Renovation of the "portaviones" building on San Sebastian harbor by Vaumm arkitektura

Project description by VAUMM arkitektura

In 1943, the engineer Luis Tolosa built a reinforced concrete structure in the port of Donostia - San Sebastián following the logic of the modern movement. An austere pavilion, just a large deck, to store the wooden boxes used by the fishing fleet. The deck in turn served as a platform for the repair, cleaning and drying of fishing nets. That large deck that flies tuning with respect to the supporting structure of corrugated beams and pillars, was undoubtedly the most representative element of the building, which made the building popularly known as the Aircraft Carrier.

In 1988, the project underwent a total transformation, using the old structure as a support for a building, which would close the old roof by adding facades and generating diverse interior spaces.

The project completed in the year 2019, is considered almost as an archeology exercise that tries to restore, eliminate those parts that blurred the original project, returning as far as possible the prominence of the building to the original structure and its large roof. To host the program proposed in the contest, a series of volumes that echo the stacked wooden boxes that initially occupied that place, fragmentedly, are placed under cover.

In that sense, the project can be summarized as the sum of two operations, one for cleaning and the other for the construction of some closures, of new facades.

These new facades are proposed as a continuity with the logic of place and context, but from a purely contemporary perspective. In that sense, ceramic is used, a material widely used on the facades of fishermen's houses that overlook the city's port, for its ability to withstand the saltpeter and hardness of the Cantabrian Sea. And on the other hand the white color is used, an iconic color represented in the Real Club Náutico building just 100 meters away, and perhaps the most emblematic Modern Movement work built in Spain.

Ceramics are treated here as a three-dimensional piece, which vibrates in six subtly different targets, some of the pieces being matt and others with a gloss finish. On the one hand establishing that relationship with these two nearby architectures, the popular and the cult represented in the context of the port of the city and on the other hand looking for a phenomenological effect, that makes the facade function as an independent element of the roof and the original structure. In the most transparent parts of the building, ceramics become a lattice element, which maintains the continuity of the color and scale of the pieces.

Through this simple mechanism of the asymmetric triangle, a variability is introduced that allows the individual reading of each of the pieces. Unit and assembly similar to the wooden boxes that were stacked there. Besides the movement of the sun, the changes of the light and the seasons, as well as the reflection of the rain, give the facade a changing aspect. Full of nuances and brightness, as well as the surface of the sea against which the building is situated.

FAÇADE

In this sense, the lining of the envelope aims to integrate the building with the buildings of the pier, and participate in the changing reflections of water and light. For this, it has been considered appropriate to use ceramic pieces with relief, by means of an own design for the building of the Lonja, in which the 6 variations of shades of white and enameled, contribute vibrations to the composition in checkerboard.

The ceramic pieces, of constant size 18cm x 40cm seen in elevation, and with triangular relief, allow their placement in a turned position, and are organized in bands and spins, to be able to complete the canvases and openings in the facade without needing to fracture any of them for its implementation.

The envelope also has areas that require more exterior lighting, combined with some privacy inside. This is resolved with the incorporation of vertical lattice pieces, a hollow rectangular piece of constant dimension 6cm x 6cm x 40cm. These pieces are set in a stainless steel upright-bracket with variable separation, which gives the whole an idea of ​​unity and material continuity.

The design and commissioning of the ceramic pieces has been studied together with Cumella Ceramics with the solvency of its long trajectory in the design, supply and assembly of the author pieces.