Aljibes Viewpoint

Fernando Alda Calvo

Space “Aljibes viewpoint”

• Architects

TIMES AND TEXTURES
About the place
The demolition of the house of Pepe Rosas, a well-known flamenco singer, in the city historic centre of Álora, created a urban void with views, both through an archaeological industrial space of the XVI century and through the Arab castle.
During the excavations, appeared some interesting spaces. In the southern half, three storerooms keep seventeen semi buried jars built during the XVI century. In the north one, traditional stairs for animals, leads on a horse shed. Afterwards, we could descend to a second level, opened to views to the village.

The place is an open space that suggests the discovering of past traces.

photo_credit Fernando Alda Calvo — Fernando Alda Calvo

About the project
We propose a travel across the void, historical legacy of textures, materials, spaces and views, in order to understand a historical period of the city. We recover the façade line thanks to a thick brick wall in white texture. It is cut in order to create a mysterious discovering of the inner space.

On the street side, a line made with spikes shows the trace of the ancient entrance to Pepe Rosa’s house. Also, a spyhole invites discovering an unusual view of the hill and the castle. After a narrow entrance, the space appears and is activated thanks to a metallic runway. Built with overlapping pieces, it tries to be made of transparencies. It is a platform for both discovering the downstairs store spaces and also a viewpoint towards the horizon.

The veranda shows and guides. Some perforated texts give information of near spaces. Others, aerial ones, point out landscape milestones as the castle and the hills. The veranda is filter, strip that shows the path to the traveller following different remarkable materials that explain ancient uses.

The concrete stairs spill in the horse shed. From this point, the intervention, is just a haptic experience of textures thanks to a fluid pavement and light verandas.
Downstairs, in the second level, a vibrating wall has two windows. Thanks to a light stair, made as a metallic floating carpet, the traveller crosses the second hole in order to discover the store rooms, mysterious heart of the ancient typology that joins housing with an industrial use. The pavement, thanks to its own geometry help visitors to understand its ancient values.

Brief: The void, a place for feeling time and history, is a kind of resonance box of lights and sounds that make us travelling to the essence of the cultural landscape of Álora.

Challenges: Trying to do as less as possible in order to show ancient textures and spaces

Materials: The materials are chosen looking at the cultural landscape of the village. White walls, brick texture for the façade, metallic structure and grids for the veranda and balcony and a special concrete with a stone texture in order to dialogue with the historical elements.