Public space Teatro La Lira

A high roof screens the light and slopes down the sides, colonised by ivy. A footbridge is anchored to him, and it crosses the river. The balcony over the Ter, which is the wall that fixes the riverbed, encloses a multi-purpose space that can be accessed from the square by descending stairs. And the spirit of the theatre remains.

Ripoll, crossroads of two rivers, the Ter and the Freser, took advantage of the energy of the water flows to forge steel and to be a reference point in the tradition of the metallurgical industry, and of the "Catalan Forge", known throughout Europe. Leaning on the wall bordering the river Ter, the former cultural centre and theatre "La Lira", later demolished, recovers its public character with an "empty" space, the square, which evokes the great stage that fills with public life, a place of convergence, a place of departure and arrival.

A space of passing emptiness, made up of a single material: steel. In a register of multiple nuances, it goes from being a pavement to being a shady shelter, a roof, in continuity with vibrant sides colonised by ivy and flashes of light. An interior of rhythms of matter and emptiness, of matter and light, which guide the movement as we pass through it.

Open to the river, like a new gateway to the old part of the town, the square is connected to the other side by a walkway, gently anchored, and becomes an element of transition and at the same time a place to stay, where to sit is to be suspended above the incessant flow that marks time.

The balcony over the Ter, which is the wall that fixes the riverbed, encloses a multi-purpose cultural space that can be accessed from the square by descending stairs. Part of the city is reconquered, the void is opened up and becomes a public space. The public building creates Public Space, and in the end the spirit of the theatre remains.