BI PARDETA
Location | Pamplona, Navarra
Typology | Cultural facilities / Architecture of well-being
Area | 1,600 m²
Year | 2024
Status | Contest
How to insert an interpretation center into the forest while minimizing its visual footprint?
The double wall rests on the ground. The cabin rises among the treetops.
The Challenge
Design a cultural center in a wooded natural environment in Pamplona that pays homage to local history and is fully functional, without generating an invasive volumetric impact on the surrounding landscape.
The Impact Experience
Inspired by the geometry of the two walls of the Basque-Navarrese pelota courts, the first meeting point, we placed the public program on the ground floor, wrapping and integrating two concrete walls to enhance its presence.
To allow the building to breathe, we elevated the main structure on the upper floors like a "suspended cabin" that blends into the treetops. This reduces the building's footprint and creates covered, permeable spaces protected from the rain. With a large, double-height atrium and carefully controlled windows at the base, the building becomes a lookout point that connects the culture of play with the forest.
How does the experience change?
The visitor experiences nature without interference while the building generates new activity spaces protected from the rain.
"We built an interpretation center in a 'cabin' among the treetops, opening the ground floor as a refuge that connects the culture of the pelota court with the forest."
Can the industrial heritage of the past solve the loneliness of the future?
The factory is giving up the space. Coliving cures loneliness.
The Challenge
Eibar faces a double challenge: the loss of its historic industrial activity, which leaves large urban voids, and the aging and isolation of its population. How can the rehabilitation of a former factory revitalize a city socially and economically and open up new community opportunities?
The Impact Experience
For the iconic AIBE factory, we propose three urban acupuncture strategies: generating territorial movement by decentralizing public facilities; breaking down the barrier between the urban and the natural with an extensive park of sports facilities and gardens that promote self-sufficiency; and, at the heart, an intergenerational public housing (coliving) that mitigates the loneliness of the elderly.
The former factory space is being transformed into a vibrant community where young and old share daily life. The industrial shell is not only preserved: it is once again filled with life.
"We rehabilitated an old factory into an intergenerational coliving space to combat loneliness by uniting the daily lives of young and old in a natural environment."
How does the experience change?
It goes from industrial abandonment to a mutual support ecosystem that socially revitalizes a city.
How to insert an interpretation center into the forest while minimizing its visual footprint?
The double wall rests on the ground. The cabin rises among the treetops.
The Challenge
Design a cultural center in a wooded natural environment in Pamplona that pays homage to local history and is fully functional, without generating an invasive volumetric impact on the surrounding landscape.
The Impact Experience
Inspired by the geometry of the two walls of the Basque-Navarrese pelota courts, the first meeting point, we placed the public program on the ground floor, wrapping and integrating two concrete walls to enhance its presence.
To allow the building to breathe, we elevated the main structure on the upper floors like a "suspended cabin" that blends into the treetops. This reduces the building's footprint and creates covered, permeable spaces protected from the rain. With a large, double-height atrium and carefully controlled windows at the base, the building becomes a lookout point that connects the culture of play with the forest.
How does the experience change?
The visitor experiences nature without interference while the building generates new activity spaces protected from the rain.
"We built an interpretation center in a 'cabin' among the treetops, opening the ground floor as a refuge that connects the culture of the pelota court with the forest."
BI PARDETA
Location | Pamplona, Navarra
Typology | Cultural facilities / Architecture of well-being
Area | 1,600 m²
Year | 2024
Status | Contest
