AWARDS:
-1996 Ideas Competition for the Rehabilitation and Extension of Estepa Town Hall. Seville. First prize
SITUATION: Plaza de El Carmen, Estepa, Seville. >>Open in GOOGLE MAPS
DATES: competition (1996), project (1996-2000), construction (2002-2004)
CLIENT: Consejería de Obras Públicas y Transportes de la Junta de Andalucía and Estepa City Council
ARCHITECTS: José Antonio Carbajal Navarro and José Luis Daroca Bruño
COLLABORATING ARCHITECTS: Nicolás Carbajal Ballell, Rodrigo Carbajal Ballell and Pilar Mencía Gutiérrez
BUILDING SURVEYORS: Víctor Baztán Cascales (project) and Roberto Alés Méndez (construction)
STRUCTURAL ENGINEER: Pedro Lobato Vida
SERVICES ENGINEER: Antonio Arrondo Sacado
PHOTOGRAPHY: Fernando Alda
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
–ON Diseño Nº 258. ON Diseño SL, 2004. ISSN: 0210-2080
–Arquitectura Ibérica Nº 5. Rehabilitación. Caleidoscópio Edição e Artes Gráficas, SA, 2004. ISBN: 9728801734
–Rehabilitación de las Casas Consistoriales. Estepa, Sevilla (triptych). Junta de Andalucía. Consejería de Obras Públicas y Transportes. Dirección General de Arquitectura y Vivienda, 2005. Dep. legal: SE-3805-2005
–Sevilla 1995-2005. Arquitectura de una década. Colegio Oficial de Arquitectos de Sevilla, Fundación para la Investigación y Difusión de la Arquitectura, Sevilla and Seville City Council, 2005. ISBN: 8493373885
–Tajo + Guadiana. Escuela de Arte de Mérida and Agencia Extremeña de la Vivienda, 2006. Dep. legal: BA-690-2006
–Páginas de arquitectura de Sevilla 1999-2006. Grupo Joly, 2007. ISBN: 9788488837738
–Estudio Carbajal. Escuela de Arte y Superior de Diseño de Mérida, 2008. ISBN 9788461240289
–Ayuntamiento de Estepa. Rehabilitación de las antiguas Casas Consistoriales. Estepa, Sevilla. Junta de Andalucía. Consejería de Vivienda y Ordenación del Territorio, 2008. ISBN: 9788475951997
–Ciudad Viva Nº 1. Junta de Andalucía. Consejería de Vivienda y Ordenación del Territorio, 2009. ISSN: 18885462
Our first visit to Estepa Town Hall gave us the impression of a built complex not in line with the institution. There seemed to be a certain sense of lack of space, unhealthiness and difficult orientation.
Our memory was full of uncomfortable workers in their reduced work places and disoriented users walking through a labyrinth of rooms. So it was necessary to incorporate clarity, comfort and representation.
The houses at Mesones street, facing to Plaza de El Carmen, together with the Market behind them, define a plot in a privileged position in the historic centre of Estepa.
After the first ideas we concluded that, in order to achieve those objectives, the maintenance of existing tipologies or the subdivision of the plot were issues that should not be overvalued. In that way, from a flexible approach to regulations, we were able to aim our effort in three directions: on the one hand, keeping the facade to Plaza de El Carmen, demolishing the rest until the contact with the market; on the second hand, building a linear block joined to the market whose extremes would define the new facades to side streets; finally, the creation of a large transition space between the old and new, a space that were representative of the new function of the building.
The rooms close to main facade are occupied by the most important areas, as the mayoralty. The three-storey construction besides the market houses administration areas and citizen attention services, with access from the side streets. In the middle, a wide and well-illuminated space that replaced the old patios offers an easy orientation for visitors, a representative place thanks to the presence of the new council chamber.
Watch the documentary at tvarquitectura.com
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