Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos

Description

The project by Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos, conscious of both the architectural quality of the existing building and the environmental reasons favouring the rehabilitation of existing structures rather than their demolition, is the result of a patient and precise process within the constraints of the original project and guided by its geometric, structural and spatial laws. The museum has been restored while preserving its most prominent architectural elements. The new additions primarily affect the entrance, the insertion of a wide public staircase, the expansion of administrative and conservation areas, and the construction of a large underground exhibition hall completely free of supports, under an exposed concrete ceiling that relates to the orthogonal geometry of the original project. A series of perimeter skylights, emerging from ground level, delineate a children’s play area for the adjacent kindergarten, thematically conceived as a small archaeological garden. Following the careful renovation and expansion works, the ASM is a completely new museum, each of its spaces having been transformed to varying degrees in the awareness that architecture finds its freedom in working within the limits imposed by the original building.