An initially complicated intervention, in a preexisting irregular space, whose interesting solution is a consequence of a project that manages to give coherence and unify the space. The intervention is stabilized by designing a central space, a cylinder as an element of continuity between the functions, whose spatial decomposition allows perceiving it as a dynamic space and much wider.
Description of project by Sol89
"A kitchen is a fine workshop: the house of the hands; the centre or focus of all energy. Nowhere else do hands feel more at ease, more encouraged to do and to do again. "
Ángel González in reference to the kitchen-atelier of A. Calder
Pintar sin tener ni idea, ed. Lampreave, 2007.
THE MEMORY OF THE CITY
This delightful little locale where the culinary workshop takes place has a particular volume in which everything relates to the central cast-iron column that presides over the premises. From the bleak light that seeps through the two façade openings and in from the backyard, we can see the powerful brickwork walls that reveal the constructional history of the building located in this historic city, in Boteros Street, an old word meaning wineskins were sold there and whose etymology is partly recovered with this locale’s latest venture.
THE CUSTOM OF THE KITCHEN
The aim is to create a cooking workshop in which to conceive recipes and teach gastronomy courses, olive oil samplings, wine tastings... The place where students,and diners and master chef must conjoin in a single didactic space; the remainder providing a reception area and office, a restroom and plenty of storage. The term culinary workshop refers to a communal effort in which the art of cooking is opened to a group of people, it is no longer a hidden process but a revelatory action in which the chef divulges the secrets to the participants. This participatory action condition evokes a ceremonial assembly that, together with the conformity conferred by the cast-iron column, suggest the configuration of a space around the act of cooking. We proposed then, a shape curled around the column that polarises the space, emphasising its centrality through multiple circular and concentric shapes around it as the maximum expression of the meeting space.
THE BOUNDARY AND THE MARGINS
The central volume of the culinary workshop is defined by a curved ash wood screen whose geometric centre is the cast-iron column. This boundary created the secondary spaces that arose between the convex face of the circumference and the limits of the premises for the necessary other uses. It offers a clear reading of the space in which secondary areas are displaced to the margins and integrated into the curved geometry, avoiding the proliferation of elements that cloud and compress a reduced space like this one. At a determined height, the curved face of the screen stops and the supporting muntins behind continue up then point in to the central column. Thus we build a structure that allows us to create an enveloping atmosphere that also veils the secondary installations and the reinforcements of the existing structure.
THE FLOOR OF THE HANDS
The Spanish philosopher Gustavo Bueno maintained that the table is "the floor of the hands", an anthropological consequence of our evolution that had to provide a surface for craft once the hands were released from their motor function. The table is a raised floor. Thus, the table for diners and students (created together with Ignacio Sánchez Martín and Nicholas Chandler) embraces the cast-iron column and presided over by the chef's table, full of instruments and materials like that of a sculptor. The surface height is variable to accommodate the acts of cooking and eating. It was made with wood from the streets of Seville: orange tree, robinia, cypress, melia, olive tree and grevillea, some of American and Australian origin, reclaimed after the annual pruning or after being felled by high winds. Wooden screen and table make the space up, so we can speak of an installation rather than built architecture, in which the relationship with the existing column is more in opposition than in interaction, acknowledging its presence but without exposing it excessively. It will also be a reversible installation which can be moved at any time, adding a transient layer to the history of this place without it being permanent.
