On the Costa del Sol and overlooking a garden, a swimming pool, the sea and the castle of Fuengirola, the studios Canobardin and Estudio Cano Lasso provide a different tourist space with a programme of common areas, living areas, offices, a restaurant and a gym and spa building that resembles, due to the way it organises the squares and gardens, as well as the bungalows and the different accommodations, a military camp that generates a multitude of different situations.
Taking into account all possible scales, from the widest and most urban that includes how the accommodations are placed on the ground and the interstitial spaces that are generated, the routes, the squares and the gardens, as well as the interior spaces in the restaurants or the rooms and the details of the shops or the tiles that make up the different paths, the project enhances the value of the site and brings it closer to visitors through spaces of relaxation and connection, attentive and welcoming linked to nature.
Costa del Sol Glamping Village by Canobardin + Estudio Cano Lasso. Photograph by Nico Díaz.
Project description by Canobardin + Estudio Cano Lasso
In 2018 we were commissioned to convert the old Camping Fuengirola into a new tourist reference, a project on a plot located between two municipalities. The campsite has enormous advantages over hotels and even more so after the pandemic. In this type of tourism, life is always done outside and it also offers accommodation completely adapted to family tourism. We will not sleep in two separate rooms, nor will the children share the space with their parents, here we will all be together, but each with their own space.
It has been a long project, with a pandemic in between, but the result has been worth it, it has been possible for guests to sleep in a garden, where organic prevails, a project that completely revolutionizes the camping sector since we have all the comforts of a hotel. The architectural project has had all scales, from the broadest and most urban, which covers everything from how the accommodations are placed, to the spaces that are generated, squares, gardens, paths, parking lots, the intermediate scale of buildings that house the reception, a restaurant, a gym and other necessary programs, the swimming pools... And a more detailed scale, such as the design of the tents, the planters, the tiles on the paths... It has been very nice to see ourselves working on so many different scales in the same project. The plot is almost 4 hectares and we have intervened on the whole of it, respecting the existing trees of plane trees and saligna acacias and we have enhanced two steep sloped areas, building light platforms with terraces so that mobile homes can be installed there with dominant views of the sea.
The Costa del Sol has collaborated with its wonderful climate, where vegetation grows in an exuberant manner. We had a good starting point. The old camping plots were under the shade of some magnificent plane trees. We have preserved them, but thanks to the landscaper Curro Gómez, a beautiful and exuberant garden has been created where before there was only a shaded car park.
In terms of the layout of the complex, we have tried to provide the greatest possible independence for each accommodation. You never see a long street full of bungalows, like a military camp. Each and every one of the accommodations is in a different situation, just as the plants that make up the garden develop. In this way, a multitude of different situations are generated, with different views of a garden, a swimming pool, the sea, the castle of Fuengirola... different slopes, different orientations…
The accommodations are of various types, the mobile homes are from the Alucasa brand, one model for the flat areas of the garden, another model for the sloped areas with views, (resting on a structure that forms the terraces designed by us architects) and a third model in a more isolated area of the plot surrounding a rectangular infinity pool. As for the tents, the Canobardin studio has designed and produced them with its Tipitop Tents brand.
The common areas are developed through 3 buildings joined by pergolas, which are articulated seeking the views of the Fuengirola Castle and creating a central space like a plaza, in which the main pool of the Costa del Sol Glamping Village is located, with the organic shape of a lake. Surrounding the pool, gardens with palm trees and continuous burnt mortar paving. To go from one building to another, pergolas covered with vegetation and wooden decking. The common areas program is a reception building, living and office areas, another restaurant building and a third gym and spa building.
