Faculty of Media Studies
Project: Faculty of Media Studies
Architects: Álvaro Siza Vieira
Date: 1993-1999
Location: North Campus
After building the Centre Galego de Arte Contemporánea, the well-known architect Álvaro Siza undertook his second large building in Santiago de Compostela, namely the Faculty of Media Studies in the North Campus of the University of Compostela.
It is really exception the quality and involvement in the design, in which the Portuguese master even defined the pieces of furniture, in an educational building. Siza worked with the complete trust of the university officials, who were aware that, in addition to teaching facilities, they were overseeing the construction of a notable project of contemporary architecture.
After the project was completed, on the occasion of a university event, Siza signed the university's gold book, expressing his appreciation for, in the words of the Pritzker Prize winner, 'having been allowed to be an architect.'
The Faculty of Media Studies consists of a long axial section, to which a series of volumes, such as the library or main lecture hall, are connected perpendicularly. This layout provides an ambiguous and poetical spatial richness, which is characteristic of Siza's work. Especially memorable is the sequence of the entrance, below the library volume, supported by a single eccentric leg, or the interior ramp, open towards the atrium leading to the different lecture rooms. Even the smallest details of the building's installations were designed by the architect, from the benches in the lecture rooms to the door handles or the signs for the gents and ladies toilets. This fact makes this educational building a notable example of a complete work of art of contemporary architecture.
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