VALENCIA. A place. From Valencia or near Valencia. To work or to rest in complete health. Or maybe for both things. Real or not so much. Open or completely inaccessible. Where would you spend the Valencian summer if you could sneak entirely into a district?
With this approach, some of the people who, through art, journalism and image, best relate to places, plan their summer ‘cloistered’.
Trinitat Convent
The designer Ibán Ramón He would do it in the Convent de la Trinitat, where, perhaps, he would spend a month “almost locked up.” I imagine that it is cool inside its walls. Do nothing, at most walk through its patios and read, investigate its history since its foundation, imagine the moment when the biggest sexual scandals in the city broke out there, until María, wife of Alfonso the Magnanimous, put an end to it. and final to the festival, starting the new and current convent and moving the Clarissa nuns of Gandía there. I like its location, in a quiet place (outside the walls), but close to the center. Walking north in the afternoon, I would reach Alboraya to have a horchata, and return to the bullfight at dusk. I think it is empty at present, let them give it a wipe, and in a few weeks I will be there.”
Mariano Benlliure House Museum
Virginia Lorente, director Atypical Valencia, would choose Mariano Benlliure’s House Museum, illustrating in the garden. “Painting just to paint, no commissions or deliveries, surrounded by works of art… let the muses come to visit me! And also friends, because we are going to put that paellero to incredible use. I can’t think of a better place than that garden to spend the summer, taking refuge from the heat in the shade of the trees, jasmines and palm trees, next to the Túria Garden. “Imagining long August nights sharing dinners and laughter in one of the most privileged places in the city, what a luxury!”
The same decision is made Silvana Andres, artist, co-founder Arquilecturas. “A house in the center with a garden and a painting studio suits me well. I am a facilitative and neat person, I would keep the house and the garden in good condition. I wouldn’t object to tourists continuing to come, I would invite them to lemonade and coca in llanda. In the mornings I would lock myself in the painting studio and at night I would prepare sardine embers from San Juan. I know that the smell can be annoying to the neighborhood, but I thought about inviting them to dinner and I win them over. By the way, I hope they also admit my dog Otto, he and I go in a pack, he would be so excited to walk along the Turia riverbed every day.”
L’Espai Verd
Enric Pastor (editor Manera Magazine) would entrench himself in L’Espai Verd, “always in the shade, with good books and better company, dreaming during his nap with the powerful materiality of the building and the thousands of spatial combinations of its stepped viewpoints, fountains and apartments that fit into its colossal grid. This building brings together many of my favorite things in architecture and landscape: the constructive utopias, the imposing reinforced concrete, the brutalism softened with vegetation, the modular structures that look like science fiction and incredible views of l’Horta Nord that still resists the push. of the metropolis. “It is the perfect urban oasis in Valencia.”
Axis House (L’Eliana)
While Patricia Moreno (journalist at Vogue, GQ, AD…) would expand the metropolitan scope until reaching Casa Axis. “I was not at Felipe Pantone’s famous birthday to see it from the inside, so I stick to what his images convey to me: it is a good place, without a doubt, to disconnect. If you manage not to want to photograph everything, of course. But the truth is that when I receive this question in the middle of pre-vacation burnout, I think about the comforts of a hotel and they conquer me. La Novieta, Yours or Helen Berger would also make me very happy with their pleasant stays and good WiFi connection because yes, as a freelancer, most of the summer season will be spent working. Without being a digital nomad, or anything like that.”
Moroder Building
Nuel Puig, director of nuelpuig.studio, would stay very centrally looking from the Moroder-Gómez building (1965) by Miguel Fisac. “Due to its simplicity and its history, it is one of the greatest unknown jewels of architecture in Valencia. This construction reminds me of the cover of a Fisac book that belonged to my grandfather, who was an architect, and he always fascinated me since I was little. I think that its Japanese inspiration, those unique windows and the relationship that exists with the interior-exterior make it a treasure from which to enjoy a summer on the asphalt.”
Xanadú, Calp
Looking south, David Faubell, creative and architect (faubell.iannolo), would be collected in Xanadú by Ricardo Bofill, the ‘other Bofill’ of Calp. “It has a unique architecture and its color makes it blend in with nature. What I like most about this building is the interior geometry it has, it works a lot on the curve and the impressive thing about spending the summer there would be being able to enjoy the views it has, since it plays with the superposition of different planes that frame the Mediterranean Sea and the “Peñón de Ifach.”
The Agora
TO Miguel Arraiz, architect and creative, would be found in a warehouse in La Marina, with the dismantled remains of the Agora of the World Capital of Design. “I think it would be nice to rediscover something that was a dream and that now passes the dream of the righteous, abandoned in a warehouse. spend the summer reflecting on the ephemeral, on how this city wastes synergies in meaningless confrontations. And when I’m not philosophical, I can always go out and find myself in a place as wonderful as La Marina to spend a different summer.”
Gavines I (El Saler)
Merxe Navarro would climb Gavines I. “I am in love with El Saler, a privileged environment that has everything to be enjoyed all year round. Among the options that were built at the time, I would choose Gavines I, a GODB project. Since I was little I have been able to visit and its terraces, the play of orientations, the common spaces are a must to enjoy a place like El Saler.”
