Karri Loop House
Margaret River, Australia - 2013 Photography: First three photos from Giulio Aristide - Peter Bennetts
Iterare Arquitectos
is an architectural studio based in Valencia, Spain.
House of Giants
Valencia, Spain - Project team: Vicente Vidal, Ciro Manuel Vidal, Ivo Eliseo Vidal - Photography: David Zarzoso
Located in Valencia´s famous fishermans neightborhood of El Cabañal, House of Giants sets itself as a singular construction on this historical area. Its innovation, far from using in vogue solutions completely out of context and place, comes from the deep update of the history that takes place in this building. Without oversimplifying or stylizing, the task was to bring up with an updated contemporary proposition, all those materials and construction techniques of the Mediterranean, those of the local people and local industry, efficient and responsible, those that stood the test and weight of time with great dignity.
And so all over the house natural stone from the area, earthy lime plaster, reclaimed wood from the very building, and other such materials and traditional techniques are used though with a contemporary understanding of them, not being a call to the past but a hint to the future.
It was a kind of precedent aiming to update the built heritage of the neighborhood, thus preparing it for its future; without overwriting, insulting or perverting any of the aspects of its past.
Stone Apartment
Valencia, Spain - 2019 - Project team: Lidón Sánchez - Photography: David Zarzoso
The Stone Apartment is a small project focused on natural materials and its effects on the space. The new heart of the house comprise the main bathroom and a second one created on the reform, acting as a core around which the life happens. Completely built with natural stone, the soft silky surface of the usually floor to ceiling 3 cm thick stone pieces, create the background of the different scenes of the house. Walls on this core are built with tailor made construction processes, and most of them are not traditional partitions with stone sheathing applied, but partitions made by 3 cm thick stone pieces anchored on the floor, ceiling, and among them.
In between these pieces, 1 cm thick glass pieces are inserted to get light in and out of the core.
Blinds and tailor made light fixtures modulate the experience of the light bathing the stone walls.
The Lago low table is an object of craftmanship, completely created by hand by artisans, reuniting some of the essential construction guilds of the field. Masons and smiths are the true makers of the piece and their skills are key to the success of the design.
Lago is a basic object conceived as a free unattainable gesture contained in the stone. A piece of great geometric complexity which formal restrain is, however, at its design basis. Its curves put a stop to a material that otherwise would extend further out of the limits, thus creating the impression of stillness. Natural stones and stainless steel are the only elements of a piece that tackles the, at first glance, conflict between the essential and its formal complexity.
