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Architects: Mateo Arquitectura
- Year: 2007
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Photographs:Pedro Pegenaute , Beat Marugg
Text description provided by the architects. A minor intervention in the entrance to an existing building.
We highlight the intervention at three different levels.
The flooring is a white sheet that touches the ground at either extreme (as a ramp or as a stairway) and floats over it at the centre.
The awning is effectively a large trough that collects rainwater and channels it down to the ground at either end.
The finishes of the doorway (a series of mirrors, doormats and glazed surfaces) seek to break down the image of passage into independent photographic stills, highlighting the singularity of the movement: an interchange between exterior and interior.
Ground-floor lighting by Maurici Ginés
The basic approach of the architecture project and choice of materials was to return to a clear layout of the floor where, in a visually open space, the materials, seen as matter, texture and colour, laid out areas according to different uses or functions. Objectively and subjectively, the materials used bring quality, transparency, reflection and an intelligent composition of space and calm.
The concept of light creates this zoning, highlights the subjective values and communicates the materials—matter, texture and colour—by bringing contrast, balance and a luminosity that is natural, not forced.
The entrance sector is the most contrasting and heterogeneous in its lighting, with spots that generate ordered patches on the floor and ceiling, drawing users inside.
The dark, continuous, high-quality material of the waiting area, along one side, alternates with translucent lighting strips in a crescendo of increasing warmth.
A spherical light suspended at the centre of the great spiral stairway serves to restore the balance of light throughout the space.
The client service sector, marked by a large expanse of slightly sloping false ceiling, a translucent glass triangle, brings texture and artfully natural brightness to the space and the essence of containing a large outdoor space.
Within the architectural project and the intelligent spatial composition, the translucent lighting material, in some cases coloured, acts as a connective element with its different forms and arrangements in the space. Subjectively, the triangle and the sphere, basic forms, generate the balance of lighting throughout the space.
