The MA: Andalucia’s Museum of Memory | Alberto Campo Baeza

Andalucia's Museum of Memory, image courtesy of Alberto Campo Baeza

Andalucia's Museum of Memory, image courtesy of Alberto Campo Baeza

Spanish architect  Alberto Campo Baeza has designed the Andalucia’s Museum of Memory located in Granada. A very good attempt of creating the interesting spatial experience through an elliptic central court which is designed to connect 3 levels spaces via the featured circular ramp.

The new building, silent in its forms, is resounding in its elements to communicate the messages of the new millennium in which we are already immersed.

Alberto Campo Baeza

+ Architect statement courtesy of Alberto Campo Baeza

We would like to make “the most beautiful building” for the Museo de al Memoria de Andalucía (Andalusia’s Museum of Memory) in Granada. The MA. A museum that wishes to transmit the entire history of Andalusia. As early as Roman times, Strabo described the inhabitants of Andalusia as “the most cultivated of the Iberians, who have laws in verse.”

Andalucia's Museum of Memory, image courtesy of Alberto Campo Baeza

Andalucia's Museum of Memory, image courtesy of Alberto Campo Baeza

Our project for the MA is a building in line with the Central Headquarters of the CAJA GRANADA Savings Bank that we finished in 2001. We propose a podium building measuring 60×120 m and rising three stories, so that its upper floor coincides with the podium of the main CAJA GRANADA building. And its façade as well. Everything is arranged around a central courtyard, in elliptical form in which circular ramps rise, connecting the three levels and creating a very interesting spatial tension. The dimensions of the elliptical courtyard have been taken from the courtyard of the Palace of Charles the V in the Alhambra.

Andalucia's Museum of Memory, image courtesy of Alberto Campo Baeza

And to crown it all, as if it were a Gate to the City, a strong vertical piece emerges, the same height and width as the main building of the CAJA GRANADA. It thus appears before the highway that circles Granada as a screen-façade that sends messages over the large plasma screens that will cover it entirely. Like Piccadilly Circus in London or Times Square in New York.

And to finish the entire operation, a large horizontal platform all the way to the River, the MA open FIELD that will serve as a public space in that new area of the city of Granada.

The new building, silent in its forms, is resounding in its elements to communicate the messages of the new millennium in which we are already immersed.

Site Plan + Site Section, drawing courtesy of Alberto Campo Baeza

Floor Plans, drawing courtesy of Alberto Campo Baeza

Side Elevation + Front Elevation, drawing courtesy of Alberto Campo Baeza

Sections, drawing courtesy of Alberto Campo Baeza

Circular Ramp Layout Plan, drawing courtesy of Alberto Campo Baeza

Transversal Sectional Detail, drawing courtesy of Alberto Campo Baeza

Longitudinal Sectional Detail, drawing courtesy of Alberto Campo Baeza

Ramp Sectional Detail, drawing courtesy of Alberto Campo Baeza

+ Project credits / data

ARCHITECT
Alberto Campo Baeza

COLLABORATORS
Architects: Alejandro Cervilla García, Ignacio Aguirre López
Structural Engineers: Andrés Rubio Morán, Mª Concepción Gutiérrez
Engineering: R. Úrculo Ingenieros Consultores S.A.

LOCATION
Avenida de las Ciencias s/n, in line with the Central Headquarters of the CAJA GRANADA Savings Bank

CLIENT
CAJA GRANADA

PLOT
In the intersection between the Genil River and the surrounding Highway of Granada.
Dimensions: 132 x 63 m.
Area: 8315,90 m2

PODIUM BUILDING
Dimensions: 114,3 x 54,3 meters
Height: 3 storeys. 15 meters.

SCREEN BUILDING
Dimensions: 54,3 x 6,3 meters.
Height: 10 storeys. 50 meters from foundations. The same height and width as the main building of the CAJA GRANADA. There is a viewpoint in the last floor, with wonderful views to the Alhambra, Sierra Nevada and Sierra Elvira.

ELLIPTICAL COURTYARD
The dimensions of the elliptical courtyard have been taken from the courtyard of the Palace of Charles the V in the Alhambra.
Major axis: 42 m.
Minor axis: 30 m.
Height: 15 m.

HELICOIDAL RAMPS
The outside diameter: 26 m.
The inside diameter: 20 m.
Width: 3 m.
Structure: Steel

AREA
15.000 m2.

FUNCTIONS
Museum: Podium Building (Basement Level and Ground Floor).
Temporal exhibitions: Podium Building (First Floor).
Workshops: Podium Building (Basement Level).
Theater with retractile stands: Podium Building
Library and mediatheque: Screen Building.
Restaurant: Last floor of the Screen Building.

STRUCTURE
Reinforced concrete.

DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION PERIODS
Commissioned in 2004.
Beginning of the construction: July 2006.
Opening: May 2009.

PHOTOGRAPHERS
Javier Callejas [javiercallejas@gmail.com]

ALBERTO

+ About Alberto CAMPO BAEZA

Brief Biography

He was born in Valladolid, where his grandfather was an architect, but from the age of two, he lived in CADIZ where he saw the LIGHT. There, his father, who is about to celebrate his 100th birthday, was a surgeon. From him, he inherited the spirit of ANALYSIS and from his mother the determination to be an ARCHITECT.

He lives in Madrid, where he went to study Architecture. His first teacher was Alejandro de la Sota, who imbued in him the ESSENTIAL architecture that he is still trying to erect. He also had Julio Cano Lasso as professor, who very generously invited him to collaborate on some works. As well as Aburto and Cabrero. He wrote his Doctoral Thesis with Javier Carvajal and entered as a PROFESSOR in the Madrid School of Architecture, the ETSAM, where he has been a tenured Professor for more than 20 years.

He has taught at the ETH in Zurich and the EPFL in Lausanne as well as the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. And in Dublin and Naples, and in Virginia and Copenhagen. And at the BAUHAUS in Weimar and at Kansas State University. And he spent a year as a research fellow at COLUMBIA University in New York in 2001. He has given many lectures and has received many awards. The latest, the TORROJA for his Caja Granada building.

His works have been widely recognized. From the homes Casa Turégano and Casa de Blas, both in Madrid, to Casa Gaspar, Casa Asencio and Casa Guerrero in Cádiz. And the Olnick Spanu House in Garrison, New York. Or the Centro BIT in Inca-Mallorca or the Caja de Granada savings bank and MA, the Museum of Andalusian Memory, both in Granada. And a nursery for Benetton in Venice.

And more than 8 editions of a BOOK with his texts “LA IDEA CONSTRUÍDA” [THE BUILT IDEA] have been published in several languages. He believes in Architecture as a BUILD IDEA. And he believes that the principle components of Architecture are GRAVITY that constructs SPACE and LIGHT that constructs TIME.
He has shown his work in CROWN HALL by Mies at Chicago’s IIT and at the PALLADIO Basilica in Vicenza. And In Urban Center In New York. And at the Saint Irene Church in Istanbul. And in 2009 the prestigious MA Gallery of Toto in Tokyo is preparing an anthological exhibition of his work. And in many other places. He says it’s because he’s always surrounded by generous people.

He doesn’t have a car, or a watch or a cell phone. And in his library there are more books of POETRY than there are of ARCHITECTURE. And in his Studio there are only 5 people, all of them wonderful. And he confesses that he is HAPPY.

+ All images and drawings courtesy of Alberto Campo Baeza | Photo by Javier Callejas