THE RING: BROADCASTING LIVE

In a world where every single rendering is published, as if the image were as valuable as a built work, it is always rewarding to still find people who are new, fresh, and original. To do something that has “never been seen before” while struggling with software is completely different to producing novelty after struggling with gravity, a tight budget, bureaucracy, permits, meetings, site visits, clients, other disciplines, and all the forces of reality that we cannot “accommodate” to adjust the result. The work of Sánchez García, before anything, triggers a huge rush of optimism in the capacity to throw new light on old recurrent themes that architecture has to deal with.
His work is strong, even raw. His language is that of structures and materials dealing with reality without filters. But such power is gentle towards its contexts. In the middle of a pristine forest, he proposes a floating, ring-shaped building that seems to dilute itself in nature. In the dense historic center of a Spanish city, he builds a simple massive structure surrounding an ancient Roman temple, serving both as a backdrop and a balcony for viewing the ruins. A hermetic underground water tank is turned into a youth center with a few simple, precise operations. In each case, he considers the existing context and carefully selects from it the conditions that he will nurture and protect in contrast with the conditions that he will change through architecture. He is able to balance a language that belongs to the place with one that is refreshingly foreign, neither disappearing behind false modesty nor carelessly stamping on preexisting conditions by opening up an entirely new dimension.
It is obvious that he is not interested in producing “signature” forms. His work covers a wide range of forms and architectural languages. Whether it is a sturdy, massive stone building in a dense neighborhood or a light, metallic structure by an isolated lake, in his work there is no precut plan, no readymade form that impatiently interrupts without listening. And yet there is a kind of “handwriting” that is recognizable— mainly the directness of the construction—that allows each of his projects to establish an adult dialogue with reality. Such is the quality that we desperately need to become the mainstream for the places where we live, be it cities or nature.