The assignment was to devise a strategy to make the music festival Festimad easier to install and nicer and more interesting to enjoy in its new location. The idea was to produce a series of “infrastructure plugs” that would allow for different space tools and gadgets to be connected depending on necessities. These “plugs” would be easily activated or deactivated. This proposal reduced the Festimad need of yearly expenses on infrastructure, while offering urban services in a large area of previously dejected public space. Around these “plugs”, different uses are distributed according to distance and required density of services.
Tipo de proyecto: Culture
Battlefield Shopping
Using the Battle of Princeton as a point of departure, we proposed to design a museum for the purchase and enjoyment of justifiable violence. This battle marked a turning point, where the American ‘Revolutionaries’ first gained on the British troops, which concedes it a halo of ‘just’ aggression. The museum visit simultaneously extends in ‘actual, physical’ space, that of the city and its surroundings, and another, superimposed, ‘virtual, digital’ volume. In order to visit the latter, it is necessary to use the Augmented Perception System (APS) provided. Each visitor’s precise location is known with utmost precision by means of an ad-hoc Local Positioning System (LPS). The ticket purchase gains you access to both physical and a virtual space that is marginally different for each tourist. The APS gear gives information about their location and the surrounding area. If the tourist leaves the individual space he/she has bought, which roughly correlates with the area of the Battle of Princeton, the system shuts off.
Youth Fair Juvenalia
The spatial organization of a fair is a monotone, dreary affair; for a celebration like Juvenalia (a youth fair in Madrid), then, it can be a problem. We tried to intensify its basic features: displays and attractions are concentrated as much as possible, while at the access we leave a large eventless space. To the mandatory streets, a diagonal is added. Contrast between crammed and labyrinthine space and another one that is free and open. Spatial organization as entertainment: combined with a location system, the entire fair becomes the site of a game of hide and seek. The façade of the exhibitors and attractions overlooking the open space is full of projections, the biggest one being the location panel of the hide and seek game.
El Prado Museum roof
The object of the contest was to adapt the El Prado Museum’s roof structure to modern museum conditions. We believed it was essential to distinguish between the original neoclassical building designed by Villanueva, and the very poor later additions. Therefore the horizontal cut across those roof volumes liberates the original cornice. The new “light boxes” gave the possibility to see the sky hovering over the exhibition rooms, while allowing full control of lighting conditions and perfect maintenance. The design of these light boxes was completely adapted to each of the rooms, with special attention given so light was directed at the right angle. As a final detail and a nod to a very current past, we proposed to place an angel on the Puerta de Goya, as an interpretation of the original sculpture, which relates to the control of the creative process.