Location
Logroño (La Rioja)
Use
Extension and adaptation of a theater
Surface
1800 m2
Year
2022
Status
Competition – 2nd prize
Description
The competition proposed the expansion of the Teatro Bretón in order to provide an appropriate space to promote talent, creativity and innovation, guaranteeing the best conditions for this purpose and reaching the widest possible audience in the most open, frank and direct way.
The proposal takes as its starting point the interest in the architectural and scenographic tradition of the "Corrales de las Comedias". These are characterized by their great lighting and environmental quality, and also by the interesting arrangement of alternative and flexible spaces around them that qualify the whole.
This condition of collective gathering, and at the same time a certain casualness of the spaces and situations that took place in this typology that hosted the origins of the theater, generates an interest which is used as a reference to structure the proposal for the extension of the Teatro Bretón.
We believe that the new facility should bring the theater closer to society and the urban space closer to the theater. We seek the quality and closeness of an architecture based on known elements, geometries and materials to offer a multipurpose space, capable of expanding the services of the Teatro Bretón and generating new programmatic configurations.
The exceptional location of the plot, on a wide, renovated pedestrian street and at the same time in the heart of the historic center of Logroño, leads us to think about the relationship of the new facility with the urban fabric.
The existing theater has an interior-exterior relationship, at street level, with a certain urban impermeability. The existing classical style facade strongly separates the street from the foyer. Moreover, the lobby is insufficient in surface and volume and does not invite to enter the theater, the street-theater transition is not, in our opinion, natural.
The establishment of the new building is a unique opportunity to generate a much more fluid relationship between the street and the theater world. The new lobby will also merge clearly and generously with the existing lobby, creating a shared, fluid space with a direct access to the vertical communications of all the theatre areas.
The new building is conceived as a wide open and equipped space that can host different types of shows (from classic, Italian-style to more informal formats). The scheme responds to the desire to minimize the physical elements that constrain or specify spaces in order to achieve the best spatial qualities, perfectly equipped, that allow much more flexible uses and situations.
A low-cost construction is proposed, optimizing the construction elements and materials, focusing on energy efficiency, speed and simplicity of execution, and functional flexibility. Reinforced concrete elements are minimized by only using them in the structure of the basement floors and the stage box to ensure the fulfillment of fire regulations. At the same time, it provides a certain thermal inertia, separates the building from the ground and gives it structural rigidity. The party walls are made of brick to ensure both the structural function and a good acoustic behavior between neighbors. The rest of the structure and envelope is built with dry construction, of vegetal origin (wood from the country) and reversible (removable).
Architecture
Länk arquitectes + XVArquitectura
Client
MITMA (Dirección General de Agenda Urbana y Arquitectura)
Images
Wikimedia Commons (referències històriques)
Archivo de Taquio Uzqueda (Muro Bretón de Los Herreros)
Länk Arquitectes (exterior)
ZUMO digital (interiors)
