Lanik | Recetas urbanas [2008]

Research commissioned: Applications of the concept of transformable architecture, based mainly on systems developed by Lanik.
Project developed: Emancipation structures

Founded in Donostia/San Sebastián in 1977, LANIK has a team of 60 people and is primarily dedicated to the development of Structural Systems, from design to manufacture and assembly. LANIK works with several of its own patent systems, which basically consist of spherical nodes and tubular bars screwed together, allowing for great versatility in structural solutions for architecture. The company has also developed a system of mobile enclosures.

A multi-disciplinary team comprising a R&D director, sales director, project manager of spatial structures and company directors is finalising its research work based on the concept of transformable architecture in collaboration with the team at Recetas Urbanas www.recetasurbanas.net, which, led by Santiago Cirugeda, develop subversive projects in various fields of urban reality, from the systematic occupation of public spaces with containers to the construction of prostheses on façades, courtyards, roofs and even plots of land.

Based on an in-depth analysis of the potential of LANIK’s current range of products and a search for new and until now unsuspected applications for these products, the concept of self-construction has taken shape as a field of experimentation of the transformable nature of architecture. Thus a model of structural packages for the self-construction of small-scale houses has been conceived, perhaps to be commercialised in the future. The creative process took on tangible form in the shape of constructed prototypes that were put through technical trials and the opinion of the general public (http://www.madridabierto.com/es/intervenciones-artisticas/2008/santiago-cirugeda.html).

The result of this combined research was responsible for a profound change in the perspective of the future technical and social applicability of the company’s products and technologies, as well as the relationship with the artists having provoked a catalytic effect on the company’s work team and a multiplicative effect on internal creative capabilities.