Museum of Prehistory and Archaeology of Cantabria

We offer an open space, designed in the same way that rocks are modeled, but instead of doing it with water as the Karst does, we do it with light. Cylinders of light perforate the volume, leading it towards the interior and generating multiple and suggestive views towards the exterior. What were the key challenges? Santander is characterized by a changing meteorology in very short periods of time. This variability of external conditions leads us to a mutable building, a reflection of its city and its surroundings, its sky and its sea. What materials did you choose and why? We propose an exterior aluminum envelope to emphasize this reflectivity, but in a subtle and diffuse way, totally different from a mirror. We seek the presence of the building, not its disappearance, but in a subtle and changing way. This material allows us to perforate it in lower areas to add more light if necessary. For the incisions and voids we propose continuous glass surfaces, depending on the orientation, with less or more solar protection. Team: Architect: ZOOCO ESTUDIO