Climate Museum of Lleida

During the planning process for the Climate Museum in Lleida, the wording of the 2008 competition call was questioned. In it, and within an area of ​​12,000 m2, a building of 3000 m2 was requested, as a container and with a stable temperature ranging from 18 to 25 degrees throughout the year and with content displayed in all of its standard spaces, such as the exhibition halls. Alternatively, it was proposed to understand the natural climate and its processes as a true reflection of the proposal, diluting the limits and projecting the different transitions.

Tripling the area in some 36,000 m2 and taking advantage of the fact that the surrounding areas were classified as a green area, a large public space is projected. Its materials obtained in the land’s movements are optimized, activating the vegetation of the place. As the climate is the object of the museum, the continent becomes the content, and by proposing not to use any artificial air conditioning, the budget is reduced to one third of what was envisaged in the initial statement.

Posing an inseparable framework between nature and the plots of existence, the earth's resource as a topography materializes in the walk between the sunny plateau and the dark valley. Likewise, the native vegetation and part of the building that surrounds it, are proposed as elements in harmony that go through the different microclimates generated.

Water and its natural cycle manage the different degrees of humidity, optimizing its use by gravity to cover the infrastructural needs of the building and the park, understanding both as a single public space in continuity.The air appears as a warm breeze from the west in the plateau, and as cool cross-ventilation in the existing forest and the pergola of vegetation in reception area.

The fire, from the solar radiation on the skin and in a climate full of contrasts like the continental, heat is excessive in summer but necessary in winter. Here, solar rays are supplied in alternation with the shade provided at any given time by the ever-useful deciduous leaves.

Ultimately, the architecture exert the mediation in key of habitability, that facilitates the interaction between the different elements, enjoying sensations and diverse environmental and climatic contents.

The headquarters of the Museum of Lleida, the work of the architect Joan Rodón, integrates the old Carmelite Convent, a Baroque chapel that has been completed with the architecture of the museum around its construction, and which forms the starting point of the exhibition route. Part of the façade maintains the old building together with the religious building, which was used as a military hospital and orphanage, of which only this skin remains. The museum is an exercise in contrasts: the exterior is innovative, modern and minimalist, with a striking, snowy stone façade. Meanwhile, the interior is distributed in dimly lit spaces, largely clad in black marble, focusing the viewer more on what is on display than on what is built. Natural light is scarce, only used where it is most needed, thanks to the opening of the façade through interior balconies behind a natural stone lattice.

The architecture of the building, a play of superimposed volumes that reaches a medium height, has sought to integrate it fully into the fabric of Lleida, after the void left by the old building of the Llar de Sant Josep built on the convent, of which the chapel has been conserved and restored, linking it both to the territory and to the people who live there. Thus, the museum is located in a key point of the town and is one of the must-see places in the city for the religious heritage. For the facades of the lower levels and the main entrance to the building, the Eiffel 1550 architectural mesh was used, held in place by the TF-50 fastening technique.

Location: Lleida, Spain
Architects: Joan Rodón Arq.
Application: facade
Architectural mesh model: Eiffel 1550
Fixing technique: TF-50