Murcia Town City Hall

Rafael Moneo – Town Hall, Murcia-Spain, 1991-1998

"The site on which to intervene was the result of a demolition between the streets Frenería and San Patricio; the project had to fill in this void, helping the plaza become a plaza again. And so, upon recognizing the importance of the alignments and establishing an order of dimensions that would not seem too shocking on the plaza, the building’s architecture became an alternative to the giant Baroque altarpiece of the cathedral’s facade. The City Hall building is a modern replica of the cathedral’s altarpiece, displaying a vertical pilaster structure that accommodates a horizontal slab system; the relationship between the pilasters is random, their vertical edges are underlined. Also of interest is the contrast between the stone of the facade and the basalt of the square’s pavement, defined by substantially modifying its profile, which drew a concave surface. In conclusion, the plaza becomes a group of monumental buildings – Cathedral, Palace, City Hall – forming a space that does not lose tension in the early 20th-century bourgeois residences. The Murcia project hopes to demonstrate that respect for what already exists is no obstacle for freedom in architecture."
Rafael Moneo