Hasta La Ideas

French architect Philippe Starck has created a red cube to house the LA Almaraza olive oil mill, museum and restaurant in Andalusia, decorated with symbols referencing the area’s heritage.

Surrounded by groves on a 25-hectare estate near Rona, the building was designed for oil producer LA Organic as part of a wider project to boost oleotourism – tourism based on olive oil production – in the region.

Starck finished the otherwise plain building in large symbols celebrating the “magic and poetry” of the area, including a bull’s horn in Corten steel and a carved eye referencing the area’s historic connection with the surrealist movement.

“LA Almazara itself is surrounded by acres of olive groves, bathed in powerful and warm lights of Andalusia,” Starck told Dezeen.

“This gives a kind of sense of the radicality I had to come up with for the project,” he continued. “Everything had to be out of the ordinary, out-of-scale, a little strange and surrealist. The place is full of fertile surprises that reflect Andalusian symbols.”

“On the outside, it is a huge monolithic red block, as if fallen from the sky,” added Starck. “An enormous eye at the facade illustrates the vigilance of the great Andalusian surrealist artists, the smoke that emanates from it is totally surrealist and reflects mystery.”

The interior of LA Almaraza is designed as an “inhabitable work of art”, continuing the oversized, sculptural symbols found on the exterior.

Its restaurant area sits beneath a suspended metal pipe and funnel that allude to the production of oil and a wing-like form that references the Andalusian scientist thought to be the first human to fly.

A small seating area around a fireplace is positioned beneath an oversized bullfighting sword leaning against the wall, while the horn and half-olive forms on the exterior also project inwards below a large mural that covers the entire ceiling.

This space opens onto a terrace that cantilevers out from one side of the building, appearing to be supported by large metal chains. It has views of the landscape that provide a dramatic contrast to LA Almaraza’s dark interior.

“As soon as you enter, you are struck by the contrast in lights. In the building, it is dark and cool, to respect and enhance the delicate process of olive oil production,” said Starck.

“Yet the inside shadows hold strong symbols as well, such as monumental half-olive embedded in the rusty steel wall, a metal pipe penetrating the building without ever coming out,” he added.

Across the other two floors of the centre are a museum space and facilities for the production of extra virgin olive oil. Outside, the building is surrounded by a wider programme of walking trails, sculptures by Starck and other visitor facilities.

Other architectural projects recently completed by Starck include the renovation of a hotel in Saint-Tropez that draws on mid-century references and a São Paulo penthouse inside a tower by architect Jean Nouvel.

The photography is by Alfonso Quiroga Ferro.

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