Building With Air. Alberto Campo

It is often said that the best test of whether a project is really good, is to let time pass. Intentional or not, the projects by Alberto Campo Baeza often are rested. Alberto Campo is an architect with few works, however, all tend a long process and the resulting bouquet is, in full, an exceptional collection.

Typically, relates his work with John Pawson or Tadao Ando, two figures of architecture that are nearby, the first because has a similar rigorous formal commitment and the second for having been one of its biggest referents in Europe.

A reference that falls short, any student know it. His scholarship is not always understand, however his unwavering continuity of what should be the architecture, "more with less" reappears in this work in the down town of Zamora .

The offices of the Castilla León Junta in Zamora by Alberto Campo Architects. Photography © Javier Callejas

The project by Alberto Campo Baeza, was developed in an urban context tense, full of history and difficult to handle by heavy regulations that protect the environment of the Cathedral of Zamora. The Campo Baeza architecture might seem that had not found its place, and yet found its way with a sandstone walls. The end result, one of the best works of the architect, serene, mature and vibrant, controling lighting, air and time.

A lot of time from the competition, have been almost 8 years. Now we live in times of lower excitation-architectural icon, the time has helped introduce the building by Campo Baeza and now is more contemporary.

In collaboration with Pablo Fernández Lorenzo, Pablo Redondo Díez, Alfonso González Gaisán and Francisco Blanco Velasco.

To build with air, the abiding dream of every architect:

Facing the cathedral and following the outline of the former convent’s kitchen garden, we erect a strong stone wall box open to the sky. Its walls and floors entirely made of stone. The very same stone as the Cathedral. A real Hortus Conclusus. In the corner facing the cathedral, a massive stone measuring 250x150x50, a veritable Cornerstone. And chiselled on that stone:

HIC LAPIS ANGULARIS MAIO MMXII POSITO

Within the stone box, a glass box, only glass. Like a greenhouse. With a double facade similar to a Trombe wall. The external skin of the facade is made of glass, each single sheet measuring 600x300x1,2 and all joined together simply with structural silicone and hardly anything else. As if entirely made of air.

The trihedral upper angles of the box are made completely with glass, thus even further accentuating the effect of transparency. Precisely what Mies was looking for in his Friedrichstrasse tower. The trihedron built with air, a true Glass Corner. And engraved in acid on the glass:

HOC VITRUM ANGULARIS MAIO MMXII POSITO

The stone box made from Memory. With its Cornerstone deeply rooted in the soil.
The glass box made for the Future. With its Glass Corner blending into the sky.

To build with air, the abiding dream of every architect.

Sketchs.

CREDITS

Architects.- Alberto Campo Baeza. Pablo Fernández Lorenzo. Pablo Redondo Díez. Alfonso González Gaisán. Francisco Blanco Velasco.
Location.- C/ Obispo Manso, 1. ZAMORA.
Client.- Junta de Castilla y León. Consejería de Hacienda

Project date.- 2007
Construction date.- 2008 - 2012
Area.- 12.100 m²

Architects collaborators.- Ignacio Aguirre López. Miguel Ciria Hernández
Other collaborators.- Alejandro Cervilla García, Emilio Delgado Martos, Petter Palander, Sergio Sánchez Muñoz. Structural engineer: Eduardo Díez - IDEEE. Mechanical engineer.- Úrculo Ingenieros. Cuantity surveyor: Juan José Bueno Crespo. Glass consultant.- José Pablo Calvo Busello

Builder.- UTE Edificio Consejo Consultivo.- Dragados - San Gregorio

Construction / Stone work.- Areniscas de los Pinares. Glass curtain.- PROINLLER. Roofing installation.- Intemper. Stainless stell work.- DACIN. Concrete paving.- ARGAPREF. Painted resing paving.- Rinol Rocland Suesco, S.L. Gypsum board work.- Zamorana de Aislamientos Termo-acústicos. Wood work.- Hnos. García Santiago, S.A. Elevators.- Schindler. HVAC: Atil Cobra. Lighting.- Agosa. Furnitures.- NUAR (Sellex), DACIN, Ciprés (Formica). Gardering.- Viveros Gimeno Salamanca S.l. Awning/curtains.- Ladis Protección Solar S.l. Control de calidad.- Incosa.

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Urban model. The offices of the Castilla León Junta in Zamora. By Alberto Campo Architects. Photography © Javier Callejas.

Detail model. The offices of the Castilla León Junta in Zamora. By Alberto Campo Architects. Photography © Javier Callejas.

Site plan. The offices of the Castilla León Junta in Zamora. By Alberto Campo Architects.

Ground floor plan. The offices of the Castilla León Junta in Zamora. By Alberto Campo Architects.

First floor plan. The offices of the Castilla León Junta in Zamora. By Alberto Campo Architects.

Viewpoint level. Oficinas para la Junta de Castilla y León en Zamora. Por Alberto Campo Arquitectos.

Longitudinal section. The offices of the Castilla León Junta in Zamora. By Alberto Campo Architects.

Cross section. The offices of the Castilla León Junta in Zamora. By Alberto Campo Architects.

Constructive section. The offices of the Castilla León Junta in Zamora. By Alberto Campo Architects.

Oficinas para la Junta de Castilla y León en Zamora por Alberto Campo Arquitectos. Fotografía © Javier Callejas

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ALBERTO CAMPO BAEZA

Alberto Campo Baeza. Born in Valladolid (1946), where his grandfather was an architect, from the age of two he lived in CADIZ where he saw the LIGHT. From his father he inherited a spirit of ANALYSIS and from his mother the determination to be an ARCHITECT.

He lives in Madrid, where he moved to study Architecture. His first professor was Alejandro de la Sota, who instilled in him the ESSENTIAL architecture that he is still trying to erect. He is a PROFESSOR at the Madrid School of Architecture, ETSAM, where he has been a tenured professor for more than 25 years.

He has taught at the ETH in Zurich and the EPFL in Lausanne as well as the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. And in Dublin and Naples, Virginia and Copenhagen. And at the BAUHAUS in Weimar and at Kansas State University. He spent a year as a research fellow at COLUMBIA University in New York in 2001 and again in 2011. He has given many lectures and has received many awards like the TORROJA for his Caja Granada building. And he was awarded the Buenos Aires Biennial 2009 for his Nursery for Benetton in Venice and his MA Museum in Granada. He has recently been nominated by the American Academy of Arts and Letters for the prestigious Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize of 2010.

His works have been widely recognized. From the single family houses Casa Turégano and Casa de Blas, both in Madrid, to Casa Gaspar, Casa Asencio and Casa Guerrero in Cádiz. And the Olnick Spanu House in Garrison, New York, the Centro BIT in Inca-Mallorca, the Caja de Granada Savings Bank and the MA, the Museum of Andalusian Memory, both in Granada, and a nursery for Benetton in Venice. And Between Cathedrals in Cádiz, and just recently a building for Offices in Zamora (2012). And the construction of the new Offices for Benetton in Samara, Russia, which is about to begin.

And more than 20 editions of a BOOK with his texts “LA IDEA CONSTRUÍDA” [THE BUILT IDEA] have been published in several languages. A fourth edition of “PENSAR CON LAS MANOS”, a second compilation of his writings, has just been published. And just now “PRINCIPIA ARCHITECTONICA”, a collection of his texts written during his sabbatical year at Columbia University in New York in 2011.

He believes in Architecture as a BUILT IDEA. And he believes that the principle components of Architecture are GRAVITY that constructs SPACE and LIGHT that constructs TIME.

He has exhibited his work in the CROWN HALL by Mies at Chicago’s IIT and at the PALLADIO Basilica in Vicenza. And in the Urban Center in New York. And at the Saint Irene Church in Istanbul. In 2009 the prestigious MA Gallery of Toto in Tokyo made an anthological exhibition of his work that in 2011 was in the MAXXI in Rome.

Act.>. 04-2012

Published on: December 14, 2012

Cite: "Building With Air. Alberto Campo" METALOCUS. Accessed

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