PLACE, CLIMATE, AND ARCHITECTURE: MUSEUM IN PUENTE DE GÉNAVE, SPAIN.
AWARDS:
World Architecture Community Awards, Tenth Cycle, 2011, Nomination / shortlisted project.
PUBLICATIONS:
Creative Diagram In Architecture (Beijing: IfengSpace), 2012.
FEATURED PROJECT:
architypesource.com
> DESIGN TEAM:
Alessandro Rollino, architect
Sandro Panarese, architect
Micaela Tolio, collaborator
Maria Greco , collaborator
> Sense of Place, Bioclimatic Architecture, Energy
Conscious Design, Water Management
Architecture should make use of natural renewable resources to offer a healthy and accessible built
environment reducing the use of mechanical systems for cooling and heating. Architecture should also consider the physical features of a place and be able to improve or make people evident the existing qualities or atmospheres in which a new architecture is going to be set in. That was the scope for the design of the museum dedicated to the local artist Santiago Ydañez, in Puente de Génave (Spain). We analyzed the local climate data (solar exposure and radiation, temperature, amount of rain, wind, humidity etc.) by means of Olgyay’s and
Milne-Givoni’ s bioclimatic and psychrometric charts defining the orientation of the building according to the solar and winds paths and using all of the possible environmental passive energetic gains. The four natural elements Sun, Wind, Earth, and Water have a direct impact on Architecture improving
energetic savings both in winter and summertime. Technological, economic and environmental issues coexist; Place, Climate, and Architecture represent
the unity of Men and Nature. The building and the
hill are modelled according to three axes: the “Wind-Axis” to allow the summer breeze to let in, the “Sun-Axis” following the sun path and the “History-Axis” directed to the historical part of the town. The distribution of the rooms and their connection inside the building is so simple and functional that it is possible the parallel progress of different activities related to the exposition, production or maintenance of the Work of Arts. Most of the indoor spaces have a direct visual link with the hill
landscape, absorbing the typical atmosphere of the place, while the rooms dedicated to the exposition of the works by the local artist Santiago Ydañez have an intimate character: from the luminous hall a stair alongside a slope made of the same ground of the surrounding hills takes you to a darker space of shadows and
meditation.