Logo design by Javier Fernández de Molina
SITUATION: Guardia Civil street, Mérida. >>Open in GOOGLE MAPS
DATES: competition (2010, fourth classified)
CLIENT: Ministry of Culture
ARCHITECTS: José Antonio Carbajal Navarro, Nicolás Carbajal Ballell, Rodrigo Carbajal Ballell and José Luis Daroca Bruño
COLLABORATING ARCHITECTS: Eva Muñoz Romero, Fernando Moreno Humanes and Tomás Osborne Ruíz
BUILDING SURVEYORS: Roberto Alés Méndez and Rosalino Daza Fernández
GRAPHIC DESIGN: Ceferino López and Javiér Fernández de Molina
MUSEOGRAPHY: Ingeniería Cultural SA
ARCHAEOLOGY: Tera SL
CONSULTING: Edartec Consultores SL (Structural engineer) and Ove Arup & Partners (Services engineer)
To build a museum over valuable archaeological remains, next to the still-alive ruins of the Roman Theatre and Amphiteatre and close to one of the most important works of the Spanish Contemporary Architecture is not easy but not least attractive. In this context, we would like to project an architecture that remaining effective in meeting the objectives, was contained in its forms and dimensions, anonymous as far as possible, quiet, and with the ability to adapt naturally to that place and that spot. However, the requested surfaces, the large functional program, the height demanded for these uses and the impossibility of occupying the underground without damaging the archaeological remains somehow determine those intentions.
Once we verified that the plot area (subtracting the archaeological area and the minimum surfaces for the hall, staff access and loading dock) was not enough for placing the storage areas in the ground floor, as it would have been desirable, we projected a three-storey building: the ground floor as access level, a first floor for storage and the second for the exhibition areas. The ground floor, mainly dedicated to the archaeological tour, would houses the hall, the cafeteria and both the entrances for staff and cultural goods. The storage area and support units would occupy the first floor. Visitors would take the escalators to the second floor to see both permanent and temporary exhibitions. Researchers, technicals and management offices would be on the second floor too.
Regardless of the ideas just expressed, we pursue a contemporary architecture, not without a certain classicism, a timeless architecture able to bringing together tradition and new technologies.
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