LUX Autumn 2018

84 Ruiz Pardo - Nebreda is a Madrid-based architecture practice founded by Marcelo Ruiz Pardo (architect) and Sonia Nebreda (building engineer) as a multidisciplinary team operating worldwide attending to an appropriate balance between local knowledge and global expertise. Established in 2011 by Marcelo Ruiz Pardo (architect) and Sonia Nebreda (building engineer) as a multidisciplinary team operating worldwide attending to an appropriate balance between local knowledge and global expertise. This approach requires intensive research to ensure that the projects are completed to the client’s satisfaction. Which is why the award-winning team adapt their projects to any normative framework and language. The firm understands the architectural design as a comprehensive activity. This holistic approach ensures perfect coordination between disciplines and avoids extra costs during the construction phase. The start of the project is marked by a series of visits to the project site to understand the requirements of the client, the future users, the location and the local environment in the broadest possible sense. It is about building a context on which to start working, as Marcelo explains. “Good design is not only the correct integration of functional requirements or valuable performances. It has to be touching, to connect with the user’s needs and to build a new reality around it. “From there, we open work paths in parallel, offering different alternatives to the client on each aspect of the project. In this way, the process is enriched with new variables on issues of local construction, structural systems, concepts of private and collective space or energy. Little by little this development in parallel is finding points of confluence to develop one or more proposals. These are projects built by layers. “Throughout the process, the client participates in all the decisions with the aim of making him feel identified and satisfied with the project.” When discussing the firm’s overall aims and the strategies, Marcelo informs us of how the practice pursues to provide architectural and engineering services worldwide. To become a trustable company, the team have to consider the following three factors are essential to achieving it. “The knowledge of international best practices is decisive in the adequacy of the proposals that generates a high added value adapted to the values of the territory on which it sits. “The ability to generate an integrated approach from a truly multidisciplinary team is critical to perform a correct analysis and a subsequent development of the proposals. “Ruiz Pardo - Nebreda is committed to transparency, and all aspects of design and management are accessible to the client anytime and anywhere.” Recently, Ruiz Pardo – Nebreda were selected in LUXlife ’s 2018 Leading Designers Awards, in which they were righteously awarded the accolade Most Innovative Architecture Practice – Madrid. Speaking of the win, Marcelo highlights what the award means for the team as well as pointing out some of the firm’s most successful projects to date. 1809LU05 “It is a great honor for us and also for our clients. It is a high recognition to our work and to the way we understand our profession, and that makes us feel very proud of all members of our committed team. Although we have completed projects in several countries, we are a relatively small emerging practice. This award represents a great boost for us and helps us to consolidate our firm and make it more appealing for potential clients. “Puma Energy Headquarter in El Salvador may be our most successful project to the date. There we explore some topics we are interested in, as the integration of the public or collective space within private programs, the climatic adaptation of the buildings to the different locations or the research linked to the relation between structure space and materiality. “In El Salvador, we discovered that trades, tales such as blacksmiths or cabinetmakers, maintain a strong tradition between generations. Project solutions were industrialised ones, but we modified them to take advantage of this artisanal potential. The building site itself became a large craft workshop where the industrialised systems were transformed and integrated in an artisanal way. We do not understand technology as the opposite of the artisan, but we try to put its fusion into practice.” Looking ahead to what the future holds, Marcelo signs off by revealing some of the plans that are in the pipeline for the firm and what changes he foresees within the industry. “Luckily opportunities appear all the time as the world is continuously changing. Some new challenges come from the new way we use the cities and the impact it generates in public space. New demands and new services are here to stay related to the touristic use of the urban space, the mobility of the people within the city, the new ways for delivery of goods, or the appearance of the industry 4.0 in the existing urban fabric, for example. Significant changes are to come, and this is an exciting opportunity to generate new scenarios from a multidisciplinary approach towards more sustainable, flexible, diverse and inclusive environments. “Moving forward, every new project is a new adventure as it is usually in a new environment. At this moment, we are completing an office building in Puerto Rico. Also, we are in the first stages of a touristic development in the Dominican Republic and other office building in Nicaragua.” Contact: Marcelo Ruiz Pardo Company: Ruiz Pardo - Nebreda c/Azalea 404, Madrid, 28109, Spain Telephone: 00 34 609546310 Web Address: www.ruizpardo-nebreda.com Built by Layers