Some architectural endeavours require more than designed beauty. Their purpose, in and of itself, requires repose, serenity, poetry. Estudio Ramos’ Figueras Stables is just such a place; a respite from the everyday possessed of a deep-seated relationship with its environment and an intuitive sense of purpose. 3850sq/m of stables are articulated in a long, volumetric space of mixed-use. Social spaces abut grooming and training facilities, sloped land ramps to a roof planted with wild grass, sheathing the building within its surroundings. Water, that universal symbol of life, purity, and harmony, is used to connect and articulate spaces. Much more than an aesthetic masterwork, Figueras Stable is a structure quietly and elegantly assisting a calling. One that Cormac McCarthy called ‘seeing into a creature’s soul and soothing the wounds found there. Secrets uttered softly into troubled ears’.

• Editing and text by Oscar Riera Ojeda
• Introduction by Byron Hawes
• Photography by Oberto Gili, Daniela Mc Adden, Matias Lix Klett and Celeste Najt
• Epilogue by Juan Ignacio Ramos