Building Studio Spain
In 2015 it was studio building time again. This time we decided to building our next studio on the beautiful east coast of Spain. The studio is easily accessed from the UK via Alicante airport which is just 30 minutes away.
In our usual style we’ve designed the studio to cope with the wide diversity of needs our clients require. The studio is a four room suite with accessible kitchen and bathroom on the same floor. It’s situated mainly underground which will help reduce noise pollution both in and out of the main recording areas, however the immediate area in which the studio is based is incredibly quite and does not look to change in the future.
Below is our basic plan in which we also provided for an extra sewage outlet to the left of the building ready for future development.
Directly above the studio is the main villa in which you can enjoy some well earned rest or enjoy a roof top barbecue and take in the surrounding mountain views whilst you write your next top track. In the same vain of resting whilst you work there’s also a large pool just 30 meters behind the villa and a sports facilities with child’s play area just across the road.
The villa can comfortably cater for up to 12 people but there’s always the option to use the sofa beds if required. We appreciate artists may want to bring their families when recording abroad so we’ve accommodated for children and placed bunk beds in one of the rooms with an internet ready PC, board games and a range of children’s films.
The immediate surroundings are also ideal for family entertainment. There’s just about everything you could want within a stone’s throw away. Just 5 minutes walk up the road there’s restaurants and bar’s with evening entertainment. There’s beautiful sand dune beaches full of palm trees and forests full of wild life. A number of water parks, go karting, a large safari park and the mountain ranges are stunning. They offer a wide variety of sports, walking, climbing, mountain biking and paragliding, as well having a plentiful supply of well equipped family barbecue areas spread across the ranges.
However before the studio could come in to existence we had to accept the front garden become a base for the building works. Then there was emptying the area of all the rubble. Spanish builders have a reputation for simply disposing of all the building waist under the houses.
Once the area was clear we could lay out all the piping for the water and join the numerous waist pipes to the main sewage outlet. These were needed for the new bathroom and kitchen facilities. A mesh foundation and screed was laid burying the pipes along with the studio wiring. The power cables were run in standard procedure overhead and channelled in to the walls vertically in line with the many sockets required.
The next step was to build the partition walls. The partition walls were constructed out of brick to help reduce sound penetration. Whilst brick has it’s issues with reverberation it’s still one of the hardest substances for sound to penetrate. The reverberation issue is easily controlled in each room with wall coverings, sound tiles and bass traps.
As the walls went up we started to see the layout and get a feel of the size of the individual rooms and the main entrance and corridor. Once all the walls were in place it was possible to to begin braking through the outer building walls and place the external windows and security shutters in.
After the external windows were fitted the external surround could be rendered in likeness to the rest of the original villa. The partition between the live room and the engineering room had to wait until the windows were fitted because of the tight fit of it’s position, being so close to the live rooms only window. This was now built and to allow for easy access between these rooms a double glazed patio door was fitted.
The next stage was to fit false ceilings throughout the building and render all the walls with a water repellent concrete mix. Coving was also added to each room to neaten off the wall and ceiling joint. Once this messy rendering section was out of the way we could begin to lay the floor and skirting tiles.
The last stage of the build was to fit all the ancillary items such as the light fittings, bathroom suit and water boiler, kitchen sink and cupboards. All in all, a clean result for a 1 year building project and the crew felt very satisfied to see the end in sight. Below are some pictures of the final ancillary items being fitted and not to forget those crazy people who’s hard work made it all happen. Of course this is not the end of the story as we are now busy building the console desk and installing the various equipment needed for the studio to operate. The equipment had to be palliated up here in the UK and shipped over. Almost as soon as it was on site and unpacked the filming and recording projects began.
If you have a future filming or recording project or perhaps just need help or advice
to build your own facilities, then feel free to contact this crew.
Or perhaps not?