The old Bank of Spain Building in Huelva is a monument for the city, has a strong urban presence and keeps an undeniable architectural value, but is far from housing a real public space inside.

Except from its lobby, through which the user reached the counters for transactions, the main part of its program included a series of rooms that were inaccessible for citizens if not unequivocally domestic, like the upper floors for staff apartments. In strict sense, though its institutional appearance, the Bank of Spain was an “apartment building with commercial premises at its ground floor”. Its courtyard worked in fact as a light well for the apartments while it also backlighted the lobby stained glass ceiling.

On this premise, if we want to transform the bank into a museum, it seems to be unavoidable to modify several aspects of the building’s spatial structure. Our proposal will respect the concentric arrangement of the whole around the courtyard void, but it will transform the light well into an ample exhibition room by taking the glass ceiling to the top. The original vestibule will be changed into a double height atrium, generating a diagonal perspective between it and the main room.