Javier García-Solera: proyectos no construidos. Concursos EUROPAN 1988 y 1993

Abstract

The study deals with the analysis of two projects that marked the beginning of Javier Garcia Solera’s architecture career. The two buildings, none of them built, were part of the EUROPAN competition: EUROPAN 1 in Burriana (1988), awarded with the 1st prize and EUROPAN 3 in Giubiasco (1993), which received a special mention. The two projects are analyzed through a rigorous re-construction which allows to recognize common criteria regarding the way they acknowledge the place, program and functional organization. Solera´s design is composed by three types of housing modules, one with one single floor and two with two floors; whose grouping generate an specific relation with the city. The linear and repetitive organization of the housing modules varyaccording to the urban context, in one case applied towards urban planning and in the other case the applied system towards projecting a building, both can be applied in architectural and urban context. Through the form analysis of the Burriana and Giubiasco buildings, the research contributes with a typological study that recognizes the influence that these projects had in the author’s future work. In that order, the research compares ten different García Solera projects, looking to confirm that the common elements in the EUROPAN buildings tend to be repeated by the way he organizes his later projects. Thus, this study converts the study cases into project material