After the bus, the Muses
Half way between Gerona and Barcelona, the small commune
in the mountains of Arbúcies became relatively prosperous
starting in the 1950s thanks to its bus assembly warehouses.
At the entrance to the village, the oldest belonged
to the Ayats company and was bought by the municipality
when it closed to keep a trace of this industrial past.
In 2007, Atemps was first put in charge of cleaning
the warehouses before being questioned about its future.
Its idea of a performing arts center was enticing and
the agency started the complete restructuring of this
disparate ensemble. Keeping what existed was mandated
by the modest budget: an optimized stage equipment space,
under a hall, is a box within a box that houses a theatre
that can open onto an enormous but very basic all-purpose
room or the courtyard created by demolishing an obsolete
building. Only the bay windows of the concrete façade
were kept and rethought to become an immense
stained-glass window.