Designed by Emiliano Lopez Monica Rivera Arquitectos, the strikingly cubist Hotel Aire de Bardenas borders the Bardenas Reales de Navarra, a spectacular natural park with semi-desert landscapes in North-eastern Spain.
The single storey Hotel Aire de Bardenas is sited on a wheat field, the arid Bardenas on one side and the cultivated fields lining the banks of the Ebro River on the other. The hotel is about three kilometres from Tudela, the region’s second largest city after Pamplona.
Architects Emiliano López and Mónica Rivera were briefed to build the hotel using entirely dry-construction and to work as much as possible with steel elements due to a collaboration with an excellent local metal worker.
A system of metal sandwich façade panels with a rigid foam core was used. This method of construction was chosen because of its fast assembly time, the metal fabricator’s prior experience in handling this material and its excellent thermal insulation qualities.
The steel elements and façade panels were prefabricated at the metal shop while the site work, installations and concrete slabs were being completed and later assembled on site. The building was completed in 12 months.
A strong characteristic of the site is its exposure to very strong winds, hence the name of the hotel: “air” in Spanish. Due to the climatic conditions, the architects conceived the hotel as a succession of protected and comfortable interior spaces from which to contemplate the excellent views.
The architecture, interior spaces and landscape design, seek to bring the dweller close to the rural and austere character of the surroundings by providing simple, generous and silent spaces.
Recycled, large wood containers typically found in Tudela's crop fields for fruit and vegetable recollection and transportation were employed as windbreakers for the hotel's outdoor spaces. They stop strong wind while allowing air to pass, need no foundations or fixings, are easy to move and were very economical.
From the exterior, the hotel intentionally blurs with the surroundings. It presents itself as a lightweight construction that can be dismantled and recycled, recalling the local agricultural constructions, such as barns and vegetable coops found in the area.
In its arrangement, the hotel keeps the forms of the noble constructions found in the riverbank area, the Ribera, which developed around a central court, offering climatic protection. For the hotel, the central court is generated by a series of orthogonal constructions that are open to the southeast, where a plantation of poplar trees and pool are located. The back faces the strong north-west Cierzo wind. The building is composed by a series of simple monochromatic cubic structures. Their dispersed arrangement allows views through the interstitial spaces, minimizing a massive appearance and generating an animated play of light and shadow.
Through an ordered plantation of white-flower cherry trees, one enters the hotel's main body which houses the common areas – reception area, main hall, meeting room, bar and restaurant – and 10 rooms with private patios, each with a fruit tree. The rest of the rooms are freestanding pavilions with large projecting windows overlooking the open landscape. Access to these rooms is through an exterior walkway, providing them with a private and privileged character by their being right out in the wheat fields.
The treatment of the exterior spaces, translate the characteristic forms, colours and vegetations of the Bardenas desert and the surrounding irrigation fields: ordered plantations of fruit trees, vegetable gardens, scattered placement of aromatic plants such as rosemary and thyme.
Ground surfaces were covered with local reddish earth and boulders extracted from the site, which mark the limit between the wheat plantation and the hotel. Smaller boulders and pebbles were also used as aggregate for the exterior and interior polished concrete floors, resulting in particular terrazzo finish, close to the ground surfaces found on the Bardenas desert.
Upon entering the rooms, separating the entry from the sleeping area, one finds a vestibule-like space with a freestanding and open furniture piece that offers a comfortable and generous place to leave belongings and avoid having them visually cluster the sleeping area. It also contains the mini-bar, safe and shelves with outlets for recharging electronic items.
The toilet has its own separate space with door. The shower or bathtub is adjacent to a window (or a door in the case of the rooms with private patio) and to the bed area, which is separated by simple airy white cotton curtains. The bathtubs, shower plates, washbasins – fabricated in folded and powder-coated steel sheet – and most of the furniture were designed by López and Rivera for this project.
In order to reinforce the idea of the rooms as protected outdoor-viewing devices, they created projecting windows with no visible frame from the interior. The windowsill’s depth is exaggerated and lined with plywood to conceal the metal frame and solar filtering devices that roll down electrically. These spaces can be used for reading, watching television or contemplating the views.