Led by espai MGR, the architects manipulated photographs of the former Hospital Universitario La Fe to draw attention to the need for "urban recycling" to revive empty buildings.

"Nothing is unrelated in a city. To empty a building and leave a black spot in the city is something that somehow also affects the closest environment," architects Manuel López and Bernat Ivars told Dezeen.

"We wanted to show a building that evolves parallel to a society more and more aware of the importance of urban recycling," they added. "A building able to be restructured and to change in order to house new functions without needing to be demolished and rebuilt."

An accompanying website tells the story of the hospital through a cryptic fable about an octopus and a broken pitcher, which references a fairytale about a proud milkmaid whose pail of milk falls from her head.

The broken pitcher, or pail, suggests an object that has been badly managed and can no longer function properly, the architects explain.

The images accompanying the text are not directly connected to each other, but are organised like a soundtrack accompanying a scene in a film. "For instance, in the moment the pitcher is broken, the building breaks with it, depicting an interior full of possibilities," they said.

Creative Dismantling was led by espai MGR with the assistance of Aitor Varea as a product of Proyectos con Final Feliz, a work and research cooperative based in Valencia.

Last year we reported on another photo-manipulation project by espai MGR, which imagined impossible Lego structures filling vacant plots in Valencia.

We recently reported on another set of surreal photographs in which Parisian houses appear to be floating in the sky like kites.

See all our stories about manipulated photography »
See all our stories from Valencia »

Here's some more information from the architects:

Creative Dismantling_short story about strange cities_ep1

Authors: Bernat Ivars, Manuel López
Collaborators: Fran Azorin, Lola Bataller, Isabel González, Eva Raga, Aitor Varea

Abstract

When an institutional bulding is disused, its stillness infects life around it. Creative Dismantling tries to reverse this situation by means of injecting movement both visually and reflexively. The case study is the former Hospital La Fe, currently a large container without use in Valencia, Spain.

This building served as a public hospital since its opening in 1968 until its closure in February of 2011. Once all its services have been transferred to a new location, its around 150,000 sq m of floor area are ready to be reinvented in order to keep on energising its unbreakable bond with the neighborhood of Campanar.

By means of a different language, we pursue to make visible a problem and turn it into an opportunity: the establishment of the former Hospital La Fe as a symbol of urban recycling.

Text

The creative dismantling seeks to reconstruct the different links of urban reality. The goal is to get the city to maintain ecosystem equilibrium relationships among agencies so that the dynamics of each complement the other. This requires a reinterpretation of the usual meaning of the elements that turn problems into opportunities. A rearticulation to heal wounds urban partially through the influence of reflex areas.

We talked about a long-term process where the fundamental piece of change is not the result but the movement itself. The real destruction of a building is not its disappearance but its stillness: stillness that extends to everything that surrounds it. Some buildings should disappear. Others gradually disappear. In one case or another, they must always give way to a new life. The task of the architect is also to decide the optimal way to deconstruction. Progress sometimes appears with removing the first stone.

A brand new symbology

Creative dismantling is not unless it contributes to activate a fair and complex social economy. As a sign of a new attitude, creative dismantling has a symbolic character that feeds on what makes us individuals and allows us to live everyday. Halfway between utopia and an unavoidable step whose border a change of attitude, creative dismantling does not focus on the material but also on values, dismantling institutions stacked in a wrong time. How can something die with dignity and become more important during the process of death than in life? We only have to redefine the direction taken so far and adopt a more coherent logic. In the end, asserting only common sense.

Former Hospital Universitario La Fe was opened in 1968 to meet the needs of the health area of Valencia. This service was guaranteed by the involvement of almost 7,000 employees. For 42 years it served daily to over 600 patients. During its long period of activity it acted as an economic and social promoter of a neighborhood that became identified with his existence. his intense activity contributed to the creation of housing and services for the broad set of employees, patients and families.

In 2001, the Ministry of Health of the Generalitat Valenciana announced the decision to build a new La Fe hospital to replace the current centre. The transfer of all its services to the new location took place between November 2010 and February 2011, since when the new site has assumed the continuity of all inherited health responsibilities.

Today, the old centre is one of the most important urban opportunities in the city. About 150,000 m2 of floor area remain ready to be reinvented and continue its task of energising an unbreakable bond with the neighbourhood of Campanar.

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by espai MGR appeared first on Dezeen.

The 100 square metre office has been divided into compact work areas with full-length glazed walls.

The original wooden ceiling beams were restored to complement the wood of the tables, counter and chair legs.

The overlapping wooden picture frames on the meeting room wall are "a metaphor of the diplomas usually displayed in a law firm," the designers explained.

Thin strips of wood hanging vertically on the walls are partially painted in the company's colours of grey and black, which are also picked up in the furniture around the office.

Other buildings in Valencia we've featured include a house with a glass facade that reveals what's going on inside and a nursery with circular holes in its concrete walls.

We've featured lots of offices on Dezeen, most recently a Russian internet company with walls designed to look like pixels – see all of them here.

See all our stories about offices »
See all our stories about Valencia »
See all our stories about Spain »

Photographs are by David Rodríguez from Cualiti.

Here's more information from the architects:

Masquespacio present their last project realised in an emblematic building from the end of the 19th century, situated in the historic centre of Valencia, Spain. The project designed for the law office Zapata y Herrera starts from his historic values to which are added the firm’s corporate values by the use of colours black, grey and natural wood tones.

At first the old beams have been restored, making them an essential element of the project. The noble wood is one of the protagonists of the office, not wanting to stand out, but in order to transmit confidence as one of the most important values of Zapata y Herrera. The grey colour takes over, symbolising stability and professionalism, while the powerful black transmits certain elegance and especially the seriousness with which the firm practices its profession.

Down the noble wooden entry stairs is standing out the combination of different sensations transmitted by the office. Some will call it elegant and sophisticated, while others call it sober and robust. Going further into the description of the lawyers' office, on the left we can find the offices where the central element is a curtain of wood strips that repeats the colours of the firm's values. The small space was maximised using L-shaped tables positioned above the storage lockers. The three pillars from the entry garden at their time are repeating the primary colours.

Above: office plan

In front of the last offices and behind the reception we can find the interns' area with a sense of green offered by a range of aloe vera plants matching with the Green chair from Javier Mariscal, 100% recycled and 100% recyclable

On the other way of the entrance we find the boardroom starring a bunch of frames proposing a metaphor of the diplomas usually exposed in a law firm. The oeuvre, as well as the wood strips curtains where created by Masquespacio’s creative director, Ana Milena Hernández Palacios. At last, alongside the boardroom is situated a lobby in which we can recognise the Float couch, the latest design from Karim Rashid for Spanish brand Sancal.

Masquespacio in this project didn’t want to fall into the usual clichés of a law firm, so they converted them into metaphors. The law office Zapata y Herrera can be considered as an example of a corporate space that transmits its values, giving more importance to the work of their employees highlighting their seriousness, professionalism and confidence, with a vanguardian look unusual for a law firm.

Finished: 22/09/2012
Space: 100 m2
Client: Zapata y Herrera
Address: Plaza San Nicolas 3, 46001 Valencia
Design: Masquespacio
Address: Paseo de la Alameda 65, 34 B, 46023 Valencia
Designer: Ana Milena Hernández Palacios
Graphic Design, oeuvre and interior design by Ana Milena Hernández Palacios
Materials:
Construction: José Manuel Paz Agra Construcciones
Visitor office chairs: De Vorm
Director chairs: Inclass
Couch and lobby tables: Sancal
Intern chairs: 114 Mobles
General lighting: Arkos Light
Reception lighting: Luzifer
Lobby and boardroom chairs: Hay
Storage lockers: BM2000
Floor: Rapidmix

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by Masquespacio appeared first on Dezeen.

The L-shaped house is entitled Casa del Atrio, or Atrium House, in reference to the glazed elevation and skylight that bring light into the eastern wing.

A large living/dining room occupies this space and offers residents a view out over the landscape of the Sierra Calderona.

A basement floor is buried just beneath, but emerges on the southern facade to reveal a bedroom, study and gym that open out to a sunken terrace.

Two more bedrooms are located in the northern wing of the ground floor and are screened behind partitions for privacy.

We also recently featured another house by Fran Silvestre Arquitectos: a wedge-shaped building that thrusts out from a rock face.

See more stories about houses in Spain »

Photography is by Fernando Alda.

Here's a project description from Fran Silvestre Arquitectos:

Casa Del Atrio / Atrium House

Godella, Valencia

A house in a urban area parts of the desire to maximize the feeling of spaciousness.

Two strategies are used. The principal is to release the largest possible in the middle of the site allowing you to enjoy a private space with a height and volume incalculable. It enhances the perimeter of contact with the outside housing, land and housing understood as a continuum. On the other hand uses the existing slope to the ravine next to illuminate the basement, which enables you to host the program.

The building is developed along the southern and western boundaries of the parcel, which together with the elements of urbanization of the site, form a kind of atrium, whose diagonal flight to a distant vision of the Sierra Calderona.

Access is accompanied by the south facade to find the point of intersection. At this point of view inside the distributor is located next to the stairs and the kitchen form the backbone of the operation of housing.

The southern zone where the rooms are available during the day, dematerialized their presence due to the overhead light.

In the west the rooms fall to a portion of parcel with a more domestic scale, while the master bedroom overlooking the lift light reflected on water.

In the dark basement and garage are in the cellar. All other uses of the program look into the ravine through which light up.

Architecture: Fran Silvestre Arquitectos

Project Team:

Fran Silvestre - Principal In Charge

María José Sáez - Principal In Charge

Jose V. Miguel - Collaborator Architect

Ángel Ruíz - Collaborator Architect

Structural Engineer: David Gallardo / Upv

Building Engineer: Carlos García

Interior Design: Alfaro Hofmann

Client: Naves Y Fábricas, S.L. | Guillermo Caballero De Luján

Contractor: Coarco

Location: Urbanización Santa Bárbara, Godella, Valencia

Site Area: 1150,00 sq m

Built Area: 782,85 sq m

Atrium Area: 340,00 sq m

Ground floor plan - click above for larger image

Basement floor plan - click above for larger image

Cross section 1 - click above for larger image.

Long section 1 - click above for larger image

Cross section 2 - click above for larger image

Long section 2 - click above for larger image

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Fran Silvestre Arquitectos appeared first on Dezeen.

Leftwing Spanish political party Esquerra Unida claims the architect had a deal with the conservative-led regional government to earn a percentage of construction costs for the complex, which have spiralled to a rumoured €1.1 billion.

Last month, Guardian journalist Giles Tremlett reported that Spanish ministers were blaming profligate regional administrations for Spain's budget deficit, with showpiece architectural projects singled out for criticism.

Tremlett, the paper's Madrid correspondent, seems to have a bee in his bonnet about extravagant Spanish architecture: in October he reported on the closure of the newly opened Niemeyer Centre in Avilés, designed by Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, and listed Peter Eisenman's City of Culture in Santiago de Compostela among a string of other white elephants; while back in 2009 he reported on how a slew of grandiose schemes - including projects by Frank Gehry, Jean Nouvel and Alejandro Zaera Polo - were hitting the buffers due to the credit crunch and Spain's looming economic woes.

Santiago Calatrava projects featured on Dezeen include the Liège-Guillemins station in Belgium and a bridge over the Grand Canal in Venice.

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of bleeding Valencia dry" - Guardian appeared first on Dezeen.

A series of circular apertures puncture the rectangular concrete buttresses of a nursery in Valencia by Spanish architects Rstudio.

These concrete supports double-up as chunky brise-soleils to shade the four classrooms inside the Pio Baroja Nursery.

Partitions between these rooms are also constructed from concrete and follow the positions of the exterior supports.

Flexible partitions allow the classrooms to be further divided when necessary and colourful bathrooms can be found at the rear.

Weathered metal columns surround the nursery’s perimeter, also enclosing an adjoining block where the dining room and reception are located.

Rstudio have completed another project near Valencia this year: see our earlier story about a combined metro station and park.

Photography is by Jose Marti.

Here's a little more explanation from Rstudio:

Learning by Playing

The project consists of a one storey building at street level.

The site is influenced by two conditions that have been key aspects in the development of the project.

In the first place the closeness to a highspeed traffic way, in Pio Baroja Avenue, and in the second place the remarkable height of the surrounding buildings.

This took us to create a building focused on its inner court. The floor plan of the building is split into three different volumes.

Main issues developed in the project:

• Double circulation: interior/exterior, taking advantage of the local climatology, going around the school playing
• Good orientation aswell as cross ventilation in all rooms, which implies important energy savings.
• Flexibility in the rooms in terms of mobile walls joining in packs of three units.
• Constructive simplicity

Architect: Rstudio/ Jose Martí
Location: Valencia, Spain

Year: 2010
Developer: AYUNTAMIENTO DE VALENCIA.
SERVICIO DE EDUCACIÓN.

Click above for larger image 

Builder: LEVANTINA INGENIERÍA Y CONSTRUCCIÓN S.L.

Collaborations: DOLORS APARICI (architect)
ADYPAU (engineering project)
ASURINSA (architecture management)
RODRIGÁLVAREZ (engineering management)

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