chrYsalis

Donostia / San Sebastián, Spain

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chrYsalis

Donostia / San Sebastián, Spain

Firm

EHU

Type

Cultural › Pavilion

STATUS

Built

YEAR

2025

SIZE

0 sqft - 1000 sqft

BUDGET

$0 - 10K

Photos

Edu Espinosa (9)

Building castles in the air.

This is the idea behind this work. It is the theme of the MUGAK Architecture Biennial, held in 2025 in the Basque Country (Spain).

The chrYsalis pavilion is the result of this quest: the desire to explore the process of making the intangible tangible. It is a research for constructive lightness, the materialisation of an architecture that lies on the borderline between what is drawn and what is built. The search for a utopia.

The history of architecture is a sequence of transgressive gestures: stubborn attempts to build utopias. Matter is inseparable from architecture. The idea, weightless, inevitably faces weight.
Building in the air — building castles in the air — involves the challenge of turning the immaterial into matter, of giving body to the imagined.
Building is, in essence, drawing: tracing what we wish to dominate geometrically. But building in the air requires drawing in the air.

Based on the geometric principle of Monge's surface, the project generates a path aligned with the axis of the nave where it is located, covered by a double-curvature surface discretised by a network of warped curves.
It is the result of previous research into the construction of free-form surfaces using simple construction systems.
In this case, only two basic materials are used: 6 mm diameter steel rods and cylindrical steel joints, all of the same type, which allow the bars to be fixed orthogonally, following the same geometric principle of generation. The development is based on a parametric system that can be applied to any type of surface that follows the same generation system.

Its assembly, location and layout are carried out using augmented reality technology, merging digital precision with physical matter in a single construction gesture.

The space chosen for the construction is the nave of the church of the former Franciscan convent in the city of Donostia-San Sebastian (Spain), now the Anthropological Museum. The almost magical location allows for the visual superimposition of the lines that make up the pavilion with the ribs of the vaults that cover the nave.

‘Things are nothing but the envelope of the invisible.’
Rainer Maria Rilke

Idea, Development and Direction:
Francisco González Quintial, Dr. Arqto. ETSA-AGET UPV-EHU

Model Construction, Fabrication, Manufacturing and Assembly:
Edurne Argandoña Senosiain,
Thais González Amor,
Leticia Ochoa Rotaeche.
ETSA-AGET UPV-EHU
Luis Gurruchaga Zabala. FabLab Donostia ETSA-AGET UPV-EHU.
Jose Real Cambas, Arqto. The Real Studio

Colaborators:
Andrés Martín Pastor, Dr. Arqto. ETSIE. Universidad de Sevilla.
Alvaro Lopez Rodriguez, Dr. Arqto. The Bartlett School of Architecture.

Photo:
Edu Espinosa
Project Supported by:

Basque Goverment, Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Higher Technical School of Architecture. University of the Basque Country.

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Francisco Gonzalez Quintial

Idea, Development and Direction

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chrYsalis

Donostia / San Sebastián, Spain

chrYsalis

Donostia / San Sebastián, Spain

Product Spec Sheet

Collaborating Firms

Team