Congress In Cordoba - Cordoba, Spain

Architectural Review, The, August, 2001 by Catherine Slessor

Integrating a big, object building into a historic city was the theme of a competition to design a new congress centre in Cordoba. We look at the results.

The historic Spanish city of Cordoba has been the subject of a recent major architectural competition. The municipality decided it needed a new congress centre, with the usual conference and exhibition spaces, augmented by a 250 room hotel and visitors' centre marking the start of a route around the historic core of the city. Located on the Miraflores peninsula, a loop-shaped tract of land formed by the River Guadalquivir as it flows through the city, the site lies close to the medieval centre and the Mezquita, Cordoba's huge Moorish mosque. The ambitious project forms part of a series of interventions such as new parks and bridges, promoted by the municipality to recover and recolonize the banks of the Guadalquivir. Through its important strategic location, this latest scheme is intended to connect the dense, historic quarters to the north of the river with new neighbourhoods to the south.

Earlier this year, a limited competition was held to elicit proposals. Participant architects were Cruz & Ortiz, Rafael Monec, Rem Koolhaas, Toyo Ito and Zaha Hadid. As might be expected from such a fashionable international coterie, the responses were diverse, but united by the problem of how to integrate such a large object building into Cordoba's urban fabric. The recently announced winner was Rem Koolhaas with a characteristically gestural solution (described here), but the other quartet produced some equally bold proposals (described in the following pages). Jury members included Luis Fernandez-Galiano, Vittorio Magnano Lampugnani and Wiel Arets.

Placed across the southern edge of the peninsula, Koolhaas' scheme is a colossal linear volume that acts as a promenade, mall and take off point for Cordoba's tourist circuit. The 360m long bar marks the threshold of the Miraflores neighbourhood and defines the southern boundary of a planned fluvial park that will be developed over the rest of the site. All functions and activities -- congress centre, auditorium, shopping and hotel -- are contained within a continuous trajectory running the entire length of the building. A transparent middle section forms a linear viewing platform overlooking the park, river and ancient city. Above and below, various ancillary functions are housed within profiled slabs.

In response to different programmatic pressures along its length, the building's layers variously expand and converge: separating to accommodate the conference hall and auditorium, converging to define the hotel lobby. To the south, the volumes of the conference centre and auditorium project from the main linear bar and a ramp between the two marks the formal entrance to the complex. Bridging east and west banks of the river along its length, the building is conceived as a promenade and urban route that reinforces connections with the historic centre.

ZAHA HADID

Three urban types - the courtyard plan, the medieval street pattern and the royal place - influenced the development of Zaha Hadid's proposal. The contrasts between indoor and exterior rooms, between formality and informality, and between intimate and large scales are explored in a series of separate elements united and enveloped by a seamless, undulating roof. On the western edge of the building, the roof meets the ground, making a visual connection with the Mezquita. A riverside promenade forms a major new public space. Seen from across the park or river, visitors moving in and around the halls become a new civic performance spectacle.

CRUZ & ORTIZ

The dominant element of Cruz & Ortiz's scheme is a huge roof plane that rises gently from the edge of the river to address the park beyond. On the eastern riverside, it extends to form a shaded river walk and break out spaces for the large volumes of the conference halls. The hotel is placed at the north end of the site and is organized around a central courtyard. On the park side, a long colonnade unites the building with its surroundings. The gentle swell of the big, topographical roof transforms built form into landscape.

RAFAEL MONEO

Moneo's proposal locates the congress centre on the eastern edge of the peninsula, its long rectangular form emulating and engaging in dialogue with the Mezquita, on the opposite bank of the Guadalquivir. The building is enclosed by imperforate walls, a favourite device of Moneo's that reinterprets the traditional form of the Spanish alcazar. The hotel is placed at the south end, around a series of internal patio courtyards, with the larger volumes of the congress centre at the north end. Its roof is designed as a series of interlocking domes, like giant soap bubbles, creating a new urban landmark.

TOYO ITO

Toyo Ito's solution is a taut, box-like building skewered at its north-east corner by an amoebic tower containing the hotel. The orthogonal envelope encloses a series of fluidly organic volumes housing the various auditoria and conference halls. Only the hotel is expressed externally, however. The riverside east elevation and north-east corner are fully glazed, with views across to the old city. The scheme's monumental quality is derived from the simple yet powerfully articulated relationship between tower and box.