Ibiza is a messy place. An accumulation of transplanted cultures too dense to categorize, mapped onto a built landscape that is equally fragmented. Attempts to catalog this condition are doomed from the start—which is somehow to be expected for a place that juggles Las Vegas, Goa, and Pompeii on any given day.
In practice, Ibiza runs on an improvised and inconsistent construction language, capable of legitimizing everything from vernacular bricolage to contemporary development. The most fitting response to this condition is one that leaves room for the same.
CAL (Common, Adaptable, Lightweight) is a construction system for fixing local materials into practical objects; flexible interventions that are adaptable across beach, city, and countryside. Referencing a wide range of Ibiza’s construction traditions, spanning textiles and hardware in the marine industry to wood and reed constructions in the country, the underlying principle is simple: rigid members are held in tension between spans of textile and lengths of twisted metal wire. It’s not much of an invention; more so a combination of small tricks I picked up during the research, applied in ways that I felt were productive and compelling. Like cal, the lime coat that unifies Ibiza’s equally improvised walls, disparate parts are unified into a functioning whole and covered with a homogeneous surface.
The culminating exhibition interpolated on that theme with objects designed and developed over four weeks, that could be built with less than 80 euros of materials; they included stools, backrests, wall shades, and tables (some more successful than others). The fabric elements were developed without the need for complex patterns and the wood elements were standard pieces available at most hardware stores. This presentation was accompanied by a small functional workshop to be used by the foundation for teaching people how to produce their own iterations.
The results are examples of what the construction principle can allow for, but are not definitive ends. They show that when it is deployed appropriately, one can build things which hold weight, resist wind, and mediate exposure to sunlight. The proposal is, by definition, unfinished until it is built by someone in their context, with the materials available to them.
In practice, Ibiza runs on an improvised and inconsistent construction language, capable of legitimizing everything from vernacular bricolage to contemporary development. The most fitting response to this condition is one that leaves room for the same.
CAL (Common, Adaptable, Lightweight) is a construction system for fixing local materials into practical objects; flexible interventions that are adaptable across beach, city, and countryside. Referencing a wide range of Ibiza’s construction traditions, spanning textiles and hardware in the marine industry to wood and reed constructions in the country, the underlying principle is simple: rigid members are held in tension between spans of textile and lengths of twisted metal wire. It’s not much of an invention; more so a combination of small tricks I picked up during the research, applied in ways that I felt were productive and compelling. Like cal, the lime coat that unifies Ibiza’s equally improvised walls, disparate parts are unified into a functioning whole and covered with a homogeneous surface.
The culminating exhibition interpolated on that theme with objects designed and developed over four weeks, that could be built with less than 80 euros of materials; they included stools, backrests, wall shades, and tables (some more successful than others). The fabric elements were developed without the need for complex patterns and the wood elements were standard pieces available at most hardware stores. This presentation was accompanied by a small functional workshop to be used by the foundation for teaching people how to produce their own iterations.
The results are examples of what the construction principle can allow for, but are not definitive ends. They show that when it is deployed appropriately, one can build things which hold weight, resist wind, and mediate exposure to sunlight. The proposal is, by definition, unfinished until it is built by someone in their context, with the materials available to them.
Produced for the second edition of the Something for an Island residency at Fundación Ses12naus.
Project Assistant:
Kim Lissy
Scenography:
Alban le Henry
Project Assistant:
Kim Lissy
Scenography:
Alban le Henry
Supported by:
Acción Cultural Española
Institut d'Estudis Baleàrics
Images:
Albert le Henry
Maria Santos
Acción Cultural Española
Institut d'Estudis Baleàrics
Images:
Albert le Henry
Maria Santos