Chillidaren Ostatua, meaning “the place where Chillida welcomes you” in Basque, transforms former Basque stables into a hotel-refuge, conceived as a place of retreat for visitors to the Chillida Leku museum. The project invites them to extend their stay as a suspended moment in time, immersed between the Basque landscape and monumental abstract sculptures.
The rooms and their uses are shaped by openings and cut-outs that frame the view. Alternating between expansive perspectives onto the artworks and surrounding landscape and more intimate, sinuous viewpoints, the architecture gently challenges perception.
The experience evokes the feeling of moving through a work of art, as shifting levels and openings create a silent dialogue between solid and void, interior and exterior.