New Cultural Centre in Hernani Competition proposal / Laura Alvarez Architecture

Courtesy of Laura Alvarez Architecture

Amsterdam-based Laura Alvarez Architecture has been awarded with the second prize in the International Competition for the realisation of the New Cultural Centre in Hernani, Basque Land. The competition was launched as an open european tender organized by the municipality of Hernani. More images and architect’s description after the break.

Courtesy of Laura Alvarez Architecture

The design brief consists on 4.600 m2 of cultural spaces [ music school, theatre, workshop rooms, conference rooms, etc] and 3.000 m2 of parking space.

Our proposal called Kultur Plataformak [Platforms of Culture] is organized in four terraced levels. These cultural platforms are inserted in the slope and form a whole with it. By doing so, on one hand we create a new cultural face towards the main street and on the other we keep the small scale of the upper street as the surrounding volumes do too.

Courtesy of Laura Alvarez Architecture

The terraced landscape solves the existing disconnection between the upper and lower part of the city [16 meters difference in height ] and also offers a new and pleasant pedestrian route across the area which will also improve the use of the new Cultural Centre.