La Muralla Roja

In 1962 the Taller de Arquitectura of Ricardo Bofill began drawing up a master plan for a tourist complex at Calp, facing the Peñón de Ifach. It was commissioned to design and build, in stages, condominiums, apartments, detached houses, a small hotel, a bar, restaurants and sports facilities; Bofill was only 23 at the time. The site's stone terraces and stepped fields, and its position above the sea, shaped the project, which consists of several buildings: Plexus, the Muralla Roja, Xanadú and the Anfiteatro.

Photographs of the building site, put up in the streets of Calp in 2023, show the Muralla Roja before it was painted. In November 2021 the town council had made 2023 the “Año Bofill”, to mark fifty years since the block was completed; that year an exhibition on its half-century, organised with the University of Alicante, was held at the Ajuntament Vell.

The building follows the lie of the cliff it stands on. Its composition draws on the Mediterranean tradition of the casbah: passages, terraces, stairways and courtyards communicate with one another and extend the living spaces. The maze alludes to vernacular building across the Arab Mediterranean, in particular the earthen towers of North Africa, and its forms also recall a constructivist aesthetic.

The plan is laid out on a grid, or more precisely on the Greek cross, which governs the play of solids and voids. Interlinked courtyards lead to the fifty homes, which are studios of 60 m², two-bedroom flats of 80 m² and three-bedroom flats of 120 m².

Several shades of red cover the outer façades and set them off against the landscape. The courtyards and stairs take blues, from sky blue through indigo to violet, chosen either to stand out against the sky or to melt into it.

The Muralla Roja is a residential building, privately owned and not open to the public. On its terraces, the solariums, the pool and the sauna are reserved for residents.

The interior cannot be visited, but the town council has had an immersive virtual visit made from more than 450 3D scans of its corridors, stairs, terraces, courtyards and viewpoints.

On certain dates the council runs guided tours of the exteriors of Bofill's buildings at La Manzanera, the Muralla Roja among them. Registration in advance is made at Calp's tourist offices, by telephone or by email; the tour sets off on foot from the Casa de la Cultura (Avenida del Masnou 1).