Design by Pelli Clarke & Partners celebrates nature to highlight history

The Lola Mora Cultural Centre by Tenderstream member Pelli Clarke & Partners has completed in Argentina. Located at the foot of the Andes in San Salvador de Jujuy, the centre houses six sculptures crafted by its namesake, an innovative artist and female trailblazer active in the early 20th century, who has become a regional hero and national treasure. The museum was the final design by Pelli Clarke & Partners founder César Pelli, who died in 2019, and the firm’s first cultural project in his native Argentina. Balmori Associates, founded by his late wife Diana Balmori, completed the landscape design.

At the centre’s inauguration ceremony, former Governor Gerardo Morales recalled that shortly after he took office in 2015, he noticed the deterioration suffered by Lola Mora's sculptures, which were then located outside. He arranged a meeting with César Pelli about the possibility of designing a facility to house the artworks, stating: “we spent about five hours talking with members of his studio. That's how the whole journey of the project began…It was defined together with the Pelli Clark studio that the sculptures are surrounded by glass, but nestled in the Yungas, within the biodiversity of the region.” 

Surrounded by the lush Yunga forest, and its welcoming canopy of trees, the building overlooks the city, with the mountain range in the distance. As befits such a location, the centre serves as a bridge to a more sustainable future. Designed as a net-zero energy building, onsite renewable energy sources include an extensive photovoltaic system, solar collectors, and wind turbines, which produce more energy than the space requires.

Within the centre, a narrow entrance gradually opens outward to a lobby and exhibition hall, surrounded by floor-to-ceiling glass, inviting the natural environment inside. The cantilevered roof creates long span column free spaces that serve as a floating protection for the sculptures on display. The design also features an interpretation centre, restaurant, library, giftshop, and atelier which welcomes visiting artists with opportunities for temporary exhibitions. 

The gallery features an open design to enable views of the sculptures from varying angles and distances, while framing views of individual works to create an engaged relationship between art and viewer. The forest serves as a verdant backdrop, viewed through the wide convex glass façade that, along with skylights positioned strategically near the sculptures, flood the space with natural light.

Lucy Nordberg
Tenderstream Head of Research

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