Botin Center, Santander
Architect: Luis Vidal, Renzo Piano Building Workshop
Year: 2017
Location: Santander, Spain
Category: Cultural / Museum
Status: Built
About
The Botín Centre, a space for art, culture and education, projecting into the Bay of Santander, restores the ties between the historical part of the city and the sea. The freeway separating the park from the sea has now been rung underground through a tunnel, making it possible to double the area of the Jardines de Pereda, extending them to the seafront and restoring pedestrian access to the sea for Santander’s citizens. Hemmed in between the park and the sea, and on the axis of the public market, the new Botín Centre is half based on the land and the other half suspended over the water on stilts. This avoids obstructing the view of the sea and the beautiful bay landscape for people strolling in the park, as the Botín Centre is cleverly masked by the foliage of trees. A series of light walkways of steel and glass separate the two rounded volumes of the building and create a new square set above grade and fully public. The two-lobed form of the building provides better illumination of the ground floor and accompanies the view of visitors and citizens looking out from the park to the sea. The two bodies that make up the building are completely faced with 280,000 small, slightly rounded ceramic tiles, pearl-colored and vibrant, that reflect the sunlight, the sparkle of the water, and the rarefied atmosphere of Santander.