Madinat al Zahra Museum in Cordoba (Spain)

The tenth-century palace city of Madinat al Zahra is widely considered to be one of the most significant early Islamic archaeological sites in the world, and the most extensive in Western Europe. Madinat al Zahra Museum is being nominated for the 11th Cycle of Aga Khan Award for Architecture. The final Award recipients will be announced at a ceremony to be held at the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar in November 2010.

Photo above: View of mashrabiyya-type openings, and reflecting pool. Â© Copyright Aga Khan Award for Architecture / Melissa Walsh, Maximillian Jacobson-Gonzalez

Madinat al Zahra Museum

Location: Cordoba, Spain (Europe)
Architect: Sobejano Architects S.L.P, Fuensanta Nieto & Enrique Sobejano
Client: Junta de Andalucia, Consejeria de Cultura
Completed: 2008
Design: 2001-2003
Site size: 9’125 mÂ²

Photo: Site plan. Â© Copyright EAA Architects

Excavations at the site are still ongoing, and the museum was conceived as a place to interpret the site and display the archaeological findings, as well as to serve as a training and research centre and the headquarters of the archaeological team. A refined and subtle design by the architectural firm Nieto Sobejano, the museum complex blends seamlessly into the site and the surrounding farmland: a series of rectangles composed of walls, patios and plantings which, taken together, seem more like a landscape than a building. The architects took the ground plan of three excavated buildings as a starting point, as though the museum had been waiting to be revealed from the ground. Visitors are guided through a sequence of covered spaces and voids: the main public functions are arranged in a cloister around a broad patio. Two more courtyards define the research centre and the external exhibition area respectively. The impact of the building and its audiovisual programming is already evident in the large numbers of people who come from all parts of the country to visit the museum and hear its story of tolerance and convivencia under Islamic rule in Spain.

Photo: Archeaological site of Madinat Al-Zahra. Â© Copyright Aga Khan Award for Architecture / Melissa Walsh, Maximillian Jacobson-Gonzalez

Photo: View of approach and entry. Â© Copyright Aga Khan Award for Architecture / Melissa Walsh, Maximillian Jacobson-Gonzalez

Photo: Landscape around the Museum. Â© Copyright Aga Khan Award for Architecture / Melissa Walsh, Maximillian Jacobson-Gonzalez

Photo: Access ramp to the Museum. Â© Copyright Aga Khan Award for Architecture / Melissa Walsh, Maximillian Jacobson-Gonzalez

Photo: View of main patio from the lobby. Â© Copyright Aga Khan Award for Architecture / Melissa Walsh, Maximillian Jacobson-Gonzalez

Photo: The mirador on the third level of the Museum: from here visitors can view the site. Â© Copyright Aga Khan Award for Architecture / Melissa Walsh, Maximillian Jacobson-Gonzalez

Photo: View of the exhibitions on the ground floor. Â© Copyright Aga Khan Award for Architecture / Melissa Walsh, Maximillian Jacobson-Gonzalez