Botín Centre

The building does not touch ground; it hovers. Only the reception areas actually land, but this ground-floor space is returned to the city through a raised plaza and a bridge suspended over the sea. In this way, the building does not appropriate space and block views of the shore, neither for one walking through the park (since the building is raised as high as a treetops) nor fon onlookers on the upper floors of Santander´s buildings (since its volume is smaller than the trees).

The building will have the important social and cultural function of fertilizing the city´s public spaces, thus confirming the supremacy of the urban as a place of civilization. It is for this reason that the centre must go up in the heart of the city. These kinds of cultural amenities are appreciated by people and can become symbols of civic life and pride only when they are open and located in proximity to the community.

With the objective of connecting the city of Santander´s historic quarter to its maritime front, the project proposes to partly bury the adjacent road, thereby giving continuity to the public space by means of the Pereda Gardens, a park where the building blends in visually because it never rises higher than the surrounding trees.

One of the ingredients in the design involves an outdoor amphitheater, set into the embakment west of the building, an area that can seat more than 2,000 people and be used for concerts, showing films or just lounging. A screen dropped from the elevation of the cultural center will be improvised.