The strategy in this project revolves around the response to two apparently opposing conditions: to succeed in integrating it into its urban setting while giving it the uniqueness required by its representative role.
The urban centre of the municipality of Escatrón, situated on the lower banks of the river Ebro –around 80 km downstream from Zaragoza—sits on a north-facing slope on the right margin of the river. The new town hall stands in the lower part facing the Church of La Asunción, built in the 17th century and listed as an Asset of Cultural Interest.
The reduced dimensions and geometry of the site, together with the intention of restricting the building’s floor plan occupation so as to give the back courtyard an appropriate size, are present in the outline of the floors and in the organisation of the uses. In a quest to make the spatial perception of internal amplitude match the building’s institutional role despite its size, the horizontal and vertical divisions are not continuous.
The voids at varying heights between the interstitial spaces of the floors and the transparency of the enclosures open up vistas on a diagonal in several directions through the building. Along the routes, the openings provide framed views of the municipality’s landscape and its singular elements.
The internal voids and the contrast between the blind surfaces of the exterior and the luminosity of the interior, with natural light coming in from various angles, reveal the aim of producing discoveries or surprises when entering the building, to which the revelation of the new back courtyard opening on to the block interior also contributes.
The materials used on the eternal facades (mocha-coloured limestone and Iroko wood) have their continuity in the indoor horizontal surfaces (the stone of the floors, the wood of the ceilings), in the external and internal joinery and in the iroko wood cladding of the plenary hall. The zinc roof and the large-size glass in openings and railings complete the restricted list of materials used.
