Multiusos Fontes do Sar

Tags:

Project: Multiusos do Sar
Architects: Xosé Manuel Casabella, Josep María de Arenaza and Joaquín Pujol
Date: 1991-1996
Location: Rúa de Gaiás

Thanks to the Multiusos de Sar, the city has a facility capable of housing large-scale sports events or concerts. In order to satisfy this need, the Catalan architects Arenaza and Pujol designed a large cylinder made up of the follower layers, from the base upwards: firstly, a plinth that absorbs the terrain's irregularities, then a glazed strip, which forms a perimeter gallery, followed by a completely blind solid section, covered by stone, which floats above the lower glazed strip and, finally, the irregular volumes of the roof skylights crowning the building.

The spectacular structure covering the building is resolved with trusses of panelled wood, joined by metallic cables, which overcome a maximum distance, without any support, of ninety metres. Above them, the glazed strips of the skylights let a large quantity of natural light inside the large space.

The presence of the building's great volume was treated, as regards its relationship with the city, as an isolated singular piece in the middle of an extensive green space, delimited by the growth strip between the railway and the hillside where Peter Eisenman's City of Culture is being built. This urban park, dominated by the Multiusos, is being developed longitudinally alongside the River Sar into a natural setting of great beauty and significance.