Building Of The Day: A Concrete “Museum Of Memory”

Architizer News

Building Of The Day: A Concrete “Museum Of Memory”

January 2, 2013

Building: The Ma: Andalucia’s Museum of Memory
Architect: Alberto Campo Baeza
Location: Granada, Spain

Why We Liked This:

Metaphors and architecture can be, well, heavy-handed. Most of the time, the combination produces bad results consisting of overly literal formal devices that are to buildings what “get it” is to a terrible joke. Still, sometimes it works; such is the case with Alberto Campo Baeza’s Museum of Memory, a heroically (neo-)modernist gesture plunked down along the perimeter of picturesque Granada. The vertical concrete slab, perforated with small square windows, looms over a low-lying podium structure pierced by a central circular void. This “courtyard” contains an intertwined set of spiraling ramps. Yes, memory equals time which is manifested as spiral of matter and events. We get it. But move beyond that, and you’ll find a stunning architectural space. The visual drama fostered therein is a dynamic foil to the platonic purity of the architecture. See more of this project in the Architizer database here.

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