A dialogue with the environment | Francisco Mangado

Francisco Mangado combines professional activity with teaching. He runs a studio in Pamplona and is guest professor at many universities around the world, and in 2008 he set up the “Architecture and Society Foundation”, aiming to help in increasing interaction between architecture and other fields of creation.

Francisco Mangado strongly believes in the social and ethical value of architecture. In a motivating letter that he wrote to his students, he underlines the current lack of hope and ephemeral nature of contemporary architecture.

Mangado believes that architecture should start from the context, both in geographical, cultural and social terms, avoiding fashionable and showy architecture in favor of buildings that are capable to engage in a dialogue with the environment. This concept of architecture can help in using time as architectural material, creating buildings able to change as time passes by. Mangado was confronted with different typologies during his professional activity. A sport facilities example is La Balestra Soccer Stadium in Palencia. The social value of architecture is shown in the combination of a soccer stadium with a local council offices on the ground floor. This thorough programmatic strategy allows the building to be always busy, and provides a valuable public space.

The importance of the relation with the context is stressed in the Municipal Exhibition and Congress Center of Ávila; the strong medieval walls of the city, as well as the topography of the building site, help to shape the building as a continuation of the walls. Thanks to the creation of a light slope, the height of the building never overpasses the walls, consenting an intense dialogue between old and new.

The Municipal Auditorium of Teulada is set in a Mediterranean landscape, with the contemporary presence of mountains and sea: the building acts as a terrace to the sea, through an articulated ceramic façade that organizes all the internal spaces. The geometry of this façade is generated by the sun, as the shape is chosen in order to minimize solar gains. Built on the upper part of the city, the building can be seen as a white rock or a lighthouse depending on the point of view.

The relationship with the urban landscape is stressed in the Archaeology Museum of Álava: the building follows two main concepts. In first instance, it follows the gothic pattern of Álavas historical centre. The building site is long and narrow, giving the possibility to create a dialogue in between the different volumes of the building itself and with the historical surroundings. On the other hand, the building is organized around the intimate relationship between object and visitor, as an expression of the archaeological theme. The building is divided in dark boxes crossed by light volumes. The thick walls of the volumes create deep windows facing the city centre, as the most important archaeological element.

In the Fine Arts Museum of Asturias, the architect sets a dialogue with strong historical context. The museum hosts one of the four main Spanish painting collections and is built on a Renaissance plot near Oviedo’s Cathedral. A part of the existing plot was demolished, but the main façade was conserved, and the architect creates the building behind that facade, with its own facade.

Between the two facades, the staircase appears as a continuation of the street. The thick walls of the second facade hide the building services. The creation of a new courtyard on the inside allows the visitor to see all the museum from the ground floor, also establishing a dialogue with the existing courtyard. Besides underlining again the importance of the context as starting point for architecture, Mangado suggests the students to be optimist, critic and brave.

Watch the interview with Francisco Mangado (Video clip| 0:59 Min.)