Anna & Eugeni Bach, Architects

Sticks & Stones Installation

Sticks & Stones Installation
Cortesía de Eugeni Bach, Javier Antón

STICKS & STONES INSTALLATION

Anna & Eugeni Bach

CLIENT
Concéntrico / Festival Internacional de Arquitectura y Diseño de Logroño

YEAR
2020

MATERIAL
Garnica

COLLABORATORS
Mariana Vala (A&EB)

CATEGORY
Installations & Structures

LOCATION
Logroño, Spain

CONTRACTOR
Prosma

Text description provided by architect.

An intriguing artifact can be found in the San Gregorio Cellar.

At first sight, it appears to be a wooden wall that blocks one’s path and occupies the entirety of the barrel-vaulted space.

Sticks & Stones Installation
Cortesía de Eugeni Bach, Javier Antón
Sticks & Stones Installation
Cortesía de Eugeni Bach, Javier Antón
Sticks & Stones Installation
Cortesía de Eugeni Bach, Javier Antón

Clearly, it is an external element; the fact that it is made as a plywood scaffolding reveals that it is somewhat unstable, and probably, temporary.

It appears light and removable, both due to its shape and the materials of its construction, while on the other hand, it presents the same shape as the space it occupies, which is in contrast stonelike, heavy and stable.

Up close, it is discovered that the wooden wall allows passage through, as it moves to one side to allow for a crossing to the other.

Sticks & Stones Installation
Cortesía de Eugeni Bach, Javier Antón
Sticks & Stones Installation
Cortesía de Eugeni Bach, Javier Antón
Sticks & Stones Installation
Cortesía de Eugeni Bach, Javier Antón

Therein lies a curtain to be drawn in order to enter, and all of a sudden, a complete change of space...the ashlars, the stone, and the vault… the cellar becomes something else entirely; a light, festive, ephemeral and tectonic space.

One can traverse this new space and upon exit confirm that the cellar remains as it was, immutable and stonelike, though the mind retains the altered space just crossed.

After the experience, both spaces, stone, and textile, heavy and light, vaulted and catenary, severe and festive, stereotomic and tectonic, overlap and allow for an understanding of the cellar that reflects both its reason for being and its opposite.

Sticks & Stones Installation
Cortesía de Eugeni Bach, Javier Antón
Sticks & Stones Installation
Cortesía de Eugeni Bach, Javier Antón

As stated in Lewis Mumford’s famous book on the history of American architecture, once space is apprehended in its essence, everything can be summed up by what it contains: “sticks and stones”.


Sticks & Stones Installation
Cortesía de Eugeni Bach, Javier Antón
Sticks & Stones Installation
Cortesía de Eugeni Bach, Javier Antón
Sticks & Stones Installation
Cortesía de Eugeni Bach, Javier Antón
Sticks & Stones Installation
Cortesía de Eugeni Bach, Javier Antón
Sticks & Stones Installation
Cortesía de Eugeni Bach, Javier Antón
Sticks & Stones Installation
Cortesía de Eugeni Bach, Javier Antón


Sticks & Stones Installation
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Sticks & Stones Installation
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Sticks & Stones Installation
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Sticks & Stones Installation
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Sticks & Stones Installation
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Sticks & Stones Installation
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Anna & Eugeni Bach, Architects
T +34 932 002911 F +34 932 02998
Anna & Eugeni Bach, Architects
Carrer d'Hercegovina, 24, Distrito de Sarrià-Sant Gervasi, 08006 Barcelona, Spain