New Cruise Terminal in the Port of Seville by Hombre de Piedra and Buró4

The Cruise Terminal in the Port of Seville is been expanded due to the increase number of liners that the city is receiving, not only there will more cruises but also they will come all year around, as a consequence the terminal will need to be insulated and air-conditioned and increasing its floor area doubling the original project with 1264 sqm now. In this redevelopment there will be provided new and better access and walkways for both pedestrians and vehicles, making the terminal more accessible and safe as well. The construction work started last autumn in 2015 and the terminal will reopen early this year.

The original project was completed in April 2013 by the Architects Hombre de Piedra and Buró4 and with a Built area of 508 sqm, this building came from the need of a new Cruise Ship Terminal with a flexible character, multipurpose, extendable, easily removable and even movable. It was The Port Authority itself who proposed to solve the project using sea containers, one reason for that was the fact that the works could only last 15 days, the time between ships new arrivals. However this construction will be near the historic centre and so an object of architectural quality was sought after promoting a dialogue between the port and its urban environment.

Another advantage of using containers was the benefit of working on the workshop away from the site ensuring precision and regarding its structure the high-capacity or high-cube containers are arranged in parallels alternating the standard ones with the high capacity ones, they are connected by openings made in the side panels without affection to affect the structural stability of the modules.

Regarding the weather protection and condition, there were provided windows on the west and east side sides to allow the winds to clear the heat that comes up by air stratification. Another important measure was to paint them in white reflecting up to 90 per cent of the solar radiation that falls on the containers as well as its special composition with ceramic microspheres to avoid their excessive warming. The illumination during daytime is provided by openings in the upper standard containers oriented to the north acting as skylights in the double-height spaces.

Escuela primaria de Vissershok

The use of containers is not a new thing in today’s architecture, something that is even becoming a trend. The surplus of these old containers accumulating in the ports is becoming a great environmental problem, so this practical architectural solution seems like a good idea to put them to good use. In regards the advantages to using them we could count for example its ample space with almost 30 sqm in its interior, its adaptability and been able to be portable, low cost and even to be able to reduce the CO2 release on the atmosphere with the consequential ecological benefit that it implies. Some interesting examples of type of architecture could be the Primary School of Vissershok in Durbanville Valley the near Cape Town in South Africa by Tsai Design Studio or The Grillagh Water House by Patrick Bradley Architects.

Sources: Hombre de Piedra, Buró4, Arquitectura Viva