VAILLO-IRIGARAY ARCHITECTS (Antonio Vaíllo + Juan L. Irigaray + Daniel Galar + Josecho Vélaz)
OCCIDENS MUSEUM // Cathedral of Pamplona (1394 – 1805 B.C.)
Archbishopric of Pamplona
OCCIDENS MUSEUM // Cathedral of Pamplona (1394 – 1805 B.C.)
OCCIDENS MUSEUM // Cathedral of Pamplona (1394 – 1805 B.C.)
The Occidens museum takes place into the Pamplona’s cathedral complex, crossing various spaces of different times: archaeological excavations II c fC-VIIIc aC, Romanesque palace, XI c, Archbishop's Palace XII c, and the gothic constructions of the Archdeacon palace of the XIV-XVI c.
2. The Brief: Summarize the problem you set out to solve. What was the context for the project, and what was the challenge posed to you?NARRATIVE PROJECT AND VARIOUS ATMOSPHERES
The Museum is conceived as a narrative project closer to a cinematographic discipline than to the conventional schemes of the museum through a discourse deployed through different frames and different reading levels: signs, images, objects, sounds, text, projections, codes, smells and atmospheres …
The project enhances the relationship between content-continent, between architecture and artworks by devising different atmospheres appropriate to each etime and each space.
STEEL CARPET- GUIDING THREAD
The unity of the museum –composed of architectures of different times- is achieved by using a carpet of steel that meanders through the various rooms of millenarian architectures floating between archaic atmospheres without touching the footprints of the past, giving unity to the whole exhibition.
The project is implemented by a single resource: a carpet of steel that works as a guiding thread of the whole exhibition sits, without touching, winding through the different rooms from different times. A single resource, flexible and ambivalent, is able to realize its potential to generating an iconography able to provide homogeneity to an uneven set in time and space.
A black steel plate 1cm thick is bent and drilled to become gangway, pavement, bench, lamp, exhibitor… the drilled texts explain while lighting, guiding and giving content to the travel...
5. The Value: How does your project earn its keep in the world? What is its value? What is its impact? (Social, educational, economic, paradigm-shifting, sustainable, environmental, cultural, gladdening, etc.)OCCIDENS is not an exhibition; it’s a reflexion about the West. West is neither a civilization nor a geography, but a mental territory.
It is an exhibition that seems long to visit, respectfully adapts old space magically manages to stand out in each of the spaces. Environments look very attractive and certainly the sound and smell are important factors of space, although that is difficult to perceive in photographs. – Mauricio Lara
When an intervention in an older building lives that way, there is no doubt that the historical legacy of the building is potentiated by the contrast with the modern. I liked the graphics solution in the inner skin fabrics generating a space. – Sebastián Lara
A complex project but very wise to create different atmospheres within a well-known environment. Innovative, timeless, purposeful and even a bit risky (which I love). – Michel Rojkind
Museology impeccable. The colors, geometry and balance between electronic and manual processes. – Carla Fernandez
In this project one can see a perfect balance between the new and the existing creating new simple spaces that respect and contrast with the history of the building, but gives everything the highlight necessary to harmoniously coexist. – Andres Mier y Teran