Urban waste collection centre in Huarte, Spain, by Vaíllo & Irigaray
Behind this lacquered aluminium façade, the Spanish practice Vaíllo & Irigaray has housed an urban waste collection centre in Huarte, close to the French border.
The centre draws in waste from the neighbourhood and compacts it, so that it can be taken by lorry to the region's various treatment and recycling plants. An underground network of pipes has been installed to link the different buildings to the collection centre.
The plant is fitted with turbines, settling tanks and filters; its structure was conceived as a biological analogy, with a stomach and an intestine. The building is also the product of functional requirements and the mechanics of fluids.
The main volume takes the form of the machine and the flows associated with it. Its geometry picks up the outline of the building's various organs.
“The CUSWC is a clean building. A building can coexist with the city's other uses if it does not have to hide, yet most of them are factory or industrial buildings that are blind and insensitive to their surroundings”, the practice explains. “In that sense, we wanted to give this plant a biomorphic character, one that could heighten its personality for the sake of coexistence: it is a building with a nose and eyes.”
The building's internal operation is very noisy, so the walls had to be lined with several layers of insulation.
The building is clad in lacquered aluminium sheets measuring 2.5 by 1.5 metres, a recycled material. The colour and treatment of the façade bring out the environmental character of the project.
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- © Jose M. Cutillas
- © Vaíllo & Irigaray