White architecture for a new Valencia

The outskirts of Valencia are silently changing their façade. New urban developments leave a landscape of white buildings interspersed with carpentry in shades of grey. These are tall, fat and elegant estates, as if taken from the mold, it gradually overcomes the late Franco aesthetic with the green canopy and exposed brick.

New housing developments are spreading around the historic center, according to a 1988 plan that identified areas of land that had yet to be filled. White Blocks Tour stops at PAI TuryanovaNou Benicalap, Nou Malilla, Nou Campanar, Quatre Carreres or Safranar; neighborhoods developed in homogeneous and very vertical rows.

But why are all the facades the same color? A notable example is the Ikon Tower, a posthumous project by Ricardo Bofill on Avenida de Cortes Valencianas, a 30-storey building with 203 houses clad in precast GRC panels. The current period of construction follows the line of the postmodernist architect. As Carlos Blanco, architect and head of production at Arqueha, the studio responsible for Ikon’s construction management, explains, white, gray and black architecture is associated with the desire for purity and elegance.

“This also happens in fashion: when a model appears in a white suit, it is restrained and elegant. The white color also has a sculptural quality, like the pristine marble of Ancient Greece,” emphasizes the architect. “Tonal inconsistencies are rarely liked. “We did a test: we offered the same promotion with color or with white and gray, and customers chose the second option.”

“The white color has a sculptural hue, like virgin marble from ancient Greece.”

The trend is aesthetic in nature, but also associated with the popularization of certain materials. While orange brick is losing appeal due to the lack and cost of specialized labor, white minimalism is monopolizing the market with systems such as single-layer mortar, natural stone cladding, External insulation type SATE or cladding with precast concrete panelswhich are easy to assemble and do not require special maintenance.

Architect Miguel Arraiz cites a third reason for filling the city with white facades: reducing heat and increasing energy efficiency. An avalanche of new exterior insulation technologies is taking over space inside the home. joins the color trend to comply with the European directive, which requires all new buildings to be climate neutral from 2030. Ventilated façades now abound, but for centuries Mediterranean houses coated in lime to repel the sun’s harsh rays have survived.

Obviously, in a small white town there is more photogenicity than in the peripheral PAI, whose new works, which seem copied, do not harmonize with the historical complex of the city. In this sense, isn’t urban expansion lacking individuality? The president of the Territorial College of Architects of Valencia, Marina Sender, refutes the biggest thing: “I would not say that all buildings are the same. At a quick and superficial glance, they may appear white, but there are interesting nuances. in those light-colored finishes or darker joinery where organic materials have spread. Rather, I would talk about prefabricated and industrial elements. Nowadays there is more innovation in construction, there is a lot of diversity,” says the architect, avoiding a reductionist view.

“Our memory of color is zero. Although the buildings are not the same, our brain remembers them as the same,” adds Arraiz, author of Agora del Disegno. “Color is the least important. Modular coatings leave the factory in this form and it is impractical to paint a building of such a height.. Perhaps there is less creativity in the form, but it is also impossible to fill the new territory with unique buildings. The city is growing with anonymous architecture and some notable highlights. For example, the Saler Homes residential complexes stand out next to the Roig Arena,” says the architect, referring to two volumes of NAC Arquitectos with undulating terraces —what are composite plates for? white aluminum. The project was awarded at the Future House Awards 2023.

Valencia’s new façade allows for more play with textures. “Within solids, you can use stripes or textures so that as the sun rotates, the different textures offer tonal variation,” they note at Arqueha. “You even play with a range of one color. We take three or four white ones, because it’s difficult to place a cigar.”highlight new work without adhering to the center: although there is no chromatic reference for the periphery, in the historical center PGOU usually imposes bright colors.

“Valencia Pools”

But beyond the aesthetic question, the development of these “new quarters” within historically working-class neighborhoods such as Benicalap, Patres or Quatre Carreres allows for a socio-economic reading that arguably gives rise to a wider debate. Compromís councilor Sergi Campiglio spoke at the municipal plenary about the “Valencia of swimming pools”, adapting locally a book in which Jorge Dioni theorizes about green islands built on the outskirts of cities —during the real estate boom— to accommodate the country’s so-called ambitious middle class.

Many of these units, automated and expensive, are gated units with gardens and private pools inside. They grow up isolated from their neighborhoods and with their backs to old Valencia. There are different approaches here too. “This is a model change. It is no longer a city where public space serves for coexistence, but rather coexistence occurs in private space. The street becomes a no man’s place” says Arraiz. “This isolation is actually not much greater than last time. We increasingly want to live in better conditions, and urban growth goes hand in hand with a greener and more sustainable citizen consciousness,” concludes Sender.

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