Botín Cultural Center

The Botín Cultural Center overlooks the Bay of Santander, in the autonomous community of Cantabria along the northern coast of Spain. Designed by the Renzo Piano Building Workshop in conjunction with the Madrid-based Luis Vidal + Architects practice, the complex is far more than a simple new cultural and arts center as it is the fulcrum of a major urban regeneration project. Commissioned by the Botín Foundation, Mapei was brought in to provide technical solutions for laying the floors and cladding in some of the internal environments.

Hanging between the historic Pereda Gardens and the sea in the same area as the local market, the project was also instrumental in making the vast port area of the Albareda wharf accessible to the city once again by building a tunnel that allows the main seafront road to run under this urban area. In doing this, the Gardens were also extended to reach right down to the shore.

With a total floor area of 8,739 sq. m, the Botín Center has a rounded shape with two distinctive volumes on pilotis, much of which are glazed and sections even project over the sea. The east side is home to the auditorium and various rooms that are used for educational purposes and as offices, while the west side has two floors taken up by exhibition spaces and it is characterized by the striking double view of the sea and the gardens. A series of steel and glass walkways connects these two volumes, forming an elevated plaza. A small amphitheater was also created in the park, next to the building, with an LED screen on this western side that is used for open-air screenings onto the façade.

In some of the rooms, especially the bathrooms, the changing rooms and the kitchen area, small, shiny glass mosaic glass tiles were used as cladding, creating a changing effect as the light mutates through the day. Mapei’s technical support office recommended using Kerapoxy CQ mortar for the mosaic, Adesilex P9 cementitious adhesive for the ceramic tiles in the communal areas and Ultracolor Plus grouting.

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© Stéphane Aboudaram | WE ARE CONTENT(S), courtesy of Mapei

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