Cultural Center Casal Balaguer
Cultural Center Casal Balaguer
Flores Prats Architects
ARCHITECTS
Flores Prats Architects
PHOTOS
Adrià Goula (2), ELLIPSE (1), General axonometric of the project. (1)
SIZE
1000 sqft - 3000 sqft
YEAR
2014
LOCATION
Palma de Mallorca, Spain
Casal Balaguer is a palace at the historic center of Palma, a building that has evolved over the centuries as a family home, starting in 1300, then in two additional stages in 1500 and 1700, and finally in its current state as a cultural center for the entire city.
The intention was to value the events contained in the building without taking physical distance from the historical stages that have shaped its qualities.
Therefore the architects have transformed the building with the decision to reoccupy it, giving it a new era of longer life making it more sustainable.
Having drawn the building for a length of time aided the decision process, and in this sense the drawings inspired confidence to work on what was found without physical and temporal distances from the story, in a continuous time frame which makes new interventions appear as if they had already existed.
The end result is a new generation, with a new legacy that takes the existing strain and and draws from it.
It is not only a geometric metamorphosis, but also one of materials, proportions, and dimensions.
The building is updated based on the previous one, in a transformation that welcomes the new features.
The effort is to make the ancient palace express its maximum spatial, material, and historical qualities.
Viewing it as a new construction, without the typical constraints of the use for which it was intended, allowed the architects to stop seeing it as a building of domestic dimensions, and move on to assess the spatial and physical requirements for a new type of occupation.
Exploring the unfinished condition of the existing building, suggests that transformative actions upon it are not over, but that it is continually evolving.
This dialogue of confidence in what we find, in a positive observation that values and respects the signs of an earlier occupation, gives the project a temporary sense which makes the time period of the place unrecognizable.
