actar
GUIDE TO CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE IN LEÓN
DECOLESA
GUIDE TO CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE IN LEÓN
01 >
Museum of Contemporary Art
—MUSAC
Public building, cultural use 2004
This iconic building is a paradigm of contemporary architecture. The museum is laid out on a single floor in an open, flexible and expansive manner, occupying almost the entire plot. The building is the product of an additive composition of simple geometric elements in the form of squares and rhombuses. This configuration, like a chessboard, colonizes the site and configures the entrance plaza as a contemporary setting for artworks. Certain base pieces are raised up to generate skylights dispersed by the intervention. The organizational structure engenders a succession of linked spaces, broken, versatile and diverse, alternating exhibition spaces and autonomous rooms, courtyards and skylights. The intersecting sightlines and free circulation emphasize the transverse exchanges between art and architecture. The architectural complex as a whole, in white concrete with glass cladding on the exterior, embraces a large concave outdoor public space, a setting for activities related to art and the city. The complex’s continuous façade undergoes a transformation at the entrance, taking on colour in a clear allusion to the stained glass windows of León Cathedral and constituting the signature image of the work.
Location: Avenida de los Reyes Leoneses 24 Architects: Luis Moreno Mansilla Ground floor
and Emilio Tuñón Álvarez (Mansilla+Tuñón) Awards: Mies van der Rohe Award 2007
22
23
08 > Private House
Private building, single-family residential use 2003
Located in a new residential development on the edge of the city of León, the house adapts to its setting with an introspective gesture, closing out its surroundings and turning in on itself. The use of exposed concrete as the dominant material draws attention to the contemporary language of the house in comparison to the other single-family homes in the vicinity. The position of the building on its rectangular plot was largely determined by the planning regulations. The house opts for a compact volume that is articulated around a central courtyard, open on one side. This layout allows the different spaces to communicate with each other across the courtyard, adding to the sense of spatial introversion and creating a series of internal vistas to offset the equidistance of the façades from the perimeter of the plot. The residential programme is laid out on two floors, with the more communal day area — living room, dining room, kitchen and garage — on the ground floor, and the night area and more private spaces — bedrooms and bathrooms — on the upper floor. The building has a sloping zinc roof and 45 cm thick reinforced concrete walls that a high degree of thermal inertia. The porch under the deep overhang of the roof marks the entrance to the house.
Ground floor
Location:
Awards:
Calle Río Iyarga 12, Las Palmeras
First Prize, COAL Architecture Prize
Architects:
2004
Moisés Puente Rodríguez
36
37
21 >
León–Oeste Civic Centre
Public building, social and administrative use 2001
The building is inserted in the Barrio Ferroviario, an area that has undergone a major renovation to improve its commercial activity and image. The proposal combines the restructuring and restoration of old structures with the creation of new volumes. The main building, a large metal cuboid, is stepped back and rotates the plane of construction to establish a visual relationship with the axis created by the Auditorium, San Marcos and the Civic Centre. This cuboid can be read in different ways depending on the distance from which it is viewed. Access is on the ground floor, by way of a transparent volume that contains the exhibition area and encourages people to step in off the street. The façades and roofs are resolved by means of zinc-clad ventilated systems in combination with the existing brick walls, the latter acting as a plinth for the new intervention. The internal connection gallery is of wood. The grouping of the different volumes creates a great variety of public spaces, in the form of streets, plazas and arcades, which reinforce public activity outside.
East elevation
Location:
Awards:
Avenida de la Magdalena 1
Honourable Mention,
Architects:
Public Works 2000-2002.
Javier Fresneda Puerto
4th COACYLE Architecture Prize
and Javier Sanjuan Calle (MTM Arquitectos)
64
65
34 > EOI Official School
Public building, educational use 2006
of Languages
Located in a newly developed area with a predominantly residential character, the building is situated on the edge of the Chantría park, allowing it to propose a continuation of the park by way of an exterior strip of landscaped public space. The school is laid out in two free-standing blocks, each of four floors, set twenty metres apart. The northern block is raised on pilotis to free the ground floor and accommodate a car park below, at the same time giving both blocks more exposure to the sun. The accesses to the building and the classrooms are on the ground floor, slightly elevated above street level. Two independent communication cores accommodate the communal services shared by the two blocks, rationalizing the use of space. Lightweight enclosed wooden footbridges, clearly differentiated and one to a floor, cross the space below and relate to it by means of continuous strip windows. The two blocks are polarized, presenting hermetic façades of grey brick to the city and opening up to the communal interior space with entirely glazed façades.
Third floor
Location:
Awards:
Calle Santos Olivera 17
7th Castile and León Architecture
Architects:
Prize. Runner-up, 2nd COAL Prize
Belén Martín-Granizo López and Daniel Díaz Font (DMG Arquitectos)
92
93