The Marina Beach Club situated on the west coast of Mexico is a social club for people to store their boats and yachts, to go sailing, fishing, relaxing, dining and enjoying water activities like canoeing.

The marina was built in 2004 and it has been extended several times without a clear master plan behind all these additions.

The result is a rather disorganized structure with several wood huts (palapas), service areas and walkways.

Our client requested a new high-end restaurant including storages, restrooms, kitchen and eating areas.

Office spaces were also needed.

The existing palapas with their rounded shape created a very distinctive stamp among the mangrove trees.

A different and yet strong shape was required in order to create a new architectural language that could dialogue with the traditional constructions.

Five sculptured concrete boxes contain kitchen, toilets, storages, offices and installation rooms.

These volumes are connected by a paved square to emphasize their distinct character.

Two new palapas have been added to accommodate the additional eating areas of the restaurant.

A series of new wooden pathways connect old and new parts.

New landscape design helps to hold all the pieces together.

This unique project is located facing the most ancient canal of Haarlem: The Spaarne.

The 36 m long plot connects the Spaarnwoudestraat with the water.

The existing one-floor storage space facing the canal created a significant urban void.

A new volume was required to connect the existing buildings.

Our proposal creates a smooth transition from the remaining warehouses and the residential area.

It is a singular volume with the shape of a house and the dimensions of an industrial building.

Extra-large vertical sliding windows open the view of the living room towards the Spaarne.

We chose hand made bricks and hand made ceramic roof tiles  (Petersen) for the materialization of the new volume.

The heaviness of the materials contributes to the characteristic monolithic presence of the new volume.

This new facade is extended towards the roof in order to hide a 100 m2 roof terrace situated above the living room.

A grand void connects both old and new parts and it brings light towards the central piece.

Location: Haarlem, NL

Client: Private

Surface: 540 m2

Program: Residencial housing & roof garden

Architect: Laura Alvarez Architecture B.V

Year: 2018-2020

Status: Built

Photography: ©photoarchitecture.com

In 2018 LAA was commissioned to build a social housing block with 33 apartments in the city center of Amsterdam after winning a restricted competition for young architects.

The building budget was very tight.

The plot was very wide and deep.

We proposed a simple scheme which could also be transformed into big apartments if required in the future.

A very clear grid organizes the units in a symmetrical way. This grid allows combining four 3room apartments in one floor or six 2room apartments, without altering the clear rhythm in the facade.

The upper floor as it has a 360∫ facade gave us the opportunity to design panorama apartments overlooking the city.

The facade has a strong rhythm due to the repetition of its perforations.

A beautiful pattern made of glazed bricks is applied to all facades. This element together with the different depths of the openings creates a very vibrant facade.

SUMMARY

Location: Amsterdam, NL

Area: 3200 m²

Program: 33 apartments and bike storage

Architect: Laura Alvarez Architecture B.V.

Team: Laura Alvarez, Oihane Garcia Meneses, Chinouk Jongerius, Aleksandra Shopova

Year: 2018-ongoing

Status: Under construction

"I grew up in the North of Spain not so far away from Villa Slow. I have really good memories of me and my family enjoying nature. This region of Spain has many of the things I always look for when I go on holidays: Mountains, sea, natural parks, hiking, quietness, culture and rich gastronomy. But I always felt I missed here a nice place to stay… a place where you can be warm when it is cold outside and be fully connected to the outside when the sun shines. So I thought: If I cannot find it, there will also be many people not able to find it too….Let’s design and build a beautiful place and share it with more people!… Being myself an architect, it was an opportunity I could just not let go…And this is how it all started."

Laura Alvarez

Villa Slow is designed and built with extreme mindfulness and care for detail. The house is very respectful with the environment. Its design is based on the traditional typology of a Pasiego House (Cabana Pasiega) but with a contemporary twist. The rough exterior stone walls and roofs contrast with the delicate interior wooden structure and details. Two big panoramic windows in the living room facing opposite directions create a beautiful scenography of mountains, clouds, and trees. The two rooms with their generous height are designed to allow different arrangements: just a couple, couple with children, friends, etc. Each room has its own bathroom fully equipped, barrier-free.  

THE WATER

Villa Slow is situated in a very special natural area well known for its spring water formation. The water of Villa Slow comes from its own spring.

A SUSTAINABLE HOME

Villa Slow pays extreme attention to sustainability. Villa Slow is provided with a heat pump, under floor heating and high quality insulation and windows for a minimum heat loss. All electronic appliances are A+++ and all lightning based on LED technology. The  high performance glass  warms up the interior in the winter and the big wooden shutters protect the summer from heat gain. All materials used to build Villa Slow are reused from the old stone shed or come from the area of Cantabria.

SUMMARY

Location: Valle del Miera, Cantabria, Spain

Client and developer: Laura Alvarez  www.villaslow.com

Photography: David Montero

Contractor: Soal Inversiones

Wood works: Carpinteria Astillero

Program: Holiday retreat

Area: 160 m² gross floor area

Year: 2014-2017

Status: Completed

SUMMARY

Location: Amsterdam, NL

Area: 3472 m²

Program: 32 apartments for artist with dementia, cultural centre, café, doctor´s practice

Architect: Laura Alvarez Architecture B.V.

Team: Laura Alvarez, Maitane Enara, Joanna Greve, Paz Gonzalez

Client: Stadgenoot, Stichting Kunstenaarshuizen (SKh), Zorggroep Amsterdam Oost (ZGAO)

The departing conditions of this project were not easy. The plot longer sides, one faces a highway, the other one a west orientation, which means a very big impairment in order to open windows.

Furthermore, the plot is very narrow and it has a very pronounced slope.

The design brief requested office, commercial and parking spaces and public and recreational spaces.

How could we create light and livable office spaces and deal at the same time with the facade restrictions imposed by the site?

How can we integrate a working environment with commercial spaces and yet find a way to create beautiful outdoor spaces?

We took these challenging restrictions as a starting point of our design process.

We propose a sequence of public squares which are directly connected with the commercial spaces on the same level.

The office spaces are organized in the upper levels with their main entrances addressed at the public squares too.

The parking areas are located under the square. The pronounced slope of the street provides the parking with entrances on different levels. This allowed us to create

parking levels both for commercial and office users.

The facade has been designed in order to prevent direct sun radiation from coming into the building. A sequence of prefabricated concrete panels protect the facade from the sun and at the same time, the view towards the lake is emphasized.

Our project has two main goals. On one hand to transform the existing market hall into a vibrant and dynamic public space. On the other hand to redesign the derelict surrounding public space.

In order to do so, we propose a new multifunctional square with gardens and recreational areas. This new public space will also host fairs, events or gastronomical activities.

In the center of the square, a new programmed market hall will contribute to the new liveliness of the area.

The new FOOD lab

Food represents a big cultural heritage for Portugal. We have changed the way we buy, the way we eat. A traditional market can be nowadays enriched with new eating areas, spaces for gastronomic activities or weekly food fairs.

In order to create this new FOODlab, the existing building will undergo a major transformation.

A new roof creates a covered space to protect the goods and eating areas from the rain and the sun.

The ground floor in direct connection with the square is understood as a dynamic area with groceries, meat, and fish stalls. Around the central court, tapas bars and small food shops are organized. The central space is kept as a main empty space to allow sporadic events to take place. Wine tasting,  local product sales, etc could be organized in this area.

The upper floor on street level, host a more permanent program, with cafes, restaurants, a multifunctional space, and a co-cooking area.

SUMMARY

Location: Santo Tirso, Portugal

Client: Municipality of Santo Tirso, Portugal

Area: 4000 m² market hall, 25.000 m² public square

Program: New public square and conversion of the existing market hall into a FOOD lab containing a market, food court area, workshop areas, multifunctional spaces, cafe, restaurant, cooking school and cooks-in residence units.

Author: Laura Alvarez Architecture B.V.

Team: Laura Alvarez, Oihane Garcia, Leire Alvarez Marcos, Esmeralda Bierma, Arun Jansen, Mar Muñoz Aparici, Elise Nguyen, Aleksandra Shopova, Matteo Silverii, Marjolijn Vrolijk

Year: 2016-ongoing

Status: FIRST PRIZE, ongoing

Europan 13, International competition 2016

This tiny project has been designed with a dual function: an Airbnb unit and a workplace for a filmmaker.

To minimize the costs we decided to make a very compact and multifunctional volume.

The cabin has a width of 2,10 m. and contains a rollout bed, a bathroom, storage, and an office desk.

The main facade consists of a large fixed window that connects the inner space with the garden. To create a more spacious interior the cabin has a pitched roof.

For the exterior materialization, we used burned black wood. By treating all the surfaces, including the roof with the same material the volume pops up as a sculpture in the green garden.

On the inside, the bathroom and the studio room are separated with a wooden custom-made closet. Under the compact bathroom, a pullout bed is located.

In contrast to the dark exterior of the cabin, the interior is made of whitewashed underlayment plates.

SUMMARY

Location: Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Client: Private client

Area: 12 m²

Program: Studio & Living unit

Author: Laura Alvarez Architecture B.V.

Team: Laura Alvarez, Esmeralda Bierma (project architect), Arun Jansen

Year: 2016-2017

Status: Completed

Photography: Ewout Huibers