Dual dialogue. Toni Catany International Photography Centre by Mateo Arquitectura
21/12/2021.
[Llucmajor - Mallorca] Spain
metalocus, JOSÉ JUAN BARBA
metalocus, JOSÉ JUAN BARBA
Toni Catany International Photography Centre, designed by Josep Lluis Mateo after an international competition held in 2018, is located a few meters from the historic center of the small town of Llucmajor, in turn a few kilometers from the Mallorca airport.
From the square-squares in the Llucmajor downtwon, it is easy to get to. Imperceptible, almost invisible, the Center is perceived from the outside only by a couple of gestures: a stone brise-soleil, a window and little else until turning the corner of the street through which it is accessed, where some more references denote the discreet presence of this important photography center.
From the square-squares in the Llucmajor downtwon, it is easy to get to. Imperceptible, almost invisible, the Center is perceived from the outside only by a couple of gestures: a stone brise-soleil, a window and little else until turning the corner of the street through which it is accessed, where some more references denote the discreet presence of this important photography center.
Toni Catany International Photography Centre by Mateo Arquitectura. Photograph by Aldo Amoretti.ntre by Mateo Arquitectura. Photograph by Gabriel Ramon. Aldo Amoretti
Toni Catany International Photography Centre by Mateo Arquitectura. Photograph by Aldo Amoretti.
Toni Catany International Photography Centre by Mateo Arquitectura. Photograph by Aldo Amoretti.
Toni Catany International Photography Centre by Mateo Arquitectura. Photograph by Aldo Amoretti.
Toni Catany International Photography Centre by Mateo Arquitectura. Photograph by José Juan Barba.
Toni Catany International Photography Centre by Mateo Arquitectura. Photograph by José Juan Barba.
Toni Catany International Photography Centre by Mateo Arquitectura. Photograph by José Juan Barba.
Toni Catany International Photography Centre by Mateo Arquitectura. Photograph by José Juan Barba.
Toni Catany International Photography Centre by Mateo Arquitectura. Photograph by José Juan Barba.
Toni Catany International Photography Centre by Mateo Arquitectura. Photograph by Aldo Amoretti.
Toni Catany International Photography Centre by Mateo Arquitectura. Photograph by Aldo Amoretti.
Toni Catany International Photography Centre by Mateo Arquitectura. Photograph by Aldo Amoretti.
Toni Catany International Photography Centre by Mateo Arquitectura. Photograph by Aldo Amoretti.
Toni Catany International Photography Centre by Mateo Arquitectura. Photograph by Aldo Amoretti.
Toni Catany International Photography Centre by Mateo Arquitectura. Photograph by Aldo Amoretti.
Toni Catany International Photography Centre by Mateo Arquitectura. Photograph by Aldo Amoretti.
Toni Catany International Photography Centre by Mateo Arquitectura. Photograph by Aldo Amoretti.
Toni Catany International Photography Centre by Mateo Arquitectura. Photograph by Aldo Amoretti.
Toni Catany International Photography Centre by Mateo Arquitectura. Photograph by Aldo Amoretti.
Toni Catany International Photography Centre by Mateo Arquitectura. Photograph by Gabriel Ramon.
Toni Catany International Photography Centre by Mateo Arquitectura. Photograph by José Juan Barba.
Toni Catany International Photography Centre by Mateo Arquitectura. Photograph by José Juan Barba.
Toni Catany International Photography Centre by Mateo Arquitectura. Photograph by Gabriel Ramon.
Toni Catany International Photography Centre by Mateo Arquitectura. Photograph by Aldo Amoretti.
Toni Catany International Photography Centre by Mateo Arquitectura. Photograph by José Juan Barba.
Toni Catany International Photography Centre by Mateo Arquitectura. Photograph by José Juan Barba.
Toni Catany International Photography Centre by Mateo Arquitectura. Photograph by José Juan Barba.
Toni Catany International Photography Centre by Mateo Arquitectura. Photograph by José Juan Barba.
Toni Catany International Photography Centre by Mateo Arquitectura. Photograph by José Juan Barba.
Toni Catany International Photography Centre by Mateo Arquitectura. Photograph by Aldo Amoretti.
Toni Catany International Photography Centre by Mateo Arquitectura. Photograph by Gabriel Ramon.
Toni Catany International Photography Centre by Mateo Arquitectura. Photograph by José Juan Barba.
Toni Catany International Photography Centre by Mateo Arquitectura. Photograph by Aldo Amoretti.
Toni Catany International Photography Centre by Mateo Arquitectura. Photograph by Gabriel Ramon.
Toni Catany International Photography Centre by Mateo Arquitectura. Photograph by Aldo Amoretti.
Toni Catany International Photography Centre by Mateo Arquitectura. Photograph by José Juan Barba.
Toni Catany International Photography Centre by Mateo Arquitectura. Photograph by José Juan Barba.
Toni Catany International Photography Centre by Mateo Arquitectura. Photograph by Gabriel Ramon.
Toni Catany International Photography Centre by Mateo Arquitectura. Photograph by Gabriel Ramon.
Toni Catany International Photography Centre by Mateo Arquitectura. Photograph by Gabriel Ramon.
Ground floor plan. Toni Catany International Photography Centre by Mateo Arquitectura.
Basement floor plan. Toni Catany International Photography Centre by Mateo Arquitectura.
First floor plan. Toni Catany International Photography Centre by Mateo Arquitectura.
Third floor plan. Toni Catany International Photography Centre by Mateo Arquitectura.
Roof plan. Toni Catany International Photography Centre by Mateo Arquitectura.
Section. Toni Catany International Photography Centre by Mateo Arquitectura.
Section. Toni Catany International Photography Centre by Mateo Arquitectura.
Section. Toni Catany International Photography Centre by Mateo Arquitectura.
Section. Toni Catany International Photography Centre by Mateo Arquitectura.
Section. Toni Catany International Photography Centre by Mateo Arquitectura.
Cross section. Toni Catany International Photography Centre by Mateo Arquitectura.
Cross section. Toni Catany International Photography Centre by Mateo Arquitectura.
Elevation. Toni Catany International Photography Centre by Mateo Arquitectura.
A few years ago great retrospective on the work of the Mallorcan photographer Toni Catany was presented in Madrid in which it was commented that his life could be defined “perhaps as an incessant succession of comings and goings, between Llucmajor and Barcelona, between the Mediterranean and the rest of the world, between inside and outside, between projects and memories, between photographic processes of the past and current technologies."
The new Catany Center in Llucmajor, designed by Josep Lluis Mateo, also symbolizes that duality between the small and the large, between the intimate and the public, between memory and its ability to project itself into the future.
The project is characterized by a search for dialogue with the heritage references of two buildings, now united as a whole. Blurred shadows of the past that are projected in our contemporaneity through the construction of this contemporary reference museum center, where the exceptional works of Catany have a space that talks with our current reality.
The four-storey building is completed with an intelligent set of small gestures and actions that articulate the different spaces and, in turn, in them you can read the architectural career of Josep Lluis Mateo, a mixture of fresh gestures combined with his solvent experience.
Toni Catany International Photography Centre by Mateo Arquitectura. Photograph by Gabriel Ramon. Aldo Amoretti
Toni Catany International Photography Centre by Mateo Arquitectura. Photograph by Gabriel Ramon. Aldo Amoretti
Description of project by Josep Lluís Mateo
In the historic center of the city of Llucmajor (Mallorca), partially occupying the birthplace of photographer Toni Catany, the International Photography Centre is built, based on the work and collection of the great artist.
The place, the history, the remains, the scale, the classic typology of houses closed to the outside and open to patios… all this, obviously, is at the base of the project. They are ghosts or realities that accompany us, although we must control them.
However, we do not forget that our mission here was to build a contemporary reference museum center, where exceptional works should have their proper presence.
We conserve remains, some rebuilt, we restored the facades in a carefully primitive way... But the space is new, open, flexible, large, available, with very controlled light, sometimes gloomy...
Some singular elements appear: a staircase that flies, another that recreates the chromatic world of the reference artist ...
Although the protagonist is always the space and a close detail that he accompanies, which is both radical and friendly.
Epilogue:
This is a building constructed during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the different moments of isolation, distance and digitality. Although here we had to produce something very concrete, close, manual in a distant and sometimes desperately archaic world.
It has not been easy.
Josep Lluís Mateo.
More information
Architects
Mateo Arquitectura. Architect.- Josep Lluís Mateo.
Collaborators
Structures.- BAC Engineering, Consultancy Group. Facilities and sustainability.- DEERNS. Measurements and budget.- Arrevolt.
Client / Developer
Government of the Balearic Islands (Department of Culture) and Spanish Ministry of Culture.
Builder
Obras y Pavimentos MAN. Technical architect.- Biel Garcies.
Area
GFA.- 1,200 m².
Dates
Design date.- 2018 - 2019. Construction completion year.- November 2019 - September 2021.
Location
C/ del Cardenal Rossell, Llucmajor, Mallorca, Spain.
Photography
Gabriel Ramon. Aldo Amoretti. José Juan Barba.
JOSEP LLUÍS MATEO
Josep Lluís Mateo was born in Barcelona (1949) and graduated in Architecture in 1974 from the ETSAB and gained his doctorate (cum laude) at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia in 1994.
Mateo’s practice is based in Barcelona, and he is currently involved in a number of local and international projects such as the new Film Theatre of Catalonia in Barcelona, the new headquarters for PGGM Pension Fund Company in Zeist, Holland and the office building on the former site of Renault factories in Boulogne-Billancourt, Paris, among others.
With each of his projects, Mateo seeks to connect the practice of construction with research and development in both intellectual and programmatic terms. He works in the area between the sphere of ideas and the physical world of reality.
Academic collaborations and teaching:
Josep Lluís Mateo has been Professor of the Architecture Department at the Swiss Federal Polytechnic in Zurich (ETH-Z) since 2002. He has also taught and lectured at numerous institutions around the world, including Princeton, Columbia University in New York, the Harvard Graduate School of Design, ABK Stuttgart, UP8 Paris, OAF Oslo and ITESM Mexico. He was Visiting Scholar at the Jean P. Getty Center in Los Angeles from 1991 to 1992. Josep Lluís Mateo is President since 2009 of the Board of Directors of the Barcelona Institute of Architecture. He has been a member of a number of juries and expert committees, including the Quality Committee of Barcelona City Council (2000-2008), and for prizes such as the European Landscape Award and the Thyssen Award.
Recent exhibitions and prizes:
The practice’s work has been exhibited on numerous occasions thanks to its international influence. New York’s MoMA devoted a space in the exhibition “Spain: On Site” (2006) to its apartment building in Valencia for the Sociopolis Project. Individual exhibitions include those at Ras Gallery (Barcelona, 2009), Architekturgalerie Aedes (Berlin, 2004), Architekturzentrum Wien (Vienna, 1998), Col•legi d’Arquitectes de Catalunya (Barcelona, 1998),Galerie Fragner (Prague, 1998), Galerie Aedes (Berlin, 1994), Architekturgalerie Luzern (Luzern, 1992) and Architekturgalerie Munich (Munich, 1991).
The work of Josep Lluís Mateo has been awarded many prizes, including:
- Top International Purpose-Built Venue 2008, First Prize. Best International Convention Centre category.
Organized by C&IT magazine, London. Project: CCIB-Barcelona International Convention Centre
- 2008 Archizinc Award, First Prize. Collective Housing category. Project: Sant Jordi Students’ Hall of Residence, Barcelona
- European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture - Mies van der Rohe Award 2005, Runner-up. Project: CCIB- Barcelona International Convention Centre
- 15th Award of Grupo Dragados de Arquitectura.
Toni CATANY
Toni Catany (Llucmajor, Majorca, 1942 - Barcelona, 2013) is a reference figure in the world of photography, thanks to a work of pictorial vocation in which classic themes such as bodegones [still lifes], nudity and urban landscape predominate, photographed with a very personal sensitivity and aesthetics through the use of key techniques and procedures in the world of photography.
Catany made more than a hundred individual exhibitions, published numerous books and, among other awards, received the title Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, awarded by the French Ministry of Culture in 1991, and the National Photography Prize Awarded by the Ministry of Culture in 2001.
Catany made more than a hundred individual exhibitions, published numerous books and, among other awards, received the title Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, awarded by the French Ministry of Culture in 1991, and the National Photography Prize Awarded by the Ministry of Culture in 2001.
