BIENNIAL PROJECT
Reframing Can Lis
The main living area of Can Lis is a renowned architectural interior designed by the late Danish architect Jørn Utzon; it was also his home in Mallorca in the 1970s. Spatially, the room has formally interesting characteristics: in particular the relationship of the interior with the exterior landscape. This relationship is mediated by windows as sculptural viewing devices that focus on perspectival framing, detached from any structural elements. The views provided are not the sweeping panoramas of an all-glazed facade, but rather several fragmented viewing experiences. The purity of the space and the importance of its contemplating function is enhanced by using a single material on every surface and object in the room. Here, the use of stone is a statement about local construction techniques and rusticity that establishes an ambiguous relationship between interior and exterior. The role of furniture becomes vital for the space; by means of a built-in semi-circular sofa and coffee table, the furniture and overall interior architecture is rendered as one indivisible thing.
BIO
Diego Arraigada graduated from the Faculty of Architecture at the National University of Rosario with a degree in Architecture in 1999 and from the School of Architecture at the University of California Los Angeles with a Master of Architecture degree in 2003. In 2005, he established his professional office in Rosario, Argentina.
He is a professor at the Torcuato Di Tella University in Argentina. He was awarded the Arquitectonica Foundation Prize in 1999, a Fulbright scholarship in 2001, the Silver Medal at the XII International Architecture Buenos Aires Biennale in 2009, and the National Prize for Technological Innovation in Architecture in 2015. In 2011, he was selected to represent Argentina in the II Latin-American Architecture Biennale in Pamplona, Spain and in 2014 he was selected for a solo exhibition at LIGA Espacio para Arquitectura, Mexico DF. In 2016, he was nominated for the Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize for Emerging Architecture, Chicago.
