The new media art school in Malaga is a clear example of fine arquitecture brought to society
Be amazed. Spain is starting to be part of a new arquitectural movement. Fine arquitecture starts to be all around us. You can breathe it in the streets, in all public buildings such as libraries or universities. Houses are being constructed with a new sense of taste. It might be a difficult period for much of us, but, the positive side is things we felt like we could never reach in other times, are pretty affordable nowadays.
An example for this wonderful reconstruction of the world we live in are libraries and universities. The new school for media art in Málaga, situated in the South of Spain, is a magnificent piece of art made for us mere citizens.
Enjoy these images and feel free to make any comments or suggestions for future posts. At the bottom of this post you will find the information of this project from it's arquitects at MVRDV.
About
The new school for media art in Malaga is situated in the periphery of the city. How can we activate the life and meaning of the new school? Can we show its remarkability and attract people through a remarkable ‘presence’? And how can students survive and stay in such a complex? Can we create an ever intrigueing , spatially rich environment that keeps people there?
OBJECT
The given slope on the site can easlity let the building become. Is that invisible. Is that desirable? Should it not need to gain a presence?
By stacking the program on the top of each other, a compact volume can be achieved, that becomes visible from the park and the road, that leaves space for the park maximally and that creates an internal proximity for the users. The proximity leads to more educational synergy and mutual inspiration , it aswell brings a more ecological synergy.
FLOORS
By designing the floors each in its most proper way a highly functional building as a very special building can be made. The storage is situated on ground floor, accessable by lorries. It is designed as one grand flexible space. The exhibition spaces are situated on the first floor, accessable from the road by a bridge. It is conceived as a grand black box that can accommodate all possible usages. It has a window over the landscape and to the road. These windows can be darkened to show new media. On the second floor the laboratories and the auditorium are situated with a compact volume. They can be rearranged if needed. The auditorium has a big window to the park. This forms the heart of the complex. On the third floor the offices are situated around a collective patio. All offices have a view to the landscape. On the top floor the appartments are situated around a big collective roof garden. They form a ring so that every appartments has a view to the landscape.
ACCESS
The access is arranged in two means. Cars and lorries can drive down on a ramp to a road parallel to the existing road. This reduces the impact on the park maximally. Here parking can be found between the slope and the access road. Thus parking can be avoided at the level of the street. This enlarges the visibility of the school. A ramp connects this level with the access level. Pedestrians can come in from the park as from the road through two bridges.
TERRACES
The differences in size and form of the floors cause a series of terraces that give a great relationship with the landscape and that stimulate the social cohesion of the building. Outside classes, events and exhibitions become possible! By twisting the different floors, and connecting the floors externally with stairs external routes become possible around and through the building. The stairs are used as fire escapes. It turns the school into a vertical ‘park’. It gives an intriguing set of spaces in the building that seduces the users to stay longer. It creates an internal ‘world’.
NET
By connecting the overhangs through columns and hangers, the cantilevers become feasible. This creates a frame for a wrap that keeps the different compartments together. It is constructed as a ‘net’ that surrounds the building. This creates sufficient shadow on the terraces to use them in summer as for the open-able big windows in the houses, classes, the offices and the exhibition areas. It becomes an environmental buffer, that reduces cololing and heating needs. Through zippers one can open the net locally. Thus entrances and windows are created. The ‘world’ is thus kept in a ‘net’! It turns the school into a remarkable ‘figure’ through which the stacked floors are sensually visible.
SCREEN
By adding, when financially feasible, LED’s on the cross points of the net, any message can be created. The skin turns the school into an advertiser that can show recent productions of the students, announcements of lectures and events, aswell as advertisements, other art or even complete other skins and environments! The school thus can show itself as a painting, as a stone or a vertical park. It becomes a ‘cameleon’. A perfect medium for a media school. The building itself becomes a creator!.