Location Valencia (Spain)
Client Consorcio Valencia 2007, UTE Foredeck
Area 10.500 m²
Year 2007
Status Completed-Built
Typology Facilities
Collaborator David Chipperfield Architects
Awards
RIBA European Awards 2007
Leaf Awards 2006
Finalist of the FAD Awards 2008, “City and Landscape”
Finalist of the Stirling Prize 2007
Finalist of the European Contemporary Architecture Prize 2007
Finalist of the Mies van der Rohe Award 2007
Finalist of the IX Spanish Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism 2007
Finalist of the Saloni Awards 2007
Photography Christian Ritchers
Team Fermín Vázquez, Antonio Buendía, Peco Mulet, Amparo Casaní, Lorena Lindberg, Magdalena Ostornol, Sebastián Khourian, Juan Aibar, Anna Caffaro, Amaya Celaya, Jordi Cunill, Georg Kayser, Jaime Luaces, Francisco Marques, Andrea Rodríguez, Juan Pablo Porta, Alessandro Zanchetta, Manuel Rivas, Clara Bernadás, Daniel Valdés, Yolanda Roma, Miquel Santos, Francesca Vigano, Christian Koster
The Veles e Vents building is the icon and core of the 32nd edition of the America’s Cup regatta held in Valencia. Strategically located at the end of the harbor basin, the building becomes a privileged vantage point over the water and the regatta course, from which to follow the sporting events.
The building is composed of four rectangular platforms arranged one on top of the other and slightly offset from each other, generating shadows and uninterrupted views and achieving a perfect integration of the building with the harbor landscape and, ultimately, with the sea.
The platforms rest on four structural supports; two of them vertical and two slightly inclined, which in turn constitute vertical circulation cores that integrate the elevator and stair installations. With spans of 30 meters between supports and flights of up to 12 meters, the platforms appear to float weightlessly, generating large terraces protected from the sun.
