Deck over a roman site in Cartagena, Spain
The building is essentially a cover protecting the remains of a Roman assembly (thermal baths, forum and domus) in the archaeological site of Molinete Park in Cartagena, Spain.
This cover is certainly another piece in the historic area of Cartagena whose main architectural challenge is to reconcile very different architectures; from the roman time, passing through baroque to nowadays, making all the interventions vibrate together in the neighborhood. It is a transition element, between very diverse urban conditions: in size, material and structure; from the dense city centre to the sloping park.
The primary goal of the work is to respect the existing remains, using a long-span structure, which requires the least amount of support for lifting the cover. The intervention unifies all the remains in a single space, allowing a continuous perception of the whole site. The cover also generates a new urban facade in the partition wall. The project also pursues a sense of lightness and is conceived as an element that allows light inside. The inner layer is built with a modular system of corrugated multiwall translucent polycarbonate sheets. The outer layer, constructed with perforated steel plates, qualifies the incidence of light and gives a uniform exterior appearance.
Besides to the steel structure, the building set includes an elevated walkway parallel to the street, that is accessible – like all the built tours - for disabled visitors. It is a very light structure hanging from steel beams. Conceived as a glass box, with a faceted, partially visible geometry, it makes up the street façade and allows a view of the ruins from three meters high as this high path set out an overall vision of the roman remains.
