PENADES

Alhacena was commissioned following a national competition organised by the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía to create a new space for welcome, rest and public engagement on the fourth floor of the Sabatini building. 

Located at the threshold of the museum’s contemporary art galleries, the project transforms a 145-square-metre room into a public spatial infrastructure capable of supporting multiple forms of activity while providing a clear point of orientation at the beginning of the visitor’s journey.

Its name derives from the Arabic al-khazāna, referring to the traditional built-in cupboard found in Mediterranean homes. Embedded within the architecture rather than conceived as furniture, the alhacena preserved food before the arrival of modern refrigeration, becoming an essential domestic infrastructure. Building on this idea, the project transfers the spatial and social logic of the home into the museum, understanding hospitality not as a service but as a way of organising space. Like the kitchen, the operational centre of Mediterranean domestic life, the project brings together production, learning, conversation and rest within a single environment that continuously adapts to different ways of being occupied.

A single 29-metre-long wooden structure organises the entire programme. At its centre, a tiered seating area accommodates presentations and public events, while two workshop spaces for adults and children unfold on either side. Lounge areas at both ends welcome visitors arriving from the museum’s two elevators, and integrated curtains allow the space to be subdivided according to changing activities throughout the day. Storage, furniture and technical requirements are incorporated within the structure itself, allowing the architecture to contain everything needed to activate the space without introducing additional elements.

This constructive logic extends to the material strategy. The entire intervention was fabricated from 224 rejected oak-veneered poplar plywood panels donated by Garnica. Although discarded during quality control because of minor manufacturing imperfections, the panels retained their full structural performance. Rather than concealing their inconsistencies, the project incorporates them into its own construction system, reflecting a practice deeply rooted in Mediterranean culture: making the most of what already exists.

The same approach informed the development of CrNC (Creative Numerical Control), a process that reinterprets CNC machining to reveal, rather than disguise, the material. By partially removing the thin oak veneer from the surface of each panel, the process exposes the poplar beneath, which is the material that makes up almost the entire board and usually remains hidden. Instead of applying a new texture, CrNC uncovers one that already exists, questioning conventional material values. 

The furniture follows the same principles. Tables, benches and chairs are produced from the offcuts generated during fabrication, maximising the use of every plywood sheet. Designed to fit precisely within the structure, each piece can be deployed when needed and stored almost invisibly when not in use. Architecture, furniture and storage therefore become part of a single continuous system that enables the space to transform throughout the day while maintaining a coherent spatial identity.