2017 CONTENT IN ENGLISH 83 chitecture or doing Architecture? ACB: It is all the same. 17 MiC: Valladolid, Cádiz, Madrid, New York, Zurich... Where is light more magical? ACB: The sun rises every day, in the same way for every- body. 18 MiC: Adolf Loos (Raumplan), Le Corbusier (La boîte a miracles) are clearly present in your work. What is your interest in them, in particular, and as pioneers of contemporary Architecture, in general? ACB: On the topic of Architecture, they are our roots. 19 MiC: How do you get along with the lighting de- signers? ACB: A relationship can be improved. 20 MiC: Among other virtues, we have heard that you become a friend to your clients, which hints of a posi- tive complicity all through the process of project and execution – and we take it is an added value – but, in this process, what is your relationship with other more harsh topics such as regulations? Are they a strait jacket for your architecture? ACB: Contrary to appearances, I strive to comply strictly with regulations. 21 MiC: Likewise, do your clients emphasize the light- ing when they commission a project? ACB: Never. 22 MiC: The Gaspar House, The Blas House or The Tu- régano, share a common denominator: tight budgets. How can we get similar results in the lighting field? ACB: With maximum economy of resources. 23 MiC: How do you see the future of the Architecture? ACB: With great optimism. 24 MiC: And yours? ACB: Patiently. 25 MiC: We have read that you own more Poetry and Literature books than books on Architecture... Would you please, grant us a poetic quote relative to light that we can use as the perfect finale to our interview? ACB: “Let there be light”, and there was light. From the best poet. ALBERTO CAMPO BAEZA BRIEF REVIEW OF HIS PROFESSIONAL CAREER Born in Valladolid, where his grandfather was an architect, but from the age of two he lived in Cádiz, the city where “he saw the Light”. Professor of Projects in the Superior Technical School of Architecture of Madrid (ETSAM), where he has been a tenured professor for more than 35 years. Likewise, he has taught in the ETH of Zurich; the EPFL in Lausanne; the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia; the Bauhaus of Weimar and at the L’Ecole d’Architecture in Tournai, Bel- gium, among other prestigious centers. He is an Academic member of the Architecture Studies at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando of Spain, since 2014. His work has won international recognition. From the Houses Turégano and De Blas; the Gaspar House, Asencio and Guerrero Houses; the Caja de Granada to the most re- cent, the House of the Infinite and the Multi-Sports Pavilion and Classroom Complex of the University Francisco de Vi- toria in Madrid, which was awarded first Prize COAM 2017, last September. SOME OF THE WORKS CREATED BY ACB MULTI-SPORTS PAVILION AND CLASSROOM COMPLEX OF THE UNIVERSITY FRANCISCO DE VITORIA (2017) The building was designed for the campus of the Univer- sity Francisco de Vitoria, in Pozuelo (Madrid), and will house a multi-sport center and a classroom complex. The multi-sports pavilion is designed with lightness in mind, in glass fiber and reinforced concrete GRC, in contrast to the more closed and heavier classrooms, with white concrete facades. Functionally, the multi-sports center is the focus area. It will be a clear, bright hall, which, apart from its use for sports activities, will also function as a great hall for all types of University events. A great open space full of light. HOUSE OF THE INFINITE (2014) On a wonderful place, a piece of earthly paradise in Cádiz (Spain), an infinite plane rises in front of the infinite sea, the most radical house built by Alberto Campos Baeza, in col- laboration with Tomás Carranza and Javier Montero. To materialize this elevated horizontal plane, which is the main room of the house, a large box, with 20 meters of frontage and 30 meters deep, was built. Under the first 12 meters, two floors were excavated in the solid rock to develop the whole living space. On the denuded stone platform, three walls surround and protect the property from the strong winds which blow as if someone had opened the bag containing the winds of Aeolus, the same winds that drove on the vessel in which Ulysses made his journey home. TURÉGANO HOUSE ADDITION (2012) To celebrate the 250 anniversary of Turégano House, in Po- zuelo (Madrid), the architect was asked by his clients –and now, friends–, Roberto Turégano and Alicia Sánchez, to build a studio at the foot of their house. The end product is very simple: a little box measuring 10 x 5 x 3, as if it were a quarter of the original houses’ cube. The new piece is in line with the existing one in its external walls and its floors; by using the same stone continuity with the house is ensured, in- side and outside. Thus the two pieces are in complete harmony. The new white box opens its short external walls, resulting in a transparent and continuous space. A large circular skylight in the ceiling is the counterpoint to this spatial arrangement. THE CAJA DE GRANADA (2001) This podium accommodates the parking area, archives and the Data Processing Center. Offices are arranged inside the cube on seven floors around the central interior courtyard. The cube was constructed on a 3x3x3 meters grid of rein- forced concrete that in the roof serves as a light gathering mechanism, which is the central theme of this building. The two facades to the south operate as a “brise-soleil” and, filtering this powerful light, illuminate the area of open offices. In essence, it is a concrete and stone box that traps the sunlight in its interior in order to serve the activities carried out within this “impluvium of light”. BLAS HOUSE (2000) This house is an answer to its location. At the top of the hill, southwest of Madrid, with splendid views of the mountains to the north. A platform was created as a base, building a concrete box as the podium, on which a transparent box was placed, delicately covered with a light and simple structure of white-painted steel. In its interior, square openings were made, to frame the landscape that seems to recede. The glass box on top of the platform is a look-out point, accessed from the house. From inside, the landscape is highlighted so that it appears closer to the spectator. GASPAR HOUSE (1992) At the client’s insistence on absolute independence, Alberto Campo Baeza decided to create an enclosed precinct, a “hor- tus conclusus” or closed grove. The house is based on a square measuring 18 x 18 meters defined by four enclosure walls of 3.5 meters in height, subdivided into three equal parts. The roof of the central space is taller, 4.5 meters high. At the intersection points of the low walls with the taller ones, four openings of 2 x 2 meters are made and simply glazed. The light in this house is horizontal and continuous, mir- rored by the east-west positioned courtyard walls. Basically, a horizontal, continuous space, tensed by a horizontal light. Using this link, you can see one of the great classes of the ‘Master’, as he is called by one of his ex-students Felipe Samarán Saló, as evidence in this emotional dedication: https://vimeo.com/209361447.