Elisa Valero Ramos, Antonio Jiménez Torrecillas – New Exhibition Hall in Santo Domingo Convent

PROJECT: Elisa Valero Ramos, Antonio Jiménez Torrecillas – New Exhibition Hall in Santo Domingo Convent

LOCATION: Huéscar, Granada, España

YEAR: 2017

ARCHITECT / FIRM: Antonio Jiménez Torrecillas/ Elisa Valero Ramos

BUYER: City council of Huéscar

SURFACE: 363.40 sqm

PRICE: € 169.619,00

DESCRIPTION:
Three years after the arrival of the Dominicans in Huéscar 1544, they took over the land where they built their convent. The convent complex was designed according to the models then in force for this type of buildings: a quadrangular organism with four wings around a central cloister and a laterally attached church. Only part of it was built. The whole of the Santo Domingo Convent, declared a Site of Cultural Interest in 1980, is made up of the church and the convent nave. It is developed on a plot of 1900 m2. The various changes of use and property did not constitute the cloister that was initially thought, leaving the complex unfinished. Two volumes tangentially arranged without interior compartments, generating a great interior void. In this place, the town hall of Huéscar, a town of 10,000 inhabitants from Granada, plans to create a new Exhibition Hall in the nave annexed to the convent. From an initial project by the architect Antonio Jiménez Torrecillas (2015+) the recovery of these spaces for cultural and exhibition uses has been developed in several phases. The intervention is carried out in one of the original wings with wooden coffered ceilings, later reinforced to be used as a wheat warehouse and in the annexed nave that was demolished. The intervention respects the existing as much as possible and tries to recover the space and adapt it to a low-cost exhibition hall. A new staircase is incorporated to access the upper floor. The slab, which was sunken, has been replaced with an undulation on the lower face, thus improving the acoustic quality of the space. The carpentry is reused by filtering the light with alabaster.

TOTAL REPLACEMENT / DISCONTINUITY: The new functional program has completely replaced the original one.

DESCRIPTION:
The town of Huéscar needed to complete its cultural infrastructure in the northern sector of the urban area, with the incorporation of new public facilities. It was decided to build an ethnological museum on the basement, temporary exhibition rooms on the ground floor, a permanent exhibition hall on the first floor and a workshop area on the second floor. The idea is to recover the space and adapt it to a low-cost exhibition hall. There are two rooms: one in which the wooden coffered ceiling has been conserved, and the other in which the forging of the roof has been rehabilitated with wooden rollizos and wood entrevigado with recatado of plaster. This wing incorporates a new staircase leading to the upper floor.

TOTAL CONSERVATION / CONTINUITY: The investor is the property owner.

DESCRIPTION:
City council of Huéscar.

- SURFACE present NO VARIATION,

TOTAL CONSERVATION / CONTINUITY: The overall dimensions are equal to the pre-existing surface.

- VOLUME present NO VARIATION,

TOTAL CONSERVATION / CONTINUITY: The overall dimensions are equal to the pre-existing volume.

DESCRIPTION:
The convent complex, made up of the church and the convent nave, is built on a plot of about 1,900 m2, located at the northwest end of the main street. This urban sector is the contact area between the edge of the historic centre and the residential extensions of the second third of the 20th century. With 380 m2 of floor space, the church occupies the eastern area of the site, while the convent, with 340 m2, occupies the southern area. Access to the complex is from the Plaza de Santo Domingo, to the south.

PREVALENT CONSERVATION / CONTINUITY: Pre-existing spaces are prevalent with respect to new spaces.

DESCRIPTION:
The interior spaces are maintained without the construction of new compartments that weaken the global vision of the whole. In this way, the entire exhibition space can be viewed from any point in the rooms, marked by large walls of tapial and masonry and naturally illuminated with openings in the façade with wood and alabaster carpentries.

BALANCE BETWEEN CONSERVATION AND REPLACEMENT: The supporting structure is composed in a balanced way by pre-existing structures and new structures.

DESCRIPTION:
The intervention respects the existing as much as possible and the new elements, such as the staircases, are made in a technologically contemporary way, with a metallic structure and perforated aluminium steps. The intervention is carried out on one of the original wings with wooden coffered ceilings, later reinforced to be used as a warehouse for wheat and in the annexed nave, which was in ruins. The structure consisting of load-bearing walls of tapial or masonry is maintained and reinforced in the vaults of the basement that have been ceded.

BALANCE BETWEEN CONSERVATION AND REPLACEMENT: The materials chosen for the new intervention balance similarities and differences with the existing ones.

DESCRIPTION:
The project strategy consists of the recovery of the space respecting to the maximum the existing thing adapting it to room of exhibitions. The sunken slab has been replaced with an undulation in the lower face, thus improving the acoustic quality of the space. The carpentry is reused by filtering the light with alabaster. The new elements incorporated, such as the staircase, manifest in their design the contemporary nature of the intervention.

BALANCE BETWEEN CONSERVATION AND REPLACEMENT: The new intervention balances elements of continuity and discontinuity with respect to existing structures.

DESCRIPTION:
Action has been taken in accordance with the criteria of the Spanish Historical Heritage Law, which establishes that action on immovable property shall be aimed at its conservation, consolidation and rehabilitation and prohibits any reconstruction, except when original parts are used and their authenticity can be proven. When materials or parts indispensable for stability or maintenance are added, the additions must be recognisable and mimetic confusions must be avoided. This intervention emphasizes the authenticity of what has been built as a whole over time, in relation to the spatiality of the rooms and the materiality of what has been built.