Espacio Torner

Espacio Torner in Cuenca, Spain by Paredes Pedrosa Arquitectos

The Spanish city of Cuenca -- literally "river basin", referring to its location between two gorges -- is known for its "hanging houses" that project from the cliffs they sit upon. The Monastery of San Pablo in the town is not different, appearing as an extension of the part natural and part manmade rock walls that give the small town its identity. The church besides the Monastery was used as a concert hall for years, but an installation by Paredes Pedrosa Arquitectos transformed the Gothic interior into a place for appreciating abstract art.

From the exterior, the only indication of the gallery's installation is a new revolving door at the front of the church. Inside, the gallery walls are freestanding elements that preserve the Gothic interior. The gaps between the old stone walls and the new painted wood walls give the installation some tension, but the views over the freestanding walls is the most dramatic aspect of the design. Given the loftiness of Gothic architecture, its understandable that the architect decided to omit ceilings for most of the gallery areas.

The spaces for art, and the movement within them, are more complex than the linear nave of the church it inhabits. A cube-like room, roughly in the same location as the altar, is accessed from the back, as seen in the image at left. So instead of a straight path, both visually and physically, a curving loop is created, in what can be seen as a subtle means of inhabiting the church without adopting its linear axis or symmetry uncritically.

Housing the abstract art of Gustavo Torner, one of the founders of the Abstract Art Museum in Cuenca -- an institution housed in its very own hanging house -- the architecture is an equally abstract intervention within the richly-articulated Gothic wrapper. While the white walls at times appear too simple and too much of a contrast with the church, the framing of his artwork adds another layer of complexity to the spatial quality of the installation. Rather than merely hanging pieces on a wall or sitting sculptures on the floor, Paredes Pedrosa sets up axial views through openings that make the artwork interact with the church; in the case of the image at left the architect sets one of Torner's pieces on axis with the chapel beyond.