A place of leisure and orchard. Cellar in Bañares by Atelier Atlántico

Project description by Atelier Atlántico

"Cultivate the brick, the red or the yellowish one. Use all its possibilities. Use few or no molded bricks. Do not copy details, neither Greek nor Gothic. Create them yourselves from the material".

P.V. Jensen Klint.

The proposed family cellar is in the consolidated urban area of Bañares. This village in the Oja River Valley stands out for its medieval suburban morphology, defined by a crossroads where the main street meets the path connecting the Camino de Santiago with the Roman road. The project is inserted as a natural extension of the existing house, occupying a vacant space between a large party wall and a yet-to-be-defined plot boundary. Additionally, the operation of consolidating the urban edge should help redefine the backyard, which serves a dual purpose: as a leisure area and a vegetable garden.

In Bañares, every house has a well due to the high presence of groundwater. Therefore, the first step is to capture groundwater at the necessary levels. This ensures proper irrigation for both the lawn and the garden, enhancing the primary use of this empty space as a lush oasis and recreational area for the inhabitants.

The proposed program is simple: to build a family cellar, a space for enjoyment where friends can gather to dine and taste fine wines. To achieve this, the program aims to support the main house while also creating two generous spaces for celebration. These spaces are complemented by a series of auxiliary uses that help define the urban edge. The bathroom, kitchen, storage room, and entrance threshold consolidate the urban front. On the other hand, various grilling areas, an outdoor porch, and a resting space configure the side facing the backyard.

At the same time, the project delves into the memory of this typology of constructions in the Oja Valley, particularly in Bañares, recognizing some fundamental values for the configuration and construction of the project, which are outlined below:

- The constructive typology of warehouses, drying rooms, or family cellars is always executed in brick or adobe, achieving an optimal relationship between their compact form and the material used.

- Use of a regional construction technique, the "aparejo americano". This solves the composition of a cavity wall of 35 cm, placing two rows of crossed headers (one resting on the other) and four continuous stretchers, forming a complex bond.

- Compact floor plan with few openings to the exterior and shaded spaces at the center.

- Presence of a central fireplace for heating and meeting thermal demands.

- Wooden roof structures supported by continuous load-bearing walls. A scissor truss configuration is used, recovering the specific knowledge of the valley. Structures are based on the physical limits of locally available wood, approximately 5 meters in length.

Once these aspects are understood, the project proposes a purely material approach. Everything built is structure. From the foundation to the top of the wall, clay is used as the construction material. The brick and its rules dictate the space. The space is interwoven, creating an architecture of boundaries and thresholds. An architecture perceived in fragments, in discontinuity. This approach allows the use of a common brick (acoustic brick db10 from Cerámica Sampedro in Lardero) and elevates its dignity as a construction material. Ultimately, the projected architecture seeks to explore how one inhabits the interior of clay matter.

Additionally, all available resources are utilized. For the roof configuration, laminated pine wood from Soria is used, with a section of 10x20 centimeters and an intermediate scissor truss of the same dimensions. This roof structure creates a sort of latticed space, allowing discontinuous light entry from the west. Finally, the flooring uses two materials produced in the region. Handmade bricks from the Alberite brickyards are used to configure thresholds where the wall structure has been removed, highlighting their load-bearing capacity. Terrazo, produced in Alfaro, provides a cool flooring solution for the long Riojan summers.

The cellar in Bañares is a relational architecture that, by connecting with the roots of the village and the valley in which it is situated, utilizes all available knowledge to create a place deeply rooted in local memory. In short, an architecture that weaves together memory, perception, and experience.