The fronton, a heritage in the landscape

The fronton, in the Basque way of the indirect pelota game, is a simple autonomous architecture in its minimum expression, due to its solidity, slenderness and lightness. It has an emphatic, severe and serene presence, whose typology and dimensions are adapted to the different modalities of the game. In certain orographic circumstances, the position of the fronton gives it a significant presence in relation to the town as a whole, and its characteristic silhouette and panoramic view make it an outstanding monumental landmark in the landscape. It has an outstanding typological richness, they are all similar but different. The wall of a building in a space generates a place: the fronton. The ball against the stone, the square of the ball and the word. The Basque agora is the pelota square. 

On 22 June, at 19:00, the Basque Country Architecture Institute will welcome the architect Iñaki Uriarte, who will show examples of frontons scattered throughout the Basque Country and, then, talk with the curator of ‘Pilotalekuak. Building the void’, Daniel Carballo. Uriarte is an architect by the Escola Técnica Superior d’Arquitectura of Barcelona and defines his work as “liberal, not linked to administrations or teaching, with a free and independent opinion”. He has received awards such as the I Premio Internazionale Mario Roveda, Ecomuseo Adda di Leonardo (Lombardia) “for the recovery and valorisation of the cultural landscape on a national and international level”.