240 CIUDAD DEL FLAMENCO

Today we face an empty lot in the traditional, homogeneous and perfect space of the city, and on this empty lot there is a little forest growing naturally, as if by chance. What shall we do? We like the empty space, we like the trees, but we would also like to restore the solidity and physical presence of the original Plaza de Belen. A paradox?

Our proposal: a walled garden becomes the Ciudad del Flamenco.

We do not want a blockbuster building, but rather a puzzle of fragments that can grow, and integrate other buildings, existing ones as well as new ones. The garden is the heart of the Ciudad del Flamenco. It is the core out of which the city can grow and expand as the need arises. There is no hurry and, above all, there are no architectural or artistic constraints because the strategy of the project does not constitute a single building, but rather it is a city (of Flamenco) within the city (of Jerez).

A partially perforated wall follows the historical contours of the city. A tower rises above this wall. Its scale recalls the two towers of the Alcazar and it also engages in an urban dialogue with the nearby Cathedral.

The materiality of the project is reduced to the traditional, homogeneous use of stone that characterizes the Old Town. The perforated wall itself, as well as the interior of the garden form a topography out of extruded, sunken and projecting bodies, generating a rich interplay between outside and inside spaces. The Ciudad del Flamenco is a radically contemporary and dynamic platform for performers and audience.

The surfaces of the Ciudad del Flamenco consist of poured, perforated and artificially processed concrete; they follow the lines, shapes and patterns of Gypsy tradition and Arabic ornamentation. Both traditions are extremely contemporary; to be more precise, they are centuries-old and ceaselessly new source of inspiration for contemporary art and daily culture. We encounter them in punk and rock music, in tattoos, in symbols and emblems, in patterns and in many other places. This kind of ornamentation informs the concrete at the Ciudad del Flamenco.

Our proposal for Jerez might be seen as an artificial and iconographical topography whose spirit draws on the traditions of the Gypsy world, the Arabic world, and contemporary everyday life and culture.
Herzog & de Meuron, 2004