Materials

Plastic

Itinerary

We live wrapped in plastic. In supermarkets, kiosks, clothes shops... but also in our homes and flats. The windows through which light streams, the laminate floors we walk on, the paints that colour the walls, the cables and pipes that serve us - they all make use of plastic to make the spaces we inhabit work. And yet it is quite difficult to point to buildings that are made of plastic. Perhaps because the synthetic origin of this material, its environmental impact and its cost lead it to concentrate on all those layers of architecture that we do not usually see, such as sheeting, insulation or installations.

Interior of the Film Archive of the Matadero de Madrid - Fernando Guerra; Sergio Guerra

Itinerary curated by

Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda (MITMA)

Ministerio de Vivienda y Agenda Urbana

Means of transport

Virtual

In this itinerary, however, we will be able to walk through a series of buildings that shift the plastic towards more visible layers, and that take advantage of its capacity to take on a myriad of shapes, colours, textures and levels of transparency to envelop surprising spaces. As happens in the Matadero Madrid. Cineteca and its interior braided with plastic hoses, the act of bringing such a discreet element to the surface produces an architecture that captivates our attention.Even when the material does its best to become transparent and disappear, as in the Carpa al Restaurant Les Cols, the plastic becomes the protagonist of the spatial and culinary experience. 

Marquee at Les Cols restaurant
Marquee at Les Cols restaurant - Pep Sau

In the rest of the works on the itinerary we will find it more in view, defining the character of façades that display part of the repertoire of compositions and forms that this material offers us. From the flat, cold surfaces that envelop the Official Association of Architects of Vigo or the Extension and improvement of the Sewage Treatment Plant of San Claudio, to the rough, striated skin of the Single family home in Sanxenxo, all of them made of polycarbonate. From the large EFTE cushions that build the image of the Media-TIC Building in Barcelona, to the polyester fibre that fills with colour the Medialab-Prado or the plexiglass that dissolves the Studio en verde among the vegetation on the outskirts of Madrid.

Extension of the E.D.A.R. of San Claudio
Extension of the E.D.A.R. of San Claudio - Mariela Apollonio
Media-TIC building in Barcelona
Media-TIC building in Barcelona - Iwan Baan; Gunnar Knechtel; Luis Ros
Selgascano office in Madrid
Selgascano office in Madrid - Iwan Baan

Colour, transparency, lightness, insulation, durability... these are properties that we can synthesise as we walk through each of these buildings and become enveloped in their plastics. It is sure to be a unique experience. But not only because they are unique, high-quality works, but above all because the oil-derived nature of plastic makes it inevitable that their use will be exceptional. In the 21st century, thinking about a plastic architecture brings with it a conflict which, nevertheless, needs to be made visible in order to make it an object of reflection.

Location

Matadero Madrid. Cineteca 0bd4b9e6-8482-4467-a4da-8ba8a80089c6 Built False Tent at Les Cols restaurant 282ad52b-8f28-462d-85e5-e2d9d4ee3529 Built False Colegio de Arquitectos de Vigo 536e4213-19b0-44b8-9675-3bbd35dbd8e1 Built False Ampliación y mejora de la E.D.A.R. de San Claudio fe8efce6-d515-4f73-a816-34de14182778 Built False Single family house in Sanxenxo 75b9fa65-af0e-4de3-b5ba-899605a96563 Built False Media-ICT Building 5ddc4394-7b75-4678-b904-5c5b7698fe49 Built False Medialab-Prado 6bf097ed-edce-4420-af95-6c50104aae48 Built False Estudio en verde a9ee1c4e-d7e0-4c76-855f-460fad7e99dd Built False APROP de Ciutat Vella 4f434f38-2867-4223-8307-2aeb0cd16d2c Built False Plasencia Auditorium and Congress Centre 826d0311-a314-423e-ba72-7eb973aea2c7 Built False Centre de Recerca ICTA-ICP de la UAB 783c1f84-b0e8-4bb1-aebb-549a50e05ce6 Built False The B. Cartagena Auditorium and Congress Centre 1cba9866-8746-4fef-99ed-06175da2ce0a Built False Pabellón Municipal de Deportes en Olot dd0bc2a8-55d9-4727-8dcd-f5c5835ca7b9 Built False
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