The Alhambra and contemporary architecture
the zone by means of a single decisive and zigzagging geometry, subdivided into linear strips at different heights which delimit a continuous space, fluid and full of light, turned into a route that cuts the floor like a stream, sloping along the orography; two more Sevillians, Antonio Cruz and Antonio Ortiz, with a mimetic strategy reflecting the surrounding nature, diluting the edges of a work that accepts its auxiliary or subsidiary role, culminating in an impressive space with a pergola where it cuts into the vegetation, arranged on a floor angled in the same direction as the rows of cypresses, whose narrowing and shade increase the anticipation; and the Hispanic-Portuguese team of Antonio Tejedor and Manuel Aires Mateus, with a topographic manipulation that tries to hide itself, through a fracture in the land from which a plinth emerges, connected by an outdoor ramp, whose tectonic construction forges a landscape while announcing a space vaulted between two Cyclopean walls; and Antonio Jiménez Torrecillas together with João Luís Carrilho da Graça, who unfurl an intense conceptual and poetic force that makes altimetric reference to the work house in La Mimbre, which is based on the surroundings while at the same time organising its interior through a helical system of routes, like an entrance ritual, bordering a multipurpose space where the light produces a transcendental atmosphere, protected by a landscaped ceiling that also shelters a circular auditorium and the other rooms. However, first prize went to “Puerta Nueva”, by Álvaro Siza and Juan Domingo Santos,62 who combine land, pre-existence, programme and flow into a contemporary, silent design well-adjusted in terms of scale. It consists of a series of staggered and partly buried volumes, adapted to the land and open to the monument, which develop longitudinally along two axes, and whose curve responds to the topographical peculiarities, presence of trees and a desire to understand the environment. It welcomes visitors with a horizontal podium that emerges from the body of the access together with other services, forming an upper terrace from which the first towers can be seen, interspersed with the lush vegetation. Below, a large double-height lobby leads to the opposite end where two parallel wings are surrounded by courtyards next to the Auditorium and the exhibition area, culminating in a generous plaza connecting to the “Camino de los Cipreses” [Promenade of the Cypress Trees], thus evoking Moorish architecture through a rich concatenation of spaces, transitions and elements, particularly walls and floors where the materials, with their textures and colours, are tinged by the play of light and shadow, our minds and senses are prepared to fully enjoy the phenomenology of heritage. 62
See vv. aa. (2015). Álvaro Siza Vieira. Visiones de la Alhambra [Exhibition catalogue]. Granada: Aedes Architecture Forum/Patronato de la Alhambra y Generalife.
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