Reina & Asociados designed a pavilion, that allows the articulation between different spatial areas. The result is a small prismatic volume with a simple materiality, whose scale allows, on the one hand, an easy relationship with the existing buildings, and on the other, to recover the function of the original wall that delimited the Cloister. The volume of the pavilion, which rises in the central space of the current void, is perforated by different openings at its ends, which facilitate access and the connection of the interior with its surroundings.
The restoration of the nearby buildings, involves the conservation and consolidation of the original coverings, made with lime mortars in neutral tones, trying to maintain the perceptive balance of the built complex. In addition, a new material relationship is proposed between the new room, more flexible and versatile, and the old vaulted room, of undoubted historical value but with more restrictive spatial conditions, implementing new lighting with artificial systems and smaller openings strategically arranged.
Adaptation of the Lego Cloister of the Monastery of Santa María de las Cuevas by Reina & Asociados. Photograph by Fernando Alda.
Project description by Reina & Asociados
The Legos Cloister is located in the southern sector of the Monastery of Santa María de las Cuevas, specifically in the so-called Factory Area, current headquarters of the Andalusian Institute of Historical Heritage. In the 1990s, with the impetus of the Universal Exhibition of 1992, the Monastery was the subject of an ambitious program of actions aimed at its recovery, with the architect Guillermo Vázquez Consuegra intervening in the organization of this sector of the complex. However, the rehabilitation of the specific area of the old cloister was not undertaken in its entirety, remaining since then as a disjointed void with imprecise boundaries where archaeological remains and other monastic and industrial preexistences coexisted.
The objective of the commission was to organize this sector and build a versatile exhibition hall, of predetermined dimensions and technical characteristics, mainly intended for the presentation of works of different formats restored in the facilities of the Andalusian Institute of Historical Heritage. Likewise, the project includes the fitting out of a vaulted historical hall that closes the complex on its northern side and that would provide a permanent complementary exhibition function.
The proposal is based on the construction of a single floor plan that takes on various forms to contextualize and link the different buildings, extending towards the cloister courtyard to protect the archaeological remains that are still preserved. This new platform - which will be used for cultural activities - cuts its boundaries at a measured distance from the old Lego cells and the western arcade, freeing up a strip where the remains of original pavements and other archaeological structures are displayed.
The new pavilion is presented as an articulation element between the different areas that the floor plan draws. A prismatic volume of simple geometry is projected that is related in scale and materiality to the existing buildings, occupying a central position on the floor plan in memory of the wall that originally delimited the eastern front of the Lego Cloister. Towards the cloister, its section is staggered to outline a covered passage, as a reflection of the archway or ambulatory that is still preserved on the western front. A gesture that directs attention towards its smaller ends, north and south, where, in the second plane, the entrances and the openings that register the interior space are located. The access of large pieces to the pavilion is resolved through a glass door on its north front that introduces the profile of the Monastery and the sequence of large bottle chimneys of the Pickman Factory. Inside, the room receives permanent and adjustable natural lighting, both overhead and through other smaller openings strategically arranged to allow the exchange of glances with the lay cells and other pre-existing factories.
The new building approaches -without touching it- the northern body that closes the cloister, leading the visitor to the vaulted room, a unique space in the monastery that was in a precarious state of conservation and is now incorporated into the intervention. The restoration carried out preserves and consolidates, using archaeological criteria, the original coverings in coexistence with lime mortars in neutral tones, trying to maintain a balance in the unitary perception of space. The treatment in natural stone of the pavement under which the installations run- shows punctually the discovery in the subsoil of old ventilation chambers and atanos. A complementary relationship is proposed between both rooms: the vaulted one, of undoubted historical value, although with more restrictive spatial and material conditions, and the new one, more capable, flexible and versatile both for exhibitions and for other types of events.
