THE BUNKER
There comes a moment when spaces stop being what they once were.
In a subtle way, looking through the past, we realise that El Búnker was one of those places. What used to be a gathering spot tied to the village festivities, where long afternoons with friends were spent, now seeks to evolve and grow alongside the people who gave meaning to it. A time capsule that is now transforming, as if we had walked in circles and somehow returned to the point of origin.
The intervention builds on the preexistence: the original scale, its relationship with the street and the patio, and a simple floor plan. At this point, the space is updated so that the former Búnker can continue to be part of the lives of those who inhabit it today.
The house is located in Los Montesinos (Alicante, Spain), in the heart of the city center, on an elongated plot tightly sandwiched between other buildings. It is organised longitudinally, with a patio at one end acting as the central point where the main rooms of the house open, allowing for that special relationship with the exterior.
During excavation, the caliche – the local calcareous crust - was revealed, with all its layers exposed. Rather than hiding this stone again, it is incorporated on the project at precise points as a reminder of the original element.
Over time, the adjoining dwellings have been growing in height, and the house seeks light by two geometrical openings up through the roof. These new openings allow sunlight to reach the level of the stones, bringing the rock, the light and the path of the sun into direct relationship. Throughout the day, the light moves across the rocks, making the passage of time visible inside.
The floor plan is organized more as a line of chained spaces, than independent pieces. The programme is a composition without corridors; boundaries are blurred and a sequence of routes leads to the different rooms. Circulation and ways of living become intertwined: one passes through the rooms to move around the house, which works as a shared space rather than as an accumulation of independent rooms.
Towards the street, the house scarcely changes. The traditional tirolesa plaster plinth is preserved, as are the marble on the window frames, and specially, the large garage door that allows the house to open up to friends, just as the former Búnker did in its early days, so that the interior also becomes street. It continues the local way of living at ground level. Inside, plaster walls are combined with the textured gotelé ceiling and a continuous concrete floor that unifies the floor plan and serves as a neutral base on which, at certain points, the calcareous crust reappears.
