Malaka Art Hall (MAH) | 2023

Location: Málaga, Spain
Architects: Flow81 Architecture Lab SLP
Lead Architect: Ignacio Merino Rivero
Client: The Ifergan Gallery S.L.
Photographs: Courtesy of the Architects

MALAKA ART HALL (MAH) is an international arts center, a public building in the heart of Malaga. The approach arises from the maximum respect for the ruins found on this plot. Cities must grow and modernize without turning their backs on their past. “The past tells us how we will be in the future” thus the axes of this new building are born from the axes of the site.

The building has been designed to reduce its environmental impact and improve its energy efficiency throughout its life cycle. The skin of the building is ceramic and 'marks' the direct relationship with the CITY. This link must be respectful of the HISTORY and ESSENCE of Malaga. That is why we use VERNACULAR and INDIGENOUS materials and elements from the area. The archaeological remains found demonstrate great ceramic activity in all its historical phases.

We recover the clay, so the skin of the building will be ceramic tiles that will wrap the whole. Thus, the SKIN is a ventilated façade composed of RECYCLED ceramic tiles that, when overlapped, create 'pots' where we will place native plants that will create a vertical garden with very little maintenance as they are species from the area, native species in danger of extinction also reducing CO2 in the environment.

The 'POTS' that make up the envelope of the building are made of recycled tiles anchored to a ceramic railing and on a metal structure that supports them and creates an air chamber. With this we manage to have the façade ventilated and fresh with the plant elements that also provide shade to the façade. Another of the great advantages of this ceramic element that covers the façade is that it acts as an acoustic absorber for the square, it is a noise attenuating element.

This skin that serves as a link between the complex and the city has a composition inspired by the painting of the most international Malaga native, Pablo Picasso, born in that same square: The Young Ladies of Avignon. The building is divided into 5 volumes referring to the 5 historical phases of the site. The uses are independent/dependent on each other. These volumes are fractured and displaced creating internal routes, 'STRETCHES' that help protect against the sun and generate air currents. The building complex will rise above the plaza to generate a limitless flow where the PEDESTRIAN can have a unique perspective, observing the PAST (ruins), PRESENT (square) and FUTURE (building flying).