Cubierta de El Molinete

Cartagena, Spain

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Residential Buildings in Mieres

Cubierta de El Molinete

Cartagena, Spain

Firm

Amann, Cánovas y Maruri

Type

Cultural ›

YEAR

2011

BUDGET

$1M - 5M

The building is
essentially a cover protecting the remains of a Roman assembly (thermal baths,
forum and domus) in the archaeological site of Molinete Park in Cartagena,
Spain.
This cover
is certainly another piece in the historic area of
Cartagena whose main architectural challenge is to reconcile very different
architectures; from the roman time, passing through baroque to nowadays,
making all the interventions vibrate
together in the neighborhood. It is a
transition element, between very diverse urban conditions: in size, material and structure; from the
dense city centre to the sloping park.
The primary goal of
the work is to respect the existing remains, using a long-span structure, which
requires the least amount of support for lifting the cover. The
intervention unifies all the remains in a single space, allowing a continuous
perception of the whole site. The cover also generates a new urban facade in
the partition wall.
The project also pursues a sense of lightness and is conceived as an element
that allows light inside. The inner layer is built with a modular system of corrugated multiwall translucent polycarbonate sheets.
The outer layer, constructed with perforated steel plates, qualifies the incidence of light and gives a uniform exterior appearance.
Besides to the steel
structure, the building set includes an elevated walkway parallel to the street,
that is accessible – like all the built tours - for disabled visitors. It is a
very light structure hanging from steel beams. Conceived as a glass box, with a
faceted, partially visible geometry, it makes up the street façade and allows a
view of the ruins from three meters high as this high path set out an overall
vision of the roman remains.