Pedro Barrié de la Maza Foundation

The Pedro Barrié de la Maza Foundation is housed behind the façade of a building designed by Vigo architect Manuel Gómez Román in 1919. The project is a modern, balanced, precise response to the existing container. The fenestration arrangement conditions and facilitates the resolution of the new office brief using criteria of functional flexibility and versatility . It contemplates the materialization of a box of miracles , in which every possible activity can be hosted by stacking a series of multipurpose, dynamic, changing stages. All of the floors have a similar organisation in two clearly differentiated belts: a bay parallel to the existing façade and a larger body inside the block. The smaller first bay is a threshold of respect for the existing building, used as a distribution space on each floor. The rooms for exhibitions and diverse events, as well as the technical core for vertical communication and equipment, are all resolved in the interior unit. Between the two units are two large glass lifts with adjustable transparency that run the full height of the building from top to bottom, resolving the need for fast access to each level of the construction. On the basis of this organisational model, the proposal maximises the building's potential flexibility in an attempt to take advantage of its tight dimensions. The most important space in the Foundation is placed on the entrance level. This extremely large, tall, flexible, changing lobby is a veritable activities stage' that can be transformed by the incorporation of high theatrical technology. By changing the floor, juggling panels or making objects and stage curtains descend, it can be used for presentations, exhibitions, concerts, etc. On this ground plan, access is gained via the vertical technical communications core to the two multipurpose exhibition floors, configured as clear, diaphanous spaces. The lecture hall is located on the upper floor. It also has a theatre mechanism that enables the seating to be retracted, leaving the entire space clear for use as a supplementary exhibition space or a multipurpose workshop.