The International Center of Visigoth Culture, in Toledo, Spain, designed by Mansilla + Tuñón Arquitectos, takes formal and constructive references from a pragmatic and striven architecture, ranging from a modernity of minimums, with elemental volumes, to a vernacular architecture, balanced, sustainable and quiet.
The project, winner of the international competition, is structured around a system of quadrangular cells, with a broken perimeter and fragmented volumes that try to stimulate a large area free of buildings.
Without having to appeal to an iconic unique volume, it constitutes a reference point, a focus for activating the area, establishing an appropriate relationship with the built elements of the environment.
The proposed package consists of a cluster of elementary cells that confront different orientations.
The movement of volumes, covers, and geometry try to solve the visual relationships with the environment by using the deliberate formal ambiguity of its picturesque and not hierarchical volumetry, and the earthy colors of their materials, looking for a bond with the environment.
Images courtesy of Mansilla + Tuñón Arquitectos
Discover: mansilla-tunon.com
