From Individual to Collective

Luis de Felipe”Architecture is not about a building; it is about people and all the inhabitants that make the building alive. It is not about creating spaces but how people appropriate them.
The Burning City –
El Escorial, more than a building, was thought of as a city – a city that, in so many ways, was much more important the building itself, more than the inhabitants. But there are some moments when the inhabitants found that the most important actor in this city was them. And that moment was the fire. The fire brought the basic instinct of survival, and people were not trying to save the city but their lives and their most essential belongings.
The Industrial City –
The massive building in the middle of Poblenou was created only for industrial purposes, as the city was thought. The sensation of walking inside the building is complex, with long and deep corridors without natural illumination or ventilation – free spaces where you can only see the columns in between, and only small openings in the facades that face the city, but you do not feel part of it. However, the city changes and people start transforming the building according to their needs. The industrial building seems from the outside as it is, and in the interior, although there is more diversity, the industrial memory remains.
“Re-order” –
The flexibility of building by determination expectation of usage means that space is not determined by the building but by the inhabitants. They mediate this spatial envelope and living practice by implementing little architectures, as we learned in El Escorial. These architectures sometimes are the only furniture to create a new program for the building and have this opportunity of flexibility so they can transform the space.”