Sendera
«The vast plain stretched out under the blue splendour of dawn, a broad sash of light which appeared in the direction of the sea» – Vicente Blasco Ibáñez.
«The vast plain stretched out under the blue splendour of dawn, a broad sash of light which appeared in the direction of the sea» – Vicente Blasco Ibáñez.
In his memoirs, the writer Guarner tells an anecdote about a journalist and his conception of Valencia.
The city was called the ‘Athens of the Mediterranean’ in the media. He ironically transformed the quote as ‘Valencia, barely of the Mediterranean’. This comment faithfully reflects one of the oldest and most deeply rooted clichés attributed to the city: that of living with its back to the sea.
In the past, the old city of Turia had two central nuclei.
The first was located in what is now the city centre; the second, however, was located in front of the sea, in the Cabañal area. Both nuclei did not live behind each other—as is nowadays mistakenly conceived—but were connected by a long road bordered by orchards and manor houses. Our Sendera project is located on this road, today’s Avenida del Puerto.
Sendera takes its name from the bourgeois Senet family, Valencian landowners who owned the orchards along the path that linked the ‘two Valences’. It is one of the few houses reminiscent of the old buildings that used to embrace the passage from the city’s centre to the sea.
Sendera preserves the house’s architectural richness.
The internal spaces and all the original elements, such as the high ceilings, the mouldings typical of the period, and the original flooring, have been restored and preserved. Simple coloured elements highlight the tiles’ colours.
The hand-painted hydraulic mosaic tiles
reflect the spirit of the city one by one, with colourful flowers and light and blue tones that show the light of Valencia. The handmade manufacturing process of these tiles consists of laying a square grid, which the artisan fills square by square with a different design on each piece. The result is a complete puzzle, which, when joined together, reveals the final design.
Sendera is one of the few remaining houses in the area with yesteryear characteristics. It is a preserved jewel in an area with extensive new urban development.
A project in collaboration with The Node Agency.
[ Floor plan ]
