Badajoz Congress Center and Auditorium

The Badajoz Congress Center is located inside a pentagonal shaped fortress, part of the 17th century city walls. There used to be an old bullring in the site, dating back to 1859. The project uses the bullring's excavated footprint as a starting point, building the congress hall in the space where the arena used to be, and enveloping it with a semi-transparent skin made from fibreglass rings, that recreates the outer volume of the stands, thus creating a play of solid and void where the main volume is actually enclosing a void within which sits the solid of the congress hall. The cylindrical enclosure of the main hall is surrounded by translucent methacrylate pipes, turning it into a luminous volume at night. In order to keep the clarity of the volume intact, the main access is done through a staircase going down from the public square in front of the building to an underground lobby, illuminated by skylights and sunken patios.