In the center of Olot, a small town in the Catalan inland, a punctual intervention of de-densification opens a small void in the built fabric. The elevations of two residential rows overlook the new public space to the East and the West, the side façade of the Tura church delimits it to the North, whereas to the South the blind wall of a private property, once adjacent to the demolished building, is supported by a sequence of rough concrete buttresses.

Unparelld'arquitectes’ project, commissioned by the municipality of Olot, transforms the leftover spaces between these temporary structures into three cozy urban alcoves. Elegant open air aisles rise from these uneven cut-outs, resulting from merely technical constraints. Barrel vaults made of exposed bricks bestows a certain monumentality on the ensemble, in spite of its reduced scale, and the light globes make it even more solemn at night.

Still, the “emergency scenery” by unparelld'arquitectes is first and foremost ironic and evocative. The signs of domestic life, once taking place here, are encapsulated by artist Quim Domene into the double bottom of each bay.

The multiplication of materials and colors, their intentional inconsistency, and the clearly unfinished character of all masonry works, turn this zero-volume architecture into a volatile, appropriable device, an ambiguous background for fairs, concerts and other secular rituals.