Taking care of valuable pieces is always an important responsibility.
Thus, the project is looking for an image of a jewel case, of a magic and silent volume which appears, -as a precious stone- inserted in an urban environment with strong mineral features. The building as a whole splits up and is conceived through mechanisms of fissure and union, concepts coming from the mineral world.
The main volume –corresponding to the exhibition halls- with a strong presence due to the absence of voids, is even heavier because of being over the glass volume situated in the ground floor
This glass prism produces a turn from the building alignment making possible a permeable indoor-outdoor relation and improves the previous relationship between the museum and the city, looking for an institution opened to their future users to come.
The new volumes appear different from the old museum because of the powerful split in which are situated the distribution core and, formally speaking, these two pieces build a rich and powerful dialog between the old and the new building, which will be working as a whole soon.
So, each building keeps its own language and characteristics, a product of different historical and culture periods.
In the basement are situated the auditorium and the workshops with a direct relation with the ground floor and the main entrance by means of a void.
The rest of the programme is completed with the offices and a library placed in the last floor with the best exposure to sunlight and with movements other than these of the visitors of the institution, the main protagonists of the space.

IGNACIO CARBÓ DEL MORAL y RAFAEL CULLA BAYARRI arquitectos