Benidorm
Nobody had ever mentioned the architecture of Benidorm to me before; it’s always the Bizarre nightlife that’s talked about! understandably why the destination was chosen for the stag party. On route to Benidorm, on the coastal skyline appeared, a mixture of old and new architecture unfurled before me.
Aside from the party weekend I had arrived for, I knew I'd have to find the time to investigate what Benidorm's skyline had hidden away. To my surprise, Benidorm has some fantastic architecture - imaginative, colorful, garish, and brutal! with plenty of modernist architecture to appreciate.
One of my favorites, a building called Neguri Gane, a monster of a brutalist build with UFO-like rounded shapes, designed by Perez-Guerras, about whom I know nothing and will have to check out more of his work.
Another building that grabbed my attention was surely the most garish of them all: a building called Intempo, a strange construction - a twin-tower building with a giant cone at the top! It makes me wonder who chooses to live here, whether it's for the views or because of maybe it’s because a building this tall is a status symbol? I may need to investigate this further, as any excuse to go back and join the expats and tourists who return here year after year.
My conclusion is that Benidorm has some great tourist architecture, like nothing I've seen before. It doesn't feel like it's taking itself too seriously, though to be fair I don't think Benidorm has ever taken itself seriously, However, I would say it needs somebody offering architectural tours to fully appreciate the unique and captivating buildings that adorn its skyline.
Below is some photography I made during my trip to Benidorm, I’ve made a Zine, which was also submitted to the Gareth Gardner Gallery, for the pop up exbhition DEVELOP+PRINT book/zine exhibition.
