Escuelas Pías Cultural Centre
200best ES
José Ignacio Linazasoro
2003
Type
Library
Tags
heritage sites interventions, spaces for youngsters, university campus , 200Best, palimsests
Visitability
Allowed
Description
The Escuelas Pías de Lavapiés were destroyed after a fire during the Spanish Civil War and were never rebuilt. The Escuelas Pías project meant working fundamentally on the ruin of the church, considering it as part of a unitary and contemporary project and not as something against which the new architecture should be opposed. This is why it was necessary to base it on historical references in which the ruins served as a support for the new construction.On the other hand, a timeless language based on construction, light and shadow was imposed by the intervention. The texture, with a strong presence in the space, also became the bearer of these timeless values. Ultimately, it was a question of "occupying" a ruin, making it habitable but without detracting from its character.A university library was installed inside, which has an intense yet welcoming atmosphere thanks to the contrast between the stark brick walls of the ruin and the new wooden elements of the roof, the structure (which also includes concrete beams and pillars) and the furniture. Artificial light provided by low-level spot lamps and a large circular lamp located in the rotunda of the old nave introduce the "human scale" into the building that contrasts with the monumentality, almost Roman, of the ruin.Up against the ruins of the old church, a new building was constructed for the university faculty, with a completely contemporary structure and composition, linked however in its material expression to the whole design, which is thus configured as a unitary project presided over by an idea of the ruin based on texture and materiality.The adjacent Agustín Lara square serves as a prelude to the operation. Beneath it lies a car park whose accesses are treated with a strong constructive and material expressiveness reinforced by the zenithal light. The aim was to create a place in open contrast to the usual treatment of this type of space, which is normally anodyne. In this regard, this intervention also added to the concept of ruin found in the entirety of the design.(Description provided by the architects)