Architecture + Design

Sculptures of the Sun

La Manga, Murcia

La Manga, with its sandy beaches and its early tourist occupation, shows very clearly the functional segregation between new tourist settlements and traditional towns. This stretch of land is occupied with a continuous alignment of high-rises that form a long urbanized line, with traffic problems, scarcity of public transport and lack of communal facilities.

The Sculptures of the Sun are a proposal for transforming La Manga del Mar Menor into a magic space of art, light and architecture, turning its buildings into a large solar and photovoltaic power plant. An initiative to wrap some of these buildings with smart skins able to collect energy and to shape architectures designed by great architects and artists. A proposal to transform second residence into first home and to connect these tourists spaces with the main nodes of the region. A creative attempt of turning a problem into an opportunity. A way of overcoming the limitations of a space of obsolete architectures, seasonality and traffic congestion. The Sculptures of the Sun are an initiative for the radical formal and functional change of La Manga and the Minor Sea as a whole, making this space a reference in territorial recycling and sustainability in Europe.