In a process that has been occurring for decades in most of our cities, the old provincial prisons were being vacated and abandoned after being moved to more modern, secure facilities, far from inhabited environments. One of them, the one in Jaén, located in the heart of the city, suffered years of abandonment and deterioration that led to an agreement between the Administrations to recover it for cultural or social purposes.

To this end, an International Ideas Competition was held in 2003 to house the future International Museum of Archaeology and Iberian Art. The first prize went to Solid Arquitectura (Álvaro Soto + Javier Maroto), which chose to respect the footprint and structure of the old prison, adding new structures that offered a more contemporary image of the building. During the process of drafting the project, the Department of Culture decided to terminate the contract with the winning team, entrusting another team from the city to complete the project. After the final evaluation of this process by the Regional Ministry, in a new public call, the team of which I was part at that time would lead the last proposal that was finally approved by the Administration and executed.

In order to recover the maximum values contained in the winning proposal of the competition, as part of the team, my proposal consisted of incorporating the following three decisions. First, to project a new relationship of natural light with the exterior and with the circulation and exhibition spaces with a new proposal for the main skylights, incorporating in the side exhibition area a new spatial solution at triple height for the new requirements demanded for the exhibition project of the most unique pieces of the collection. Secondly, to recover original decisions not integrated in the existing proposal regarding the formalization of the façade concept, where important aspects of the initial concept designed by the winning architects of the competition had been modified. To this end, a whole system of prefabricated GRC with a system of striations and coloring was proposed, which sought to establish a formal, material and chromatic relationship with the Castle of Santa Catalina. And finally, to propose an approach to the outdoor public spaces in which the complexity of their adaptation to the steep perimeter slopes was reduced with a system of curved walls and ramps that generously yielded rooms open to the public space to allow rest or waiting areas outside. This ended up offering a friendlier experience of approaching the building, reducing the height in the areas of greatest land containment and providing a completely different relationship between the building and the pedestrians with the exterior than the one planned.