When the Soria College of Architects announced a restricted competition among the city’s architects to renovate its headquarters, the proposal that Jesús Fernández Beltrán and I submitted was based on a clear premise: to preserve the existing building’s façade as a response to the urban space and to strip the interior down to give it a new character.
The result was a building that had been profoundly transformed on the inside, where the renovation does not erase its history but rather engages with it. The central element of the project is a large triple-height space with overhead lighting that connects all the floors and serves as the heart of the building. From there, one can visually take in the entire complex and perceive the relationship between the old wall and the new elements: steel and glass walkways, tiered reading areas, and an interior façade converted into a multi-level library.
The original bay windows on the façade thus take on a new function: they are no longer merely openings to the outside, but spaces for consultation and reading that look out onto the central void. The exhibition hall and the auditorium form the building’s base, a perforated plinth upon which the rest of the program rests. Below the courtyard-garden, the intervention extends to incorporate a sequence of interior and exterior spaces that allow the garden to be viewed from any point in the building.
The project won the competition and was fully implemented. It was characterized by rationality, a dialogue between the old and the new, and a commitment to meeting as many requirements as possible using the fewest possible elements.
