A new art gallery in Spain's Cáceres region intertwines a blossoming contemporary art scene with the area's rich tobacco growing history.
Cultural Center La Gota is a new exhibition space, which sits on the former site of a 1930s building. Designed by local architects Losada García Arquitectos, the gallery combines a permanent collection by Spanish artist Sofia Feliu with temporary event spaces and a museum dedicated to tobacco production.
The gallery consists of five blocks, stacked one on top of the other with each cuboid protruding at a distinctive angle from the one below to resemble the structure of a tobacco plant. Balconies have been included on each floor, allowing visitors to view the city from a variety of perspectives.
At the centre of the structure sits a bright green staircase, which ascends through the levels, leading the visitor on a journey through white walled rooms filled with agricultural machinery, paintings and sculptures.
Each room is constructed from glass and encased in a checkered pattern of clay tiles, lending the building a woven appearance, allowing a dappled light into the gallery space as well as helping to illuminate the structure at night.
The glass allows in heat as well as light, a potential problem were it not for an expanse of green foliage on one of the exterior walls. Consisting of tobacco plants and other shrubbery, the vegetation ensures that the temperature does not soar too high during the blistering Spanish summer.
Pictured left: The gallery consists of five blocks, stacked one on top of the other with each cuboid protruding at a distinctive angle from the one below. Right: balconies have been included on each floor, allowing visitors to view the city from a variety of perspectives
Sunlight filters through the cermaic tiles, creating a dappled effect
The gallery's stark white interior allows the view beyond the ceramic tiles to take centre stage
An expanse of green foliage, consisting of tobacco plants and other shrubbery, on one of the exterior walls ensures that the temperature does not soar too high
Each room is constructed from glass and encased in a checkered pattern of clay tiles
A view from one of the gallery's numerous, expansive balconies
INFORMATION
For more information, visit Losada García Arquitectos’ website
ADDRESS
Cultural Center La Gota
Navalmoral de la Mata
Cáceres, Spain
-
Fulham FC’s new Riverside Stand by Populous reshapes the match-day experience and beyondPopulous has transformed Fulham FC’s image with a glamorous new stand, part of its mission to create the next generation of entertainment architecture, from London to Rome and Riyadh
-
A contemporary Mexican hotel emerges from a 16th-century ruin in MéridaA renovation project by Zeller & Moye, Mérida’s new Hotel Sevilla wears its architectural interventions lightly, mixing new brutalist elements into listed interiors and a palm-filled courtyard
-
Discover the cool and offbeat designs of jeweller Inesa KovalovaInesa Kovalova's jewellery celebrates a mix of mediums and materials
-
In the heart of Basque Country, Bjarke Ingels unveils a striking modular building devoted to culinary researchSee what the architect cooked up for the Basque Culinary Center in San Sebastián, Spain
-
Welcome to The Gingerbread City – a baked metropolis exploring the idea of urban ‘play’The Museum of Architecture’s annual exhibition challenges professionals to construct an imaginary, interactive city entirely out of gingerbread
-
Spice up the weekly shop at Mallorca’s brutalist supermarketIn this brutalist supermarket, through the use of raw concrete, monolithic forms and modular elements, designer Minimal Studio hints at a critique of consumer culture
-
A Spanish house designed to ‘provide not just shelter, but a tangible, physical experience’A Spanish house outside Tarragona creates a tangible framework for the everyday life of a couple working flexibly in the digital world
-
Meet Ferdinand Fillod, a forgotten pioneer of prefabricated architectureHis clever flat-pack structures were 'a little like Ikea before its time.'
-
A courtyard house in northern Spain plays with classical influences and modernist formsA new courtyard house, Casa Tres Patis by Twobo Arquitectura, is a private complex that combines rich materiality and intriguing spatial alignments
-
In Santander, a cotton candy-coloured HQ is a contemporary delightSantander’s Colección ES Headquarters, a multifunctional space for art, office work, and hosting, underwent a refurbishment by Carbajo Hermanos, drawing inspiration from both travels and local context
-
This Madrid villa’s sculptural details add to its serene appealVilla 18 by Fran Silvestre Architects, one of a trilogy of new homes in La Moraleja, plays with geometry and curves – take a tour
