Hortensia Herrero Art Centre
Hortensia Herrero Art Centre. A space dedicated to art with a contemporary and international vocation.
Client
The objective of the Hortensia Herrero Foundation is to promote interest, knowledge and sensitivity for art and culture through projects created in the Valencian Community by artists from all over the world.
Challenge
This intervention involves the recovery of a unique and historic building in the city of Valencia. Visitors will be able to contemplate the remains of the Jewish quarter and part of the ruins of the Roman circus, which crossed the ground floor of the Palace.
STRATEGY
The aim is to materialize and bring to fruition the two objectives set by the Hortensia Herrero Foundation in a laborious, delicate and demanding process: to protect the historical artistic heritage of the Valencian Community and to promote a space dedicated to art with a contemporary and international vocation.
The new museum will house the valuable private collection of patron Hortensia Herrero. This collection includes works by renowned artists such as Andreas Gursky, Anselm Kiefer, Georg Baselitz, Anish Kapoor and Mat Collishaw, among others. In this regard, it is worth highlighting the figure of Javier Molins as artistic director of the Hortensia Herrero Art Center and his key role in the construction of the collection for more than 10 years.
The intervention proposes a natural continuity between the old and the new, a continuity with what has already been built, as another episode in the history of the building. During the museum tour, visitors will be able to enjoy contemporary art, discover part of the Roman circus of Valencia or see the original wooden beams and the ceramic masonry of the main hall.
SOLUTION
The façade has been restored to its original state during its early 19th century renovation, the original paving of oak cobblestone has been maintained, and the improper modern elements that were added in the last decades during the different phases of the building have been eliminated.
The chapel of the building has been restored and reconstructed, adapting it as another room of the future Hortensia Herrero Art Center. Likewise, the street of the old Jewish quarter is respected as a trace of the past and an outdoor space. The garden is presented as another room of the museum, but outside, coexisting with a clear presence of green element and water, being a tribute to the Arab courtyard that once was.
The andana, the most emblematic space, will retain its character with its arched windows and original wooden beam roof. Finally, the viewpoint is conceived as a stop on the museum tour from which to contemplate the surroundings.
