The Nau de les Arts / ProyectaLab is a multidisciplinary space, conceived to host different cultural activities. It was created with the will of solving the need for a creative and discussion space of Collectives and people who have no resources. Besides it, the project incorporated new spaces for the education and production as well as two housing spaces for the guest artists.
Initiated by Association Proyecta and built by Recetas Urbanas in collaboration with Rehasa Estructuras, Lucas Construcción and the help of numerous collectives from Collective Architectures network, the space, promoted by the Benicasim´s municipality, starts with the re-utilization of six containers provided from Saragossa and belonged to the project Trucks, Containers & Collectives. The work was based on the rehabilitation and improvement of an old Renfe train station warehouse on which was added prosthesis made of containers, in order to make it able to host new uses. With this process of collective construction, space and material re-use, it was fast and low-cost to obtain a new facility.
Equipped with different classes, courses, meeting rooms, warehouses and residences for artists, the space with nearly 400m2 would have hosts, under a shared management model, the activities of Nau de les Arts during winter and Proyectalab ones during
summer, making possible multiple uses for the same infrastructure.
All these factors - collective construction, space and material re-use, low-cost investment, multiple uses for the same infrastructure - make this project very sustainable. All the people involved and the care they took to re-adapt it, will give this space a special value and hopefully a longeval life.

[project selected by Olivia Lillus]