García Lorca Centre

The boundary between the historic urban context and the architectural space is blurred by extending the threshold of the building that houses the Federico García Lorca Centre towards the public space of Plaza de La Romanilla, in Granada. The design strategy consists in sculpting the empty space of the site to generate a great doorway to the new amenity at different scales. In this way, entrance takes place via a passageway covered by beams and bridges that generate an interplay of shadows and create three-dimensional and spatial relations. In turn, the intervention naturally and fluidly integrates the plaza with the ground floor of the Centre, a space free of structural elements to accommodate a flexible, versatile program of activities.

  The building, comprising two volumes of 4,700 sqm, is laid out in a succession of different flexible and expressive spaces that house the various cultural uses. A 400-seat theatre equipped with a acoustic shell and mobile walls that soundproof it from the foyer and provide the necessary quality for concerts and plays. A library made up of two spaces of different heights, for the book stacks and the reading room, which offers views of the suspended box that is the iron-clad archive where the poet’s original manuscripts are safeguarded. There is also a gallery of generous dimensions that occupies the basement, plus a cafeteria, a shop, offices, storage space and services.

The new centre is built using in-situ concrete, that gives it a surface that is smooth to the eye and to the touch. This texture was the answer to the search for a finish similar to natural stone that would dialogue with the architectures of the historic centre of Granada, as well as ensuring urban representativeness and making its presence felt as a cultural landmark in the community.

Federico García Lorca Centre, Granada
Program: cultural centre
Architects: MX_SI architectural studio – Mara Partida, Mónica Juvera, Boris Bezan, Héctor Mendoza
Collaborators: Rodrigo Escamilla, Samuel Arriola, Oscar Espinoza, Albert Manubens
Quantity Surveyor: Antonio Navarro Suarez
Project manager: Artelia (Coteba), Marta Alda
Structural engineer: B.O.M.A. Augustion Obiol, Diego Martin Saiz, Pere Vidal
Services engineer: PGI Group, Joan Escanellas, Teresa Curiel
Fire consultant: Francesc Labastida
Acoustic engineer: Arau Acústica
Theatre consultant: Otto Seix, David Pujol
Area: 4,700 sqm
Completion: 2015