Oasis
A Congress center in Alicante, Spain, 2023
The "Oasis" is a congress center in Alicante, Spain rooted in musicality and interaction with nature as the main conceptual elements - spaces that seek to transmit the complex sensation of a symphony through sophisticated volumetry. This is achieved through the wrapping of the acoustic volumes with an organizing structure that houses the program and frames the landscape. The project arises from a new breakwater and a palm grove, unique elements that serve as a useful plinth. The proposal is to transform the current industrial area into a garden and a new destination for citizens. An urban oasis that is a reference to architecture in balance with its surroundings.
The building further corroborates its integration with the landscape through spaces where the boundary between the interior and the exterior is diffused. This idea is characterized by a large hypostyle hall-like entrance creating the focal axis of the port avenue. Furthermore, this feature reinforces the historical value and origin of the city of Alicante, so that it acts as a transition element between the mountain and the sea, uniting two worlds so far apart that they find their midpoint here. The sea materializes surrounding the landscape and even serves as an access to the building through the new docks proposed by our design. The relationship with the mountains is made through the constant visual contact that one has with them while walking through the building through its intermediate spaces while waiting to enter the different auditoriums or while walking on the large ramp under the hypostyle hall.
The entire intervention is understood as an indivisible part of the city. The building serves as a visual backdrop to the boulevard that leads to the port, an element that attracts one from a distance. The first gesture is the plinth that rests on the surface of the existing jetty, which creates a large public transition space where one can admire, rest in the shade, or stroll along.
The decision was made to concentrate the entire program on one half of the plot and free up the other with a large park over the surface of a parking lot. From this large palm garden, there is a constant relationship with the building. Access to the different volumes and programs is through intermediate spaces connected to the outside, which serve, in turn, as a lobby and a public plaza. In this way, the boundaries of the building are blurred and a total integration into its surroundings is achieved.
In addition, along the entire seafront, a promenade is planned to bring citizens closer to the water and a series of docks for small/medium-sized boats are located to enhance the relationship with the sea and accessibility to the Congress Centre from there.
One of the main elements that articulate the project is the search to create a plinth that serves as a support, both physically and socially, for the project. This idea extends to the entire plot, which serves as a container base for various programs. The different acoustic volumes, the loading and unloading spaces, as well as other server programs, and the surface parking are excavated within it. Above it, a first layer of vegetation emerges, with publicly accessible palm gardens and contact with the sea through terraces on the breakwater. On this plinth, the building rests as a light structure that houses the different acoustic volumes (auditoriums and multipurpose rooms). These are superimposed, giving rise to the rest of the programs included in the project: a cafeteria/viewpoint, the VIP area, speakers' offices and press rooms, and office spaces. Articulating the different programs, intermediate spaces are proposed, flexible spaces like small oases that offer areas of relaxation and contemplation. The social and open character of the building is represented by its entrance: a hypostyle hall on an urban scale, which offers a covered public plaza, protected by a large solar roof and accompanied by vegetation to achieve its own climate.
The acoustic volumes are understood as closed elements surrounded by the different intrinsic spaces of the project. Each room has a different quality from the rest so that the use given to each one can be more specialized. Auditorium 1 is conceived as a large stage to host any large scale events, from congresses to plays, operas, or concerts. The main stalls are accessed from the entrance level, and the different boxes are accessed through a large exterior hall that surrounds the entire room. For this space, the possibility of expanding it in the future with a larger stage box or stage machinery has been planned. In addition, part of the volume is excavated in the plinth, which allows for the location of auxiliary spaces (dressing rooms, storage rooms, technical control rooms, and artists' canteen) in it. Auditorium 2 is suited to another type of experience, more experimental and technological. Auditorium 3, on an upper level, serves as a convention/conference space, where interaction between visitors is paramount. Finally, the multifunctional hall is a hybrid space, indoor and outdoor, where exhibitions of all kinds can be held. The space has two separate and independent areas, surrounded by another green hall, which offers different experiences to the visitor.
The rest of the program is organized within a fluid, light, and transparent space that occupies the interstitial areas between the structure and the acoustic boxes, easily accessible from the elevator and staircase system that runs through the building. A cafeteria/restaurant is located on one of the platforms, facing south, towards the sea creating a privileged space. The VIP room spaces, speakers' offices, press, and committee rooms are located
on another one of the intermediate platforms, set back from the exterior limits to create perimeter green walkways, which offer safe exterior spaces while serving as a climate buffer. Finally, the programmatic set of offices is located on the upper levels, enjoying a certain independence and privacy from the rest of the more interconnected building. It is composed of two main levels and a secondary mezzanine. Open-plan spaces are proposed, with lots of light, double-height volumes, exclusive access to terraces and gardens, and always in looking to the sea, the city, and the mountains.
The technological and environmental aspect of the building is as central as the organization of the space itself. All the construction elements are designed with componentization, off-site manufacturing, transportation by truck/container, and subsequent assembly on-site in mind most efficiently and sustainably possible. This strategy allows for precise control of construction deadlines, prices, and quality. The choice of materials - hybrid steel/wood/concrete structures, and CLT, glass, and resin enclosures - seeks lightness, ease of assembly, and maximum reduction of the carbon footprint, by optimizing the manufacturing and assembly processes, and allowing for future reuse. Wood and vegetation become predominant materials in the building, delimiting, acclimatizing, and providing the different spaces with color and texture. Both the modularity of the proposed construction system, the industrialization logic applied to its design, and its dry assembly, maximize the resilience and circularity of the structures, enclosures, installations, and the different construction elements.
Project Drawings
