Atarazanas Cultural Center in Seville
The shipyards are undoubtedly the most impressive civil space in the city. Attached to a section of the old Islamic wall, there is almost certainly no other interior space in Seville that is more striking, stately and, at the same time, unknown than the old shipyards.
Our project embraces the historical nature of the embankments, which have been accumulating in this space since the early 16th century until reaching their current height in response to the evolution and transformation of the city. The successive layers that buried the bases of the arches two and a half metres below the current level do not detract in any way from the memorable impression of this intense and evocative space. On the contrary, they make it unique, turning it into a distinguishing feature.
In modern times, when public spaces are being relentlessly taken away due to privatisation, commercialisation or improper use, the Atarazanas Cultural Centre could well represent a magnificent opportunity to offer Seville an open cultural forum: Plaza Atarazanas, a large multi-purpose cultural space. Its purpose is to become a meeting point and a place where the public can engage with the world of art, culture and knowledge.
Therefore, our proposal is to locate the rest of the Cultural Centre's activities in the available spaces on the upper floor of the building, in order to keep the existing ground floor space intact and, at the same time, open up this magnificent space to the city through the façade on Calle Dos de Mayo, thus strengthening the relationship between the Cultural Centre and the city; between culture and civic life in Seville.
The proposal regards the shipyard building as a juxtaposition of historical layers, the natural result of the overlapping of different cultures in the same place, thus responding to the complexity of the true discourse of history. The project embraces this complexity and distances itself from the reductionist attitude that seeks to fossilise history by anchoring it in a single moment in time, which would prevent the monument from continuing to live and incorporate the necessary contributions of architectural value.
