Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos, Madinat al-Zahra Museum

The palatial city of Madinat al-Zahra dates back to the 10th century, and is considered one of the most important archaeological sites of the birth of Islam, and is definitely Europe’s biggest and most important archaeological dig. In this context the museum complex designed by Nieto Sobejano fits perfectly into the site and its surrounding environment. Divided into a succession of rectangular spaces made up of walls, patios and rows of trees, the museum is more of a landscape than a building. The project is a path of discovery, in which visitors are guided through a succession of full and empty, covered and open spaces. The central nodes in the composition are the internal patios, based on the typical forms of the archaeological site and of the ancient city of Cordoba. The materials chosen to cover the surfaces recall the containing walls and temporary structures typical of archaeological sites.

by Agnese Bifulco

Design: Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos, Fuensanta Nieto & Enrique Sobejano
Location: Cordoba, Spain
Photographs: Aga Khan Award for Architecture, Fernando Alda, Melissa Walsh, Maximillian Jacobson-Gonzalez, Cemal Emden

www.nietosobejano.com