The future CaixaForum Málaga building. / IT.
-The architecture studio Pich Architects won the competition organized by the “La Caixa” Foundation for the design of the cultural facility, to which up to nine proposals were sent.
– A drop of water, the “emblem” of the future CaixaForum in Malaga
– Málaga achieves its “longing” and will have a CaixaForum in 2026
The CaixaForum Málaga, the tenth center of its kind that will open its doors in the country, is set to be the “most unique” of the entire network that the “la Caixa” Foundation has woven since 2002.
This entity, together with the Malaga City Council, revealed yesterday the best kept secret since together they agreed to bring equipment of this level to the city and add it to the wide cultural offer that the city has been cultivating for years, as one of the essential legs of their consecutive strategic plans. That secret was, of course, the design of the building itself, which has already been announced that it will be almost futuristic in style but closely linked to sustainability and adaptation to climate change.
This future space will be characterized by its roof shaped like a drop of water and decorated with chromaticism inspired by the Valencian painter Joaquín Sorolla, a work by the Pich Architects studio, with the architects Felipe Pich-Aguilera and Teresa Batlle at the helm, their team and the collaboration of the consulting firm Arup España.
This study was the winner of a competition called by the “La Caixa” Foundation to select those responsible for shaping the CaixaForum on the Costa del Sol, a call to which nine teams participated, of which only two were preselected.
As the deputy general director of the entity, Elisa Durán, explained yesterday, the two proposals already chosen “met all the requirements but were diametrically opposed in the image [of the complex].“
For this reason, the Foundation went to the Malaga City Council to determine which option would best integrate into the city. “The decision came from the mayor and his team.”
Concept
This drop shape follows the concept of water that “fertilizes the territory”, so the project seeks to ensure that the building does not occupy the place but helps to build it, as Felipe Pich-Aguilera explained yesterday. «It will be a green focus in the center of the city. We approach this project with the maximum environmental ambition. There are already scientifically and politically agreed indicators that we must refer to.
On the other hand, the structure will allow the CaixaForum to function as a climatic shelter due to the shape of its roof, which is not only aesthetic, but is oriented “following the entire route of the solar arc to form a cadence of sections that will allow the the incidence of the sun according to the seasons of the year.
As for the garden, the vegetation chosen will adapt to the Malaga climate and with “moderate water demand”, while the planned constructions will have covers with vegetal blankets, photovoltaic panels and reflective ceramic pieces to avoid the accumulation of solar heat.
The study
This studio, founded in Catalonia in 1986, and with an extensive track record in the development of sustainable architecture projects, was already popular in Malaga because one of its founding architects, Teresa Batlle, participated between 2011 and 2015 in the urban planning advisory committee of the Manzana Verde de Málaga, an eco-neighborhood that will be located on Camino San Rafael.
Outside of Malaga, its projects include several scientific and technological research institutes such as the Parc Científic i Tecnològic Agroalimentari de Lleida, health centers such as the Sant Joan University Hospital in Reus or the OUM Wellness Center in Monterrey in Mexico.
Source: La Opinión de Málaga