Design of the GUEST Lounge – by Manuel Bouzas + SalazarSequeromedina

The 45th edition of ARCOmadrid is structured around the theme “two spaces within the fair.” In response to this duality emerges 350,000 Ha, an installation that connects a physical space—the Guest Lounge—with an evoked one: the forests of the northwest Iberian Peninsula devastated by the wildfires of summer 2025. Its title refers to the 350,000 hectares affected, conveying the magnitude of the environmental loss while also pointing toward the emergence of a new collective awareness.

The project is organized around two fundamental ideas: the first is the use of a material palette based primarily on the reuse of burned wood; the second is the creation of an atmosphere reminiscent of a hearth—a warm light that evokes the ancestral power of fire to gather and share. The fires destroyed more than 1.5 million tons of timber, much of which remains usable. In collaboration with FINSA, which carries out the cleanup work, the installation employs four types of recovered resources: burned bark (lounge cladding), sawn lumber (structure), veneer (lamps), and fiberboard (restaurant cladding).

Spatially, the installation is composed of six diagonal planes of light suspended over a dark backlit landscape that houses a restaurant, a lounge, private galleries, and a bar. 350,000 Ha invites visitors to enter a warm penumbra where devastation is transformed into a space for memory, gathering, and action.