The project aims to address the heart of the vertical mobility problems in Benidorm by highlighting the significance of meaningfulground floor experiences and takes up the challenge of densification of the ground floor while exploring the extents of what the ground floor has to offer in a more speculative manner.
Background Check
Benidormis a town and municipality in the province of Alicante, Valencia, on the Mediterranean coast of Spain.
The Facts
From Horizontal to Vertical City
But what we do not realize is the actual area that is created by this verticality.
The Current Benidorm Experience
Benidorm skyscrapers flattened out resulting in the actuality of using an area that’s 30 times the actual area of the city. But what part of this area is actually used by the locals for establishing businesses to cater to the massive influx of tourists?
In a pursuit to celebrate the verticality of the city, the vertical mobility of Benidorm is now becoming increasingly exhausting.
The user travels from the tallest skyscrapers in the city to the ground only to be greeted by mundane everyday activities.
Benidorm Districts
On a macro scale, Benidorm is divided into three major districts from the east to west namely the levante beach, the old town/ the town center and the poniente beach. On zooming in a little further into these districts , it was our understanding that the levante beach consists of a large chunk of Benidorm’s skyscrapers and contributed majorly towards the high density of towers in the city. The Old town / the present town center primarily houses mid to low rise buildings with a lot of buzzing busy movement on the ground floor. So we decided to choose the region indicated for further study.
Building Heights
Region of Selection for Study
The Idea of a Unit
What Next?
Adding a layer of complexity to the vertical mobility of Benidorm by densifying the groundfloor with stimulating experiences.
The new ground floor envelops the city and creates adirect relationwith the towers of Benidorm at various heights.
The New Benidorm Experience
The new Benidorm experience aims to change the experience of the vertical mobility in the city all while creating some new and extreme experiences for the Benidorm tourist.
The units were formed by using the basic elements of a space – the slab, the wall, and stairs. The simplicity of the modules allows for maximum flexibility of transformable space and creates endless possibilities of activities to be added.
In doing so the complexity lies not within the production and assembly of the modular space but in the adaptability towards user, time of day and desired experience.
These elements were passed through an aggregation algorithm to form modular possibilities of assemblage which were then shortlisted to create meaningful spaces.
THE POSSIBLE ASSEMBLAGE
THE CHOSEN ASSEMBLAGE
AGGREGATIONS
SINGLE
10 STACKED
50 STACKED
MASTERPLAN DEVELOPMENT
MASTERPLAN
DETAILS
FINAL IMAGES
BENIDROM – Celebrating The Stratosphere is a project of IAAC, the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia, developed during the Master in Advanced Architecture (MAA01) 2020/21 by students: Disha Dineshchandra Shetty, Neslihan Gülhan, and Perniyal Waseem; faculty:Willy Muller, Mathilde Marengo; and student assistant: Adriana Aguirre Such
