Museo “Cruz Herrera” en La Línea de la Concepción
The intervention works on an existing building which housed the Town Hall since 1922, to make its adaptation to a new use as a pictures museum. The building is an old Villa from the late nineteenth century, surrounded by romantic gardens.
The intervention must be sensitive to respect the main architectural and iconographic values of the building, and avoid romantic wounds in the community memory. Therefore one of the main premises for the works is keeping the use of some significant areas for ceremonial acts: Plenary Hall, Hall room, and the balcony of Town Hall to the gardens.
Another aim is to close the unfinished south façade of the building, now projected to be the new entrance to the Plenary Hall. Large panels fit to existing molding lines in the lateral facades, and highlight carefully the new intervention from the original.
In relation with the operation, the museum must have a simple distribution model. Circulations are organized from the main staircase on the ground floor, and on the first floor the tour is completed around a generous courtyard. This courtyard, that illuminates the main staircase and all spaces for distribution, is designed all glass around to allow crossing looks which qualify this node as a single central space.
The showrooms circulations go along the exterior perimeter next to the windows, and leave the exhibition in light-protected areas inside. This showrooms have been designed clear and adaptable, and are divided only by panels that do not reach the ceiling.
