The rehabilitation of the old Town Hall into a temporary exhibition and debate space carried out by Firm architects is based on reflection, which gives rise to a project that, sustainably and also in keeping with the original aesthetic, uses local materials and labour, such as chestnut wood or stone, contributing to the decarbonisation of the construction sector.
The cultural centre, located in the historic centre of the town and understood on the ground floor as a space for relating to the street and its surroundings, serves as a lobby and a multi-purpose room extending to the courtyard. In contrast on its upper floor, it is distributed in three exhibition rooms that can function both together and independently, which gives rise to a widely illuminated route marked by the warmth of the materials, which invite you to inhabit and walk through it.
Forges Cultural Centre by Firm architects. Photograph by Luis Díaz Díaz.
Project description by Firm architects
The Old Town Hall of A Fonsagrada (1845), which has been in disuse since 2015, is now, with this project, the space in which the Town Hall will be able to show society the collection that was donated to it by the cartoonist Antonio Fraguas “Forges” after his death in 2018.
The proposal for the Forges Cultural Centre delves into some of the basic concepts of intervention in built heritage. The reading and analysis of the different stages, uses and interventions that took place in the building allow us to detect which ones added value and which ones played against the original logic of the construction. In this sense, the first work to be carried out was cleaning and selection, as well as consolidation of the deteriorated structural elements.
On the other hand, one of the great challenges of introducing a museum use in a construction of this type was the adaptation of the pre-existence to the current regulations, especially with regard to issues of accessibility, fire protection, temperature and humidity control or energy efficiency.
The original courtyard of the building was thus recovered, which had been covered with a methacrylate vault in the 1990s, delimiting it with the appearance of a new façade made up of structural elements of laminated chestnut wood, which also functions as a solar control and capture device. Inside, the spaces generated by the existing masonry walls are used to develop the program of needs in the most basic way possible, adding only a circulation core and another for services.
The ground floor is understood as a space of relationship with the street, in the heart of the historic center of the town and next to the Primitive Way of Santiago. Thus, the future tourist office, the lobby of the Cultural Center and a multipurpose room extendable to the recovered courtyard are located there. For its part, the first floor is distributed in three exhibition rooms that can function together or independently.
As part of the process of reflection on the project, in March 2023, and under the pretext of presenting it to society, the old Town Hall was transformed into an ephemeral exhibition and debate space in which works by Forges, images and plans of the project itself were shown, in addition to inviting experts in related subjects to contribute to it.
Regarding the use of materials and resources in the intervention, the premise was to use local materials and labor, which made it viable both economically and environmentally. The rehabilitation of existing heritage is understood as one of the most basic concepts of sustainability. The abandonment of infrastructure and urban fabric is unproductive and unnecessary. It generates more expense.
Along these lines, and taking into account the presence of a small industry in the town dedicated to sawing chestnut, the choice was made to use this species of wood, in all available formats: sawn and laminated structural wood and finishes for both floors and vertical walls. On the one hand, the commitment to this type of industry allows for maintaining a forestry option that is far removed from pine and eucalyptus monocultures, and is also a way of regulating the relationship between economy and ecology locally, contributing to the decarbonisation of the construction sector.
