Architecture at home in its community

When TED Fellow Xavier Vilalta was commissioned to create a multistory shopping mall in Addis Ababa, he panicked. Other centers represented everything he hated about contemporary architecture: wasteful, glass towers requiring tons of energy whose design had absolutely nothing to do with Africa. In this charming talk, Vilalta shows how he champions an alternative approach: to harness nature, reference design tradition and create beautiful, modern, iconic buildings fit for a community.

My work focuses on the connection of

both thinking about our community life

being part of the environment

where architecture grows from the natural

local conditions and traditions.

Today I brought two recent projects

as an example of this.

Both projects are in emerging countries,

one in Ethiopia and another one in Tunisia.

And also they have in common

that the different analyses from different perspectives

becomes an essential part of the final piece of architecture.

The first example started with an invitation

to design a multistory shopping mall

in Ethiopia's capital city Addis Ababa.

And this is the type of building

we were shown as an example, to my team and myself,

of what we had to design.

At first, the first thing I thought was,

I want to run away.

(Laughter)

After seeing a few of these buildings --

there are many in the city --

we realized that they have three very big points.

First, these buildings, they are almost empty

because they have very large shops

where people cannot afford to buy things.

Second, they need tons of energy to perform

because of the skin treatment with glass

that creates heat in the inside,

and then you need a lot of cooling.

In a city where this shouldn't happen

because they have really mild weather

that ranges from 20 to 25 degrees the whole year.

And third is that their image has nothing to do

with Africa and with Ethiopia.

It is a pity in a place that has such rich culture and traditions.

Also during our first visit to Ethiopia,

I was really captivated by the old merkato

that is this open-air structure

where thousands of people, they go and buy things

every day from small vendors.

And also it has this idea of the public space

that uses the outdoors to create activity.

So I thought, this is what I really want to design,

not a shopping mall.

But the question was how we could do a multistory,

contemporary building with these principles.

The next challenge was when we looked at the site,

that is, in a really growing area of the city,

where most of these buildings that you see in the image,

they were not there.

And it's also between two parallel streets

that don't have any connection for hundreds of meters.

So the first thing we did was to create a connection

between these two streets,

putting all the entrances of the building.

And this extends with an inclined atrium

that creates an open-air space in the building

that self-protects itself with its own shape

from the sun and the rain.

And around this void

we placed this idea of the market with small shops,

that change in each floor because of the shape of the void.

I also thought, how to close the building?

And I really wanted to find a solution

that would respond to the local climate conditions.

And I started thinking about the textile

like a shell made of concrete

with perforations that would let the air in,

and also the light, but in a filtered way.

And then the inspiration came from these beautiful
patterns of the Ethiopian women's dresses.

That they have fractal geometry properties

and this helped me to shape the whole facade.

And we are building that

with these small prefabricated pieces

that are the windows that let the air and the light

in a controlled way inside the building.

And this is complemented by these small colored glasses

that use the light from the inside of the building

to light up the building at night.

With these ideas it was not easy first to convince the developers

because they were like,

"This is not a shopping mall. We didn't ask for that."

But then we all realized that this idea of the market

happened to be a lot more profitable than the idea of the shopping mall

because basically they had more shops to sell.

And also that the idea of the facade was much, much cheaper,

not only because of the material compared with the glass,

but also because we didn't need to have air conditioning anymore.

So we created some budget savings

that we used to implement the project.

And the first implementation was to think

about how we could make the building self-sufficient in terms of energy

in a city that has electricity cuts almost every day.

So we created a huge asset by placing photovoltaics there on the roof.

And then under those panels

we thought about the roof like a new public space with gathering areas and bars

that would create this urban oasis.

And these porches on the roof,

all together they collect the water to reuse for sanitation on the inside.

Hopefully by the beginning of next year, because we are already on the fifth floor of the construction.

The second example is a master plan

of 2,000 apartments and facilities in the city of Tunis.

And for doing such a big project, the biggest project I've ever designed,

I really needed to understand the city of Tunis,

but also its surroundings and the tradition and culture.

During that analysis I paid special attention to the medina

that is this 1,000-year-old structure that used to be closed by a wall,

opened by twelve different gates, connected by almost straight lines.

When I went to the site, the first design operation we did

was to extend the existing streets, creating 12 initial blocks

similar in size and characteristics to the ones we have in Barcelona

and other cities in Europe with these courtyards.

On top of that, we selected some strategic points

reminded of this idea of the gates and connecting them by straight lines,

and this modified this initial pattern.

And the last operation was to think about the cell,

the small cell of the project, like the apartment,

as an essential part of the master plan.

And for that I thought, what would be the best orientation

in the Mediterranean climate for an apartment?

And it's north-south, because it creates a thermal difference between both sides of the house

and then a natural ventilation.

So we overlap a pattern that makes sure that most of the apartments

are perfectly oriented in that direction.

And this is the result

that is almost like a combination of the European block and the Arab city.

It has these blocks with courtyards,

and then on the ground floor

you have all these connections for the pedestrians.

And also it responds to the local regulations that establish

a higher density on the upper levels and a lower density on the ground floor.

And it also reinforces this idea of the gates.

The volume has this connecting shape

that shades itself with three different types of apartments

and also lets the light go on the ground floor in a very dense neighborhood

And in the courtyards there are the different facilities,

such as a gym and a kindergarten

and close by, a series of commercial [spaces] that bring activity to the ground floor.

The roof, which is my favorite space of the project

is almost like giving back to the community the space taken by the construction.

And it's where all the neighbors, they can go up and socialize,

and do activities such as having a two-kilometer run in the morning,

jumping from one building to another.

These two examples,

they have a common approach in the design process.

And also, they are in emerging countries where you can see

the cities literally growing.

In these cities, the impact of architecture in people's lives of today and tomorrow

changes the local communities and economies at the same speed as the buildings grow.

For this reason, I see even more importance

to look at architecture finding simple but affordable solutions

that enhance the relationship between the community and the environment

and that aim to connect nature and people.

Thank you very much.

(Applause)