Badajoz Fine Arts Museum extensions feature speckled walls and bevelled edges

Hundreds of tiny holes puncture the white concrete panels that clad these two   extensions   to the Badajoz Fine Arts Museum by Spanish firm Estudio Arquitectura Hago (+ slideshow). Site plan – click for larger imageGround floor plan –   click for larger imageFirst floor plan –   click for larger imageSecond floor plan –   click for larger imageThird floor plan –   click for larger imageRoof plan –   click for larger imageLong section –   click for larger imageMore sections –   click for larger image One building houses a permanent collection, while the other can be used for temporary exhibitions. Strips of glazing cut through the glossy white floors offer views into the galleries below and above. Both buildings sit at right angles to the rear of the main museum block. See more photographs of this project on his website. They are connected by a courtyard and create two new   entrances on the roads that bracket the block. On the upper floors of the temporary exhibition space, interior windows with deep black frames look from the new space into a terracota-toned stairwell with ornate metalwork. «The backbone of the architectural strategy for the extension project of the Fine Arts Museum in Badajoz is meant to regain an identity – a new built environment that interacts with the urban context through its cultural content,» said the architects. Estudio Arquitectura Hago   won an international competition in 2007 to carry out renovation and extension works to the listed   Fine Arts Museum   building in the Spanish city of Badajoz, on the Portuguese border. Levels in the new parts of the building are connected by a narrow white staircase, which is filled with natural light thanks to circular skylights overhead. Photography is by Fernando Alda. Related story: Frank Gehry’s Biomuseo in Panama prepares to openThe bright white additions sit flush with the historic buildings of the street, contrasting with the red-plastered facade of the neighbouring original building. White pre-stressed concrete panels   clad both the interior and exterior walls, with small circular holes cut through the reinforced sheets.