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Category: Architecture & Interior Design

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Published on 1 Comment on Picasso Museum Málaga

This museum is located in the Buenavista Palace, Málaga (Spain). The palace was built for Diego de Cazalla, paymaster of the royal armies and navies, who took part in the conquest of the city in 1487. It is believed that he building was erected over the remains of a Nasrid palace of which some elements still survive, such as the tower to the east of the main courtyard.

Italian and Mudejar elements combine in this sober and elegant building. By the 19th century the palace had became less of a family residence and began to assume other roles.

Declared a National Monument in 1939, the palace was rented to the State in 1946 to house the Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes, which opened in 1961. The Museum remained there until 1997 when the building was acquired to house the Collection of the future Museo Picasso Málaga. This choice reflected the express desire of the principal donor, Christine Ruiz-Picasso, who envisioned the Collection to be housed in a typically Andalusian building.

In January 2006 the American Institute of Architects awarded the MPM the Institute’s Honor Award for Architecture. The jury singled out: “This is a beautiful job of restoration architecture… It is appropriately modest, weaving a museum into the fabric of this Mediterranean city… New portions were simply and elegantly inserted in and around the 16th century castle, the outdoor courtyards and the city streets.”

117 - Picasso Museum Málaga
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Published on Leave a comment on Contemporary Architecture in Spain: Murcia Town Hall

The Murcia Town Hall (Spain) raises in the Cardinal Belluga Square, a baroque square where the protagonist are the façade of the Cathedral designed by Jaime Bort and Cardinal Belluga Palace, the work of the architect Canestro. Moneo designs the building of the Town Hall content in its role as a spectator, without seeking the status of protagonist held by the two historical buildings. However we do not imagine a commonplace spectator.

Civil power is embodied in this building on the place where the Church shows its power. The façade/retable of the Town Hall facing the square could never, nor would ever, want to compete with the classical order. It's organised as a musical score, numerically, accepting the system of horizontal levels of the floor slabs. The façade resist symmetries and offers as its key element the balcony of the gallery. The Town Hall has not an entrance on the square. It respects the pre-eminence of those buildings which have occupied it for so long.

Murcia Town Hall4 - Contemporary Architecture in Spain: Murcia Town Hall
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Published on Leave a comment on El Casar Bus Station, Caceres, Extremadura

In the town of Casar de Cáceres, located 10 kilometres from the capital of Cáceres (Extremadura), the architect Justo García Rubio planned his most audacious work: a terminal for long-distance buses featuring complex engineering and a superbly slender design.

The most characteristic element is the curved white concrete ribbon which folds in on itself and serves as a roof and as a depot for travellers and vehicles. A laminar structure resembling a sculpture, whose shape is not only designed to be aesthetically pleasing, but also functional: it expels the contamination from the buses' exhaust pipes and diverts it away from the schools flanking the station.

The result is strongly reminiscent of the soft architecture pioneered by other architects such as Oscar Niemeyer and Félix Candela.

El Casar Bus Station - El Casar Bus Station, Caceres, Extremadura
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Published on Leave a comment on University Housing by Guallart Architects, Gandía

This project was developed in Gandia, a town with a population of 75,000 to the south of Valencia. The aim was to develop a hybrid project that would function essentially as a student residence while meeting the requirements of social housing, with the corresponding standards and characteristics.

The proposed programme includes 102 apartments for young people, 40 apartments for senior citizens, and a civic and social centre for the town council. The most interesting question from a programmatic point of view is the provision of shared spaces in the apartments for young people, which is in effect a new version from the traditional residence for young people.

The fact is that the idea of sharing spaces is fully compatible with the goals of social and environmental sustainability, grounded as it is on the principle of ‘doing more with less’: that is, offering people more resources through the mechanism of sharing.

University Housing 1 - University Housing by Guallart Architects, Gandía
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Published on Leave a comment on Spanish Pavilion at Floriade 2012

Spanish Pavilion Design presents a modern architecture with display a splurge color exterior and colorful interior. This pavilion display at the Floriade 2012 in Venlo, Netherlands which is a wonderful architecture design from designer Pulgon Diseño.

Made of recycled materials like fruit boxes, planks and some rest of the building materials, this pavilion brought go-green concept. Cradle to Cradle is the idea which the designer believes that every originate smaterial from nature must finish up as a natural part of it as well. And in the process Pulgon Diseño has created a green structure that is visually distinctive and strikingly vivid from materials that have mostly been discarded as waste.

Spanish Pavilion design is a example of a sustainable design that is both flowing in its appearance and fully functional. The structure was designed to highlight the importance of organic products and how various things and materials in nature can be used and reused for construction. An amalgamation of multitude of materials and colors, the Spanish Pavilion seems like a natural structure that just sprung out of the ground and has a very “natural” feel to it.

Spanish Pavilion Architecture - Spanish Pavilion at Floriade 2012
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Published on Leave a comment on MUSAC Contemporary Art Museum of Castilla y León

The Contemporary Art Museum of Castilla y León (MUSAC) is located in León (Spain). It is a set of autonomous, interconnected exhibition rooms enables exhibitions of different types and sizes to be created; each irregularly shaped room constructs a continuous, yet spatially separated space which flows into other rooms and patios, providing longitudinal, transversal and diagonal vistas.

500 Prefabricated beams close off a series of spaces characterized by systematic repetition and formal expressiveness. Outside, the concave shaped public space accommodates different activities; a place surrounded by huge colored panels of glass and acts a place of personal intercommunication.

Inside, a great expanse of continuous, yet distinctive, spaces dotted with patios and large skylights gives rise to “an expressive system that communicates the interests art and architecture share: the contemporary manifestation of the variable and the perennial, the different and the same, the universal and the transitory, as an echo of our own diversity and equality as individuals.”

MUSAC 2 - MUSAC Contemporary Art Museum of Castilla y León

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Published on 3 Comments on Minimalist Home in Ibiza (Spain)

Stuning oceanic views from the expansive deck and terrace are not the only appealing traits of the Dupli Dos house located in Ibiza, Spain.

This contemporary home maintains typical modern design features with clean lines, and neutral color tones. A refreshing outdoor pool and multilevel deck create a tranquil atmosphere ideal for enjoying the salty sea breeze.

Inside, a floating bed of spacious white rooms are accented with bold textures and rustic metal and wood. Hints of traditional Spanish roots are found spread throughout this luxury estate and planar overhangs provide shade to retreat from the sun.

113 - Minimalist Home in Ibiza (Spain)
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Published on Leave a comment on Remarkable Design on this Hotel in Villabuena de Álava, Spain

Hotel Viura is a contemporary accommodation unit located in Villabuena de Álava in the Rioja Alavesa, Spain. Its modern architecture strongly contrasts its village landscape and form an interesting duo with the neighboring 17th century church.

Contemporary Hotel Viura in Spain By Designhouses 1 300x197 - Remarkable Design on this Hotel in Villabuena de Álava, SpainEnvisioned and implemented by Spanish architects Designhouses, the hotel’s appearance is surprising to say the least.

According to the official project description, the building is “composed of whimsically superimposed cubes that seem to surge forcefully from the center of the earth” and “punctuated by French windows that flood the rooms with views of the relaxing scenery“.

 
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Published on Leave a comment on Centro Niemeyer, Avilés, Asturias

The Oscar Niemeyer International Cultural Centre or Centro Niemeyer (Spanish: Centro Cultural Internacional Oscar Niemeyer), (popularly known as el Niemeyer), is the result of the combination of a cultural complex designed by the Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer and an international cultural project. The center is located on the estuary of Avilés, Asturias (Spain). It was inaugurated on the 26 of May 2011.

art architecture spain 420x0 300x211 - Centro Niemeyer, Avilés, AsturiasThe architect described the Niemeyer Centre as "An open square to the humankind, a place for education, culture and peace".

It is possible to see the buildings from different places, even from the air. Its size and white, red and yellow colours highlight its location in the landscape of the town.

Oscar Niemeyer's vision is based on three pillars: education, culture and peace. The Centro Niemeyer tries to be a magnet for the three elements. The Niemeyer Centre also tries to combine international and national products.
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Published on Leave a comment on Palencia Cultural Civic Centre

Exit Architects have brought light into a 19th century prison by replacing the roof with a zink steel cover full of skylights.

1 1 94591 slide2 300x225 - Palencia Cultural Civic CentreSituated in Palencia, Castilla y León,  a city in northern Spain, the historic Neo-Mudéjar brick building has been transformed into a civic centre. The new dynamic hub combines both ancient and modern walls. Exterior walls of the four existing structures were retained and extended with five pavilions. The entire unit is crowned with stepped roof units to guarantee light-infused interior spaces.
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