Located on the outskirts of the city of Huesca and with the Pyrenees as backdrop, the center is devoted to the water and irrigation of the vast surrounding land: the Alto Aragón. The program groups different uses that go beyond mere exhibition purposes – laboratories, training center, library, classrooms, auditorium, exhibition spaces, etc. – with a global approach that permits bringing together and developing different aspects of water and involve a variety of users.
The project proposed is a glass and water pavilion type, with fixed width and height, the length of which can vary according to use, in such a way that it guarantees flexible and versatile spaces. This system permits an independence of uses, as well as the interaction among them, and furthermore offers a unitary external image in contrast to the internal diversity. In the same
way, the purpose is to build a “geographic sensor”: a center capable of registering the movements and information of water and irrigation in the assigned territory. A double skin of silkscreen-printed glass sheets is rounded off with different facade mechanisms that permit registering the aquatic alterations of the territory: water discharge, decanting or hydraulic levels in rivers… The center varies in tune with the territory. Visiting it or working in it shall be a different experience each time.
Water is understood in the project as an element capable of building spaces, which favors perception just as if we were actually travelling inside water and thus discovering its nature. The complex is completed with an outdoor hydraulic museum that connects the buildings, the parking areas and the plot.
Centro del Agua y los Regadíos. Concurso 1er Premio. Localización: Autovía Huesca-Nueno, Km. 2. Concurso-Proyecto: 2003-2004. Obra: En licitación. Promotor: Comunidad de Riegos del Alto Aragón, Ministerio de Medio Ambiente. Arquitecto: Ángel Verdasco. Colaboradores: Juan José Jiménez aparejador, Jaime López estudiante, José María González estudiante, Patricia Huerta estudiante. Consultores: Joaquín Antuña estructura, INCO Grupo JG instalaciones, Acuario de Madrid. Fotografías: Javier Chicharro. Superficie de actuación: 3,1 ha. Superficie construida: 3.700 m2. Presupuesto: 3.205.550 euros.