Province Álava | ||
KREA. Expresión Contemporánea(KREA. Contemporary Expression) is a new cultural and creative proposal promoted by the Caja Vital Kutxa (Vital) savings bank. This project places at everyone’s disposal the necessary resources to learn contemporary artistic creations. It also wants young people to explore their most creative facet and displaying emerging projects.
Contents
- History of the building
- The legend
- The challenge of KREA
- The construction
- Types of users
- The occasional visitor
- The resident
- References
At first, the building was called The Convent of Betoño which was founded at the end of the 19th century (started 11 September 1904) by the architect Javier de Aguirre and the designer Marcial Dagorette. However, as the nuns who lived there left the monastery it was abandoned until the Caja Vital Kutxa (Vital) savings bank decided to make it up and to use it as a school of new artists such as sculptures, writers, filmmakers and more. Unfortunatelly, the construction was so expensive and when it was finished, there was no money left to start using it. In 2014, a rumour said that an American University wanted this building to use it as a campus. Now it is known that the rumour was right and that it could open its doors between the years 2016 and 2017.
History of the building
In 1904, the first stone of the monastery was placed. It is financed by Lorenzo Rolland y Paret, resident of Madrid and consul in Toulouse, who purchased a large plot of 16,000 square meters in the area known as "La Perla". In addition, he ordered to build it in nearby "Villa Melania", a place for his summer holiday. It was designed by Marcial Dagorette and was held by Javier de Aguirre, municipal architect of Vitoria. In 1905 the Carmelite mothers from a convent in Toulouse, moved to the convent. The Church, neo-Gothic design, was the last thing that was built in the convent for lack of funds. It is the highlight of the whole and rightly combines pleasant proportions with a line of elegant construction. The facade is topped with a pinion triangular with oculus. Lorenzo Rolland y Paret died in "Villa Melania" and was embalmed and buried in the monastery.
Later, the convent was closed and the Church was unsanctified. The remains of the cemetery also rose to move them to the Vitoria-Gasteiz Carmelite convent, located in the Santa Teresa way behind the Diocesan Seminary. Following the advice of the Vicar of the diocese, also stood the remains of the founder, who were in a crypt. The nuns who lived in the convent were transferred to other places. Some were destined at Calahorra, others to Alba de Tormes (birthplace of Santa Teresa) and finally to the convent of the Carmelo de Vitoria in the path of Santa Teresa.
The legend
The convent of Betoño has remained hidden to the eyes of the inhabitants of the city for over a hundred years. That makes that many believe it has one artistic value greater than that which actually has. A devoted French helped its construction at the end of the 19th century to give it to the “Carmelitas Descalzas” (a religious community) that she had been expelled from their convent in Toulouse, in order to return to their place of closing. The result was a neo-Gothic building of hyperbolic dimensions, especially if you consider the purpose for which it was designed: serve as home to a score of nuns. The legend says that precisely the ambitious project dragged the benefactor to ruin, and for this reason the chapel had no ladder or access door.
The challenge of KREA
The challenge from the beginning was the convent to become a cultural and artistic center that hosts creation and divulgation, with the aspiration of becoming an international reference.
The construction
The architects Roberto Ercilla and Miguel Ángel Campo were entrusted with converting the old neo-gothic convent of the Barefoot Carmelites of Betoño (Vitoria-Gasteiz) into a modern and practical centre adapted to the cultural needs programmed for it. The cloister, chapel and gardens are the spaces on which the main activities focus.
The proposal by Ercilla and Campo features a corridor-building made from glass that meanders next to the old building and rises above it to finally enter the cloister. The new glass structure is conceived as an icon, with a forceful formal image that operates as a counterpoint to the old convent.
In the union between both there is an environmental terrace that forms part of the outdoor route and incorporates a zone of solar panels. The reconstruction of the old convent of Betoño began during the first quarter of 2007 (at the same time the artistic initiatives involving the convent began to be programmed, together with the KREA web page) and it was supposed to open its doors to the public in early 2009. The remodeling works involved an outlay of around 12 million euros.
Types of users
The project is organised around the new uses and therefore distinguishes two types of users: the occasional visitor and the resident.
The occasional visitor
Visitors can move around spaces such as points of information, the shop, the cafeteria or the restaurant located on the surface of the building, as well as the auditorium and exhibition halls situated in the basement.
The resident
The habitual user, in turn, can use the old convent, where the training activities take place, as well as the interior of the current cloister, which is covered and is house the library and media library. The area for the Krea management team has its work areas situated in the old building.