Like a large room open to the territory, this space dissolves the limits between the public and the private, unites and separates, proposing a collective place to meet. Around it are arranged the exhibition spaces and the three large rooms, which project their roof sheltering the interior square. The access from the city is through a generous ramp that raises the access level to the rooms, hiding the great void, allowing a view of the landscape and resolving possible conflicts with the water table; while facing the marshes, the building is hollowed out to cater for this extensive and territorial scale.
Two massive acoustic halls flank the interior public space, housing the large auditorium and the two smaller ones respectively. Both boxes are joined below by the raised platform that houses the dressing rooms, pits, warehouses and the exhibition space under the plaza. On the first floor, a volume above the access ramp again joins the auditoriums at this level, seeking a circular path. Lastly, the large-span roof that covers the auditoriums extends over the square, protecting it like a floating canopy. The complex is covered by precast white concrete panels with vertical grooves that vibrate in the Ayamonte sun.
Exhibition and Congress Center by Sol89. Photograph by Fernando Alda.
Project description by Sol89
Ayamonte is a border city bounded by two large bodies of water. To the west is the mouth of the Guadiana, a great territorial reference for the town and natural border with Portugal, to the southeast the marshes and salt flats, an extensive, changing and horizontal landscape ignored until recently due to the railway belt dismantled in the nineties. The Congress Center is located on these lands rediscovered by the city.
The demanded program (an auditorium with 1,000 seats, two with 300 and 150, areas for congressmen and exhibitions...) could be measured on two scales: on the one hand, a cross-border and territorial scale, where the Center would function on a unitary way as a large space of congresses, we would arrive by car or bus, from an airport or another city. On the other hand, there would be a local scale; concerts in a room, a conference, travelling exhibitions..., which would require a fragmented use of the building, which would be reached on foot or by bicycle from some point in the town.
Exhibition and Congress Center by Sol89. Photograph by Fernando Alda.
The project proposes to attend to the landscape value of the rediscovered marshland and to the unitary and fragmented double reading of the program through a large public space located inside the building. A raised and covered platform that culminates the fabric of squares and promenades that structure the river route of Ayamonte, from the Guadiana to the marshes, crosses the building, creating a void from which to view the landscape of salt flats. Like a large room open to the territory, this space dissolves the limits between the public and the private, proposing a collective place to meet protected by architecture, around it is arranged the exhibition spaces and the three large rooms, which project their roof sheltering the interior square. The interior void unites and separates at the same time, allowing the unitary and fragmented use sought. From the city, access via a generous ramp raises the level of access to the halls, hiding the great void and allowing the landscape to be seen from this versatile high plan, also avoiding further conflicts with the water table; while towards the territory, the wide landscape of marshes presses the building that is hollowed out to attend to this extensive and territorial scale.
Two large concrete acoustic halls house the large auditorium, on one side of the square, and the rooms for 300 and 150 people on the other, both are joined below by the raised platform that houses the dressing rooms, pits, warehouses and the exhibition space below. Square. On the first floor, a volume on the access ramp where the conference rooms are arranged joins the rooms again at this level, seeking a circular path. Lastly, the large-span roof that covers the auditoriums extends over the square, protecting it like a floating canopy. The complex is covered by a series of prefabricated panels of textured white concrete with vertical grooves that vibrate in the Ayamonte sun.
