The sea and the land, the boundary between life and death, the frontier between two worlds that generates a conflict of encounter where life is also possible.

We are located in the city of Alicante, on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, where the silhouette of the city blends the more industrial port character with the urban character of the city, from which landmarks such as the Santa Bárbara Castle emerge, dominating the city from above and breaking the horizontal profile.
The Conference Palace is located on pier 9 of the port, creating a public space accessed through a permeable green layout that breaks the pre-existing barrier of Canalejas Park and the Explanada Promenade, which completely separated the port from the city. Thus, a space for people is generated that mixes urban life with the structural port character to fuse both worlds.

The design of the project had to respond to multiple uses and was based on the idea of superimposing the three auditoriums (for 2000, 500, and 300 people respectively), so that the space could be maximized while at the same time creating viewpoints to the city and the sea, imbuing the interior spaces with their unique essence. The extensive evolution of the project, starting from this idea, led to the creation of a mega self-supporting structure that could be inhabited and subtly rested on the footprint of the pier.
Pedestrian access is via the west façade along a longitudinal axis that leads directly to the exhibition hall, where filtered light determines the user's experience, and where the silhouette of the city (north façade) contrasts with the sea horizon (south façade).
The project's journey, mostly perimeter to maintain spatial unity, reveals different rooms revolving around the main relationship space, the exhibition hall.
We identify different rooms along the route where those with the most use correspond to the auditoriums, and the secondary ones are organized on the opposite side, such as committee rooms, offices, press room, cafeteria, multipurpose room, and VIP room.

All auditoriums take advantage of the structure to rise slightly on an inclined plane that helps improve the visibility of listeners and the acoustics of the space.
The main auditorium, for 2000 people, is located on the access floor and the first floor to facilitate smoother movement of people. This, along with the 500-person auditorium, enjoys openings to the landscape at its highest part, allowing natural light inside and at the same time offering views of the Alicante coastline and the movement of the sea water flowing into it.

In summary, the Conference Palace creates spaces for social interaction where a dialogue with its surroundings is maintained, always keeping in mind the two boundaries: the city of Alicante and the sea.