CONGRESS CENTER OF THE CITY OF ALICANTE
2nd Prize: International Competition
1. Fragments
Work from the sum of fragments, from successive reiterations. Simplify the complexity of such an extensive program by arranging pieces of different sizes in a clear and efficient way. A rigorous order from a strict orthogonality to solve the different uses and activities of a facility of these characteristics.
A site that requires a treatment of public space as its main protagonist and by its scale, a sum of buildings that make up the city, defining a new facade of welcome from the sea.
An infrastructure capable of relating to the promenade of Alicante, with its port and its citizens.
2. Platform
Raise the first floor to a height of 1.50m to have a better view of the sea. A platform, two ramps and stairs -also as bleachers- protected by a large overhang as an intermediate space between exterior and interior. Meeting place, meeting place and also a possible intimacy to be able to be in front of the sea, to read, to walk...
3. Viewpoint-gallery
The exhibition area is resolved on the second floor with a large open space as a viewpoint-gallery that generates a large porch on the platform of the first floor. A light, transparent element protected from solar radiation by a continuous eave and vertical slats.
4. Terrace-balcony
Above this exhibition space on the second floor, on its roof, there is a terrace, a large outdoor plaza, a balcony overlooking the Mediterranean and the city of Alicante.
5. Footbridge-pergola
A walkway -at the level of the first floor- as an element that gives unity to the sum of fragments and that unites all the pieces of the proposal. It allows a more multipurpose operation of the set of buildings -being able to access directly to the first floor- and gives the opportunity to have the experience of walking on the edge of the sea. At the same time, it is a pergola that provides essential shade in the months of intense solar radiation.
6. Bateig stone blocks
The part of the Congress program is distributed in a very elementary way, as a representation of three blocks of Bateig stone. Three heavy, opaque volumes, in which there are different openings formed by pieces of wood with vertical slats to see and ventilate.
7. Suspended pieces
In contrast to the three stone blocks, the office program is resolved with suspended prisms where the space they leave free is as or more important than the space they occupy. Light, wooden elements, which in their discontinuity avoid a possible physical barrier, allow greater fluidity of urban space to achieve spaces better connected to the city and open to the sea.
