Foreign Office Architects

MUNICIPAL THEATRE and AUDITORIUM . Torrevieja

Foreign Office Architects: Farshid Moussavi and Alejandro Zaera-Polo

Torrevieja is one of the main tourist towns in south-east Spain, and it is now involved in an ambitious program of infrastructural improvements aimed at raising the profile of the town beyond its current mass tourist destination.

This commission is to implement one of these new urban infrastructures, a 650-seat theatre and auditorium, in a corner site inside one of the town centre blocks, and the redevelopment of a neighbouring existing plaza. Given the scarce amount of space in the plot in respect to the required program, our proposal is to lift the auditorium from the ground level, letting the plaza penetrate the plot, becoming a foyer that sits underneath the cantilevered mass of the building. The public space becomes an incision into a solid mass, clad in local limestone, that completes the volume of the block’s corner. The auditorium is proposed to entirely fill the available plan, and to become a single black box with the scenic tower, in order to allow for the maximum flexibility of use of the theatre. The geometry of the auditorium is exploited as a feature of the cantilevered, carved mass.

Foreign Office Architects
Farshid Moussavi and Alejandro Zaera-Polo with
Jorge Arribas, Marco Guarnieri, Clara Jorger, Sergio López Piñeiro, David Mah, Natalia Rodriguez, Daniel Valle, Nuria Vallespin, Lluis Viu Rebes, Arquitecto Asociado: Antonio Marquerie, Torrevieja.

Acoustics: UPV. DPTO. FISICA APLICADA. JAIME LLINARES GALIANA.
Instalations: CONSULTING DE INGENIERIA ICA SL. Leandro Feliu Maqueda (Ingeniero Industrial)
Structure: NB35
Scenic Tower, Scenic equipement, Acoustic ceilling:
AUDIOTEC SISTEMAS

Client: Torrevieja City Council
Completion date: 2006
Total Area: 4.570m2
Budget: €5.7m