The innovative space The Light Pavilion designed by Esculpir el Aire, architecture and design studio, is located in a captivating way in the surroundings of Matola and on the outskirts of the city of Elche, Alicante.

This project emerges as a new proposal for a multifunctional space of a culinary nature and as an imaginative solution to the current spatial problems that have left their mark after the Covid-19 pandemic.
Esculpir el Aire works on the idea of creating an essentially conceptual and pure space. This pavilion is characterised by its continuous freedom of movement, making possible a singular experiential autonomy. A series of solid planes govern its geometry and allow absolute permeability between the interior and the exterior.

This building is conceived with a restaurant-terrace programme with the capacity to host a variety of culinary experiences.

There is a palpable sensitivity when it comes to promoting certain concepts in the work, such as the role played by light, ventilation or a new extensive perceptive geometry. These concepts are closely linked to the confinement brought about by Covid-19 and highlight the importance of the sensory senses such as vision and touch.
 

Description of project by Esculpir el Aire

A new design response to Covid

The project for 'The Light Pavilion' is born of offering new answers –transforming primitive architectural concepts– on the basis of the new questions raised by the new life situation experienced in relation to Covid: what is it that we are and what will allow us to continue to be so through our experiences?

An experience of new sensations

‘The Light Pavilion' is a conceptual construction that mainly works with white, offering a pure piece that transforms the Light as it passes through and allows the air to move freely. It is a small building that is offered as a Pavilion-Restaurant Terrace to enable new space experiences in an environment of culinary encounters, where Light is perceived differently during the day than at night when the artificial lighting thrills us –through the skin of the architecture– as if it were a magic trick.

Enhacing the visual, but primarly the tactile

The confinement helped us to remember that both open spaces and ventilation, as well as the importance of the sense of Touch, are essential to our life experiences. By means of this project, the visual aspects of architecture (open diagonals, interdependence of open-closed / indoor-outdoor spaces) and also its tactile aspects are re-emphasised, providing 'geometries of interiority perception' where the skin textures of the architecture dialogue with the skin of the users along the formal manipulation of matter.    

The fluidity of space

The Light Pavilion operates with the joint fluidity of exterior and interior space, proposing a new experiential space that is structured by means of a sequence of interrelated spatial episodes that link the human scale with the scale of the surroundings and also with the climatic and environmental aspects of the place –angle of the sun (solar incidence), natural ventilation, perspiration through the skin, temperature and humidity, etc.–

A geometry of flows

The final geometry of the Pavilion is obtained by materialising the minimum essential construction elements that make possible the double flow of movement that takes place in this specific open landscape: the first, using the layout of a main pedestrian route for the entry and exit of users arriving from the adjacent car park; the second, throughout the layout of the routes established by the waiters from the kitchen of the annexed restaurant to the work spaces of the Pavilion.

A light skin

The solid and heavy walls of the usual constructions have been transformed into light skins that transpire light and air in a filtered and subtle way –as if they were textile elements– through the relationship of superposition proposed between two parallel white metallic sheets that have been manipulated by folding and perforating –separated by means of an interior metallic structure lacquered in black–, in the same way that our skin does with the light and air that envelop us.

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Architects
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Esculpir el Aire. Lead architect.- José Ángel Ruiz Cáceres.
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Design team
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Juan Luis Castelló, Laura Blanco, Felipe Pascual, Manuel Buitrago.
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Client
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Paellaco, SL. / Restaurante Matola.
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Area
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225 sqm.
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Cost
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€ 112,967.35
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Location
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Partida Matola P3-108, Elche, Alicante, Spain.
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Photography
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Esculpir el Aire is an Architecture and Interior Design studio based in Alicante+Elche formed by a multidisciplinary team - led by Dr. Architect José Ángel Ruiz Cáceres - with extensive experience in the field of architecture, where Simplicity, Transparency and Confidence structure their work.

José Angel Ruiz Cáceres founder and manager of Esculpir el Aire is an Architect by the ETSA of Barcelona, he is a PhD professor by the University of Alicante where, in addition, he works as a Professor since 2009.

He has received numerous national and international awards and maintains a close intellectual relationship with the Portuguese architect Álvaro Siza.
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Published on: April 23, 2022
Cite: "New experiences of spatial fluidity. The Light Pavilion by Esculpir el Aire" METALOCUS. Accessed
<http://www.metalocus.es/en/news/new-experiences-spatial-fluidity-light-pavilion-esculpir-el-aire> ISSN 1139-6415
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