FACT SHEET
AccesitArchitectural Competition
Title:Maritime Formation Centre
Location:Burela, Galicia, Spain
Year:2006
Program:education
Status:competition
Team:Josean Ruiz Esquiroz
Nacho Ruiz Allén
TEXT
A building on land
whose activity is focused on the sea…
… will be placed in an ambiguous space, one that wishes to belongs to both worlds.
Therefore, its geometry and external appearance will participate of the dichotomy formed
between the two of them.
Formally, the project has a geometric center from which it develops, adapting itself to the
given perimeter.
Thus, we get a first limit, defined by the patio’s boundaries, with an almost ideal geometry:
an equilateral triangle. Its internal drive to expand all over the plot will make it absorb the
triangle’s vertices. The geometry of this figure is something halfway between an amphibian
and a diving suit, between the fish and the submarine. In short, between the natural and
the artificial.
The starting point of its humid and changeable skin is a cistern top; a thin sheet where
water overflows towards the external facades, in which it will trickle down through a rough
surface. The building’s skin will then grow a thin layer of algae whose thickness and color
will vary throughout the year. The algae’s life cycle will be the determining factor of the
building’s appearance and its own life cycle.