Liste des projets

Elisa Valero

  • Site : www.elisavalero.com
  • Adresse : calle Belen 17, 18009 Granada SPAIN 18009 Granada
Spanish architect Elisa Valero is the first woman to win the Swiss Architectural Award, in 2018, an international architecture award, which promotes an architecture that is attentive to the current ethical, aesthetic and environmental issues, thus encouraging public debate. It is remarkable her research on new affordable low energy building systems. My idea of architecture I began my career in México with the restoration of Felix Candela’s work, ‘Los Manantiales’ and wrote my first book at the Academia de España in Rome. Since 1997 my workplace is a small office in front of The Alhambra, Granada. My ties to the art world began in my childhood and it is thus natural that my work involves interaction with other arts. I am interested in architecture rooted in the earth and in its own time. While it is no longer stylish to speak of serving, I believe that an architect’s work is a quintessential service intended to make people’s lives more agreeable. Architecture is no place for the nostalgic, it is a job for rebels. Published books: LIGHT THE INTANGIBLE MATERIAL, published by RIBA London, 2015, Housing, 2017, La materia intangible, reflexiones sobre la luz en el proyecto de arquitectura 2004.Ocio peligroso, introducción al proyecto de arquitectura 2006. Espacios de aprendizaje 2006. La Universidad Laboral de Almería 1971-1974. 2008. Diccionario de la luz, 2008. Elisa Valero 1998-2008. Full professor at Granada University and invited professor at the Academy of Mendrisio.Visiting professor at the Technische Universität Berlin Institute für ArchiteKtur, Facoltà di Architettura de la Università di Roma Tre, Facultad de Arquitectura de la UNAM México DF, the BTU Architecture School Cottbus, The Royal Academy of Fine Arts School of Architecture, Copenhagen, Escola da Cidade, Sao Paulo. Leading researcher in the Research Projects “Urban Recycling: rezoning residential areas for sustainable development” Ministry of Education and Science R & D (2008-2011) “Recycling Neighborhoods; a sustainable alternative” a research Project for the General Office of Architecture and Housing of the Government of Andalusia. July 2007. “Experimental Applications of Energy-efficient Building Systems in Mediterranean Residential Settings”. Project involving the participation of the universities of Seville, Malaga, Granada and Jaen, 2011.Financed by Feder funds. Responsible for the research Group: Urban Recycling, Efficient Housing RNM909.

Experimental housing. Granada

This work is situated at the end of a small street that finishes in stairs, like many others on the west slope of the Mauror hill. In the upper part is limited with Bermejas towers and Carmen Blanco, and in the lower part with the square Campo de Principe. The whole complex shaped is the neighborhood of Jewish origin, called Realejo, one of the oldest in the city of Granada. The neighborhood is characterized by strongly accented topography, with up to 14 meters of denivelation inside the blocks, which allows the houses of the neighborhood to cling to the Vega de Granada and the Sierra Nevada.
As a result of an experimental project, eight apartments are built for a neighbors’ cooperative around a garden, whose wisteria and virgin vine unite with the adjoining gardens, climbing the adobe and brick wall that separates them. The pavement is perforated with small holes in regular pattern, so that the rainwater goes back to the ground. In some points, the holes change the size to allow planting smaller trees or plants. Because of the slope of the hillside, the garden is at a lower level than the pedestrian access, so the houses on the ground floor have views of the Sierra Nevada or the city’s domes.

These eight apartments are all different, tailored to the needs of the cooperatives. For the construction, it has been used an innovative system of structural element of double wall, ELESDOPA, recently patented by a professor engineer of the University of Granada. With this concrete system, the vertical and horizontal walls are both structure and enclosure, with the thermal insulation in the interior, which allows to eliminate the finishing works. That means a substantial reduction of the costs of execution of the work.

The walls, floors and ceilings are all in exposed concrete. By designing following principles of bioclimatization, energy costs are also reduced and the building is of almost zero energy, because of the great continuous insulation and adequate orientations. The system has also made it possible to eliminate the pillars and give full continuity between the garden and the parking area under the building, which is facilitating for not very experienced drivers. For the same reason, the box of the stairs has been rounded.

The exterior of the building conforms to the requirements and regulations of the historic center of Granada. It is manifested through a continuous white wall without other adornment than the windows, all the same, following the typology of the neighborhood, with no other pretension than to integrate in the place. Inside the garden on the south-east and south-west facades, the windows alternate with other larger glazed openings.

Illustration