Torrevieja’s Mayor, Pedro Hernandez Mateo announced that the council will soon be running a design competition for the “construction of a building that it proposes to be a multipurpose cultural centre, youth centre and hotel containing annexes and the redevelopment of outer space, in order to boost cultural activity of the municipality aimed especially at the youth sector.”
For those with a creative flair for design, the deadline for submitting ideas is two months, starting from the day following the publication of the project; estimated early 2011. The total set aside for the Ideas Contest prize is €330,400. The building will have a maximum height of 5 floors (ground floor, three floor plans and an attic). The mayor of Torrevieja described the project as very important for the citizens of Torrevieja; an exciting project offering a complete range of purposes designed for cultural associations, local groups and choirs, library, classrooms for theatre and dance, rehearsal rooms plus meeting rooms.
Hernández Mateo said that the works must include the implementation of two basement floors on the entire site. The first level for the parking of vehicles owned by the City Council, equipment storage and archival documents while the second is intended for public parking.
In total, the new building will consist of 12 rooms dedicated exclusively to young people, containing musical equipment (such as drums, amplifiers guitar, bass and vocal equipment), for bands, soloists, DJs and with the ability to use other rooms for different meetings and preparation of concerts without equipment. It’s planned that up to 50 different groups could use these facilities in any one week.
On a more ambitious level, the complex will contain a concert hall and entertainment area for musical, theatrical and other stage productions. The minimum capacity of the auditorium is for1,000 standing spectators or about 600 seated, which puts this on the same scale as the Municipal Theatre. There will also be an outdoor café, control room, three dressing rooms, information centre, management office plus facilities for the councillor and coordinator of youth activities.
The facility will also have meeting rooms for different Associations that offer services
and resources for the development of activities within the city. There will be 20 offices of 30 m2 that can be used for up to 4 associations. A meeting room of about 300m2 will accommodate up to 200 users at the same time plus two rooms for about 80 users simultaneously.
Among the planned common areas are five meeting and training rooms, a computer room with forty computers for both educational purposes and for free use and study. Dance and theatre also feature with the dance rehearsal area to be more than double that of those in the Virgen del Carmen Cultural Centre. There will also be two classrooms and two dressing rooms for their exclusive use.
The Headquarters of the Municipal School of Drama will also have their new home here. In essence they shall have one large room, six to ten small classrooms, dressing and changing rooms, a multipurpose room plus areas for storage, props, costumes, make up and audiovisual. The main management offices for the Department of Theatre will also relocate to the complex.
There are a number of local choirs, both Spanish and International in the city and for them new rehearsal rooms will be provided; six smaller rooms and one full choir rehearsal room of 100 m2. This will allow a minimum capacity of seven choirs to rehearse at the same time! The Municipal Choir of Ricardo Lafuente will also relocate to here and have the use of three classrooms and their administrative office.
As if that is not enough, a New Municipal Central Library will be created offering extensive bibliographic services, newspapers, music library, video library, games room and wi-fi zones which will cater up to 500 users at any one time. The budget set aside for the new complex is eight million euros and the facility will become one of the most important resource meeting centres in the centre of Torrevieja.
Keith Nicol
