Adding onto the former civil guard quarters that had sat unused since the 80s, a 2011 project by Cor & Asociados created an extension in the small village of Algueña that promises magic on the outside and music within.
With a fixed budget of 562,800€ and a deeply involved community, the renovation of the existing building and creation of a new annex had to be cost effective, serve the community, and feature proudly as a landmark. The brief also highlighted a need to produce a space designed to draw together all of the local cultural activities and ensure their protection and promotion in the future.
The new design attached the original 670m2 U-shaped building to a glass boxed staircase which then led to the fresh addition – a two storey 350m2 music hall. This enclosed space is home to 230 moveable seats that can be rearranged and reorganised depending on whether the room will hold a concert, a party, or any other form of function. Emphasising and contrasting against this dark, windowless box, the music hall is clad in iridescent porcelain tiles, reflecting the sunshine and countless colours of a pastel rainbow.
These colour-changing, light-loving tiles are all fired three times, first at 950ºC to create the biscuit, then at 1180ºC to fire the white enamel and vitrify the biscuit, and finally at 780ºC to produce the ethereal, shimmering pearlescent finish. And the facade they create is truly magical.
A new post by Hanna Simpson, Diary of a Tile Addict, June 2023.