editions: Cité de l’architecture and Europan, May 2007
224 colour pages, bilingual English/French


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