Casa Errepila: hogar y estudio de trabajo, historia de una reforma exitosa

Yolanda Rodríguez, diseñadora, directora de arte y fundadora de ERREPILA Estudio de Diseño.

"Personal y profesionalmente me gusta explorar os límites como forma de autoconocimiento. 

En mi caso el crecimiento personal y profesional están muy unidos y cuando en 2013

 decidí fundar Errepila, decidí trasladarme a la antigua casa de mis abuelos para vivir y 

trabajar desde allí con el objetivo de integrar ambas facetas en un solo espacio, 

manteniendo al tiempo una relativa independencia entre ellas".

"Esta casa es además mucho más que los módulos ambiantes. Lo mejor del lugar se

 quedó fuera del proyecto de la reforma y es un proyecto a largo plazo.  El pulmón de 

esta casa y su razón de ser es el patio exterior: cielo y tierra, verde y aire, es descanso, 

un hogar felino de propios y ajenos, mi proyecto personal para los próximos años 

y el espacio favorito de los clientes para las reuniones.  Es el aire de la casa, de 

toda su historia, la de mi familia antigua y ahora de la mía propia".

"Atípico e inusual, divertido y serio, me obliga a tomar conciencia del espacio que

 habito así como la manera que elijo de relacionarme con él, en él.  Paradigma 

arquitectónico de Errepila, como Estudio la configuración del estudio es un juego que 

me permite el pensamiento creativo.  Una invitación amable para las visitas de trabajo".

"Contacté con un estudio joven de arquitectura para que me aportaran la perspectiva 

que me faltaba para intervenir este espacio y hacerlo a medida. La idea de los módulos 

fue suya y después lo bajamos a la tierra entre todos(trabajando en equipo).  Antes de 

aprobar el proyecto medité cuidadosamente cómo resolvía mis necesidades, pero el resultado

 final era una incertidumbre.  Así que esta solución fue un prototipo a escala real".

"Como un Jekyll&Hyde además de Estudio es también casa y hogar.  

Una casa acogedora, llena de vida, de gente y de vecinos".

"Se adapta amablemente a los diferentes modelos de ser y estar: sola, en pareja, con amigos 

o en familia, tanto si estoy trabajando, cocinando, descansando o con las tijeras y los collages".

The Barbican Complex, architecture and nature, London

The Barbican, London. Text by landscapelover

Barbican is an old word meaning fortification. It is a perfect name for this monumental,
modernist development in the heart of London. Covering fifteen hectares, and having 
taken twenty years to construct, the Barbican consists of more than two thousand 
high-rise and low-rise apartments with associated cultural and recreational facilities.

It was designed as a series of vast geometric blocks, all finished in the same hammered 

concrete, creating a distinctive texture and striking sense of coherence throughout the site. 

At forty-three storeys, its three high-rise towers were for a time the tallest residential 

blocks in Europe. But the Barbican is not simply concrete: its buildings are geometrically

arranged around open squares and gardens of lawns, trees, flowers, canals, massed fountains and pools.

Hidden away are roof terraces, allotments, even a wild garden. Accessible only on foot, 
architecture and landscape are linked together by raised walks, steps and pedestrian 
bridges. Cars and parking have been relegated to the concealed street level, with the 
Underground [London metro] in tunnels further below.

The Barbican was designed in the late 1950s to revive the largely deserted Cripplegate 
area of the capital that had been bombed to dereliction during the Second World War.

Despite pressure to provide commercial facilities, the City of London Corporation—

the public body responsible for this square mile of the city—decided on a largely 

residential development, wanting to attract a stable population of young professionals working in the nearby financial and cultural institutions.

It was thus never intended as social housing, but to some the Barbican feels like a 

modernist rendering of England’s early twentieth century Garden City Movement, 

which sought to create utopian communities for the working classes by balancing

 carefully placed housing with allotments and forests, and combining agriculture 

and industry, nature and the man-made, all designed on a human scale.

More obvious as an influence on the Barbican is Le Corbusier’s mid-century vision 
of high-rise developments that replaced urban slums with large, light-filled 
apartments situated in wide green plazas, integrated with public transport, 
shops, communal gardens and cultural resources.

The purpose and design of the Barbican was dramatic and brave. Yet its reputation was sullied by the general unfashionableness of modernist design and, more practically, by the impossibility for visitors of finding the major Arts Centre in its midst. 

Shobhana Tyroller: home, atelier and estate garden, Majorca

Artist Shobhana Tyroller, Belgium born but a Majorcan resident, started her estate 
garden over 20 years ago, when the family bought the "finca" near Santanyí.  
The area is an example of a Mediterranean landscape where you have to be very 
careful with the use of natives and/or adapted species, and highly concerned
with the management of water.

From the beginning she was determined to design her garden working with nature and
understanding the conditions and necessities of the area and using as much as possible
the original vegetation with touche of design.  After some years dedicated to planting,
she started to let nature work on its own pace.

The good design has paid off and now the gardens do not require hard work but, just 

some seasonal care, using ecological methods and what is most important, no watering 

at all.  The owner is very concern with inspiring others to garden in a sustainable way.

From some angles the house looks like a fortress surrounded by vegetation that also 
helps fighting the long hot summers.  Along the years she has tried different 
designs and plants and introduced some new specimens that have proved they were  
good choices. Landscape is defined in sections and areas divided by stone walls, 
green islands or flowering bushes.

One of the great surprises of the house is the pavilion with the owner's studio, that 
houses her patchwork atelier and painting workshop.

The home is also a showcase for a collection of Shobhana's and daughter Anjali's work.

Near the house, some areas where planned to offer shade and protection from the 
sun in summer days,but also work as perfect spots to enjoy alfresco dinners.

The home is organized by juxtaposition of several buildings and interconnected and respecting traditional architecture that tries to mimic colors of the land.

We can find many details of the artist's personality in the house and gardens.

A visit to the Museum aan de Stroom, MAS (Antwerp, BE)

This video was produced for the opening of the new museum in Antwerp, the Museum aan de Stroom MAS, it shows the impressive building with an architecture that resounds the old warehouses in the the district.

The interior of the building is filled with a museum, with sections conceived as visible storage, and dedicated to the city of Antwerp.  But there is also an art centre or art gallery and a meeting place.
The video is a walkthrough the museum and building.

Naharro Showroom, Madrid

Images for the project Naharro Showroom by Gimeno-Guitart Architects

Mediterranean garden hotel in winter

During past holidays and when visiting part of the family in the South of Spain I was
 invited to this wonderful place called Casa de los Bates for an afternoon tea. It was 
built in the nineteenth century as an estate and with Italian inspiration, it was meant 
to be the home for a family.

The hotel is located in a hill overlooking the Mediterranean tropical coast of Granada, 

and has been restored to maintain its origins.  Time past and the building and gardens 

were transformed into a boutique rural hotel, and is run by some members of my 

in-law family, which were very happy to show us around. 

The gardens surrounding the house show also the moorish influence both in their 

design and use of plants and trees to organize the different sections. Fountains and 

water features help creating relaxing cool areas, as a refuge in hot summer days. 

It was a very mild weather on the first day of the new year, so we had an afternoon 
tea and pastries seating by the front porch area.

A Mediterranean hotel & gardens

La Reserva Rotana is a rural boutique hotel in Majorca.  the estate dates back almost 

300 hundred years, and some 30 years ago was converted into a hotel.  Many parts of 

the estate are still working as a farm, with vineyards producing wines to be served in 

the restaurant.  The resort manages to preserve the style of the authentic Majorcan 

rural landscape and the gardens are kept to harmonize with the surroundings.