El Batel Auditorium and Congress Centre, Cartagena, Spain, Selgas ...

El BatelAuditorium andCongress Centre,Cartagena, Spain,Selgas Cano30 ar | april 2012

PLANESAILINGAt this waterfront congress centre, Selgas Cano’sadept handling of overlaid translucent planeselevates cheap materials into a rich experiencear | april 2012 31

CRITICISMDAVID COHNLast March, when Queen Sofía inauguratedthe Batel Auditorium and Congress Centrein Cartagena, Spain, the moiré patternsthrown off by the thin stripes of her suitplayed a nice riff against the backlittranslucent plastic walls and lime-whiterubber floors of the building. In fact, everyonelooked terrific strolling up and down thelong entry ramp to the concert hall. Likethe expanse of stone that spreads out beforePhilip II’s monastery-palace at El Escorial, orthe sandy walks in Madrid’s Retiro Park, thebuilding’s luminous, abstract surfaces puteveryone on stage, transforming their movingfigures into a stately pop ballet.The building, designed by José Selgasand Lucia Cano of the Selgas Cano studio inMadrid, extends for 210m along the formermercantile wharf of the port, and is itselfconceived as a promenade. It terminates thelarger promenade that stretches for 1,000malong the waterfront, incorporatingrestaurants, cafés, a yacht club and theNational Museum of Underwater Archaeology,designed by Seville-based architect GuillermoVázquez Consuegra and opened in 2008.Together with Rafael Moneo’s restorationof the Roman Theatre (AR February 2009),located on the hill behind the wharf and alsoopened in 2008, these works form part of aneffort to attract tourism and redevelopmentto this ancient city and naval base, foundedby the Carthaginians in 227BC.From outside, the building resembles anindustrial assembly line of unadorned volumesin different sizes, interrupted by abruptvertical cuts that throw natural light intotransitional interior spaces. The volumes arefinished with great simplicity and evidenteconomy in repeating profiles that, were theynot translucent and glowing with LEDs fromwithin, would differ little from conventionalindustrial-grade corrugated siding (the costof the 18,500sqm building was €34.5 million).Selgas Cano designed just three customextrusions that clad virtually every verticalwall. For backlit and translucent surfaces,they designed a wide clapboard-like elementwith fitted edges along its length and aslightly peaked profile (like an open hand,says Selgas), which is made of Plexiglas onthe exteriors (to block UV radiation) andpolycarbonate inside (for its fire resistance).The extrusion has an uneven ribbed backto break up light and blur images andimperfections. It is tinted in various tones,including solid white for opaque backlit walls,and aquatic blue for the main auditorium,where it is backed by mirrored film to set offshimmering reflections. Three beads of accentcolours, each six microns wide, are laid intothe translucent elements (phosphorescentoranges, yellows, blues, greens).The short end walls of the exteriorare clad with a screen of irregularly-placedvertical aluminium fins, with an asymmetricaltriangular section (one face is curved and twoare straight). The Madrid street artist SpYdesigned a vivid colour scheme for the entryfacade screen, which has a double readingdepending on your direction of approach (leftor right). It is emblazoned with a supergraphic‘B’, the architects’ preferred name for thecomplex, which comes from the Batel Beachthat lies beneath the wharf. The roof, visiblelocation planEl BatelAuditorium andCongress Centre,Cartagena, Spain,Selgas Cano0 1 5 10north elevation0 1 5 10south elevation32 AR | APRIL 2012

23 41. (Previous page) atdusk the glowing buildingis reflected in the placidharbour waters2. Lateral veins ofcolour dramatise theperspectival recessionof the long facade3. The Plexiglas extrusionson exterior walls have anirregular profile thatcreates a ripplingeffect to match thesurface of the sea beyond4. The open terraceof the restaurantincorporates thepublic space of thestreet, an irreduciblySpanish touchar | april 2012 33

0 1 5 100 1 5 100 1015ACC12322456780 1 5 100 1 5 10Abasement plan10m1 rehearsal room2 dressing room3 orchestra auditorium a4 amphitheatre access5 orchestra auditorium b6 congress room7 lobby8 wardrobe9 terrace10 exhibition room11 restaurant12 officelower ground floor planfalta34 ar | april 2012

0 1039 1011912first floor plan0 1 5 100 1 5 100 1 5 10153567El BatelAuditorium andCongress Centre,Cartagena, Spain,Selgas Canoground floor planar | april 2012 35

5 675. The long ramp downto the main auditoriumnegotiates a space,criss-crossed by stairs,which houses theinformation desk andintermission bar6. Before the concert hallthe ceiling suddenly soarsto enclose the stairs to thetwo upper decks36 ar | april 2012

from the heights behind the building, is alsoof aluminium.Opaque sections of the exterior, includingthe stage house and parts of the auditorium,are screened with translucent horizontalpiping, also streaked with dyes and lit upinside. The pipes overlap in a deep, irregularsection, and are held in place with asurprisingly simple hooped clip. For thelarge terraces of the restaurant and exhibitionhall on the upper floor, this piping runshorizontally as a sun screen.Entering at the head of the linear building,visitors are slowly immersed in a world oflight, colour and reflections, drawing themmore than 100m down the main ramp towardsthe 1,500-seat auditorium, which is located15m below ground to minimise its exteriorvolume. along the way they filter around abright-red suspended ramp that ascends tothe exhibition hall, and pass orange gashes inthe backlit walls that house the informationdesk and ambigú (the intermission bar),zigzagging benches and a clear plastic bubblechair by Eero aarnio that is suspended underthe ramp (hello, Barbarella).a run of meeting rooms steps downparallel to the ramp, in a sequence endingwith a smaller auditorium seating 500. On thefloor above, the restaurant and cafeteria, withinteriors by the architects, feature anassortment of classic 1960s pedestal chairs byEero Saarinen, pierre paulin, Eero aarnioand Verner panton, arranged around thearchitects’ wire-leg tables. The wire chairs onthe terrace are by Junya ishigami. in thesespaces and the adjacent exhibition hall, longgashes in the ceilings admit natural light.The long descent to the main auditoriumEl BatelAuditorium andCongress Centre,Cartagena, Spain,Selgas Cano8‘Selgas Cano take realismand solemnity out oflow-cost tech and approachit instead as a liberatingopportunity for playfulinvention’comes to a climax in a soaring vestibule,enclosing the accessways to the two upperseating decks. a maze of suspended stairs andbalconies, crafted in nautical white-paintedsteel, face off across the narrow chasm againsta wall of orange-coloured ETFE that catchesfiery light from the evening sun. Measuring28x12m, the wall is the largest continuousETFE cushion ever made, according tostructural engineer José romo, and is uniquein its flatness, achieved by running verticaltension cables through it at regular intervals.after the hot glow of this interlude, thecool aquatic wash of the auditorium has a bigsensorial impact. Curtains inside the wallscan open to flood the space with daylight,while another EFTE clerestory over the stagetints the head of the sloping polycarbonateceiling in contrasting orange at sunset.acoustic engineer Higini arau, who alsoworked on Selgas Cano’s 2006 polycarbonatelinedauditorium in Badajoz, claims that theacoustic performance is close to perfect, with‘a response to low frequencies as good as thefinest wood’.Backstage spaces are independentlyaccessed from the exterior via a windingramp, which is covered in a colourful archingcanopy. Mechanical services, with theirlouvres and vents, are cleverly concealed here.Site furnishings include wooden decking withinexpensive outdoor lighting on ‘wilted’ stems(the curve in the post allowed for a slimmersection, explains Selgas), and breakwaterstones dredged up during the site excavation,which serve as sculptural benches.The straightforward massing and simple,ingenious detailing of Selgas Cano’s buildingbelongs to a Spanish tradition of low-techfunctional design that can be traced back toalejandro de la Sota’s work in the 1950s and’60s, and to the early minimalist work ofÁbalos and Herreros in the 1990s. lately,architects like Selgas Cano have reinvigoratedthis tradition not only with the latesttechnical innovations such as ETFE, butalso by drawing on the industries that servethe thousands of hectares of plastic-sheetgreenhouses in southern Spain. and unlikemany of their predecessors, Selgas Canotake realism and solemnity out of low-costtech − its overtones of deprivation orasceticism − and approach it instead as aliberating opportunity for playful invention.at a deeper level, Selgas Cano’sdesign defines architectural play in termsof registering light and colour planes inspace and movement. and in essence, likethe spreading plaza of El Escorial, theseabstract qualities have much to do with thewide-open, treeless plains of the archetypalSpanish landscape. The architects themselvesmake a similar point: ‘This long constructionfeeds on the heritage of its site: theimmaculate straightness of the pier edge(straight), the invariably calm sea (flat),the artificially horizontal plane of the dock(flat), and the sky as a variable backgroundto this plane (plane on plane).’7. The smaller, 500-seatauditorium glows withdeep red upholstery andpearlescent white walls8. A collection of classicarchitect-designed ‘60schairs provides seating inthe café, a long, low spacelit by clerestory glazingar | april 2012 37

9El BatelAuditorium andCongress Centre,Cartagena, Spain,Selgas Cano9&10. The mainauditorium is bathed inblue light, creating anappropriately oceanicatmosphere for thewaterfront spacesection AAsection BB38 ar | april 2012

123section CC4ArchitectSelgas CanoAuditorium seatingFiguerasFloorsPrialpasLightingIdealuxPhotographsDennis GilbertIwan Baan410561 aluminiumextruded profiles2 polycarbonatetubes3 suspension cable4 steel truss5 polycarbonatesheeting6 methacrylatesheetingdetailed section through auditorium wallar | april 2012 39