CIUDADELA CULTURAL CENTER (2007)
Pamplona, Navarra, España

Located at the northeast end of the Citadel of Pamplona, in a significant plot due to its relationship with collective equipment programs (Citadel Park, Pamplona Bus Station, Baluarte Auditorium) and its status as a “gateway” to the second expansion of the city, the project requires an open and monumental character.

The soul of the project is a large atrium with a central staircase that articulates a sequence of public spaces from the basement level to all raised floors that top in a green roof. The proposed volumes respond both to their function and to the desire of their urban landscape integration. Thus, to the south, the continuity of the enclousure experience of the Citadel is reaffirmed, taking advantage of the verticality of a high and slender volume that accommodates varied uses (workshops, classrooms, reading rooms, offices and others). Meanwhile, to the north, horizontality is used, with the provision of a raised low and diaphanous block, to accommodate exhibition uses that visually open to the adjoining park.

In the ground floor, at street level, there is a covered square with some retail area. At the basement level, it is proposed a shopping center that branches to the existing underground Bus Station, to the south, and to a pre-existing shopping center, to the north. This way, the project root out to its immediate urban environment, and discreetly but forcefully marks a new milestone in the city.