SITGES CENTRE DE DISSENY - CONVENTION CENTRE
The present day Sitges Design Centre, Convention Centre is in fact the result of an adaptation of another project, also originally drawn up by AIA, as a Design Centre for the new prototypes of the car company Volkswagen.
Built in concrete and clad with panels of natural stone, the building is distinguished by its exterior presentation, a sealed structure proposed as a play of shadows and volumes that is chromatically defined by the prominent role of whites and greys, counterpointed here and there by the warm brown hues of the wooden elements.
This is a building that evidently looks in upon itself, becoming transformed into a diaphanous space, full of light, with a large interior courtyard that serves as an axis for a range of different rooms and spaces onto which the extensive openings of the interior façades open out.
The work done to reconvert the building into a venue suitable for a wide range of public events was approached in two phases, based on the installation of new internal divisions, without any alteration to its external appearance, and without the need for any alteration of the building’s structural elements.
The first phase involved the installation of washrooms, open to the public, on the ground floor along with the introduction of the necessary adaptations to improve the accessibility of the offices on the first floor.
In the second phase, the building’s main double space (originally used as a bay for making up the prototypes and the area for their presentation) was transformed into a multipurpose hall, with two telescopic stands, providing seating for up to six hundred people, plus a double screen, for central projection, which confers on the space an extensive range of uses catering to different events. A new entrance was then built on the ground floor to improve the building’s accessibility, becoming the main entrance and incorporating all the services inherent to this new function.
The work that was done on the first floor during this second stage was also aimed at adding to the improvements in accessibility and, at the same time, creating both a meeting room and a technical control room for the multipurpose hall.
