Cartagena (1995-02)
This Project has to act in a historical building, that had in the past another use. The question is how to insert the new program if the old use is very different from the new one. (hospital vs. university). These architectonic actions on existing structures form part of the common heritage of all cultures.
On the other hand, we share the Alison and Peter Smithson’s ideas about university spaces. They thought that a University has to be brave, experimental. Something that university buildings should also express.
We begin from a sensitive attitude towards the existing building, and we analyze deeply its conditions (inner and outer). Architecture should create the cultural definition of the constructed building.
The final intention is to recover the building and to give it back to the city, because there is a real social demand, and doing it in al real and proper way.
The rehabilitation tries to reproduce the main content, protecting it, adding, copying… Trying to get a real modernity but with historical authenticity.
The project raises the maximum recovery of the original characteristics of the building and all the elements that define them:
– the building preserves the main structure and its original spatial conditions.
– we take advantage of the courtyards, using the basement to allocate the classrooms.
– we use the floor under the wooden structure roof.
The original windows in the facade are recuperated in its geometry and position, so the original image is returned showing to Cartagena Port in its South façade.
The final result is a logic and compact building, ensuring the correct position of the whole program in the original Military Navy Hospital.
