Álava Archaeological Museum

By Francisco Mangado - 20 October 2009

We like to think of an archaeology museum as a compact jewel box concealing treasures entrusted to us by history. For us, however, history is not so much a rigorous science for experts leaving little room for the imagination, rather something we can call our own. This sort of history never ends because it lives on in each small or large find, in the eye of the observer that sees what it wants to see rather than what it actually sees. For this reason, though dense and hermetic on the outside, the box that contains the museum must be enticing and magical on the inside. The interior should be neither mere spatial organization nor beautiful but distant architecture. It must be able to help visitors conjure up places and people from a tiny yet resilient fragment of ceramic that has managed to survive and speaks to us of the fragility of time. In the permanent exhibition halls, all horizontal surfaces are dark; the wood floors are almost black, and the continuous ceilings black. They are boxes that evoke the passage of time concentrated in layers of earth that have gradually formed the thick walls of history. These dark spaces are traversed by white glazed prisms drawing in natural light from the roof. The displays are organized around these prisms that are inlaid with graphics and information on the items in a style designed to encourage interpretation. The building adjoins the Palace of Bendaña, today the Naipes Fournier museum. Access to the building is through the same courtyard that leads to the Palace and conveys the full scope of the project. The proposal includes extending the courtyard surface area in order to upgrade the access area. This does not encroach on the whole court, however, taking only a narrow strip for an appendix perpendicular to the main building. As well as housing auxiliary programs, this addition provides a more attractive access façade than the current party walls of the neighbouring constructions. Thanks to the sloping terrain, the...