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La Muralla Roja is a housing project located in the area of Calpe in the Alicante region in Spain on a steep costal landscape. Designed by architect Ricardo Bofill and his Taller de Arquitectura, the project was built in 1973. The plan of the complex responds to a strict geometrical control: each of the fifty apartments is based on the iteration and variation of the same order, as the single rooms are arranged into squared plans and connected together in order to form a system of crosses. In the corners where two crosses touch, the kitchen and bathrooms are superimposed on each floor to materialize the central towers.
The extruded squared spaces get volumetric relevance by detaching one with the other and allowing the presence of interior symmetrical patios. Height variations as well as systems of exterior staircases and the complex geometry of the terraces all contribute to turn the rigid plan into an almost labyrinthine structure, rich with formal invention while consistent in its fortress-like appearance. A combination of stylistic and formal references from different corners of the world emerges into a sort of out-of-place and out-of-time composition where the use of different bold colors accentuates the surreal qualities of the ensamble.
Images via: Archdaily and Plataforma Arquitectura, courtesy of Ricardo Bofill.
Some photographs by Flickr user rbta2009
