40 DIGS.NET
| 9.3.2021
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P R O F I L E | O OA A
stylish but understated (and, quite rightly, under-styled). Infused
with an almost monastic calm of the honest architecture mold,
the home's clean lines and thoughtful appointments bring to mind
Belgian design. In Ochotorena, one senses a kindred impulse;
his work is that of an aesthetic naturalist with a bent for classic
decoration rather than an overt devotion to modernism. Baleares
house straddles both spheres.
Holistic is an overused term in contemporary design but still the
OOAA approach. "We make projects to the last detail," Ochotorena
offers. "The interior design is part of the whole project. Carpentry
and constructive details are key in our projects, which all have to do
with the exterior language." For Baleares house, austere materials
respond to "the culture of the island." This includes revoke mixed
with reddish soil typical of the area for walls and ceilings; natural
reddish limestone for floors; Iroko wood for the interior. "We selected
these materials in order to achieve a monochromatic space with
peaceful sensations," the architect notes. "When you leave out
color, only the shapes are expressed in their radical condition, in
their original self-being, because the color distorts them."
If Ochotorena speaks vaguely like a philosopher, then Bale-
ares house—rational, individualistic, ordered— is a product of his
architectural thinking. If not a kind of philosophy itself—worthy of
study for years to come.
ooaa.es
