A matter of light.

CULTURAL HERITAGE INSTITUTE

"Corona de Espinas"

Madrid, Spain

Fernando Higueras 

1961-1990

La Corona de Espinas is an architectural project designed and conceived as what Fernando Higueras used to define with the term “hedgehog architecture”: buildings with an imposing, hard outer shell but a soft interior, even softer thanks to the work of light and vegetation. So again, buildings with external, linear edges but a smooth and round inner design. He used to state: “none of a living being has edges beyond the teeth and nails”(1). And so he used to design his architecture.

 

There are many impressive things of this project worthy of being mentioned, not only because of the dominant and majestic external appearance, but because of the structure design, the division of inner spaces and the inclusion of nature within architecture, among others. And is this last one that we are focusing on here, specially the introduction of light through the major, central space and the atmosphere that this provokes. 

 

Higueras works a lot during his career with introducing natural light into his buildings through the top of those. Skylights are very present in many of his designs in all different shapes and manners. In this particular case, he decides to leave a grand central space around which, different departments and uses are set along. It is conceived as a joining point in which workers can meet in their free time but it also works as a central nucleus for the circulation of people. Moreover, it serves as spotlight to the library located one level below which only receives natural light from a central top window. 

 

The highly illuminated patio is covered by a glass enclosure suspended by a metallic structure of trusses that are disposed radially and hanged from a center ring. As light is filtered through this layer, a game of shadows is transmitted to the interior by projecting the shapes of these structural elements at the bottom of the space. In this manner and due to the hard transition from gleam to darkness between the central of the circle and its perimeter, the creation of a clear chiaroscuro can also be clearly appreciated in the photograph. The appearance of vegetation within the outer ring of the  described space contributes to this game of shadows transmission. Higueras left his trace once again with the design of this architectonic piece.