Recently we have uploaded to our web a new photographic report on the works of the Rehabilitation of Casa Pinillos as an extension of the Museum of Cadiz, realized by the architect Francisco Reina.

Museum of Cádiz is located in the Mina Square since 1935, however it did not establish itsself as one until 1970, when the fusion of Archeological Museum and Fine Arts Museum took place. Its collection originates at the Confiscation of Mendizábal in 1835, that look place when a series of paintings from secularized convents was deposited in Fine Arts Museum. Its current shape is influenced by significant remodeling of the building, realized in 1980, by the architect Javier Feduchi.

The works on Casa Pinillos, which together with the museum building makes up the east corner of the Mina Square, will allow for an extension of its permanent exhibition capacity. The building is a bourgeois residence, dated between the end of the XVIIth and beginning of the XVIIIth Century. Its current shape is due to the remodelations and adaptations to the lifestyle and taste of the mercantile bourgeoisie from Cadiz, applied to the structure. The mayority of these changes took place in the XIXth Century.

Francisco Reina explains, “The project is guided by the appreciation for the esencial architectonical elements that define the building since the main museographic piece is the building itsself. Regarding the floor distribution, the new vertical communication node is located in the auxiliary area and complies with the public use regulations. It is inserted into the spacial order of the house in a natural way, enabling a lobby and resting areas dedicated to the visitors”.

Nonetheless, we consider that the most correct decision of this project was the one that contributed to revaluation of the upper floors, where the formal funcional programme relaxes and establishes a peculiar relationship with the city and its roofscape. Its own world runs in parallel, but it is not totally alien to the street one. It connects overheads with the sea and with the insularity of the aerea.

Other projects by Francisco Reina on our web