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2011 La NUCÍA (Alicante)

senior care home

la casilla

The project focused on the old Casa de Peones Camineros (the old Road Worker House) and its olive tree together with the Plaza del Casal de Juventud (the Youth Centre Square). The old infrastructure that was once the basis for new construction was recycled to prolong its life and to reduce the ecological footprint of the new social infrastructure. The Casilla home folds in, wrapping around the olive tree, protecting it from outside activity. The courtyard is the building’s pivotal element: the facilities were created and organised around it, culminating in the ultimate reward: views of the Mediterranean.

 In the mid-eighteenth century, Ferdinand VI of Spain created the figure of the Peones Camineros, the road workers, providing them with a store house at a league’s distance. The La Nucía store house was abandoned in 1920 but the elders in town made it their own, flooding the space with echoes of Mus card games and dominoes. We focused on the old Casa de Peones Camineros (the old Road Worker House) and its olive tree together with the Plaza del Casal de Juventud (the Youth Centre Square). The old building that was once a work base was recycled to prolong its life and reduce the ecological footprint of a new social infrastructure. La Casilla folds in, turns inwards and looks out over the Mediterranean. The roof unifies the works by wrapping the olive tree, previously hidden behind a wall and now inviting you through the patio, the building’s pivotal heart, around which the installations were created and organised. The interior is white, so that the attention centres on the people. Their beautiful objects adorn the shelves and welcoming tiled floor sections embellish the old section. The old part thus becomes beautiful, together with the wisest in town, who, here, can bring out the best in themselves.

 

Program

Social, Recycling, Teaching, Rural

State

Built

Client

Generalitat Valenciana

Year of Construction

2011