Museum of Energy by Arquitecturia
05/12/2013.
By Josep Camps, Olga Felip. [Ascó, Tarragona] Spain
metalocus, SERGIO CIDONCHA
metalocus, SERGIO CIDONCHA
Memory of project by Arquitecturia
The Museum of Energy is located at the entrance of the city of Ascó, next to the river Ebro.
Through a careful approach to the site by an analysis at different levels and also, by a research for references to be incorporated at the proposal, the citizens become familiar with and take ownership of the new public and private spaces.
The site was manifested as a desolate land. At a urban scale, landscape and industry were not related, simply juxtaposed, they coexisted without tension. At a territorial scale, the strategic location of the site was understood, between the landscape and the urban core.
Here in this place there was no shelter and the boundary condition was strongly felt. Therefore, the museum needed to be anchored, needed to create its own atmosphere, between public and private, between the river Ebro and topography, between urban and landscape. Because of this, one of the principal aims of the proposal was to reconfigure the site and its surrounding understanding its BOUNDARY condition.
On the blank paper, we start dusting off the grid. An abstract square of 42 x 42, a perimeter without references is settled. On the square, an orthogonal grid is spread out. The rows interval used is A A B A A and the columns interval is a b a a b a. On the Grid, B divides the square horizontally into two, the receiving space and the space of exhibition. B articulates the space, B is circulation and transition. Vertically, the type a b a a b a modulates and orders and it solves the programmatic requirements and conditions.
The type on this site When the grid is laid down on the site, it loses the purity. Now, the grid emanates a sense of belonging, it seems that it is used to be there, abstraction and specificity are intertwined. XY are no axes anymore, but coordinates. Two structural directions East – West (landscape - the Ebro river and topography) and North-South ( artifice - industry and the town of Ascó) are established.
From outside to inside, accidental spaces appear. Spaces generated by subtracting matter. Emptiness is absence, and then the interior is revealed. The outside is defined by the dark, cold and rough STEEL. It consists of a regular and precise perimeter which expresses and imposes its heavy and dense character. The inside is unveiled by the bright, smooth and soft POLYCARBONATE curves. A winding and sinuous subtraction is disclosed and defines an ethereal and light atmosphere.
The museum of energy, generates a new space in a currently undetermined place and intertwines the industrial surrounding and the landscape. This interlacing of different realities is dealt by three different stages of a promenade: At a first stage, the visitors are RECEIVED, at a second stage, the exhibition content is SHOWN and at a last stage, the views toward the landscape are FRAMED: to RECEIVE, to FRAME and IN-BETWEEN, the content is SHOWN.
Text.- Josep Camps, Olga Felip.
CREDITS.-
Main architects.- Josep Camps, Olga Felip.
Team collaborators.- Mariella Agudo, Aitor Horta, Irene Solà, Jaume Farrés, Albert Serrats; PROINTEC, Francisco Júarez (quantity surveyor), GMK (structure).
Promoter.- ANACNV.
Builder.- TCSA.
Date.- June 2010 to November 2011 (construction).
Budget.- 1.683.076,33 €.
Surface.- 1365.75 m² (total floor area).
Site.- Avenida De la Central s/n, Ascó. Tarragona, Spain.
Award.- Winners of THE INTERNATIONAL ARCHITECTURAL AWARD 2012 (The Chicago Athanaeum Museum of Art and Design).
Josep Camps (1975) studied architecture at the Superior School of Architecture of Barcelona (00) | Worked for Atelier AO2 of Paris (1998) and Javier Sanjosé Office (2000-2003). He has received scholarship for taking part into different exchange programs and workshops including the Intercampus Scholarship at the Universidade Caixa du Sul and the program for ‘kashbes rehabilitation’ at Marocco by the UNESCO | Camps has been professor at the Superior School of Architecture of Barcelona –UPC where he taught Studio Project V-VI and since 2005 he is profesor at the University of Girona where he is the director of Studio Project I-II together with Josep Fuses and Elisabet Capdeferro. He has been visiting professor at the Master of Cultural Heritage Managment of the University of Girona and member of the Final. Review Jury at the School of Architecture of Alicante. Besides his teaching work he develops her thesis project. ‘Intertwining Architecture’ for the research area of Theory and Practice of Architectural Design –UPC Barcelona-. Cofounder of curatorial and design group MA!O and co-founder of the architectural studio ARQUITECTURIA.
ARQUITECTURIA has worked on residential, sanitary, educational and cultural projects for both public and private sectors. The studio members studied in different European universities, still holding engagement with them, and are involved in research programmes and being in contact with innovation and research applied in the professional area.
Olga Felip Ordis (1980) studied architecture at the Superior School of Architecture of Barcelona (2005). During her degree, she received a scholarship for taking part in different exchange programs and workshops including the IDSA+U workshop at the School of Architecture of Edinburgh, the European exchange program EAEN working at the School of Architecture of Belleville–Paris and at UCLA University -California- and the International Laboratory of Architecture and Urban Design ILAUD at UIAV – Venice | She received a scholarship for taking part at the International Congress of the Sixties Spanish Architecture and assisted at V DOCOMOMO Ibérico Congress about The GATPAC: Politics, culture and architecture on the thirties. In 2001 she assisted at the Summer School of the Architectural Association School of London. Co-founder of curatorial and design group MA!O, and co-founder of the architectural studio ARQUITECTURIA. Besides her professional career, she develops her thesis project for the research area of Theory and History of Architecture, at UPC Barcelona.
ARQUITECTURIA has worked on residential, sanitary, educational and cultural projects for both public and private sectors. The studio members studied in different European universities, still holding engagement with them, and are involved in research programmes and being in contact with innovation and research applied in the professional area.