Alicante-based architecture practice COR Asociados Arquitectos, led by Jesús Olivares y Miguel Rodenas was commissioned to design the cultural center Favara. Located in the neighborhood that owes its name to the Favara ditch, which crosses the neighborhood in the direction of the Albufera de Valencia, belonging to the Patraix district of the city of Valencia.

The building is located on a trapezoidal plot between party walls with the shortest side as a façade facing José Zaragoza Street. It is located to the southwest of the city and is bordered to the north by Safranar, to the east by L'Hort de Senabre, and to the south and west by Camí Real.
COR Asociados Arquitectos organizes the project around a totally transparent central patio, making the circulations and activities carried out in each of the classrooms or spaces constantly show their occupants and movements, generating a greater perception of proximity among the occupants of the center.

The idea of meeting and proximity is complemented by the combination of materials used, glass, wood, and ceramic with a bright pink color that leads users to remember that space as a different place.

A simple construction full of careful details, such as the treatment of the façade where the stone used has four levels of finish that go from brightest to least, generating for those who cross the street, a felt but not perceived vibration of a special building.
 

Cultural Center Favara by COR Arquitectos. Photograph by David Frutos.

Project description by COR Asociados Arquitectos

In this Civic and Cultural Center project located in the Valencian neighborhood of Favara (Valencia, Spain), the plot between party walls conditioned the proposal.

The site offered a short façade to José Zaragoza street and yet it was enlarged at the end of it until it almost doubled in the background dividing wall.

The priority, from the beginning, was to carry out a building so that all the associations and neighbors would use it constantly: they would reprogram it, invade it, and make it their own. Hence, multipurpose spaces allow, thanks to the technological conditions with which we have endowed them, to be able to assume almost any use.

The center of the building is a totally transparent patio where all the spaces are turned, including those for circulation. This makes it possible to make transparent to users what is happening in each room of the building: a yoga class, a neighborhood meeting, a computer course, the organization of the "falla", a music class... Somehow we have wanted This decision will help people integrate into their immediate society more easily. Understanding that when a person moves through the building, they are seen from the rooms and vice versa, what we understand entails a reduction in the limits between users and therefore greater proximity.


Cultural Center Favara by COR Arquitectos. Photograph by David Frutos.

The project joins in and tries to propose a revision of the multifunctional or container-building model. To do this, the program is arranged around the patio and stacked vertically. These neighborhood buildings propose a programmatic fit based on the idea that all uses should be on the ground floor in direct relation to the street. The impossibility in the compact European city of finding large plots within the areas of influence leads us to deploy the program in a vertical sequence of floors that are articulated around the communication elements: the staircase and lobbies that, therefore, are erected as the heart of the building. The meeting place that we have proposed with a bright pink color leads users to remember that space as a different place. Likewise, the sequence of plants that derive from this verticality is pierced with a patio capable of providing natural lighting to all spaces and deploying a natural ventilation system.

Cultural Center Favara by COR Arquitectos. Photograph by David Frutos.

The façade responds to its neighborhood context, generating changing brightness, thanks to the fact that the stone used in its enclosure has four different levels of finish, from brightest to least. Generating a jingle, a vibration... accompanying people walking down the street.

More information

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Arquitectos
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Client
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Valencia City Hall.
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Area
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GFA.- 1.151 m².
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Dates
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2023.
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Location
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José Zaragoza street, Favara neighborhood, Valencia, Spain.
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Photography
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COR & asociados was created in 2006 by Architects Jesus Olivares and Miguel Rodenas, after graduating from the University of Alicante with Master Degrees in Sustainable Architecture and Urbanism. Currently, they are directors of the Architecture and Urbanism Area.

In 2007, Jose Verdu, Technical Architect and Building Engineer from the University of San Antonio was incorporated as director of the Division of Technical Assistance and Construction.

And finally, in 2008, Nuria Rodenas, Master Degree in Tax Consultancy from the University Miguel Hernández, Master Degree in Tax Business with honors from the Fundesem Business School, Master Degree in Finance by Fundesem Business School, Master Degree Business Administration and Management from the UCAM, and Degree Bussiness Studies from the University of Alicante; was incorporated as CFO of the company, and currently is director of the area of Business Consulting.

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Published on: August 7, 2023
Cite: "The beauty of a friendly interior. Cultural Center Favara by COR Arquitectos" METALOCUS. Accessed
<http://www.metalocus.es/en/news/beauty-a-friendly-interior-cultural-center-favara-cor-arquitectos> ISSN 1139-6415
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