PALMA + HANGHAR insert temporary brick pavilion in an old factory's narrow passage in spain

PALMA + HANGHAR COLLABORATE ON PAVILION FOR CONCÉNTRICO

mexico-based architecture office PALMA (previous works here) and madrid-based studio HANGHAR have developed ‘types of spaces’, a temporary brick pavilion located in the passage of the old tobacco factory of la rioja in spain. created for concéntrico, logroño’s international festival of architecture and design, the project comprises a series of square rooms of 3.6×3.6m that form a spatial procession of corridors and rooms of domestic character. the rooms, inserted in the narrow and elongated passage, are built with 30x30cm thermo-clay bricks, nodding to the factory’s monumental red brick chimney in the background.

the project’s domestic scale, so far away from the public space of the city, transforms the occupant from visitor to inhabitant, ‘allowing the possibility of interacting with the installation in a deeper way’. the interior rooms provide those who pass through them with an unexpected atmospheric experience, which returns the inhabitant to an exterior condition that reminds him of the public nature of the installation.all images by luis díaz díaz

RESTORING THE OLD FACTORY TO ITS ORIGINAL UNITY THROUGH BRICK

PALMA and HANGHAR have restored the narrow urban passage to its status as a built space by consolidating the facades and giving the tobacco factory as a whole its original unity. open to the sky, the series of square rooms reconstruct the emptiness of the passage while exploring various spatial possibilities through a rotund geometry in plan. sort of programmatically generic but spatially specific, the rooms are built with 30x30cm thermo-clay bricks that give the project a familiar condition‘thanks to the use of a material so typical of the collective imaginary,’ as the two architecture studios explain.

‘moreover, the brick block is both material and spatial unit of the project, generating a system of stereotomic appearance capable of veiling its tectonic logic thanks to the massiveness of its pieces,’ the mexico and madrid-based architects add. the installation’s floor is covered with discarded brick chips that give the space material continuity while slowing down the passage of those who pass through it and providing a leisurely experience away from the bustle of the city.

the brick pavilion occupies the passage of the old tobacco factory of la rioja