“The Catenary and the Arch” a Temporary Installation by Manuel Bouzas and Santiago del Aguila in Can Balaguer

Insòlit 2019 is a festival of temporary installations that opened the doors of Palma's courtyards to creativity during the first week of July. The project, curated by Aina Bigorra, Erik Herrera and Pep Rovira, wants to promote and show in an active and participative way the heritage value of the Balearic Islands, through temporary creative actions.

The fourth edition of the festival is presented in the courtyards of Can Balaguer, Can Oms, Can Bordils, General Studio Lul·lià, Cal Comte de la Cueva and Cal Marqués de la Torre. Five creations selected from a total of 76 proposals by authors from all over Europe that have been submitted to this year's call were shown.

The Catenary and the Arch, by Manuel Bouzas and Santiago del Aguila. Photograph by Antonio Bouzas Barcala

“The catenary and the arc” a Temporary Installation by los arquitectos Manuel Bouzas y Santiago del Aguila architects, in the Can Balaguer courtyard (work renovated by the architects Flores y Prats) in Palma de Mallorca.

The proposal takes as reference the arches of stone of the patio, and the opposite with a reverse geometry, catenaries formed light steel meshes, covered with acetates that project a warm light in the interior of the courtyard.

Description of project by Manuel Bouzas y Santiago del Aguila

1.   Can Balaguer is an ancient house designed by Flores y Prats around a courtyard, which is organized by the rhythm of stone arches.
2.   We are seduced by the beauty of those arches.
3.   We want to confront two opposite geometries: the arc and the catenary.
4.   One fights against gravity while the other one works with it.
5.   One requires mass while the other achieves lightness.
6.   One is compressed while the other stretches.
7.   One is opaque while the other lets light pass through it.
8.   One provides shade while the other projects its color.
9.   One grows from the ground while the other falls from the sky.
10. One was already there while the other not yet.
11. The catenary and the arc.

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Skecth. Axonometric view. The Catenary and the Arch, by Manuel Bouzas and Santiago del Aguila.

Axonometric view. The Catenary and the Arch, by Manuel Bouzas and Santiago del Aguila.

Courtyard section. The Catenary and the Arch, by Manuel Bouzas and Santiago del Aguila.

Diagram. The Catenary and the Arch, by Manuel Bouzas and Santiago del Aguila.

Sketch. The Catenary and the Arch, by Manuel Bouzas and Santiago del Aguila.

Model. The Catenary and the Arch, by Manuel Bouzas and Santiago del Aguila.

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More information

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Architects

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Manuel Bouzas y Santiago del Aguila

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Collaborators

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Clara Alvarez García, Alexander Zikan.

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Area

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Superficie construida.- 200 m²

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Dates

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2019

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Venue

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Carrer de la Unió, 3, Palma de Mallorca, Illes Balears, Spain.

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Developer

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Departamento de Cultura del Consell de Mallorca

Manuel Bouzas, Santiago del Aguila Bouzas. Del Aguila

Bouzas. Del Aguila is a Madrid-based experimental architecture practice led by Manuel Bouzas (Pontevedra, 1993) and Santiago del Aguila (Madrid, 1992). Their work is focused on designing and producing prototypes and temporary installations while exploring emerging fabrication technologies through radical structural typologies. Their work was recognized with the COAM Award 2020 for Emerging Architects and has been exhibited at both the 15th BEAU 2021 and the 16th Venice Biennale in 2018.

Manuel Bouzas is an architect graduated with honors from ETSAM (UPM) in 2018. He is currently a ‘Master in Design Studies candidate’ at Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Santiago del Aguila is an architect graduated with honors from San Pablo CEU in 2018. In 2021 he completed the Master in Design and Digital Fabrication at Barlett School of Architecture (UCL).

MANUEL BOUZAS

Manuel Bouzas (Pontevedra, 1993) is an architect and researcher established in Galicia and Boston and graduated with honours in 2018 from the ETSA of Madrid (UPM), and a Master of Design Studies at Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

His work explores the intersection between Architecture and Ecology through multiple scales and formats, ranging from the design of temporary installations to academic research. His projects have been exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 2023 and 2018, as well as at the XV Spanish Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism 2021.

He has been selected as curator of the Spanish Pavilion at the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale 2025, where he will present the Internalities research laboratory.

In addition, he has received the Premio Princesa de Girona Arte 2025, the Renzo Piano World Tour Award 2022, the La Caixa Postgraduate Scholarship 2021, and the COAM Emerging Award 2020 from the Official College of Architects of Madrid, among others. Multiple international media have recognized and disseminated his work, such as METALOCUS, El Mundo, Domus, Divisare, and Archdaily. Manuel combines professional and academic activity, having collaborated as a J-Term instructor at Harvard GSD, assistant in the Department of Architectural Projects at ETSAM (UPM), and visiting researcher at the Tsukamoto Lab (Atelier Bow-Wow) at Tokyo Institute of Technology.

Santiago Del Águila

Santiago Del Águila is an architect who completed his bachelor's and master's degrees in architecture with honors at the CEU San Pablo University, Madrid, Spain in 2018. He currently resides in Madrid and works as a designer for Nagami, a manufacturing start-up. 3D printing, where robotics are used to design and automate the production of large-scale architectural and engineering components.

His interests focus on industrial design, technology and their synergies with architecture. That is why he completed a postgraduate course at UCL focused on platforms and automation aimed at hosting, design, coding and prototyping.

He currently works for Nagami Design as a computational and mechanical designer developing tool paths and components related to manufacturing processes in 3D printing and robotics. He also works as an independent architect at Shelf_Fill, Collaborating at BouzasDelAguila and part-time with other architects such as Pedro Pitarch.

Published on: July 16, 2019

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metalocus, INÉS LALUETA

"“The Catenary and the Arch” a Temporary Installation by Manuel Bouzas and Santiago del Aguila in Can Balaguer" METALOCUS. Accessed

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