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Sumit Singhal
Sumit Singhal loves modern architecture. He comes from a family of builders who have built more than 20 projects in the last ten years near Delhi in India. He has recently started writing about the architectural projects that catch his imagination. The Cement Factory in Sant Just Desvern, Spain by Ricardo Bofill Taller De ArquitecturaMarch 24th, 2017 by Sumit Singhal
Article source: Ricardo Bofill Taller De Arquitectura I found enormous silos, a tall smokestack, four kilometres of underground tunnels, and machine rooms in good shape. This was twenty five years ago and it was my first encounter with the Cement Factory. I already imagined future spaces and noticed that the different aesthetic and plastic tendencies that had developed since World War 1 were present in this factory. -Surrealism:  Image Courtesy © Ricardo Bofill Taller De Arquitectura
 Image Courtesy © Ricardo Bofill Taller De Arquitectura Paradoxical stairs that lead to nowhere. The absurdity of certain elements that hung over voids, potent but useless spaces of strange proportion but magical because of their tension and disproportion. -Abstraction: Pure volumes, which reveal themselves at times broken and impure. -Brutalism: Abrupt treatment and sculptural qualities of the materials.  Image Courtesy © Ricardo Bofill Taller De Arquitectura  Image Courtesy © Ricardo Bofill Taller De Arquitectura This Cement Factory, dating from the first period of the industrialization of Barcelona, was not built at once or as a whole but was a series of additions as the various chains of production became necessary. The formal result was given, then, by a series of stratified elements, a process, which is reminiscent of vernacular architecture, but applied to industry. Seduced by the contradictions and the ambiguity of the place, I decided to retain the factory and, modifying its original brutality, sculpt it like a work of art.  Image Courtesy © Ricardo Bofill Taller De Arquitectura  Image Courtesy © Ricardo Bofill Taller De Arquitectura The construction work, which began with partial destruction with dynamite and jackhammers, lasted for more than a year a half. It was a precision job, which consisted in revealing the hidden forms and recovering certain spaces, comparable to the work of the sculptor whose first task is to confront the material. The silos were full of cement and it was impossible to penetrate the spaces entirely saturated with dust.  Image Courtesy © Ricardo Bofill Taller De Arquitectura  Image Courtesy © Ricardo Bofill Taller De Arquitectura The following phase was the greening and planting. It was necessary to provide a green plinth to these volumes; plants would climb walls and hang from the roofs. The last phase was to give the factory new structure and use. The obtained result allows me to state that form and function must be dissociated: any beautiful space well conceived could lend itself to any kind of use if the architect is agile.  Image Courtesy © Ricardo Bofill Taller De Arquitectura  Image Courtesy © Ricardo Bofill Taller De Arquitectura Various spaces appeared, with different characteristics: The Cathedral, The Garden, and The Silos. Later I had to mark the new constructions with a specific vocabulary, which integrates various languages from the history of Architecture, a cultured language in opposition to vernacular architecture. I imagined windows, doors, stairs, and false perspectives and applied them to the exterior walls and some of the interiors. Slowly, with the valuable help of Catalan craftsmen, the Cement Factory was transformed, but it will always remain as an unfinished work.  Image Courtesy © Ricardo Bofill Taller De Arquitectura  Image Courtesy © Ricardo Bofill Taller De Arquitectura Presently I live and work here better than anywhere else. I have installed the Taller de Arquitectura, with the intention, later on, of converting it into a foundation destined to the investigation of form, and the design of the city. It is for me the only place where I can concentrate, associate ideas in the most abstract manner, and finally, create projects, images and new spaces, and constitute a specific vocabulary for my architecture. I have the impression of living in a closed universe, which shields me from the outside and everyday life. The Cement Factory is a place of work par excellence. Life goes on here with very little difference between work and leisure. I have the impression of living in a factory world, the same world that characterized and propelled the beginnings of industrial development in Catalonia.  Image Courtesy © Ricardo Bofill Taller De Arquitectura  Image Courtesy © Ricardo Bofill Taller De Arquitectura  Image Courtesy © Ricardo Bofill Taller De Arquitectura
Tags: Sant Just Desvern, Spain Categories: Exhibition Center, Factory, Garden, Guest House, Laboratory and Office, Office Building, office Complex, Office space, Offices |
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