Rafael Moneo presents the Museum, "a cultural center and another classroom".
The architect guided about forty journalists through the 11,000 m2 building.
The architect Rafael Moneo (Tudela, Navarra, 1937) has presented to the media the Museo Universidad de Navarra, his most abstract work.
After a brief speech by Ángel J. Gómez-Montoro, president of the Board of Trustees of Museo Universidad de Navarra, in which he highlighted the magnanimity of María Josefa Huarte for donating her collection, Moneo began the visit through the exhibition corridor on floor 0, where part of the collection will also be on display.
With 3,000m2 of exhibition floor, the building has 12 fully interconnected halls on floors 0, -1 and 2. It also has a theater-auditorium with more than 700 seats to complete the performing arts program. Divided into two floors, this space "favors the sensation of proximity as it existed in classical theaters," the architect emphasized.
The first floor of the building is mainly devoted to the photography collection and storage area. The classrooms on this floor and the workshops on floor 1 will be used to further the Museum's teaching mission. "The goal is to turn it into another classroom at the University since it is capable of serving the student body," said Moneo.
"It is not only a museum of painting, but a cultural center with diverse activities that can be enjoyed by the entire community of Navarre and those who want to visit it," said Moneo.
Located on the hillside of the university campus closest to the city, the Museum "aims to establish a bridge between the University and Pamplona". "This campus is one of the Spanish campuses that best links up with the Anglo-Saxon tradition in which the landscape has great relevance," the architect emphasized.
The materials used in Moneo's work are concrete, basalt and oak wood. For the concrete, the architect from Tudela has chosen one that is "very well finished, porous and with the satin finish removed". It also has an earthy tone, which responds to an intention to provide warmth and not to detach from the color and texture of the earth.
Moneo's work has a "great generosity of spaces". As the architect stated, "it is a severe building on the outside but rich and very complex on the inside".