Competition
Jayton Cultural Center, Elche.
National competition
Date
2023
Location
Elche
Direction and authorship / Elena Vilches Álvarez y David Moreno Rangel
Enmedio collaborators / Encarna Márquez, Carlos Macías, Jara Sánchez, Álvaro Velasco.
Environmental consultant / Enmedio Studio
Client / Elche City Council Governing Board
Elche is represented by its streets, squares, and neighbourhoods. On the one hand, a vernacular urbanism is developed, full of shadows caused by its alleys that fight against the heat. ‘Simple’ designs of soft colours that are highly integrated with the environment. On the other hand, there is this new way of making a city in the “eixample”, with large blocks limited by the orthogonality of its peripheral streets.
It means adaptability and symbiosis, so well exemplified in the ‘alquerías’. This farmhouses are traditionally associated with the orchard where fruit trees and vegetables are grown, in the shade of the palm trees (‘El Palmeral’).
Could it be possible to preserve local identity and promote social inclusion, from a specific action of desiging a cultural centre,? How can the reinterpretation of the vernacular be transferred to a building and public space? Can architecture be generated from public space? How can public space be enriched from built spaces?
AL[QARTA] represents the concatenation of spaces, ‘neighbourhoods’, ‘streets’ and ‘squares’, where outdoors and indoors are diluted. The street, the exterior pedestrian space, the covered pedestrian space, the protected spaces, the interior square, the exterior garden, the buffer spaces, the lobbies… around a large central public called a ‘heart space’…So when do you stop being inside or outside?
On the ground floor, the projected volume is perforated by ‘streets’ of different heights, that redirect the public space towards the central ‘heart space’. By this action shadows are created, and the new microclimate with vegetation enhances habitability throughout the year. It will be an intergenerational meeting point for citizens, enjoying the freshness and smells of Mediterranean species to be planted.
The public uses are projected on the ground floor (auditorium, multipurpose hall and bar-cafeteria) are thus structured through the articulation of these new streets generated and the central square-heart space, opened(also) towards the park.
In this way, the Cultural Centre, is not a single building isolated from the outside, but also takes advantage of the public space.
In order to save the privacy of the built environment, all the openings are made towards the central square-urban space, through an exterior skin of ceramic latticework whose design arises from the reinterpretation of Valencian tiling. Here the forms become more organic and friendly, allowing the space to flow.
The office area is distributed on different levels, generating terraces, patios and ‘buffer’ spaces. Shared and semi-public spaces are also created, connected to the auditorium, allowing them to be in touch with recreational spaces when needed.