Ibiza: Body-Mind Space Station

Ibiza is not just a location, it is a testing-ground. From the 1960s onwards, the island has been a non-stop laboratory, transforming the natural landscape into an amplified environment of experience. From hippies to techno-kids, Ibiza has invented and consolidated a kind of extraterritorial tourism, searching for a situation that blends into a unique atmosphere combining the wildest nature of the site with its most radical altered experiences. Its legendary natural elements are mixed with technological devices to produce a kind of rocky platform that works as an inside-outside station where sound systems and resorts empower the seductive and magical properties of the mountains, the beaches and the sea. Today, multiple versions of 60s experimental practices are hidden under hyper-commercial concepts such as brand experience, body culture or wellness. Among these practices there is an attempt to restore strong relations with the body but without the 60s radical soul. To revisit these ideas, we will look at contemporary artists like Carsten Höller or Yayoi Kusama, who through their installations are trying to achieve ways of radicalism – subverting the senses in order to create intense relations between body and space.

The unit trip will be our first foray into the island, understood as the initial step into immersion, as well as a base tool for analysing the Ibiza context. Our research will be based on the belief that architecture is able to offer a high-fidelity translation of all these expanded senses, adding more qualities to the island party ecosystem. Working at both the scale of the individual and the group, the unit will use a wide range of techniques expressing the 3D versions of the altered senses, with a particular emphasis on the use of colour in order to describe and define new architectural devices that we will call Body-Mind Space Stations: islands inside islands.

Unit Staff

Manuel Collado Arpia & Nacho Martín Asunción are founders of the Madridbased office Mi5 Architects. They have won and built several competitions and their work has been recognised, awarded and published in a wide range of media such as Dezeen, Archdaily, Icon, and El País. Since 2003, they have taught at various institutions such as the Architectural Polytechnic Universities, UAH Madrid, UA Alicante and UCJC Madrid, the Architectural Association Summer School and Fashion Design at IED Madrid. Additionally they have participated in several juries, lectures and exhibitions such as at the Venice Biennale, RIBA London and IVAM Valencia, among others. They are both currently completing their PhD dissertations at ETSAM Madrid.