Designer
Fran Silvestre
Year
2016
Awards
XIII Spanish Architecture and Urban Planning Biennale
2016
NYCxDESIGN Awards. Outdoor category
2016
Blau
“The BLAU collection seeks to develop the tradition of outdoor furniture, linking with the Mediterranean architecture and way of inhabiting. An innovated tradition, made with a construction system stem based on the assembly of extruded aluminium sections.
Only a single type of knot is used that fixes all the joints of the different pieces of the collection and which hides the pins that fix the sections.
All the pieces are made using this growth system, from a chair to an artificial tree. This instant growth tree, with no roots, fits in to illuminated urban environments, enclosing them and generating shadows.
BLAU is a family of objects that have an additional quality that is difficult to specify, which refers to the value of the pieces as objects, with the value of them being contemplated.”
Products in the collection
The collection
About Fran Silvestre
Fran Silvestre graduated as an architect specializing in building (First Class Honours) at the ETSA in Valencia. He also holds a First Class Honours degree, specialised in Urban Planning, from the TU/e (Eindhoven Technical University) in Holland, as well as a PhD from the Polytechnic University of Valencia as part of the programme “Proyectar desde el territorio una mirada moderna 2012-2016”(Projecting from the territory: a modern look 2012-2016. He is professor in the Architectural Plans Department at the Polytechnic University of Valencia, and was deputy director of the School of Architecture between 2010-2012. He is currently director of Degree Final Projects at the European University of Valencia and director of the MArch postgraduate Architecture Expert course at the European University of Valencia.
His studio has the continuous assistance and support of other studios, such as Alfaro Hofmann in Interior Design and David Gallardo Llopis in Design and Structural Analysis.
Fran Silvestre has worked with Alvaro Siza Vieira, the Portuguese architect, winner of the Pritzker award and Doctor Honoris Causa at various universities.
He won the Red Dot Award: Product Design 2013, the Buil dArchitecture Award 2015, the WIN Architecture Award and other first prizes in the peninsular contest to remodel the crypt of the Colonia Güell_Antoni Gaudí -Barcelona, the Fundacion Caja de Architectos Barcelona National Competition, a competition for the remodeling of the Prado Recoletos axis in Madrid (working with Alvaro Siza Vieira), the Granada Collegiate of Architects - Zaida Building, exhibited at MOMA-On Site - New York (working with Alvaro Siza Vieira), the Edgar Neville National Auditorium and Contemporary Art Gallery Competition in Valencia, and the restricted competition for the mall, public garden and apartment building in Bétera - Valencia.
He won the MHK first prize for his work "Casa del Atrio" (Atrium House) in Berlin, and his work “Casa en la Ladera del castillo” (House overlooked by Castle) was selected by the Fundación Caja de Arquitectos to feature in the catalogue that brought together the best works of Spanish architecture from 2008 to 2009.
He has taken part in numerous seminars and conferences in European and US universities and institutions to talk about his work. His studio projects have been exhibited at various contemporary art museums and galleries and have been published in international architecture and design journals, such as Architectural Record, Wallpaper, TC Cuadernos, Pencil, GG, GA Houses, On-Site , AV, Igloo, Interni, Architecture and Design, amongst others.