Valladolid is an old Spanish city, where every year takes place one of
the major international film festival called the SEMINCI. This project
aims to provide the city
not only a permanent venue for this
important tradition, but also an university center for
learning this marvelous art and cinema theaters for academic or
commercial
purposes.
The project is located in an important pedestrian axis, linking the city
center with the railway station at the
southeast corner of the greatest park in the city. Much of the building
is gently buried into the
ground providing continuity to
that axis, not only for its walkable garden roof but also for the
internal street which runs through as a "crack on the
ground". In addition, the entrances and the circulations are separated.
The students and the university staff access at level -1 through
this "crack", while the general public do
directly through the walkable roof at floor zero. Actually, this one
allows accessing to the theaters, to the
auditorium, to the showrooms, to the staff offices and to the bar, while
the classrooms, the studios, the workshops and the university work
areas are
located at -1 level.
This "crack on the ground"
or interior street, is the main attraction
of the project. It goes under the main theatre, which remains suspended
above the walker, discovering a
powerful visual space
behind it, with the four theaters projecting into this space. Furthermore, these theaters have an
important triangulated steel framework in order to transmit loads away and are
covered with a perforated steel sheet almost transparent which shows the metal structure inside,
in a display of structural and
constructive sincerity.