Isozaki Atea, Bilbao, Bizkaia

With a close collaboration between Arata Isozaki's firm and IA+B, the Isozaki Atea Project is an urban and architectural project in the heart of the city. It finally resolves two questions that town planning had previously been unable to solve: first of all, bringing the Ensanche to the River and secondly, linking the two urban areas of the Ensanche and Campo Volantín in a resounding yet sensitive manner.

 

This Project provides the city with direct access to the Uribitarte riverside esplanade by means of monumental steps, while at the same time integrating the Zubi Zuri footbridge and creating diverse public spaces in the area, with a wealth of aspects and uses on its three levels.

 

On the architectural level, the work is a benchmark for its uniqueness, construction characteristics and volume, defining the beginning of the city from the River, which is understood to be its backbone, with these two curtain wall buildings of impressive simplicity, which aim to go unnoticed yet be present at the same time.