LA Almazara, Ronda,
Spain, project: Philippe Starck
Located in Ronda and Designed by Philippe Starck, the olive oil mill LA Almazara is an unique and immersive place, with an oil mill, a museum and a restaurant, as well as tasting and event areas, celebrating the magic of olive oil. The project reflects the passion and respect for the Spanish tradition, culture and nature.
Born from the dream of Pedro Gómez de Baeza and the hand of the French creator, LA Almazara celebrates the art and tradition of olive oil, inaugurating the world's first olive oil mill designed by an internationally renowned creator.
“LA Almazara is an extraordinary, incredible and miraculous place in which visitors enjoy a powerful, radical experience that challenges and transforms. It is an accumulation of mysteries where the crystallized respect of olive oil is mixed with emotion”. says Ph.S “LA Almazara is neither architecture nor a place of culture. It is an object that fell from space and simply took on the dimension and name of respect. Beyond the object itself, LA Almazara has a function, that of protecting one of the elements of our civilization that provides services to our animal species. There is water, there is salt, there is oil. These elements are sacred. They have always been respected and probably always will be.”
For LA Almazara in Ronda, Philippe Starck imagined a minimal and timeless design, with no superfluous details, no cladding, just the essentials worked with rigor and clarity. A monolithic red cube, with an immense bull's horn in steel, a gigantic eye cast in concrete spewing black smoke. Inside there are also fertile surprises and clear homages. A monumental half olive is embedded in the corten wall. A metal pipe penetrates the building without ever coming out. Running water. A huge figure without a head or identity. A plane made entirely of odds and ends and yet one of the first to fly. Bits of wood.
A giant bullfighting sword and an equally enormous portrait of its Ronda-native inventor-matador. The interior shadows are suddenly dazzled by a rectangle of light that extends onto a terrace suspended by huge metal chains. Visitors are invited to discover these mythical landscapes of Ronda and Andalusia as well as the sculptural objects created by Philippe Starck scattered throughout the olive groves.
With the aim of highlighting the culture, history and tradition of one of Spain's flagship gastronomic products, EVOO, this avant-garde project celebrates the art and tradition of olive oil, reinvents the concept of oleotourism and enriches the region culturally and economically, positioning Ronda as a key worldwide destination for design and oleotourism.
