Carme Pinós designs the CaixaForum in Zaragoza

The Barcelona-based studio undertakes the architecture and interior design of this new building in Aragon’s capital.

Architecture studio Carme Pinós, which has an extensive portfolio of international projects, has designed the architecture, interior design and some of the furniture of the new CaixaForum Museum, Auditorium and Cultural Centre, which opened at the end of June in Zaragoza. The building comprises an auditorium, offices, lecture halls, a restaurant and cafeteria.

The studio’s aim was to create a building that feels like a miniature city which people feel immersed in as they walk through it. To achieve this, the architects raised the main rooms on to the upper floor to allow the lower one — now occupied by a gift shop and lobby — to be more open and transparent. The intention was to create a public space with the outdoor grounds extending beneath the building so that it meshes with the city. At night, the building’s facade is illuminated with a light show of abstract patterns. Under the upper floor is a garden that’s partially sunk into the ground which people exiting the auditorium can walk into; this also serves as an ante-chamber and a space to serve food alfresco. At the top of the building, which boasts vistas of the city, are a café, a restaurant and an outdoor bar area with fabulous views of the plain on the left bank of the river Ebro — called Meandro de Ranillas — and the exhibition area of Expo Zaragoza 2008. The studio wanted the building to be a symbol of progress in terms of culture and technology in this famous city through which the Ebro flows.

Carme Pinós founded her architecture and interior design studio in Barcelona in 1991. Since then, it has contributed to projects in Spain, France, Mexico, Germany, Italy, Venezuela and Cuba, and has won many prizes for its work. In 2012, it launched its first furniture collection called Objects.