Autobus Station

Autobus Station in Casar de Cáceres, Spain by Justo García Rubio

Photographs are by maría granados pérez

The design of an Autobus Station in the small Spanish town of Casar de Cáceres is an unexpected and exuberant expression of fluidity that seems to solidify movement in its concrete curves. While it brings to mind Zaha Hadid's design for a Tram Terminal in suburban Strasbourg, France - more in terms of dynamic architecture for movement than purely formal similarities - Justo García Rubio's design goes beyond the Pritzker Prize winner's restraint in a celebration of curves.

Being that the building exists as a station for buses, it functionally requires an indoor waiting area and an outdoor cover for the buses. This simple building type, often connected to other public transportation elements like train stations, has been built throughout the world with typically less-than-stunning results. In most cases, a glass box and flat projection will suffice, but that sort of response creates homogenous experiences that don't differentiate one place from another.

As opposed to simple orthogonality and distinctness, here Rubio combines the waiting area and bus canopy in one sweeping and swooping band of concrete: the floor of the waiting area bends up and over to become its roof & ceiling, after which a tight 180-degree turn starts its long journey back over itself and the buses until it lands back on the ground. The elegant and photogenic structure can only be the product of the architect's intuition and intellect, his gift to the people of Casar de Cáceres.

Beyond the striking form of the station, the concrete surface stands out, its roughness exhibiting its creation. Looking at the material's texture and formwork, one is reminded of Artengo-Menis-Pastrana, a firm who call Santa Cruz de Tenerife home. Their sculptural work further recalls Le Corbusier's Brutalist phase, but ultimately AMP and Rubio both seem to be reacting against the image-drenched, glassy & boxy architecture popularized by architects like Herzog & De Meuron, in favor of a sculptural tactility that shows the handiwork of its becoming rather than the effects of digital processes. It is a strain of architecture that is timely and refreshing, and hopefully this sexy design will garner some popularity for the architect and a renewed interest in the "weight" of architecture.

(Thanks to architechnophilia for the head's up.)