STAR strategies + architecture has won the first prize in the International Competition ‘Mirador del Palmeral‘ in Elche, Spain. STAR was one of the two teams selected from the first phase of the public competition to participate in the second phase where four prestigious offices had been invited: SANAA, MVRDV, Martinez-Lapena Torres Arquitectos, Ábalos-Sentkiewicz + Arquitectura Agronomia.

The palm grove of Elche is a UNESCO world heritage site in Valencia and the competition was organized by the city to provide a landmark for the area, as well as enhance the agricultural palm Arabic tradition.

‘Give me a turn’ proposal by STAR strategies + architecture includes three scenarios with different levels of investment. From the initial Mirador complex to a common building to a Mirador station with a connection to the railway platforms and underground parking. It is a Ferris wheel with 16 cabins with a central bank to allow 360 degree views of the palms. The cabins will be ready to host dinners, meetings and celebrations.

From the architects:

‘Elche´s Wheel, the most sustainable strategy.

Thousands of words have been written about the influence of the current economic crisis on the construction business. However, we think that this crisis is accelerating the emergence of a new architectural thinking that – applied to architectural production – will generate intelligent and substantive ideas and leave behind the sensationalist architecture of quick consumption.
We are aware of the large influence the economy has on architecture and we believe more than ever that strategies, rather than shapes, are the only valid answers to today’s demands.

In our careers as architects, the competition for the Mirador del Palmeral has been the first chance to create an emblem for the city where nature plays a crucial role and where admiration of the landscape is the raison d’être of this icon.

Moreover, in this period of financial collapse and extreme preoccupation with sustainability, it would be hypocritical to close our eyes to reality and produce yet another icon like all the previous ones. Lets take this chance to rethink, to focus our intelligence on a strategy rather than on an egocentric and frozen architecture (=icon) so characteristic of the recent times.
Why should we put all the emphasis on an obsolete architectonic element with a limited ‘iconic’ life?

Without denying the representative character of this program, we propose an a-temporal emblem, intelligent and flexible, capable of fulfilling all the requirements and able to recover its investment in less than three years.

We need an imaginative solution.
We propose a wheel for Elche. The wheel is resistant to fashion, style, and time. The wheel is an intelligent and rational structure, representative and beautiful, powerful and transparent.
The wheel in London, The London Eye, is the most visited attraction in the United Kingdom, and the first image that appears in Google when typing in ‘London’.

The Wheel is a rational icon, a sustainable icon, a narrative icon, an unlimited icon, a pure icon, the rethought icon.

Trying to exploit the full potential of the intervention, we propose three scenarios with different levels of investment. From the initial Mirador complex to a common building to a Mirador-station with a connection to the railway platforms and underground parking. The wheel and the Palmeral will be the welcoming image to the visitor of Elche. We have also studied the possibilities of the surrounding sites, and we propose sustainable strategies for the integration of the Palmeral into the city.
The Wheel will be an urban unifier for Elche and its Palmeral, and a personal experience for each visitor.’

Further information and more pictures: www.s-t-a-r.nl.