Architect Javier de las Heras Solé has completed a music school building in the northern Spanish town of Amorebieta-Etxano, featuring a concrete podium and facades clad in weathering-steel mesh that allows partial views of the interior.
Javier de las Heras Solé won a competition to design the Zubiaur Musika Eskola, which adjoins the Basque town's existing Zeleieta Zentroa cultural centre.
According to the architect, the four-storey structure was designed as "an autonomous organism" that lightly touches the cultural centre's northern wall, but is entirely separate in terms of its structure and programme.
Top image: the building has a concrete base. Above: a glazed facade stretches across the front of the building
The existing external wall is incorporated into the project as a facade that is visible from both outside and inside the music school. This creates a connection between the old and new structures that reflects the site's evolution. "Once the formal autonomy of the adjacent cultural centre is assumed, we understand that the Musika Eskola will work as an independent element," said the architect, "respecting the orthogonal criteria and abstraction of the facilities but still being a singular and recognisable element."
Perforated weathering steel covers the side of the building
The music school features a glazed circulation block that spans the gap between the two buildings and is recessed from the facade to accentuate the sense of visual...