The Caixa Galicia Foundation, a regional cultural center designed by Grimshaw Architects, packs a lot of design intensity into a small but prime port-side site in La Coruña, on Spain’s northwest Atlantic coast.
Aspiring to give Valencia, Spain’s third-largest city, cultural clout and a tourist magnet rivaling Frank Gehry’s museum in Bilbao, the regional government set out to develop an 86.5-acre site on a dry riverbed, midway between Valencia’s old section and its coastal district.
Certain building types provoke certain emotional responses from people: no more so than in the case of the healthcare center, believe architects Jesús Irisarri Castro and Guadalupe Piñera Manso.
Believing that health centers are usually defined by an overly rigid spatial organization marked by corridors and consulting rooms, architects Jamie Coll and Judith Leclerc set out to develop a new typology.
According to Rafael Moneo, who designed the Gregorio Marañon Maternity and Pediatrics Hospital in Madrid with specialist José María de la Mata, a hospital “should be clear, clean, and luminous.
With works such as the Alamillo Bridge in Seville, Spain and the footbridge over the River Nervión in Bilbao, Santiago Calatrava has established himself as the most innovative and influential bridge designer of our time.