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Click
on images for larger color views. [Google Earth link]
When reading about the Expo 2008 in Zaragoza, Spain (this
week's book review), the long-term plans of the city stood
out. Their attempts at improvements from the architectural
to the urban scale -- encompassing buildings, landscapes and
infrastructure -- are admirable in many ways, notably via
sustainability and a strong sense of place. Hosting the Expo,
typically a strain and drain on cities and countries, is seen
as an opportunity for improvement to the capital of the Aragón
region on many levels.
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One building that is part of
this long-term vision is Espacio Goya of the Fundación
Goya en Aragón in the central Plaza de Sitios.
The project will be home to Aragón's most famous painter,
Francisco Goya. Designed by the Swiss duo Herzog & de
Meuron, the museum transforms the Escuela de Artes (Art School)
by Félix Navarro from 1908, linking it to Museo Provincial
de Zaragoza (Zaragoza Provincial Museum). The site
plan and model illustrate the linking of the two buildings,
with the Art School to the north. |
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A quick glance at Herzog &
de Meuron's project indicates a restrained, primarily interior
design reminiscent of their respectful transformation of the
Bankside Power Station in London into the Tate
Modern. (The architects' recent predilection for formally
expressive architecture will counteract this restraint if
the Tate's New
Development is realized.) The X-shaped link is the only
overt architectural element, as the design
scope is otherwise an opening and lining of four
new double-height gallery spaces and other minimal
interventions. In many cases the new is invisible or just
barely perceptible. |
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Herzog & de Meuron's design
suitably expresses a concern for sustainability and sense
of place. The preservation and reuse of 100-year-old buildings
does the most in terms of the first, while the design itself
respects the two existing courtyard buildings and opens the
structures where needed to make a functioning museum. The
link also creates a gateway
of sorts to and from Plaza de Sitios, like an archway activated
by bodies moving across from one building to another. |
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Espacio Goya in Zaragoza, Spain
by Herzog & de Meuron |
2009.04.20 |
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Click
on images below for larger views.
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