Open House visit at Espai Alfaro

On the weekend of October 24 and 25 Valencia hosted a new edition of the Open House festival, a benchmark event in the dissemination of urban architecture that featured Fran Silvestre Architects through the opening of the doors of Espai Alfaro, allowing visitors to enter a space where contemporary art, industrial history and current architectural practice coexist in perfect harmony.

The tour has allowed the attendees to discover the origins of the place, delving into the old workshop of the renowned sculptor Andreu Alfaro to understand its genesis and functional evolution. From the courtyard as a guiding element, where some iconic pieces stand, they have accessed the historic industrial nave designed by Emilio Giménez where the monumental sculptures were produced, touring the old metal and stone workshops, the volume later conceived as the artist’s personal study.

The visit has highlighted how the space has been able to re-adapt to contemporary needs without losing absolute respect for Alfaro’s legacy. Much of the complex is now dedicated to the preservation and dissemination of his work, while the former industrial workshops have been converted into work areas dedicated to the development of prototypes and models for the study of Fran Silvestre Architects, integrating the artisanal memory with the technical innovation of current design.

Likewise, visitors have seen that the studio currently functions as the headquarters of the MArch Valencia Postgraduate School. In this classroom, the classes for the specialization programs are taught, a dynamic space through which some of the most relevant figures in international architecture and design pass by. Subsequently, they visited the studio of Fran Silvestre Arquitectos, located strategically on its first floor, consolidating an ecosystem where teaching and professional practice share the same creative territory.

As a concluding note to the experience, the attendees have had the opportunity to closely observe a 1:1 scale prototype of NIU Houses, a systematized housing system designed by the studio itself, and to tour a carefully curated exhibition of models commemorating the twenty-five years of the firm’s trajectory located in the building facing the old workshop and also projected ten years later by Emilio Giménez himself.