CEU Cardenal Herrera Faculty and Dental Clinic

The old Capitolio cinema, of undoubted historical, urban and architectural interest, underwent a very unfortunate transformation as a result of a change of use that must now be reviewed in a new project for the CEU School of Dentistry. Given the current state of the building, it is worth asking which elements should be preserved, which deserve to be restored and how its morphology can be adapted to that of an educational building. And how to do so in a way that is reasonable from an economic point of view.

The municipal real estate catalogue establishes a degree of environmental protection for the Capitol, designating the façade and public staircases as elements to be protected. The staircases retain their original configuration and materials, but the northern section of the façade has undergone various alterations: blocked-up openings, intermediate floors, etc. The volume that included the original lobby essentially retains its morphology in plan and section. However, the area corresponding to the former stalls and stage has been altered with new structures that have fragmented the large original space in a way that is not suitable for its future use.

The project intervenes in the existing structure through a simple operation that preserves the most valuable elements, recovers the most altered section of the façade to create a small spatial event, and renovates the configuration of the stalls and stage to convert them into a lecture hall. Two transverse courtyards, which maintain and complete the existing steel structure, bathe the two upper floors in light and ventilation and provide overhead lighting to the ground floor.