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Espai Verd: Valencia's Radical Green Cathedral Residential Experiment

architecture-design · 2026-05-06

Espai Verd, a residential building in Valencia's Benimaclet neighborhood, is a radical late twentieth-century European architectural experiment. Designed by Spanish architect Antonio Cortés Ferrando with the CSPT group, the structure prioritizes experience over rational comprehension through a choreographic interplay of concrete masses and vegetation. Conceived not as a market response but from a collective desire to live in the city without sacrificing nature, Espai Verd embodies a habitable utopia. The building's constructive logic escapes easy understanding, unfolding through tensions and deviations that immerse visitors in a vertiginous encounter with planes, angles, and rotations.

Key facts

  • Espai Verd is located in Valencia's Benimaclet neighborhood.
  • The building was designed by Spanish architect Antonio Cortés Ferrando in collaboration with the CSPT group.
  • It is considered one of the most radical residential experiments in late twentieth-century European architecture.
  • The structure was born from a collective unease about living in the city without giving up nature.
  • The building's design emphasizes experience over rational comprehension.
  • The architecture features a choreographic play of concrete masses and vegetation.
  • The building was not a response to the housing market.
  • The article was written by Camilla Ghisleni and translated by Diogo Simões, published on May 06, 2026.

Entities

Artists

  • Antonio Cortés Ferrando

Institutions

  • CSPT group
  • ArchDaily

Locations

  • Valencia
  • Spain
  • Benimaclet

Sources