The Ferreyra Palace has been converted into the Córdoba Province Museum of Fine Arts, to display a selection of the museum’s collection as a permanent exhibition. The original cultural heritage value of the building was that of a family residence; the public building intended to show and preserve a different kind of cultural heritage. The challenge was for both heritages to coexist without one overshadowing the other.

The renovation has preserved the pre-eminent hierarchical condition of the main hall as well as its relationship with all the original public areas, while at the same time creating a new multi-level space that now allows the visual appraisal of all the building levels at the same time, thus revealing the unified character of the building as a whole. This space that lies perpendicular to the main building axis has been designed as an ambiguous realm, which maintains certain neutrality in contrast with the main hall.

The original enclosure of the building and its fenestration is shown through a translucent tensile PVC sheet which becomes a new skin for the building, shifting its appearance according to the light, which can be either natural daylight, regular white artificial light, or colored RGB lighting intended to create different effects. The design for the opposite side -which interfaces with the original spaces, was solved with a continuous glass plane covered by a micro perforated membrane printed with a pixelated photo of the main hall which gives it an abstract texture; the same hall can be seen behind the glass through its ambiguous transparency. The planes contained within this space have been dematerialized by covering them with mirror-polished steel.

The layout of the building as determined by the central hall has been kept in all the levels, making the use and understanding of the building easier. The new exhibition rooms have been designed as efficient, neutral spaces to minimize competition with the original building. Finally, a series of new technical requirements had to be met with the museum program, such as easy access to all public spaces by handicapped and elderly people, emergency exits, ability to accommodate and control large groups of students, a controlled environment in terms of temperature and humidity, artificial lighting control, fire detection and extinction systems, physical security against intrusions, alarms, permanent control by closed circuit TV, access control, etc.

ARCHITECT: GGMPU Architects (Gramatica/Morini/Pisani/Urtubey) + Lucio Morini, Córdoba, Argentina, www.ggmpu.com, www.luciomorini.com. CLIENT: Government of Córdoba. LOCATION: Córdoba, Argentina. DESCRIPTION: Cultural. AREA: 4800 sq m. PROJECT MANAGER: Guillermo Pozzobon. DATE: 2007.

COPYRIGHT: GGMPU Architects + Lucio Morini. SOURCE: Lucio Morini.
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