Ricardo Boffil: Miguel Delibes Cultural Center

The several thousand-seat auditorium in the Spanish cultural center Miguel Delibes was designed by architect Ricardo Bofill.

Public seating, that is, the equipment for conference centers, meeting rooms, airport and train station halls, waiting areas, cinemas, theaters, and concert halls... all of these are technologically and operationally demanding assignments for architects, where a systematic approach to seating is required. The new City of Arts in the Spanish city of Valladolid was completed last year according to the design of Ricardo Bofill. It is a multifunctional cultural center intended not only for musical productions but also for conferences and other social events.
Three main sections are built around a central space conceived as a plaza. The first part of the building houses a Music Conservatory, and the second part contains a concert hall with 2,080 seats. The third part of the building includes lecture halls, offices, the facilities of the Higher School of Dramatic Arts and the Dance School. There is also an experimental theater with 600 seats. Bofill describes his concept as follows: "From a distance, the building of this cultural center is a musical metaphor, while the interior functions as a small cultural city. We created a new model: theater, dance, and music together in one place, teachers, students, and the audience in one space."

Technical solution: Sensó
For the auditorium of the cultural center, engineer and acoustics specialist Albert Xu, who has worked with Ricardo Bofill for over thirty years, designed a special seating system Sensó. Ricardo Bofill describes this chair as "an object in harmony with the building; its design is functional, comfortable, and minimalist." At the same time, this chair model had to meet additional requirements concerning behavior in the interior. Sensó is upholstered in natural leather, has no wooden elements, and the main emphasis was placed on excellent acoustic performance. Thanks to the built-in resonator within the seat's shell, it behaves the same whether someone is sitting on it or it is unoccupied. The acoustic behavior of many hundreds of seats in this vast auditorium was subjected to a series of various tests to ensure that the acoustic conditions in the hall matched the specific type of production or musical performance. The operator's goal was to maximize the number of people in the hall while maintaining spatial comfort for seated listeners and enabling additional uses of the hall (conferences, congresses, etc.).
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About the Project
Cultural Center Miguel Delibes, Valladolid, Spain / www.auditoriodevalladolid.es
Architect: Ricardo Bofill
Client: Junta de Castilla y León
Completion: 2007
Total Area: 40,000 m²
Seating Solution: Sensó (design by Albert Xu)
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