The Vallés architecture school brought together the Catalans Rafael Aranda (1961), Carme Pigem (1962) and Ramón Vilalta (1960), three 1987 graduates who, withdrawn from the Olympic impulse that boosted the careers of their Barcelona colleagues, have developed a silent and meticulous oeuvre from their base in the Gerona town of Olot. As consultants for Garrotxa National Park, their first works were set in the untouched landscapes of Catalonia. Both the phenolic-paneled structure at the entry to the Fageda d’en Jordá which brings the service areas and guardhouse under a single powerful roof, and the bath pavilion at Tussols-Basil Park – three changing rooms, each enclosed in a stainless steel trapezoid – enhance perception of these exceptional sceneries by allowing one to see through the building. Landscape Architecture is not only a subject Ramón Vilalta taught in Valencia from 1989 to 1990; it is also the common thread in two of the books that the trio has published, namely El fluvia com a pretext (The River as a Pretext) and L’obra hidráulica en els Pirineus (Hydraulic Work in the Pyrenees), as well as in the documentary Le Volcan, la Forêt et les Architectes (The Volcano, the Forest and the Architects), made in 1993 by French television...
[+]