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Architects: Taller de Arquitectura Miguel Montor
- Year: 2022
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Photographs:Onnis Luque
Text description provided by the architects. The PMU Urban Improvement Program has a socio-cultural and educational focus. Societal problems are tackled through architecture and urbanism, seeking to minimize problems such as violence, insecurity, and vandalism with the help of these tools. Particular problems in the area cause the abandonment and misuse of space. This is why the construction of a cultural/sports complex was proposed to recover the area.
Because it is located in a ravine, the lot was used as a garbage dump. The proposition was a simple program for a neighborhood center for cultural and recreational sports for the community. It consists of a multi-use field, a multi-use workshop, a library, and a surveillance booth.
In response to the problem of the lack of accessibility that this property had, it is proposed to have multiple accesses to draw suitable connections. Being a completely open place, the influx of people will generate natural routes through terraces and balconies that will create a fabric between streets. Once we managed to understand the topography, a possibility arose, to shape the project through terraces. Being located at a considerably high point, there is a view from the lot that is of great benefit, which is why we decided to create a lookout lighthouse as a symbol of change on this site.
The viewpoint will allow people to climb to a height of 25 meters where they will have a panoramic view, from which the area can be perceived differently, simultaneously a point of reference to the municipality will be generated. This double function leads to the fact that the gaze is attracted from afar towards the complex and at the same time the gaze is projected outwards from the viewpoint. Being a public space, we made the decision that this project could not have limiting boundaries with blind spots or walls on the periphery.
As part of the strength of embedding a project within a city, we wanted the project to blend in and feel like a part of the place to which it belongs. This vision led us to propose that the materiality would respond to the site. This was the reason for using bare pigmented concrete in earth tones, steel, and soil from the site. The nobility of the material palette allows the project to be visually incorporated into the context when seen from the viewpoint.
The pavilions are designed to be hermetically closed at night and will open during the day, however, the routes will remain open so they can continue to be used. These pavilions have two layers on the facade, one made of glass and the other made of steel. We positioned the doors as mobile partitions so that a play of light and shadow would be projected throughout the day. On the other hand, by perceiving the cartouches as panels in different layers of the building, we sought a sensation of lightness that was accentuated by the finishing of the variable section slab.
The surrounding houses will now have a view of the project, which will allow them to open facades, windows, and balconies towards it, creating a neighborhood center. In our vision, generating a center point of this type encourages urban life. We seek to achieve a project that can be visited and universally accessible, even in such a rugged place to allow the population to take ownership of it when visiting it. As part of the work to generate more dignified access and benefit the entrance street to the complex, we thus encourage a point of attraction in the municipality.
As part of the landscape of the project, creeping and shrubby species were planted with the intention that they would cover the soil over time. We also contemplated that the floors were permeable and that water could be intentionally directed and naturally run off throughout the site.
Finally, we are convinced that through the appropriation of projects of this type, little by little, urban articulators with a playful and educational approach will be generated in these growing municipalities.
