Harquitectes (a+u 629)
Shinkenchiku-sha, 2023
€28,00
Founded in 2000 by 4 classmates from the Vallès School of Architecture (today’s ETSAV–UPC), the office is situated in modest environs in Sabadell, a town in the outskirts of Barcelona, Spain. Remaining rooted in this part of Catalonia – allowing them deep immersion in their projects – HARQUITECTES’s work emphatically embodies the sensibilities of living under the Mediterranean sun, yet their architecture exudes clear ambition of universal relevance. Even the most modest works are compelling on multiple levels: materiality, tectonics, urbanity, and climatic performance coming into a coherent whole. As illustrated by so-called climate sections, their buildings are passive thermal machines – harmonizing the built and natural to achieve comfort. These performative design strategies “do not remain phenomena of building physics, but rather are ‘spatialized’ and ‘architectonized’ in the projects – brought to the level of architectural concept, structure, and expression,” as remarked by Andrea Deplazes. Among the 18 works presented here, 9 public buildings and 9 private residences, we find the use of unfinished bricks that blur the threshold between inside and outside, in-between spaces differentiated by materiality, and natural ventilation systems that satisfy even exacting industrial uses. As they embark upon larger-scale institutional and public buildings, HARQUITECTES continues to employ the same detailed and holistic approach, thus elevating their work into the ethical realm.
ISBN: 9784900212879
