Auditorium Villajoyosa

La Vila Joiosa is a small tourist town located in southeastern Spain. Mount Puig Campana forms its scenic backdrop. José Maria Torres Nadal and Antonio Marquerie’s Theater and Auditorium was designed to minimize the visual impact on this setting but still provide ample public space. The project’s program for 800-seat theater and auditorium, a 70-seat choir hall used for rehearsal rooms, and administrative offices is spread over a corner site and housed within a spiral form, which appears as if it is unraveling form center to periphery.
The ground floor of the main volume houses two conference rooms, which together can hold up to two hundred people. The auditorium is located on the next level; the choir hall is on the top level. Suspended above the main hall and visible from below. The exterior volume – what the architects consider a circular arm and which contains rehearsal and administrative spaces – is elevated above the ground and loosely wraps the auditorium, creating an open plaza in the center. This raised threshold helps to mediate between the city and auditorium. The plaza, often swathed in strong shadows, becomes a public stage, providing an outdoor space for informal gathering. Upon entering the main interior volume, one proceeds through a hall either to the conference rooms or to a stair that leads to the foyer on the first level. From the foyer one can proceed either to the auditorium or to the secondary spaces in the arm.
The interiors of both halls have red linoleum floors, red seats, gray concrete walls, and a white polycarbonate faceted ceiling. Acoustic are designed for a variety of uses, including musical performances, conferences, and lectures. A bar acts as a transitional space between the foyer and the secondary spaces of the circular arm.