CLOTHING MUSEUM

Valencia. Spain

Project 2004-2007

Construction 2009-2010

Valencia’s new Museum of Clothing and Textiles will be housed in the Palace of the Baron de Vallvert on C/ del Mar, in the heart of the city, a building constructed over several centuries. In the early years of the 20th century the Baron reformed the main façade, added new rooms, and notably increased the density of the central part of the building. He also acquired and incorporated into the building many antiquarian elements, including doors, windows and tiles, the outstanding historicist feature being the kitchen, its walls clad with 18th-century tiles, many decorated with human figures and culinary motifs. However, the reform was carried out with a very poor structural basis, and this has enabled the rapid development of the central part of the building.

The project proposes to conserve 50% of the building containing the principal rooms of the Baron’s residence, and to create a new central space that will give the whole the scale of a museum. This new space defines its boundaries in terms of a geometric pattern used in Renaissance architecture (the basis of the building), which defines the system applied to the historic building. This pattern reads the traces of the existing building and creates a geometric grid, in such a way that the history of the building is recorded in the newly created space. This will be constructed with a structure of stainless steel and ceramic pieces whose size increases as in ascending order. The old timber beams of the roof will be recycled to floor from the top floor.

Credits:

Date of project: 2006
Client: Generalitat Valenciana, Fundación Barón de Vallbert
Architecture: Guallart Architects
Main architects: Vicente Guallart, María Díaz
Collaborators: Marian Albarrán, Ana Cabellos, Fernando Meneses, Daniela Frogheri, Marta Vélez, Andre Imaz, Rainer Goldstein, Ricardo Guerreiro
3D images: Gaëtan Kohler
Models: Christine Bleicher