Vigo University - Department of Maritime Sciences-University_LINKEDIN

Building by the sea is like building in front of infinity, in a still virgin nature

The experience reminds us of the first architect when he faced the need to dwell and looked for a place to settle, and chose a place in that still unexplored immensity where the need becomes desire, where he sees the sun rise in the morning and set at night, where the sea fills his life with color.

Designing the project for the Marine Science Station was a process that began with the sea and its need to preserve it, seeking for the building a place where the sea would be present, even without seeing it; a place where the sea would arrive, even without touching it. Its forms are not a representation, they are not waves, they are not shells, they are what the sea leaves on the shore when it withdraws, and they are also what the sea lets us do when it is not there. In this way desire and necessity come together, as in that architect when he was looking for a place for his house, making possible a small artificial world in a natural universe.

Kalzip’s X-tail system allowed the design of roof shapes to be generated by the intersection of two equal spheres with different centres. Following a model produced by a computer-aided system, the trays that make up the two spheres were formed and the result of this process was a construction and assembly procedure that ensured a perfect match between the roof structure and the roof, without the need for any corrections, thus saving production and assembly costs.