Frontón Maeztu
Aguilar de Codés, Navarre
The first pelota court the village of Aguilar de Codés has ever had, built for its town council after a limited competition and finished in April 2024, in a Navarre town of fewer than one hundred year round residents. It stands on the footprint of a ruined stone mansion that belonged to the Maeztu family: false openings on three sides repeat the old windows, the one real opening sits where the doorway was so passers by can look into the court, and the family's coat of arms was returned to its place above it. The architects named the building Frontón Maeztu.
The site falls steeply, so the court is sunk on its north side, the square to the south works as a viewing platform, and the level change between them becomes tiered concrete seating, with entry at the midpoint where street and square nearly meet. The loadbearing walls are precast concrete, exposed inside and clad in chiselled Floresta sandstone outside, and a glulam timber truss supported only at its ends carries both the roof and hung frames of vertical weathering steel slats. Beyond the court, the brief asked for room for village festivities and communal meals, a stage volume, and a small square with a spot for local bands.
Verne Arquitectura
Verne Arquitectura is an architecture and interior design studio founded in 2011, working from Pamplona and Bilbao under its founding partners Víctor Larripa Artieda, Javier Martínez Labeaga and Daniel Ruiz de Gordejuela Tellechea.
Alejandro Maortua Gaminde
Alejandro Maortua Gaminde is an architect trained at the Universidad del País Vasco who worked with Verne before starting his own design practice, and collaborated with his former colleagues on this court.
Architecture @vernearquitectura and @alemgmc. Photography @pablogarciaesparza. Seen via @globalspaces.
The picture comes from this post on Instagram.
Researched August 2026. I credit each piece as carefully as I can; if you know more about this one, message me on Instagram.