César Portela: Cordoba Bus Station

The Cordoba Bus Station may not at first appear to be of architectural significance, but its carefully designed structure won Cèsar Portela the Spanish National Architecture Prize in 1999.



With a very different exterior and interior the construction and architecture helps to convey separate stories throughout the building. Portela explains that many memories helped him to create the garden at the heart of the building,

“When I was given the commission of the Cordoba Bus Station, a multitude of memories of my first journeys came to mind. Old memories that, in turn, fused with more recent memories about the Mosque and the courtyards of Cordoba, in the awning clad streets of Andalusia, with their space, with their light and their flowers, with the sound of water in the courtyards of the Alhambra, in the gardens of the Generalife and in the Alcazar..."

Regarding light throughout this architecture, Portela studied many different ways that the light affected both the interior and the exterior. Throughout his initial ideas and thoughts about the building he considered how light and shade could effect large bare walls. All of the structures and forms that Portela considered were followed by a thought of how light would develop the environment.

"I saw a more merciful light, once its radiant impulses had been broken, walking or moving in tune with the shade and both of these following the circular movement of time. I saw the light crashing against the granite walls that gave off thousands of twinkling stars, crashing onto the interior colour, on yellow, blue, green and white opalescent planes, all of which were stuccoed, creating calm when harassed by so much sun and glare..."

Although Cordoba mainly employs natural light, it is interesting to see how this was combined with areas of shade that helped to create different areas within the building, each moving and changing throughout the course of the day. This helps to highlight the huge effect that light can have, especially on architecture. The picture above shows the numerous columns that are present in the bus shelter. They appear almost playful due to the amount of them, all exactly the same, but somehow different as light hits them at different angles. Although they are supporting the large structure above them, they also appear to be decorative, which is peculiar considering they are made from concrete.