Process: Padre Rubinos Social Centre in Corunna
- Heide Wessely
Galicians say that Corunna lies at the end of the world, an allusion to the time when the earth was thought to be flat. Even today, the Atlantic and the horizon are the dominant features of this peninsula at the north-western tip of Spain. One sees the ocean, smells it, feels the breeze almost everywhere in the city. The horizontal lines of the Padre Rubinos Social Centre – inspired by the boundary between sea and sky – were of great importance, and the flat, restrained design of Elsa Urquijo, the architect, is set off against the hilly topography. A sober design language was also important to the client, Amancio Ortega – one of the wealthiest persons in the world – whose foundation financed this project.
