Lucerna
Tortosa (ES)
2021
Lucerna is a temporary urban installation designed for the A Cel Obert Architecture Festival 2021 in Tortosa, Spain. The monumental-scale lamp occupies the central patio of the Purissima Concepció Monastery, radically transforming the 17th-century building with light and color. Lucerna is a word with a double meaning that inspires the concept behind the project. It refers to upper openings in rooms that allow natural light to enter a space, but also to a term coined by the Romans to describe ancient ceramic oil lamps that produced light in the dark—the first lamps in history. The proposal draws on the intersection of both notions, to explore a contemporary interpretation of the classic lamps that illuminated the most iconic sacred spaces in history, from the Cathedral of Reims to the Hagia Sophia Mosque. The installation is built with six wooden rings, supporting a series of LED light strips on their inner edges. Through a light structure made up of wires and turnbuckles, the piece hangs down from the cornice of the patio. Corrugated translucent fiberglass membranes cover the rings to guide natural and artificial light to the ground. When night falls, the lamp becomes a vibrant vessel of light that transforms the patio through its brightness and color. As this color overflows the boundaries of the monastery, thousands of residents are invited to discover and reactivate their city's forgotten and hidden spaces.
Authors:
Manuel Bouzas
Santiago del Águila
Lighting Designer:
Ana Barbier
Photographer:
Antonio Bouzas
Client:
A Cel Obert
Xarxa Transversal
Sponsors:
Casambi
Difusiona
The Portal
Madrid (ES)
2021
By creating an ephemeral installation at the main entrance of Vallehermoso Market in Madrid, The Portal provides an opportunity to reflect on circular economy processes linked to plastic consumption and recycling. The Vallehermoso market is an extraordinary heritage building in the popular Chamberí neighborhood. It is well-known for its fresh and high-quality products, its small businesses, which work with local resources, and the interpersonal relationships historically forged among neighbors. By reinterpreting one of the building's most recognizable elements, the portal, the project aims to raise awareness regarding the application of new production and consumption models in order to combat excessive waste generation in the future. The proposal calls for occupying the main market entry point by reusing 3,500 plastic bottles before the factory begins the recycling process. Therefore, no modifications were made to the bottles as they were threaded to the plywood to facilitate their installation and disassembly.
Authors:
Manuel Bouzas
estudio DIIR
Collaborators: Auara, Progarca, Ctrl X, Doto, Vallehermoso Market
Photographer:
Josema Cutillas
Client:
Universidad Francisco Victoria
More Than 100 Trees
Rouen (FR)
2019
In Normandy, there was a vast forest containing thousands and thousands of beech trees. As autumn began, two of its leaves flew with the wind through the woods, eventually landing in the middle of a square in the center of a town. Initially surprised by their size, the inhabitants began to occupy them: one was a greenhouse, while the other was a table. Both pieces became part of their daily lives. Under the first leaf, they planted seeds, participated in workshops, and learned about gardening and ecology. On the second leaf, all the residents displayed shows, played games, and interacted with each other. One month later, the leaves disappeared at the beginning of winter, and the only trace they left behind was the multiple plants that the citizens took care of. Consequently, they decided to transplant those trees into the same forest to help them grow. They hoped that two more leaves would appear on the same square in the same town in the following autumn.
Authors:
Manuel Bouzas
Santiago del Águila
Clara Álvarez
Juan Álvarez-Vijande
Client:
La Fôret Monumentale
Concéntrico Festival
