Cultural Centre - El Musical

The work was carried out in the Cabanyal district of Valencia, on the site of the old Ateneu Musical del Puerto. This building was in a state of ruin that made it unfeasible to save it. The new building comprises a civic centre, a multipurpose hall for music, theatre and public spectacles to accommodate 400 spectators and a services area. Practically the entire perimeter of the site is bounded by party walls, making it impossible to establish a direct relationship with the exterior. The most notable feature of the design is the double wall that contains the circulation area and enables natural light to enter. The tension in this project is the set up between the two walls and the public spaces in the voids created in the interior. The void in the foyer, a meeting space between the civic centre and the hall, is lit from above and filtered by a veil of wooden slats that glides to the floor. The design of the hall is based on the solutions that experts in acoustics consider the best: a rectangular auditorium of a length to width proportion approaching a double square, with appreciably flat ceilings and heights that ensure a volume of approximately ten cubic metres per spectator. The only part of the old building to be retained is the façade on the Plaza del Rosario in order to preserve the character of the most emblematic urban space of the district. This facade is inspired by the classical arch model, a feature which has been accentuated by placing a sliding wooden door (10 x 3m) across the entire central arch.