Ignacio Carbonell – shaping spaces

Whether he’s working on private villas in Javea, a social housing project or indeed large public and commercial buildings in Valencia, Ignacio Carbonell’s main preoccupation is always with the creation of spaces that optimise available resources and add value to the house, apartment, office or retail space in question.

“Spatial factors are particularly important to me,” admits the architect who is not only well-respected but also very well liked. “For me it is the use, or manipulation of space that defines style and lies at the very heart of architecture as a discipline.”  It all starts with the location, the genesis from which every project emanates, or should do. Ignacio studies the topography, orientation, surroundings, views and also the geology of the underlying land as a means of grasping the particular characteristics of the project in hand. “The next step is getting a clear understanding of what the client wants – how they intend to live, work or otherwise use the space. Believe me, it’s much easier working with people who know what they want, no matter how demanding they may be, than with a client who hasn’t got a clear perspective.”

A lover of clean, modern lines such as those evolved from the great masters of modernism, Ignacio is nonetheless equally at home with complicated renovation projects in Europe’s historic city centres. “One of the first jobs I did after graduating involved the renovation of a classical building in the Barrio del Carmen, in the old centre of Valencia. It gave me a certain early notoriety that is nothing to sneer at when you’re a young architect still trying to find your way.”

For Carbonell, architects are at their best when they hit fifty, when egos and experimentation subside and are joined by experience and a certain measure of wisdom. “Like an artist or a writer you go back to basics and begin to think in terms of a purer aesthetic language,” says the man who believes that an architectural work that requires too much explanation in words fails to do its work visually.

Although his approach remains a constant Ignacio Carbonell is someone who immerses himself in the parameters of each individual assignment, effectively maintaining his ethos whilst adapting his practical approach to the requirements of the project. “When it comes to the renovation of classical buildings, of which I have done my fair share, I believe it is important not only to respect the integrity of such a building and to try to return it to its former glory in as true and authentic a way as possible, but I also think it is important to go beyond that and recapture the original essence that may have faded with decades of use, compromise and in some cases neglect.

Finding spaces that produce beauty

New-built projects, far removed from the complications of restoration, allow the designer greater freedom of expression and, as Carbonell would put it, manipulation of spaces. “They certainly have their complications too, but when well conceived, modern projects allow you great conceptual leeway.” Prime examples are his modernist-inspired villas in which practicality and adaptability to the surroundings come from his acquaintance with the lay of the plot, followed by a clearly thought-out blend of spatial and aesthetic concepts in which one enhances the other.

“I love the way people like Frank Lloyd Wright brought the outside in, blurring the formerly rigid distinction between interior and exterior spaces, home and garden. In my homes I try to extend the interior through usually terrace and patio spaces, whilst bringing the natural light and sense of space of nature into the home through views and positioning.” These may not be techniques unique to Ignacio Carbonell, but as is often the case the distinction lies in how he makes use of the architectural palette of tools, positioning the elements that make up a villa, apartment or even social housing in such a way as to add practical utility and sensory quality with touches that are as simple as they are genius.

New post on at Friday, 18 June, 2010, 9:10 am and is archived in Décor/Architecture/Industrial & Furniture Design, Lifestyle, People. Subscribe to answers with RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.