Most people do not make decisions on impulse. I’m not talking about deciding whether to order a beer or a wine when the waiter catches us unexpectedly. Rather, I’m talking about those decisions that will set a direction in our lives: to stay or leave with our partner, to choose our profession, to choose “the” place to live or “the” company to work for.
A little before the pandemic, a couple of assignments came to us with some special characteristics:
One of them was about the reconception of an apartment in Barcelona’s Eixample, One of the members of the couple suffers from Parkinson’s since very early age and needed us to pay special attention to the functioning and materiality of their house to meet the limitations imposed by a disease that advances mercilessly.
The other was a house at the foot of Cornudellas de Monstsant, for a young Filipino-American couple, fanatical climbers, who had chosen Alforja as their place in the world, and had just bought two hectares in the middle of the countryside, without any urban services at the foot of the plot.
In both cases, the priorities of the project were not a certain formal style, nor to choose “trendy” materials and equipment, nor to look for the best price, nor to get the most square meters possible….. Although all of that was present, the main priority was to achieve healthy housing that would provide physical and emotional well-being to its occupants.
We have always understood architecture as a tool to improve people’s lives, and intuitively we seek to achieve the comfort of our clients through the design of space. But these projects made us feel the need to train ourselves more intensely in concepts of bioconstruction, neuroarchitecture and bioclimatic architecture, in the search for more efficient results when designing.
For all these reasons, applying this turn in our studio was not an impulsive decision. It was not exclusively due to these two projects. The interest has always been present, but somehow Casa Moon and Alforja gave us the final push to enroll in the Master of Architecture and Health at Escola Sert, among other ways to enter the interesting field of healthy architecture.
After so many years of profession, we will continue to put interest in making a balanced architecture in all its aspects (formal, functional, economic, cultural) and suggestive, but we begin to walk a path that adds nuances and advantages. And that shouts to the four winds that Architecture ultimately serves to help us to be happy. We leave you a video presentation so that you know a little more about what this is all about.
Thanks Mateo & Octagon team for your involvement in the video. Thank you Terence and Juvelle, Enric and Mieria, (much more than clients) for your generous participation.