New Theatrical Space in Nijar

The site is in an area of old terraced orchards that is barely visible from the street. These terraces,a characteristic images of Nijar, can only be seen properly by moving away. The town has gradually expended over these orchards but the aspect of the street has remained the same. The new theatre space is installed on one of them. This urban feature, the power of the landscape and the topography ,largely determined the general concept of the project, while additional goals in the overall idea were to capture part of the terrace landscape and limit the height of the project on the main street, where the public enter the complex. We were asked to develop an exhibitions pavilion, a theatre suitable for versatile uses, studios for music and rehearsing rooms. We grouped the program of diverse functions in two pieces, joined at the deepest level of the ground, with the intention that the two parts, each defined by the activity it contains, emerge separately beyond the canyon. Surrounding these two objects, a 'moat' that frees the building from the ground, from which it rise the natural land fixed with breakwater rocks. Where the two built pieces wrap, a marionette theatre welcomes children. We pretend that the package of the building, light panels of piercing and stretched aluminium plate, increase the idea of overlapping elements, looking towards the far away Cabo de Gata. We were interested in pursuing the concept of a singular space in the interior of each built volume. This was reached by considering them as tubular elements, homogenous along their axes, so that within the interior different functional packages are inserted, leaving a continuous hole that finds its way through this coloured boxes. The tubular shell, with its materiality, protects the void within the interior from the cruel climate. The inside packages, that define happy spaces for music, theatre, foyer, cafeteria, move and appear unaffected by the strong sun of Almeria through the openings that we call mouths that coincide with the transversal section of the tubular element. These openings are the only points where the inside life of the building is seen, especially at night, when the colour boxes appears enlightened. This public building seduces the town inhabitants with its interior activity, and extends its interior public space to the urban public one. We wanted the building life to be understood by going from one side to the other. We hope that echoes and bodies run between the two volumes, through that space through which the landscape or the torrid shadows of the hot summer of Almería penetrate.