Andalusian Institute of Biotechnology
Architects
Sol89. María González, Juanjo López de la Cruz con Francisco González and Salvador Méndez
Collaborators
George Smudge, David Rodríguez and Javier Flores, architecture students; Insur JG, facilities; Alejandro Cabanas, structure
Technical Architect
Víctor Baztán
Client
Tecnoláser S.A.
Construction Company
Level Econivel S.A.
Photography
Jesús Granada
The project is located on the Isla de la Cartuja in Seville, a tertiary landscape saturated with grandiose buildings, a legacy of the former Universal Exhibition held in 1992. This urban fabric lacks a quality public space and clear nearby references. The competition called for the inclusion of various medical specialties, their space proportional to the capital invested by each. From this proportionality, we proposed a section as a bar diagram that captures the requested divisions. Thus, the unbuilt volume of the allowable building space is incorporated into the section through three concatenated voids, forming a large space around which the center’s circulations and activities unfold. This results in a compact and opaque volume to the outside, whose interior is excavated, using void and porosity as fundamental working materials. Architecture becomes what lies in between, adopting Debussy’s quote: music is not in the notes but between the notes.
The central void is formalized by overlapping variations of architectural floors, each with the same porosity distributed in different ways, creating patios, terraces, and voids. When overlapped, they form a diagonal section that crosses the building. Circulations run parallel to the void: on one side, the public’s, through a staircase that traverses the section, and on the other, the medical staff’s, only meeting on the concrete trays that make up the clinical specialties and float above the interior space. The structure is resolved using reinforced concrete beams, one meter in depth and fourteen meters in span, which support both parapets and cornices. Their ends rest on two closely spaced pillars, enhancing the embedding and reducing deformation. The bridge-like structural typology with a large intermediate span allows for the interior division of medical specialties with maximum flexibility, guided only by the module of the external joinery. On the ground floor, the volume hollows out, offering differentiated accesses to the lobby, auditorium, and cafeteria, seeking proper integration with the public framework.
A series of large-format prefabricated concrete claddings resolve the volume’s exterior finish, aiming to give the construction a slightly rough materiality that contrasts with the interior’s transparency and brightness. The extensive layout of the molded concrete claddings, up to twelve meters in length, alludes to the vast scale of the spaces housed within the volume, echoing the interior void on the facade in some way through the change in direction of the cladding’s pattern. External openings emerge as cuts in the concrete mass, deep on the west elevation and as viewpoints on the east, orienting towards the view of the city across the river.
The project, with a public vocation, sees its potential to integrate with the city diminished due to the urban fabric’s lack of qualification where it is inserted. Hence, the interior void seeks to be more a meaningful place than a mere abstract space, aiming for it to be where experiences converge and relationships are established. The goal is to create an interior landscape that compensates for the external context’s shortcomings.
