Alberto Campo Baeza, Arquitecto

The MA: Andalucia’s Museum of Memory

The MA: Andalucia’s Museum of Memory
© Javier Callejas
The MA: Andalucia’s Museum of Memory
© Javier Callejas

THE MA: ANDALUCIA'S MUSEUM OF MEMORY

Alberto Campo Baeza

MANUFACTURERS
Kone, Aislamientos Tabiplac, Andarivel, Estructuras Reina Maria, Grupo Salmeron, P.R.S, Torcuato Lopez

LOCATION
Granada, Spain

CATEGORY
Museum

Text description provided by architect.

We would like to make “the most beautiful building” for the Museo de al Memoria de Andalucía (Andalusia’s Museum of Memory) in Granada. The MA. A museum that wishes to transmit the entire history of Andalusia.

The MA: Andalucia’s Museum of Memory
© Javier Callejas
The MA: Andalucia’s Museum of Memory
© Javier Callejas

As early as Roman times, Strabo described the inhabitants of Andalusia as “the most cultivated of the Iberians, who have laws in verse.”

Our project for the MA is a building in line with the Central Headquarters of the CAJA GRANADA Savings Bank that we finished in 2001. We propose a podium building measuring 60x120 m and rising three stories, so that its upper floor coincides with the podium of the main CAJA GRANADA building. And its façade as well.

The MA: Andalucia’s Museum of Memory
© Javier Callejas
The MA: Andalucia’s Museum of Memory
© Javier Callejas
The MA: Andalucia’s Museum of Memory
© Javier Callejas

Everything is arranged around a central courtyard, in elliptical form in which circular ramps rise, connecting the three levels and creating a very interesting spatial tension. The dimensions of the elliptical courtyard have been taken from the courtyard of the Palace of Charles the V in the Alhambra.

And to crown it all, as if it were a Gate to the City, a strong vertical piece emerges, the same height and width as the main building of the CAJA GRANADA.

The MA: Andalucia’s Museum of Memory
© Javier Callejas
The MA: Andalucia’s Museum of Memory
© Javier Callejas

It thus appears before the highway that circles Granada as a screen-façade that sends messages over the large plasma screens that will cover it entirely. Like Piccadilly Circus in London or Times Square in New York.

And to finish the entire operation, a large horizontal platform all the way to the River, the MA open FIELD that will serve as a public space in that new area of the city of Granada.

The MA: Andalucia’s Museum of Memory
© Javier Callejas
The MA: Andalucia’s Museum of Memory
© Javier Callejas

The new building, silent in its forms, is resounding in its elements to communicate the messages of the new millennium in which we are already immersed.


The MA: Andalucia’s Museum of Memory
© Javier Callejas
The MA: Andalucia’s Museum of Memory
© Javier Callejas

Alberto Campo Baeza, Arquitecto
T +34 917 010695 T +34 915 217061
Alberto Campo Baeza, Arquitecto
Calle del Almirante, 4, 5B, Centro, 28004 Madrid, Spain