A serrated shape clad in perforated aluminum marks the entrance to the Baroque Museum of Catalonia in Manresa, Spainwhich was renovated by a local architect David Closes.
The new pavilion is one of several measures aimed at improving access to the museum, which occupies the building of a former 17th-century Jesuit college next to the Museum of the History of Manresa.
It's closingThe project is located on the same site as the old Baroque church, which was demolished on this site, and aims to recreate its connection with the city.
In addition to the entrance pavilion, a series of routes have been created through the original cloister of Old St Ignatius College, with paths and ramps clad in bright orange metal.
“In short, the project aims to ‘reimagine’ both the site of the intervention and the building itself, re-establishing connections with the past of the Jesuit complex and with the city,” Close explained.
“The construction of new approaches to the old Jesuit college is part of a global project to reconstruct the entire complex, which should allow for the rationalization, renewal and rethinking of the spaces of the previously existing museum,” he added.
The entrance is a wide, low volume that extends across the site, and a three-story corner volume above that rests on large metal columns.
Its angular form is designed to frame views of both the old college and the surrounding city, with a combination of full-height glazing and narrow, letterbox-style openings in the lobbies.
Perforated aluminum panels arranged in an irregular grid protect the entrance pavilion from the sun, but still allow fresh air to circulate when the windows behind it are open.
The partition that once separated the church from the monastery has been preserved and is covered with a metal mesh, which is intended to soften the transition between the new and the old, as well as to hide the drainpipes.
A corner window has been created in the existing wall to illuminate the staircase, protected by a perforated aluminum screen resembling a folding opening.
“The new volumes, placed in front of the old church partition, are positioned in such a way as not to disrupt the form of the new building façade, but at the same time to open up the view to the most important traces of the old church preserved on the partition,” Close said.
The ramp provides accessible passage from the vestibule to the cloister and courtyard, Close said, and is painted bright orange, the color the Jesuit order used in its emblems.
The design for the entrance to the Baroque Museum of Catalonia has much in common with Close converted an 18th-century church into an auditoriumwhich implied the creation of a similar corner entrance.
Other museum entrance reconstructions featured on Dezeen include: Ribbed Glass Pavilion at London's Victoria and Albert Museum by Sam Jacob And Wire Mesh Entrance Area at M Woods in Beijing by Vector Architects.
Photo taken Adria Gula unless otherwise stated.