Almost ten years ago, Canary architectural practice AmP with its founders Felipe Artengo Rufino and José Pastrana (and their former partner Fernando Menis / Today: Menis Arquitectos) received acclaim far beyond their own country of Spain with their government building for the Canary Islands. A decisive factor for the international success of the team, which can be considered neither minimalist nor traditionalist, was the congenial mixture of four elements: their expressionist creative impulse, their deep roots in their home environment, the Canary Islands, their sculptural approach to architecture and the creative use of concrete as design element in combination with local materials. These vital aspects of their architecture also characterize the latest works of AmP, which are always the result of exact observations of space and locality.
The Aedes exhibition’s focus is on the athletics stadium in Tenerife which was completed this year. Fitted like a giant earth and stone embankment into the suburban context, it represents at the same time a master piece of modern high-tech architecture. The two residential towers in Añaza, 2007, which have already gained landmark character and are an example of an offbeat approach to council housing in Spain, appear like giant concrete sculptures with their slightly bent shape and their odd-sized windows irregularly dispersed throughout the façade. Other projects are the court house in Santa Cruz, 2007 (competition entry), the extension building Cabildo, 2007 and a school in Orotawa, 2005. The competition entry for the harbour area in Los Cristianos, 2007, illustrates the sensitive approach of Felipe Artengo Rufino und José Pastrana within the urban context, achieving a user- friendly transformation of this area where the city meets the sea, for residents as well as for tourist. A fundamental principle of AmP would be to understand a place as a sediment of geological and climatic forces, of industrial, agrarian and urban residue, permeated by sociological and cultural components.
Closeness to their environment and the means at their disposal enable Felipe Artengo Rufino and José Pastrana to do research in situ and thus create a clearly defined architecture. The scenic variety of the islands, in which light plays an essential role, has a strong influence on their design process. The effects of time on their work are vital to AmP. The aging process of their favourite materials concrete, stone and timber fosters a continuous natural change which accentuates the power of architecture and makes the formal and structural aspects become even more evident in the course of time.
Catalogue
An Aedes catalogue was published.
With a text by David Cohn
ISBN 978-3-937093-81-9
English
Price € 10,-
