Tom Powell
IT has not been a good decade for architects, with the collapse of the Spanish property market.
But at DTR things are a little different.
Set up by friends Jose Maria Olmedo and Jose Maria Vazquez – both 37 – they have hardly had time to come up to breathe with projects to design not just here in Spain, but as far away as Nigeria.
Indeed, in just nine years, the friends, who studied architecture at Granada University, have completed over 100 projects, some winning awards.
The projects vary from small restaurants – such as La Fuente in Gaucin – to big urban projects, such as a bus station in Baeza, in Jaen.
They have also converted slaughterhouses into museums, designed artist’s studios and even sculpted luxury villas for African businessmen.
“We have done a bit of everything and are always busy,” explained father-of-three Olmedo, who comes from Granada. “Our clients come from all around the world, but mostly Americans, English and Norwegians.
“It helps that we speak English and also that we have a lot of experience of refurbishment projects and know our way around the Spanish system.”
Their first project was a hotel conversion in an industrial estate in Jaen, for which they won a prize for their clever use of light and intricate details in the interior design.
“We realised the hotel had no real views so we introduced light from inside and made the place as stylish as we could,” explained Vazquez, from Gaucin.
The pair, who have a team of five architects working under them, are big fans of natural light, as well as Moorish architecture, such as the Alhambra, in Granada.
