埃斯帕尔塔尔展馆丨西班牙

Architects:ELE Arkitektura,Florencia Galecio,GA estudio,Juan Gubbins

Year:2025

Photographs:Simone Marcolin

Category:Temporary Installations

City:Alicante (Alacant)

Country:Spain

Text description provided by the architects. Espartal consists of a suspended structure made of esparto that filters light and casts a dense shadow, capable of generating thermal comfort and modifying the microclimate of the square. In this way, it transforms a transit space into a place for staying and gathering, offering citizens a renewed experience in the heart of the urban center.

The project recovers the use of this historic material, present on the peninsula since Phoenician times, to recontextualize it in a contemporary light. Esparto, traditionally linked to Mediterranean agricultural culture, is transformed here into an architectural resource that connects countryside and city, nature and artifice.

The proposal also emphasizes the need to reconsider construction materials from an ecological, functional, and symbolic perspective: it advocates for the richness of the local and bets on material culture as a driver of sustainability. Thus, the installation not only offers a sensory and climatic experience but also invites reflection on natural cycles and the capacity of architecture to restore connections between urban life and the agricultural environment.

Espartal is not limited to being a temporary pavilion: it is conceived as a catalyst for encounters and conversations around urban architecture. Its location in the Arquitecto Miguel López square and its connection with Casa Mediterráneo—an institution dedicated to strengthening the common identity of Mediterranean peoples—reinforce the symbolic and cultural dimension of the proposal.

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