tuber melanosporum

I especially love truffles, both black and white. Delicious! Ensamble Estudio has created 'The Truffle' on Costa da Morte, Spain made from earth and minerals thus emulating and integrating the natural environment. This experiment made from a hole in the ground, piling up with topsoil, building a volume with hay bales and flooded the negative space between the earth and the built air to solidify it. As time passed, the earth is removed and the 'truffle' is discovered.

The Architects then made a few quarry cuts to open up its core. A calf by the name of Paulina enjoyed the delicious hay as she nourished it for a whole year. Not only the 'truffle' was her pantry, it was also her habitat. A year on, the now adult Paulina leaves and a new interior volume appears for the first time. The dense materiality contrasts the fluidity of the ceiling that sublimely evokes a sense of the Atlantic Ocean nearby.