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Architects: ARROKABE Arquitectos
- Year: 2015
Text description provided by the architects. The commission focused on the rehabilitation of an old kiln that was part of a tannery, located on the grounds of current Belvis Park. It was to design a cultural facility with a very open program; the intervention sought to value a historic building providing multifunctional space for exhibitions, meetings, concert halls, film projections, etc. Also the toilets were to serve the park.
The intervention in Belvís park had incorporated the remains of several buildings and walls that lined gardens, roads, brooks, etc. as structuring elements. Historically, we found that originally the building and the lot north of it were an "isolated" unit, and that the level of the ground in this (northern) facade kept the outside of the ground floor wall exposed.
The original masonry walls were protected by a single pitch temporary roof, made of corrugated fiber cement plates. The adjacent lot to the north had been modified in order to solve the necessary circulation. The masonry enclosure continuing the south facade was partially demolished as well as the end of the north facade; both had been stabilized and capped with granite masonry. On the western edge the original closure had disappeared, and instead there was a brick wall. Large openings on the north facade, characteristic of this type of buildings for ventilation strategies, were also shuttered.
The proposal recovers the volume of the original gabled roof, supported on traces that marked the slabs at the edge of the front wall. The volume is not entirely rebuilt, thus emphasizing the character of the unfinished piece open to the park. For the floor heights we adopt the original access and the support traces of the floor structure.
We recover, in part, the original topography on the north facade to facilitate, now, the accessibility and livability of the building. The walled openings of this facade are occupied, in the new project, by wooden boxes projecting outwards. These are accessed from a platform installed as a lookout in the park. This arrangement allows a permeability that establishes a direct relationship of the building to the outside and suggests various possibilities of use.
In the western boundary we discard the option to rebuild or complete the granite construction. A wood and glass enclosure houses the staircase, a large glass void upstairs and ground floor access. These elements are arranged in different planes maintaining the feeling of unfinished construction and emphasizing its permeability and directionality.
Inside, the different types of wood, along with the ceiling absorbent panels and wood boxes are presented under an order that responds to its dimensions and the serial character of the building.
The layout of the stairs in plan, closed in the first flight and the design of the intermediate structure that solves the thermal and acoustic insulation, facilitate the possibility of both levels functioning independently.
The horizontal structure is designed with pieces of wood supported on existing walls that on the north facade are braced by metal elements. Both on the floor and roof we seek a single structural modulated order along the entire surface. For the roof we have chosen a row structure resting on wooden stirrups secured with metallic elements. For the floor we designed a mixed structure of wood and concrete, so that we get sufficient rigidity considering the overload corresponding to a public assembly building. Also in both cases, we have chosen to place a lower wood board with rock wool insulating the space between the ceiling and the upper board. With this solution, in addition to solving the thermal and acoustic insulation, we solve the required levels of fire protection.
