Ensamble – Truffle
The Truffle is a sculptural piece of architecture—part geology, part shelter. Built on the rugged coast of Galicia, the structure emerges like a stone embedded in the landscape, camouflaged by its material logic and natural formation process.
To construct it, a void was created in a mound of earth using hay bales. Concrete was poured around the hay, and over time, the earth was excavated, revealing a solid mass. The compressed hay, shaped by hydrostatic pressure, was then consumed by a calf named Paulina, who lived inside the structure for a year. As she ate away the interior, space was revealed—transforming the mass into architecture.
The Truffle is not just a building, but an experiment in material transmutation, environmental integration, and the slow unveiling of form—a meditation on how architecture can be grown rather than constructed.
