Refurbishment of the West Tower in Huesca, Spain by ACXT

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Sumit Singhal
Sumit Singhal loves modern architecture. He comes from a family of builders who have built more than 20 projects in the last ten years near Delhi in India. He has recently started writing about the architectural projects that catch his imagination.

Refurbishment of the West Tower in Huesca, Spain by ACXT

October 3rd, 2012 by Sumit Singhal

Article source: ACXT

The project deals with the Refurbishment of the West Tower of the Huesca City Hall in order to turn it into City Archives.
Due to its position and volume, the Archives round off the set of buildings that make up the Huesca City Hall which gives the impression of being an unfinished construction, for the east and west walls are party walls and it seems as if in the past, they might have had an adjoining construction:

The west wall is a mud wall with rows of solid brick, with irregular openings, some of which are bricked up.
The east wall is blind except for an opening on the attic floor

Image Courtesy ACXT

Architects: ACXT
Project: Refurbishment of the West Tower
Location: Huesca, Spain

Image Courtesy ACXT

In the intervention, we intend to treat the side closings, east and west, turning them into façades, so that the unfinished piece will turn into a tower with presence of its own.

Image Courtesy ACXT

The new façades will carry folded copper, a fine material with a good relation with the existing materials – stone, bricks and timber –, and which is present in the first City Hall Extension intervention, thus integrating the work into the set. The plinth is made from sandstone belonging to a castle and it is similar to the existing one.

Image Courtesy ACXT

As a formal reference of similar historical architecture, we thought of the abstraction of the wooden machicolations of the defence towers. This is the reason why the new façade establishes a heavy-light dialogue with the original volume and has a small projection as is usual with this type of constructions.

Image Courtesy ACXT

The Archives’ image has also had its purpose as a book container as a reference. In the Library unit, a few slats have been removed, thus creating deep cracks that allow light into the inside in a way which is coherent with the distribution of the books. The spaces left by the slats are like the space left by a book in a big scale library.

Image Courtesy ACXT

ALZADO ESTE : Image Courtesy ACXT

ALZADO OESTE : Image Courtesy ACXT

ALZADO SUR : Image Courtesy ACXT

CON TRAMA-1 : Image Courtesy ACXT

CON TRAMA-2 : Image Courtesy ACXT

CON TRAMA-4 : Image Courtesy ACXT

SECCION LONGITUDINAL : Image Courtesy ACXT

SECCION TRANSVERSAL : Image Courtesy ACXT

: SECCION TRANSVERSAL : Image Courtesy ACXT

: SECCION LONGITUDINAL : Image Courtesy ACXT

: CON TRAMA-5 : Image Courtesy ACXT

: CON TRAMA-4 : Image Courtesy ACXT

: CON TRAMA-3 : Image Courtesy ACXT

: CON TRAMA-2 : Image Courtesy ACXT

: CON TRAMA-1 : Image Courtesy ACXT

: ALZADO SUR : Image Courtesy ACXT

: ALZADO OESTE : Image Courtesy ACXT

: ALZADO ESTE : Image Courtesy ACXT

: Image Courtesy ACXT

: Image Courtesy ACXT

: Image Courtesy ACXT

: Image Courtesy ACXT

: Image Courtesy ACXT

: Image Courtesy ACXT

: Image Courtesy ACXT

: Image Courtesy ACXT

: Image Courtesy ACXT

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: Image Courtesy ACXT

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Tags: Huesca, Spain

Category: Tower

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