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Architects: José María de Lapuerta, Paloma Campo
- Area: 1800 m²
- Year: 2015
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Photographs:Miguel de Guzmán
Text description provided by the architects. In "El Soto" we had to reinvent the commission.
Initially, the task was to develop a basic project, already approved by the City to renew an existing Cultural Centre, which was a focus of activity and tradition in the neighborhood. The challenge was to get as much as possible, with a very limited budget in times of austerity, and with the premise of preserving the existing building.
Constant dialogue with the various representatives of the City Council has helped achieve exemplary acceptance and involvement of each of them with the operation from the very beginning.
Covering the existing building, and using the preexisting foundation and structure, the transformation begins there:
The old white brick facade is dressed up with an industrial metal, disappearing into the grey sky and also camouflaged with the existing painted cover.
A skylight of polycarbonate in the heart of the building bringing light on the hall disappears and appears as a surprising northern light entrance when entering the exhibition.
The existing theater (an Italian-type room with fixed seats, as other dozen standing in Mostoles) becomes a multi-scenic avant-garde room that allows for the assembly of an experimental space where the stage can be placed anywhere in the room, and where retractable bleacher-seats are collected and disappear if requested, leaving an open room.
Finally, three new pieces of black brick (with a lock that makes it appear as another material) holds the extension of the library, cafeteria and theater storage. These pieces face the street creating a new public space.
In addition to a brand new building, Mostoles has this new small yellow paved square, which connects the multi-scene theater to the external events and leads the way from the street to the building entrance, flanked by a light plane and the velvet of the cafeteria.
