Alcoy Community Hall

Alcoy Community Hall in Alcoy, Alicante, Spain by Santiago Calatrava, 1995

Santiago Calatrava is known for structurally expressive designs, influenced by structure and movement in nature. The Alcoy Community Hall is no exception, but it is also indicative of another strength of his built work: their strong integration into the urban fabric in which they are placed. But where most of his structures call attention to themselves this project literally buries itself underground, reestablishing the importance of the plaza (used for the festival of St. George) while providing the city a civic hall for weddings and exhibitions.

The subtle plaza design provides new paving (the pattern echoing the structure of the hall below), furniture and lighting. The paving includes opaque glass panels, which admit light to the hall during the day and illuminate the surface of the plaza at night. Entry to the hall is through either a grand stair at the church end of the plaza or down a stair accessible when the roof structure is open at the opposite end. The two images at left illustrate the folding roof structure that becomes part of the plaza surface when closed and hints at a submerged presence when open.

Calatrava expresses the effects of static forces, rather than concealing them behind a bland facade, and he concentrates on mechanisms which operate within a formal system of architectural principles.   -Ben van Berkel and Caroline Bos

The interior hall is a longitudinal space that tapers in plan, following the shape of the plaza above, 9 meters below street level. Rib-like in structure and appearance, the roof structure of the hall is made from a large arch running the length of the hall, to which is fixed a series of evenly-spaced radiating arches. The in-between space is handled with an alternation of opaque surfaces above the arches and glass panels between them. Typical of most of Calatrava's structures the structure here is monochrome, concrete treated with stucco and plaster. It is this treatment that gives his designs their strong presence, though here the effect is more fantastical, as if one is entering another, pristine world immune from the problems of life above.

Calatrava's structures tend to knit parts of the city together, especially with the great number of bridges in his portfolio, though the Alcoy Community Hall subverts itself to maintain a part of the city with strong meaning. In this sense, his work responds to the situation and location of each project, while his aesthetic rarely veers from what it is: pure structure.