The Colour of Clay

Project

Valencia Residences

Status

Competition

Type

Residential building, 19 apartments

Year

2016

Location

Valencia, Spain

Credits

Marin Marinović
Pablo Barquero
Žarko Uzelac

A corner building in the historic centre of Valencia, housing nineteen apartments over a glazed ground floor.

The project is built around a single material: the traditional clay brick of the region, reworked through its colour. Metallic oxides are added to the clay before firing: iron oxide warms the body toward earth and rust, while manganese darkens it and leaves fine charcoal speckles on the surface. Fired at high temperature, each brick comes out slightly different, and the wall reads as a woven texture of ochre, grey and chalk rather than a flat surface.

This is what lets the building be clearly contemporary while still belonging to the street. It shares the scale, the rhythm of vertical openings and the mineral palette of its neighbours.

Deep black recesses cut into the volume form loggias and terraces, turning the corner into a play of solid and void and giving each home a sheltered outdoor room facing the city.