Plaza y Mirador en Toledo

DESCRIPTIVE MEMORY: The project of the new public building in Toledo supports some basic critical points, transforming them into a resource to re-establish a rich open-space, its history and architectonic values. _Limits as a resource and peculiarity. The minimum space, labyrinth of streets and presences, with very few accessibility and relationships with the environment, is the protagonist of the project. We worked on the idea of the Material Resistance, given by traces, architectures, limits, which defines, in different grade of hardness, the own forms of the space they create and of the memory that constitutes it. _ Relative distances among things. We focus on the Relation as conceptual strategy and on a deeper tissue of relative distances. This means to constitute a dialogue between the building and the urban system, full and empty, private and public, past and present, which develops in no-univocal ways. The identity of the place can emerge and speak without forcing; the habitant always has a choice. PROJECTUAL CHOICES The siting of the building is all fixed within the space of the existing lot that overlooks the square, to complete the curtain wall construction: it is not imposed an arbitrarily and strong sign on an already rich tissue; we exploited the area suggested by the competition, supporting the challenge of keeping in it all that is necessary, as the first important choice. This forces to work on a small scale, on the detail, on the measured solution, at the scale of architecture. The game created by the dimensional needs allows the formation of complex spaces and calibrated. It becomes necessary to excavate below the square; is under the public land that the model is located, at the centre of a scenic area: from public land (+0:00 contemporary), we look to the historical city (-3.24 mt), as a descent around the memory, personal and collective. The zero is the indoor public place (with info-point and vertical connections), which ensures continuity between the ground of the square (an entry platform denouncing the excavation) and the building. Two volumes are structured to define the masses: the larger one, a cube - that can provide all the functions required - and the highest one, a tower, from the irregular shape (as the site), more complex in the constructive system, but fully used for the vertical ascent: it is a pleasure path from underground to the mirador on the top, privileged but not unique point of view on Toledo. A promenade vertica in space and time, accessible to all (stairs/lift), connected from the lower levels to the spaces of use. CONSTRUCTIVE MATE¬RIALS: The projectual investigation, in some constructive modalities, is focused on the use of brick, joined every time to various materials and to perform different roles. The material is the brick: it erects the whole project. It is part of the structural elements, element of covering (vertical and/or horizontal, internal and external), decorative and expressive vehicle, richest in its simplicity, trait d’union among architectural contemporary forms and old constructive knowledge. The comparison with the local tradition and the near buildings in steady. We propose three different uses of the brick: 1_External covering of the main wall, made of reinforced concrete: a unique line of brick is joined to the cement wall throughout metallic elements, a separation with lagging and sound-proofing. The major cubic volume is different in the internal and external part. The external, made of brick, comfortable and with a regular surface, points out the horizontality of the entrance and of the lower volume, calls attention to the local tradition, in a new proportion; the internal unrefined cement, defines clear spaces and pure volumetrics that close themselves in the privacy of more protected places (Library, scenic/expositive space) 2_Wall-Filter: two lines of brick (similar thickness of the near walls) form a structure which appears no-supported or close (the light and air passage is permitted). The ceramic walls are perforated by irregular and low punctures (with the same brick’s dimension: 25x5,5cm). This is an important expressive design solution, which permits the treating of the tower’s wrapping and follow the rise towards the various points of observation. From the inner a diffused and warm light from the south is perceived (is the wall in the square), while openings, in strategical points, will permit to observe the most important places of the environment, increasing step by step until the final mirador. It is not a close space but an open covered one, different from the lowest: the quality of the public space is determined from the light through the brick, from the calibrated relationship with the city (its climate and wind), from the connection among parts and with the external (through the front, which define the square and suggest its own contents outside). 3_Covering and open spaces: the brick is used in several combinations: to cover the floors of internal spaces (library, mirador), of filter-spaces (hall’s floor in wide slaps made of ceramic material is countinous from the square to inside), and of open-spaces (floor of the square). Here the brick is disposed in wide and trapezoidal forms, alternate with those of clear stones, determined from the lines projected from the main building (S. Ildefonso church, its towers, the wall along the rising path): the unique carpet of hard elements becomes thin, sitting on the narrow available space; it extend it, giving the city a spatial unity of public space which brings to quality.