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Architects: Pablo Millán
- Year: 2022
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Photographs:Javier Callejas Sevilla
Text description provided by the architects. The architectural space is defined by light and matter. Building a space is not a constructive exercise, but the process by which these two elements coexist. This project revolves around the remains of what was the hermitage of Santa Ana de Porcuna. A space battered by the vicissitudes of abandonment and aggressive interventions with the building. The main objective of the project was, by recovering and restoring the pre-existing elements, to provide the necessary spatiality to recover the essentials of a religious space.
With the entry of light in an orderly, sober and serene way, it has been possible to recover the transcendental dimension of the architecture of the church. As if it were a pantheon, a vertical oculus has been opened that tenses the space and lets in “the light that comes from above”. Given the archaeological component of the place of burials and tombs (obtained from the different archaeological excavations), the new intervention needs to recover the volumetry and also provide what is necessary to characterize this architecture as that of a religious space.
The intervention for the Church of Santa Ana en Porcuna is organized on three different fronts: archaeological excavation (with the corresponding conservation of the remains), patrimonial restoration of the emerging structures, and the incorporation of minimal contemporary architectural elements for the enhancement of the new space. Thus, with that “noli me tangere” approach we manage to make the pre-existing elements coexist with contemporary elements, knowing at all times what has been restored and what has been incorporated.