The museum is built inside an old dormant volcano near the city centre of Olot, Girona. This underground building therefore frees up a large part of the land above, which is converted into a park. The outside of the building is only visible at its two entrances, which create an internal urban passageway.
The urban environment is conceived as a natural beech grove. The street furniture and lighting form part of the park’s design. A new illuminated beech grove grows on the roof, with up to three models of tree-like pillars that blend with the trees. The LED lighting achieves the effect of distributing the light and making it more uniform, with a colour temperature of 3000K. The pillars and body of the light-emitting unit are made of corten steel. The benches mimic the characteristic geometric shapes of basalt columns, pentagonal formations at different heights that are produced by the cooling of the lava.
EcoBlack® material has been chosen to achieve the effect of volcanic rock. This is recycled black concrete made with iron and steel slag aggregates. Its eco-friendly nature complements the stripped surface finish similar to natural stone, resulting in less water and electricity consumption.
Photography: FRAGMENTS
