“Architecture is the biggest unwritten document of history.”
Daniel Libeskind’s recent musings on the emotional impact of the built environment will likely resonate in one corner of South America more than anywhere else. The Cultural Center Córdoba rose in the heart of Argentina last year, emerging from the ground as if tectonic plates had shifted, revealing a new geological rift in the terrain that humans could inhabit. This building is connected to history in both form and function, seeking to rebuild the “topographic memory of Cordoba” while protecting valuable artifacts that chart this region’s complex past.
This expansive complex is the product of five architects working in close collaboration: Ivan Casteñeda, Alejandro Cohen, Cristián Nanzer, Inés Saal, Juan Salassa, and Santiago Tissot. The brief called for some 161,460 square feet of space for cultural functions, including the city’s historical archive and an interpretation center. However, its location on the northwest edge of Sarmiento Park meant that a low-impact design was essential, the architects tasked with folding a vast program into the fabric of Córdoba without disturbing the tranquility of its foremost public open space.
“Without a doubt, the greatest challenge had to do with the spatial configuration and structural design of the ‘tectonic plate,’” said Casteñeda via email. “The program required it to grant access to the Sarmiento Park as well as to cover the Córdoba Cultural Center and Historic Archives.”
The challenge of marrying cultural institutions with precious parkland has been the subject of much debate around the globe in recent years: Frank Gehry fought a protracted battle over his exuberant Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris, situated in the pristine Bois de Boulogne, while plans to site Barack Obama’s Presidential Library in Chicago’s Washington Park has courted much-publicized controversy. For Casteñeda and his fellow architects, an act of architectural sleight of hand would be necessary to avoid a similar scenario.
The resulting building is a veritable extrusion of the park itself. Such is its connection with the surrounding terrain, the cultural center appears more akin to an archaeological discovery than a contemporary construction project. The upper layer of the main structure — a large pavilion the architects entitled the “Stairs Building” — resembles a sculptural wave of concrete swooping low enough to form a public plaza and a key entrance into the park. It then rises to a peak at its easternmost point, all the while serving as a walkable surface reminiscent of Snøhetta’s characteristic roofs in Oslo, and, more recently, Budapest, as well as a couple of BIG’s projects.
“The city of Córdoba has a dynamic geographic, urban, and social context, which is full of stimulating contrasts,” relates Castañeda. “The morphology of its rustic terrain, its defiant and rebellious attitude: these were the identifying characteristics of Córdoba throughout its history which have served as the inspiration for the design of this great, sloping cover, an artificial landscape full of tensions and topological waves.”
Supported by V-shaped concrete supports, this undulating plane shelters four stories of archives and the “Córdoba Province Interpretation Center” built to commemorate the Argentine Republic Bicentennial. The roofscape is punctuated with a triangular courtyard that allows light to infiltrate the lower stories and incorporates a sunken sculpture park. Looking south toward the horizon from here, one can glimpse this cultural center’s defining landmark: the 335-foot-high “Bicentennial Pharos,” a slender, twisting column of concrete illuminated in the evening sky.
A traditional form of beacon most commonly associated with the Great Lighthouse of Alexandria — one of the seven wonders of the ancient world — the pharos introduces a startling moment of verticality into this low-lying development, drawing the eye upward and acting as an orientation device for the surrounding city. Castañeda describes it as a “landscape monument,” drawing an “analogy of endless ascent in the geometry of the plaza’s curves as well as the vertical slenderness and elliptical geometry of the “pharos” (i.e. lighthouse).” Thus, it rises from a circular reflecting pool like a dancer’s ribbon frozen mid-twirl, contrasting with the main pavilion but unified by the same honest use of exposed concrete.
Inside the main building, the layout is left largely open — aside from a grid of supporting columns — so that exhibitions of various types can be comfortably displayed beneath the curving canopy. A subterranean auditorium lies beneath the plaza, forming part of the interpretation center; carved out of the same warm gray concrete, the stage and steps form part of the homogenous whole. Not that it was an easy process: “We had to incorporate double curves into the formwork, which was a highly artisanal process that required hiring specialized naval carpenters.”
By night, each of the center’s distinct elements is accentuated by a constellation of spotlights, enhancing the sculptural quality of the building further still. The pharos shines like a landlocked lighthouse, acting as a contemporary signal post at the heart of Córdoba, a torch that marks the cultural epicenter of the city, with the new archive flanked by the Emilio Caraffa Contemporary Art Museum and the Provincial Natural Science Museum.
Together, this trio of structures forms a row of valuable public institutions covering art, history, and science, a collection of buildings that aims to complement Sarmiento Park rather than interrupt the public experience of this vital green space. Of the three complexes, Cultural Center Córdoba surely comes closest to achieving this goal — this concrete wave and twisting spire will surely stand the test of time as a public asset for both locals and visitors seeking to learn more about the city.
As for the public reaction, Castañeda concludes, “People from a variety of ages and backgrounds have treated the plaza like an enormous set for staging games. The shapes of the plaza inspire people to race around, to slide about, or to contemplate everyone else within view.” In other words, precisely the essence of a public space.