Contell-Martínez Architects win the contest for the extension of the Municipal Archive, Palace of Castilfalé

Description of project by Contell-Martínez Arquitectos

For more than four centuries, the Palace of Castilfalé has witnessed pilgrimages while observing the Cathedral. Since the sixteenth century, the palace has been modifying both its morphology and its uses. At present is the City Archive and contains invaluable documents to understand the history of Burgos.
 
Nowadays, the set comprising the archive and the palace itself (understood as a building) show significant lack of space and functioning. The proposed project uses various strategies to respond to these problems.
 
It’s proposed an orderly use of the set with clear circulations, while recovering the Palace of Castilfalé for citizens and archive’s users, since the successive modifications, alterations and changes in the use of the building have made that the natural structure of the palace and the most interesting spaces become residual spaces or with sporadic use.
 
An economically viable solution is proposed, bringing together the archive spaces in the part of the extension, which allows it to be built as a large container making a minimal intervention in the palace.
 
The urban aspect of the project is possibly the most important of the different design strategies because it is located at a very sensitive point and has to respond to different constraints.
 
Regarding the historical fabric, the previous volumetric decomposition (both of its façades and roofs) typical of the compact group of residential buildings is maintained. The volume fragmented in three different bodies allows them to be articulated in height linking the space between the palace and the existing residential buildings.
 
The extension is built with the same materials as the Palace of Castilfalé, generating a homogeneous set. The plans of the façade are totally neutral due to the presence of the cathedral. Glazed areas of the ground floor extend both the street and cathedral space.
 
The extension is proposed at a height towards Pozo Seco square, like the historical volume. The project is understood as a possibility of regeneration and urban improvement, for this reason one of the accesses of the archive’s workers is located in this square, as well as an exhibition space, which constitutes a magnificent viewpoint of the Cathedral and Las Llanas square. This permeable body extends the space of the square and visually connects it with the Cathedral.