Rehabilitation of the former Convent of Santa María de los Reyes
Architects
Sol89. María González and Juanjo López de la Cruz and Paco Marqués
Collaborators
Rigoberto Acevedo and Leo Von Caprivi, estudiantes de arquitectura; Miguel Sibón, instalaciones; Tedeco SL, estructura; 360BIM, manager BIM
Landscape
Marta Puig de la Bellacasa
Technical Architect
Rosalino Daza
Client
Consejería de Fomento, Articulación del Territorio y Vivienda Dirección General de Vivienda y Regeneración Urbana
The morphology of Seville’s historic center responds to two opposing and complementary growth patterns. The residential fabric expands from the perimeter of the blocks inward, fragmenting the parcel unity into a dense, pierced grid with patios, adarves, and courtyards; meanwhile, palatial and religious architecture preserves a certain autonomy from the city’s overall form, adapting to each context but without distorting its typological origin, creating informal voids more similar to orchards and interstices than gardens or patios. Based on this mode of implantation, we understand the former Santa María de los Reyes convent as a set of ranges that, organized around the cloister, shift and articulate through intermediate spaces to adapt to the void of the large Santa Catalina block, transitioning from structures arranged in procession—exemplified by the Sankt Gallen plan adopted by the Dominican order—to the choreography of naves with inclined roofs that dance through the void of the block. The current project aims to learn from this mode of implantation.
1. Recovery of the Convent’s Perimeter Layout: Through partial demolition of the novitiate, we facilitate the recovery of the eastern flank of the cloister and its opening to the orchard-garden, enhancing the presence of the volume of the northern nave of the convent, allowing the understanding of the structure as a symmetrical entity open to the orchard from its palatial origins.
2. Integrated Conservation of the Novitiate: A reflection on pragmatic urban recovery, beyond its strict patrimonial value, justifies the partial preservation of the novitiate as the primary economic and environmental argument. We also adopt an intervention approach that does not aim to highlight only germinal moments—never unique in these architectures of multiple origins—but instead embraces chapters of its biography that narrate the evolution of a complex that developed alongside the city.
