Auzo Factory Irazabal Matiko

Bilbao. Spain | 2013

Bilbao City Council

Bilbao has a continuous ring of districts that surround the more touristic and showy center, many with evident needs for architectural intervention. Matiko is one of them. In this district the city has been provided of a disused industrial building to be converted into an entrepreneurship center, based on a model that uses the recovery of old buildings to revitalize the place where they are located.

The most significant aspect of the project was the idea to design a façade that made the whole operation visible, with minimum cost and maximum expressivity. The proposal is a uniform skin that covers the exterior structure to create a taut plane at a large scale. The material chosen for this façade is commonly used for mechanical installations, but here it is conferred with an aesthetic virtue: galvanized steel cable trays. Behinds this surface the old parapet and windows are replaced with new ones that infill the structural framework, increasing the amount of daylight. The result is a surprising and elegant metallic curtain: more with less with cable trays.


Awards

Award | COAVN | 2016