In 2009 Alhama de Murcia Town Council launched an architectural competition to design a new theatre and auditorium in the existing La Cubana Park.

In our proposal the new theatre and auditorium is a meeting point, a place where spectators, actors and users intermingle with the park. MEDIOMUNDO arquitectos proposed a project in which the new theatre is a green heart within the La Cubana Park that encourages visitors to stroll around in its surroundings within a network of vegetation, paths and shadowy areas. The garden continues within the building and its lobbies so that it is integrated within the park. In this way the new theatre floats within the green heart of Alhama de Murcia creating a unique landscape within the town.

In the proposal the auditorium is a heart: a controlled, closed and isolated space. Its activity generates energy, attracts and radiates culture, information, people and various flows. Between the auditorium and the park are fluid spaces that expand and contract like a diaphragm. They are intermediate spaces for hosting various activities. In these spaces the park and the building come together to form a whole.

Our proposal was made up of a series of spatial and material filters in and around the main hall. These filters are created using transparent walls, shadows and covered areas that guide visitors through various spaces leading to the main hall. Our proposal allows for simultaneous use of the buildings with fully equipped spaces on the first floor that can be used without interrupting public access to the ground floor. They are spaces for meetings, events and a rehearsal room, as well as a conference room or VIP room above the main lobby. Moveable partitions allow for these spaces to be used independently of the main auditorium.

The view from the castleis characterised by a landscape of roofs into which the theatres roof has been integrated. In our proposal we understood the roof as part of the covering, another part of the same skin. For this reason we designed the roof as part of a shiny and dynamic landscape, in keeping with the tops of the trees in the gardens.

Integrated values of sustainable architecture are fundamental to our proposal. To this end we incorporated social, environmental and energetically efficient values. We also focused on the idea of cultural promotion as collective identity. In our proposal, the theatre is a space for building collective cultural identity.

In 2009 the University of Granada launched an architectural competition to design a new lecture room building, the extension and refurbishment of the existing teaching block, and the refurbishment of the existing cafeteria in order to convert it into a dining area.

The fragmented nature of the project forced us to search for solutions that unified the whole. In other words, an architectural solution capable of resolving each of the particular assignments in relation to the existing constructions without losing sight of the unitary nature of the building as it was originally conceived.

Lecture room building
The new building was inspired by the existing teaching block, materials and modulation. The proposed project optimised the fill-void ratio of the facades and controlled sun exposure with standard systems. While in the existing buildings the cantilever/overhanging elements were used as secondary areas located next to the offices (such as corridors and bathrooms) we proposed those areas as covered terraces for relaxation to break up the structure of corridors and classrooms.

In the MEDIOMUNDO arquitectos proposal the entrances are part of a sequence of open and light-filled spaces. On the ground floor the entrance is linked to the pedestrian access to the north. Another entrance below the footbridge connects the teaching block to the existing building, while the footbridge is connected to the first floor above the entrance. These entrances are directly connected to restrooms, offices, staircases and lifts.

Extension of existing teaching block
At MEDIOMUNDO arquitectos we conceived the intervention as the culmination of the existing structure. In our project we maintained the general character in order to allow continuity throughout all areas. We opened up several spaces to create covered terraces in order to break up the structure of corridors and classrooms in a similar way as we proposed for the new teaching block.

      The building combines permeability and density, continuity and fragmentation. Is able to incorporate and respond to different types of uses, spaces and internal and external relationships.

      It assumes its urban and institutional scale and dialogues and responds to the conditions of its own solar and immediate environment.

      An Architecture with volumes and spaces are arranged to colonize and order the solar building (not segregating) free, functional and qualified areas, conceived as relationship spaces and transition to the city, the territory and even with the existing building.

      A single envelope and a fragmented volumetry that separates from the facades to cause approximation spaces and allow different levels of perception and relationship.

      An austere and powerful image that contrasts with the richness and variety of interior spaces where daylight ends to define the different types of stays characterized by color and texture according to its use or dimension. So in larger spaces and more occupied predominates rough textures, while in smaller units are used smooth surfaces with the presence of color.

Seville Town Hall launched an architectural competition in 2010 to design a community and social services centre in the Pino Montano suburb of Seville. The location of plot itself was in a virtual no man’s land in a suburban area for which future development is as yet undecided.

When taking part MEDIOMUNDO arquitectos proposed a free standing building set back from the road to create a space of transition with the urban/suburban surroundings. We designed the building to be hermetic while incorporating openings that both look out onto the outside world and invite viewers to enter. Inside, the entrance and the staircase differentiate the common areas (auditorium and multipurpose area) and the offices for social services. The project highlights the importance of the common areas being clearly defined, while the multifunctional areas and offices are flexible and interchangeable.

At MEDIOMUNDO arquitectos we believe that all community centres are more than simple buildings. They are processes in which to express new forms of neighbourliness with people and nearby spaces, as well as with geographically and culturally distant others. Integral sustainability in architecture is a constructive, economic and social objective. The following text about neighbourhood by Okwui Enwezor, curator of the II Bienal Internacional de Arte Contemporáneo in Seville, is entitled The Unhomely and synthesises the singularity of this project:

“It takes up the shape of neighbourliness as a form of intimate and proximate relationship that is illuminated by the demands on neighbours of diverse social, political, economic, ethnic, racial, religious, and gendered communities. Neighbourliness is neither coercive nor antagonistic, even though it is now constantly threatened. One does not so much watch over or look after a neighbour, one watches a neighbour with an entirely new set of lenses.  Yet the root sense of neighbourliness is that it is an expression of recognition, hospitality, friendship, solidarity. It is neither indifferent nor alienated from difference. Its principal domain is the intimate and proximate. It permits, organizes and makes possible a space of free exchange, debate, contestation, experiment, innovation, lively discourse at the level of collective sovereignty”.

Seville Town Hall launched an architectural competition in 2010 to dismantle and redesign a community and social services centre in the San Pablo- Nervion neighbourhood in Seville.

At MEDIOMUNDO arquitectos we believe that integral sustainability in architecture is a fundamental constructive, economic and social objective. Part of the project included dismantling, deconstructing and demolishing the existing building in order to construct the new social services centre in San Pablo. We committed ensuring the recycling of significant elements.

Within our proposal the building is a place for the convergence of both people and activity. The interior is arranged around a central courtyard, connected to the outside world by open galleries. Without losing sight of its role as a public structure, the building introduces elements and materials from the domestic sphere in order to create a more intimate relationship with visitors to the space. We proposed building an apparently introverted compact volume. We did however take into its location, surroundings, orientation and the flow of people visiting the centre. There is, for instance, a close relationship with the northern entrance where there is an ample porch and a large balcony on the top floor. The aim was to create a social centre that looks after the surrounding neighbourhood.

    In 2010 the University of Cordoba launched an architectural competition to design the new teaching block on the Rabanales campus at the University of Cordoba.

                             “There are places where one must look at the sky to see the passing of time,” (Albert Camus).

    At MEDIOMUNDO arquitectos we proposed building a compact black that guarantees a minimum surface area of facade for a maximum built volume, that envelopes an atrium.

    On the ground floor an empty space is crossed by two cantilever galleries that provide different perspectives and scales to the inner courtyard on the ground floor. These spaces for coexistence and relating with other users include the main foyer, entrance and seating area that lead to the lecture rooms and the dining area. At MEDIOMUNDO arquitectos we believe that these communal spaces are important for interrelations and exchange. The atrium is a neutralizing space that guarantees natural ventilation (that takes place automatically at nighttime) and maintains the ideal temperature for the appropriate energetic performance of the building. Lit by a sequence of skylights, this atrium invites visitors to take in the university atmosphere and commotion taking place around them.

    In designing the building we worked to a strict system of geometry and modulation to guarantee a maximum structural economy that enabled the construction of bridges over the atrium while avoiding complex structural solutions.

    The structure of the building is organized into modulated spacial arrangements in such a way as to allow subdivisions or extentions of classrooms using mobile panels.

    The 80-student classrooms are located on top of each other on all three floors as are the computer science classrooms located in the corners of the building and on the top floor, making the most of the layout of the telecommunications installations. The 25-student classrooms are located along the longer side of the atrium while the 10-student classrooms are located on the transversal facades and on the bridges that run over the atrium.