Land-Architectures
We have imagined shelters for travelers
Those crossing this place, a high-altitude desert
Where the infinite expanse of sand meets rocky outcrops
We have named them Land-Architectures
They borrow the essence of a land art piece.
Like the affinity with minimalism and geometry.
They are both archaic and contemporary.
They use the mineral quality and energy of the environment they inhabit.
Their design integrates the process of creation.
The land-architectures are autonomous and in-situ,
Intrinsic to the site that hosts them.
They are architectures open to the horizon.
They invite travelers to simultaneously
Experience the outside and the inside.
They inhabit their environment and converse with it.
They embrace the topography, adapting to it.
The land-architectures make the landscape their alter ego.
Here ... a landscape of narrow valleys
surrounded by rocky outcrops
that suddenly open onto inland expanses,
then again crevices
that lead to other expanses.
Emergences direct views
and orient visitors.
They are points of anchorage and orientation,
inherent to the valley that shelters them.
Supported by rock monoliths scattered across the ground,
massive roofs shelter and gather travelers.
The roofs rest on hybrid monoliths
rock and concrete
The sandstone rock fuses with the concrete casted on site.
Concrete belongs to its environment.
It is made from the site’s own aggregates.
The production of hybrid monoliths
is an experimental process
that crystallizes the encounter
between nature and architecture,
between archaism and the contemporary.
The roof protects and cools,
collects energy and creates shade,
illuminates at night and creates air flows.
It frames the landscape.
They are thick, polygonal plates.
Like plate tectonics, they are juxtaposed
with a variety of inclinations.
Daylight penetrates the heart of the architecture
through the interstices between the plates,
forming patios with views of the starry sky at night.
The roofs and monoliths incorporate in their thicknesses
all the technology and tools necessary
for the use of the inhabitants,
sink, shower, immersible solar panels,
curtain rails, hooks for steam rooms.
At night, the roof becomes a new floor,
Suspended,
facing the expanse of the desert
and the immensity of the night sky
immersing visitors
in the twinkling of countless stars.
