Disfrutar
in the Alhambra

This travelling exhibition produced jointly by the Council of the Alhambra and Generalife and the Aedes Architecture Forum of Berlin invites us to discover the architectural project for the New Entrance and Visitors Centre of the Alhambra, jointly designed by Álvaro Siza Vieira and Juan Domingo Santos, architects from Portugal and Granada respectively, who in 2010 won the “International Ideas Competition: Atrium of the Alhambra”.
The exhibition “Visions of the Alhambra” was presented at the Aedes Architecture Forum and then travelled to the Vitra Museum in Basle, Switzerland in 2014. It is now coming to Granada before going on to the National Museum in Oslo (2015) and finally to the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto (2016-2017). Using a combination of audiovisual exhibits, drawings, plans and scale models, the exhibition invites us to immerse ourselves in the sensitive, conceptual approach of these magnificent architects, who have managed to combine the historic and the contemporary.
According to the guidelines set out in the Alhambra Master Plan, this new space is to become a real place of access to the monument that is fully adapted to the area in which it will be located; a space that is modulated by the topography of the terrain, which will be partly underground and which will dialogue respectfully with the monument and the area around it without imposing itself in anyway. 
The main objective is to cover a wide range of services for visitors which are today considered vital in one of the world’s most important cultural destinations: to welcome, guide, inform … It must also house a restaurant, cafe, terrace, toilet facilities, offices, left luggage etc. However of equal importance, albeit more subtly, will be its role as a space of transition between the fast pace of the keen traveller, the hustle and bustle of the city … and the tranquil, sensual introspective space offered by the Alhambra. The Atrium will help us prepare our senses and our outlook, so as to be able to fully enjoy the experience of our most unique heritage … The vocabulary of light, shade, water and nature must transport us smoothly from the present to the sensitivity of the Nasrids, the builders of these palaces.
The project for the execution of the building work is currently being drafted. The Regional Government of Andalusia is fully committed to this project as a means of preserving and presenting our heritage in a space of the importance and uniqueness of the Alhambra and Generalife group of monuments.
Place: Crypt of the Palace of Charles V
Time of the visit: 10:00 to 18:00 h (9 February – 14 March) and 10:00 to 20:00 h (15 March – 19 April)