CENTRO BOTÍN_RENZO PIANO BUILDING WORKSHOP / LUIS VIDAL+ARCHITECTS

Centro Botín
Renzo Piano Building Workshop + luis vidal+architects
Santander, España




Estado / Status: Completado / Completed
Cliente / Client: Fundación Botin

Diseño / Design:
Renzo Piano Building Workshop, architects
in collaboration with Luis Vidal + Architects (Madrid)

RPBW Equipo de diseño / Design Team
E.Baglietto, M.Carroll (partners in charge), F.Becchi (associate in charge), S.Lafranconi, M.Monti, R.Parodi, L.Simonelli with M.Cagnazzo, P.Carrera, S.Ishida (partner), M.Menardo, A.Morselli, S.Polotti and I.Coseriu, P.Fiserova, V.Gareri, S.Malosikova, T.Wozniak, A.Zambrano; F.Terranova, F.Cappellini, I.Corsaro (models)

luis vidal Equipo / Team
Luis Vidal, Oscar Torrejón, Marta Cumellas, Francisco Rojo, Patricia Lozano, Irene Rojo Julio Isidro Lozano, David Fernández, Andoni Arrizabalaga, David Fernández Feito, Patricia Allona Krauel, Sol Uriart, Héctor Orden, Raul Gómez, Beatriz Sendín, Emilio García, Ester Fuente, Sara del Piñal, Antonio Sanchez Moliní, Carlos Sanz, Pablo Vila, Magdalena García de Durango, Javier Torrado, Manuel Martín Ribas, Humberto Martínez, Lucía De Molina Benavides.

Consultores / Consultants:
Dýnamis, Arup, Typsa (estructura/structure); Arup, Typsa (instalacione, fachadas/MEP, façade); Müller-BBM (acáustica/acoustics); artec3 Studio, Arup (iluminación/lighting); Gleeds, Typsa (consultor mediciones y presupuesto/cost consultant); Fernando Caruncho (paisajismo/landscape)
Dirección Integrada de Proyectos / Project Manager: Bovis

Lugar-Fecha / Site-Date: Santander, 2012-2017
Presupuesto / Budget: 40 M €
Superficie / Area: 10.000 m²









El Centro Botín en Santander se concibe como un nuevo espacio para el arte y la cultura. Un centro abierto y tolerante, que asumirá la importante función social y cultural de impulsar los espacios públicos de la ciudad.


Ubicado en pleno corazón de Santander, el proyecto se organiza en torno a tres movimientos principales:


El primero, consiste en liberar un área hasta ahora portuaria y destinada a un aparcamiento, y eliminar el tráfico rodado que la aislaba mediante la construcción de un túnel.


El segundo consiste en la ampliación de los centenarios Jardines de Pereda, duplicando su superficie y llevándolos hasta la misma orilla de la bahía, de manera que ya nada impida la continuidad entre el casco histórico y el puerto, haciendo posible volver a mirar de nuevo al mar desde el centro de Santander. 


El tercer movimiento, finalmente, hacer aterrizar sobre el borde del muelle, situándolo en voladizo sobre el agua, un centro de arte y cultura concebido como una especie de pequeña nave, un espacio destinado al arte, la música, la lectura, la educación y el intercambio cultural.


Bajo el característico cielo grisáceo de Santander, el edificio, su revestimiento cerámico de color claro, el juego de reflejos y la ligereza de los volúmenes en voladizo, añaden vitalidad y vibración al paisaje, creando nuevas escenas de la bahía de muchas maneras diferentes.


Un nuevo espacio para el arte y la cultura; un centro abierto y tolerante.




The Centro Botín is a new space for art, culture and the diverse activities of the Fundación Botín. It is constructed in the Jardines de Pereda, on the seafront of the city of Santander in north-western Spain. The project reclaims an area currently used as a car park, restoring it to the city. The site, organized as an extension of the city grid through the existing park, provides direct access from the historic town centre to the sea and enhances visual connections with the water.


The building is a new landmark on the waterfront, both from a visual and cultural perspective, as well as a mean of boosting the activities of the Botín Foundation. Thanks to the Foundation’s diverse cultural and research programmes, it is expected that the centre drives cultural, social and economic development in Santander.


By rerouting traffic on the existing Paseo del Muelle into a 200m-long tunnel, the existing Jardines de Pereda can be extended as far as the seafront, doubling its size. The Centro de Arte Botín sits in the new section of the park, right at the water’s edge. To its north, where various routes across the park from the city converge, is a new public plaza. An outdoor amphitheatre on the building’s west side can seat 2,000 people for concerts or film projections.
The centre is organized into two parts, a west and an east wing, joined by an elevated walkway that culminates in a platform cantilevered out over the sea.


The west wing of the building is an exhibition space: 2,500 sq. meters of 5m-high versatile spaces over two levels providing galleries and support areas. The upper level has a skylight system that allows some of the gallery space to be naturally lit.
The smaller east wing focuses on education and accommodates a convertible 7.5m-high auditorium space with 300 removable seats and, on the building’s upper level, a multi-purpose area of approximately 255 sq m. The auditorium has a glazed façade to the south, offering the option to have speakers, actors or musicians performing against the backdrop of the bay with its traffic of ships.


Both buildings are raised thanks to supporting columns. Together with the buildings' curved shape, this structure lightens the facility's presence on the site and allows clear views from the park to the sea. The curved edges also draw light and reflections off the water into the space under the building. The exterior are clad with small off-white ceramic tiles that easily adapt to the shape of the building and that also have a shimmering, mother-of-pearl finish, which strengthens the building's luminosity, under Santander’s often grey sky.

Fotografías: Enrico Cano, Stéphane Aboudaram

web RPBW ARCHITECTS: http://www.rpbw.com/

web luis vidal+architects: https://luisvidal.com/es/