La Castellana Open Air Sculpture Museum.

Museums / Cultural Centers

Ayuntamiento de Madrid

2022

In 1968 the project for the construction of the bridge, drawn up by Alberto Corral, Fernández Ordóñez and Julio Martínez, was approved. The railings were designed by Eusebio Sempere. It was Sempere's initiative to create an open-air sculpture museum, something that was already a trend in other European cities. The official inauguration took place in 1979, although, in practice, it had been in place since 1972. The reason for the delay was Franco's mayor Arias Navarro's refusal to install Chillida's Sirena Varada, weighing just over six tonnes, on the grounds of structural problems that the engineers behind the project denied.

Accompanying the project for the reorganisation and rehabilitation of the space covered by the bridge was the project for the general and museum lighting of the complex. Originally, the underside of the deck was fitted with recessed fluorescent luminaires protected by opal diffusers. Although this system, which was part of the original project, was clearly insufficient, it was decided to keep them and replace the fluorescent lighting with LED luminaires. Aware of the deficiency of the system, two continuous lines of light were added on both sides of each cassette of sufficient length to ensure a good level of lighting at ground level. The museographic lighting has been carried out by spotlighting each work of art according to its morphology in the positions that allow for the best viewing of the works. A dynamic lighting system was added in the waterfall area.

Work carried out: Design and technical direction of the museum lighting.

Photographs: José Luis de la Parra.