Inner light - design of cultural center in Badajoz, Spain

Architectural Review, The, April, 1999 by Penny McGuire

Design of a cultural centre in a south-western province of Estremadura draws on memory and at the same time provides nurture for the future.

Rafael Moneo's cultural centre in Don Benito, Badajoz, built on a conspicuous site within the town, is a rich contribution to the fabric and spirit of the place. Like previous works by this architect, the building asserts a very particular presence. Moneo's sensitive interpretation of the brief, his supple appreciation of history and place, characteristically produces complex responses - but couched in the language of restraint their complexity and sophistication tends to be masked. You can see it here. The exterior of this plainly detailed building may seem inscrutable at first glance, but a second one will reveal memories of local details, the aptness of scale and of the way it turns the corner, and so on. The poetry infusing design of the interior derives from Moneo's handling of light and materials.

The site on the north-east corner of the Plaza de Espana was once that of the town hall and marks the intersection of Groisard and Villanueva streets. Moneo's centre which has an undeniably civic presence completes the square, addressing it (rather than the streets either side) with a corner tower under which is the main entrance. Across Villanueva street is the Colegiata church and like ships at sea these two buildings exchange signals. The restrained exterior of the old, the antique flourishes, the texture of old masonry, are answered by an equal restraint, roof lanterns and the fine etching over a white exterior of brick courses beneath.

The white austerity of the centre's exterior gives little clue to the intricacy and richness within. Considering the brief which asked for a large lecture theatre, a library, museum, and a number of other provisions, the site was not particularly large and Moneo's dense compact architecture with its overlapping interior volumes fills it to the edges. Looked at on plan, the building clearly has a main core that is aligned with Villanueva street and contains the centre's main spaces. At its heart on the ground and first floors is the theatre seating 252 people; above it is the library and over that the museum. Around the core is arranged a series of ancillary rooms - galleries for exhibitions, archives, classrooms, offices and lavatories.

Moneo's means of bringing light into the building centre is a source of enormous pleasure. Ten of the 18 glass lanterns which rise above the shallow roof illuminate the museum galleries. Light from the remaining ones is conducted down to the library and archives through big white tubes. Appearing as columns in the museum, they carry light into the archives, but in the library they terminate in the centre of false shallow vaults. The plywood from which these are formed gives these constructions a delicate aeronautical quality. Light diffused across their curving surfaces sheds a soft gold luminance over a wooden floor and handsome furniture, making the room the most agreeable of libraries.

In the pleasingly proportioned theatre, the soft tones of the wood lining floors and walls are combined with rich red seating and ceiling. Elsewhere, for instance in the museum galleries, Moneo has simply allowed light to wash over white walls and accentuate volumetric modelling, and has used polished stone for the floors.

Architect Rafael Moneo Valles

Project architects Rafael Moneo, Fernando Iznaola, Silvia De Anna

Photographs

Duccio Malagamba