La Muralla Roja (literally ’the Red Wall’) is a postmodern apartment complex in Alicante, Spain. It is designed by Spanish architect Ricardo Bofill and fully constructed by 1973.
In designing the building, Bofill referenced the architecture of North African casbahs and Arab Mediterranean architectural styles. It reinterprets the casbahs in an avant-garde fashion while incorporating the traditional elements like plazas, staircases and bridges that connect all the apartments to one another.
The apartment complex is constructed based on the geometric figure of the greek cross with approximately 5 meter arms. It has exactly fourteen of these crosses imbedded into its design, one being the swimming pool found on a roof terrace.
Simplistic on design, La Muralla Roja staggered and compartmental structure suggests a brutalist architectural style. But the use of color on the exterior of the buildings is what gives an illusion of space. The vibrant walls are painted with different tones of the colors red, pink, blue and violet. Blue is used on central courtyards, pink for subsidiary courtyards, and everything else like staircases, bridges, and retaining walls are painted violet.
The intro of the German TV Show Wer stiehlt mir die Show?, Hosted by Joko Winterscheidt, was filmed in La Muralla Roja. At the same time, Netflix sensation The Squid Game took inspiration from La Muralla Roja staircases for its iconic interiors.
Inspired by the colourful architecture, I shot a fashion editorial with stunning model Claudia Szeglat at Uniko Models, and make-up artist Maria Recto at Glam Not Dead.
