Originally conceived as the Dance Conservatorium and Provincial Museum for the northern Galician city of A Coruña, architects Acebo x Alonso designed the building with the 2 distinct programs in the solid and void spaces wrapped within a translucent cubic skin. The 'solids' houses the Dance Conservatorium and the spaces in-between, the void would be the Provincial Museum.

I knew about this project from El Croquis 119. These images below are the only images I knew about the building and I knew it was under construction. With the help of our very own super pruning moderator, primocordara (http://www.pushpullbar.com/forums/member.php?u=89) from Uruguay, who emailed and called the architects to arrange my visit to the Arts Centre construction site, I was able to see this building before it was finished, published and opened.

When I got there, the foreman kindly explained to me that the project was designed with the 2 distinct program, but the government had put a hold on the project as they were deciding whether to actually put those programs in. It was still being decided in Madrid.

I had a very big night out in Santiago de Compostela the night before, so when I got there by train and taxi (taxi drivers had no idea where or what this 'Arts Centre' was, luckily I had my Google Earth print out map).

The exterior as seen on the coastal road. Some stunning :eek: architecture around the building I must say.:bang head
You can see the solids with the clear glazed windows vs the voids with the diffused glazing on the facade composition.

Closer.

I was led into the building by the foreman through the basement level and was explained where the main service core is (basically right in the middle), and then told to go and explore!:rock on:

Glimpses of main space from the basement level.

The spaces on the entry level. You can see the hole from which the previous shots were taken.

Up we go.

Up again

WOW..... (and by that time, with all the climbing, the big night out and the train ride... I threw up in the building :puke: not because it's a bad space, I was just a little overwhelmed.)

and up and up and up we go.

Just like the model, note how the concrete formwork grain changes.

Ok, I went a bit too high up, into the ceiling grid space.
Investigative architectural photo-journalism they say....

Inside the vertical core where the lift shafts are going to be (see the steel work)

Bit more exterior facade, and the view back towards A Coruña.

Thanks all folks.

That is a very beautiful building.

Im trying to figure out what is going on with the facade?, how have they created those different amounts of transparency/opacity?, some kind of film on th glass?. Its a beautiful effect.

That is a very beautiful building.

Im trying to figure out what is going on with the facade?, how have they created those different amounts of transparency/opacity?, some kind of film on th glass?. Its an beautiful effect.

I think it's different sides of being sand-blasted, so you have smooth and textured. Or simple different level of translucency through sand-blasting.

Another great example of what can be done with a 'simple' box.:clap:

Beautiful example of board-formed concrete.

Any determination on what the colored 'paint rollers' are in the ceiling system? Construction? Functional, Aesthetic, or Both?

Just asked Kevin the same on skype, they are just aesthetic apparently.

Beautiful building... it looks nothing like the rendering.

Thanks, primo! Any guess on what they are made of? They almost look like drawing tubes.

... some kind of polymer, Kevin said...

ok, great, thx.

Here you can download the Sketchup volumetric model, and many others, ;
http://www.tagzania.com/doc/biennale/sketchup

Just received this answer from Alonso, who BTW was very kind to contact me with the foreman to receive Kevin there;

"Hola. Gracias por tus amables palabras. He visto el link y esta muy bien. En respuesta a la pregunta que se hace todo el mundo respecto a los cilindros de colores colocados en el techo, son unos tubos llenos de material absorbente para acondicionar acusticamente el edificio.

Aunque el edificio esta 98% terminado, ahora parece que van a cambiar el programa para Museo NAcional de la Ciencia, asi que estamos esperando a que desarrollen el programa y ver los cambios necesarios. Es muy decepcionante todo esto que pasa, pero en fin...

saludos cordiales

angel alonso"

And my "traduttore traditore":

Thanks for your kind words, I've seen the thread and its very good. On answering the question everybody does about the cylinders, they are tubes filled with absorbing material for the acoustics of the building.
Even though the building is 98% finished, the programs seems to be changed now to National Museum of Science, so we are waiting for the program to be developed in order to implement the necessary changes. It is very disappointing all that is going on, but well...

Angel Alonso

Angel (and Victoria), if you are reading this thread. Thank you very much for allowing and organising my visit to this fabulous building :rock on:

I am looking forward to see how it will end up with all the exhibits in there. I hope it won't end up like what happened with the Jewish Museum in Berlin when they had to fit out the building's powerful spaces into exhibition gallery.

The whole idea of two programs, one inside the concrete, the other within the glassed skin, would be altered if they interconnect the two to create one museum.
At least, these modifications will be designed by the original architects!

I was in Coruña about a week ago, too bad I didn't know about this building. the world expo in zaragoza made up a lot for that luckily.

Beautiful building... it looks nothing like the rendering.

I agree, the transparency seems lost, it looks like an almost flat blue cube with a standard curtain wall. Maybe it will look more interesting at night, but daytime is important. The use of concrete and the interiors with the ceiling cylinders look interesting.