La Muralla Roja – The Red Wall – is an apartment building by Ricardo Bofill constructed in 1973 on the Mediterranean coast near Alicante in Spain, and in vicinity of La Manzanera, an equally odd if aesthetically quite different Bofill landmark building. La Muralla Roja reads like an intellectual exercise gone havoc: drawing inspiration from the popular architecture of the Arab Mediterranean and constructivism alike, it actually attempts to rework ideas of the Islamic casbah by creating an intricate system of terraces, patios and alleys. Carefully colour-coded to contrast and complement the sky and the sea, La Muralla Roja hovers like a hallucinatory fortress on the cliffs, part Mediterranean village, part Miami splendour.
All images by Taller de Arquitectura
