Basque Culinary Center, I am, have been, and always will be a cook. Perhaps not as a profession for much longer, but always in my brain. From my first day of work as a teenager I have been a cook, now I am chef who serves gourmet food and scoffs at those establishments who buy sauces and dressings pre-made. And an image and a theory supporting the image will forever stick in my brain.
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
This is not of plates stacked, stacked plates sit within one another, only the top able to carry something. The image is of sheet trays and hotel pans, stacked in a walking, stacked offset from the one below and the one above. Back and forth, back and forth. Save space, make space.
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
When I saw an image of the Basque Culinary Center designed by VAUMM Architecture and Urbanism, my mind immediately leapt back to this image. And I thought ‘how appropriate’. For this is a skill of perception which seems to elude many of my professionally trained colleagues. The skill of adaptation + creation is essential and integral to cooking and many leave whatever training they seek without it. And it can be embodied in that image.”]
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
So architecture. The building is shaped in plan as a ‘U’. The multiple stacked U’s sit within, not on top, of a vastly sloped landscape. From the top, only 2.5 levels are visible- as one descends the slope the others below reveal themselves. Held within these volumes are research and practice areas, changing-rooms, ateliers, precooking kitchen, raw and other specialized kitchens.
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
The exposed parts of the shifting layers are home to gardens for herbs and aromatics. The facades are predominantly executed in a sand coloured perforated sheet metal, creating a differential and interesting play of opacity and penetration. And one last thing: real cooks pick up hot trays and pans with a towel, not gloves.
Project info:
Architects: VAUMM
Country: Spain
Year: 2011
Photographs: Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
Manufacturers: Parklex Prodema, Ondarreta
Collaborators: Architecture PFC students, Naroa Oleaga, Ander Rodriguez
Promotor: Basque Culinary Center
Budget: 17,000,000 €
Architects: VAUMM architecture& urbanism
Project Team: Iñigo García Odiaga, Javier Ubillos, Jon Muniategiandikoetxea, Marta Alvarez y Tomás Valenciano
