Centro Cultural Caixaforum

Centro Cultural Caixaforum


LOCATION:
Zaragoza (ES)

ARCHITECT:
Estudio Carme Pinos

MODEL:
Eloisse 

MORE INFO:
www.cpinos.com (architect)
www.caixaforum.es (customer)

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The project is located in an area within the city of Zaragoza which is undergoing an urban transformation process. In 2003, the old El Portillo railway station was relocated to the Western part of the city dividing the old & new parts  a great open space between the old and new sides of the city. So the City Council decided to use the new created space as an urban park containing a series of facilities with the objective of serving as a connecting element between the new area and the already consolidated part of the city. The City of Saragossa and the Fundació la Caixa reached an agreement to create the CaixaForum – it would become the revitalizing element of a great set of urban items, and a gateway to the new park being built there.

So the winning project proposed by Carme Pinos solved the two challenges defined by the customer: a building that contributes to shape the city while keeping the essence of introspection required by an Exhibition Centre.

These two ways to approach the project are solved raising the exhibition halls in order to free the ground floor so the more open and transparent areas (lobby & shop) are located there. The idea was to generate additional public space while bringing the park towards the city and through the building – a space that will be also visible at night with lit drawings coming from the metal sheet façade’s perforations (the metal plates hide the main structure that supports the elevated exhibition halls)

The garden is placed underneath the raised exhibition hall and “semi-buried”: it is also the auditorium’s evacuation. This garden can also be understood as a lobby and outdoors catering area for the auditorium that it is then connected directly to the city even though it is located. in the basement.

The two suspended halls are facing each other on different levels so that, when being outside, the city can be seen above or below the other hall. Additionally, this enables more “relax areas” to be placed between exhibition halls: this is why all connections between halls are solved with escalators that provide distant views of the city and not elevators that take the visitor out of context and don’t offer the decompression required.

Both the cafe and the restaurant are located at the top of the building with gorgeous views of the city and the new urban park. Meanwhile on the other side, and thanks to the level difference between halls, a terraced bar can be found with magnificent views to the Ranillas meander and the Expo Zaragoza.

This building is a sculpture element in the middle of the park, thanks to a singular and feasible structure composed of 2 cubes of 4,500m2 each. Our company supplied the Eloisse model with anti panic writing tablet for the auditorium of this building. It is a chair full of straight lines both in the back and the standards with integrated armrests: all parts finished in dark colours similar to the walls of the venue. All floor fixings are concealed: no visible screws on the outer wooden panels.

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