"Evoke those same sensations of isolation, peace and protection that when in childhood we hid under a table stretcher during some family event", that was the goal of the designer Fernando Abellanas by creating this mini secret refuge at some undetermined point in Valencia and so he tells Traveler.es.
A structure suspended five meters high that is only discovered by turning a crank would be the fantasy of any child. To explain the equivalences between both dens, the designer explains to Traveler: "The idea of this intervention arises from an attempt to recover similar emotions through the connections that exist between one space and another, such as the cabin inside our house and refuge in the city itself; the bustle of relatives and the noise of cars and trains; the tablecloth hanging from the table and the large concrete walls; the exercise of accessing one space by crawling and the other by turning a crank; and the power to observe what is happening around us without being seen by relatives or by the big city".
Abellanas, an all-terrain designer, but especially gifted for bespoke lamps and furniture (ask him for what you need and he will know how to carry it out, production included) has attracted the attention of the specialized media in architecture and design with this intervention that he himself knows to be ephemeral: "My work as a designer could be summed up as an attempt to put into practice all those concerns related to design, crafts and architecture that come to me every day".
If you expect the typical snobbish and distant designer, you have the wrong man. Abellanas is self-employed plumber from the age of 22 In addition to being a highly sought-after designer. "By way of completely self taught I observe, research and develop different projects with the sole purpose of satisfying my own personal motivations".
To create this micro-housing, explains the Valencian, "they have harnessed the beams of the lower structure of a bridge as a rail to move a base (removable metal structure) that at the end of its journey connects with the furniture that makes it a useful and welcoming space". All the furniture is also creation of Greyhound Furniture.
It is the studio that moves until it reaches the fixed furniture: "In this way, the action of displacement creates a dialogue about the union that comes to be formed between the mobile structure and the furniture, the house and the hearth, body and soul", points out Abellanas, "and all in an environment where vegetation, concrete, the sound of the hustle and bustle of the city coexist and the pleasure of feeling so close and so distant at the same time". In this video you can see the whole process, from the first sketch to Abellanas spending the day in the studio.
Take refuge from the city in the city itself. from Jose Manuel Pedrajas on Vimeo .