La Misericordia Cultural Center

La Misericordia Cultural Centre is the result of the renovation and transformation of an austere and functional building in which architectural nudity predominates. The ‘Casa de la Misericòrdia’ was a charitable institution founded in 1677 whose initial location was a large house with an orchard next to the General Hospital. There were later extensions and improvements over the following centuries, until the late 19th century.    
The upper floors housed dormitories and various workshops, while the lower floors were used as administrative offices, storerooms, kitchens, dining rooms and an oratory.  

The recent redevelopment has transformed the spaces to accommodate various types of events by creating multifunctional areas and has enhanced the building's Ajiub in particular. Aljub is a word of Arabic origin, as is the irrigation system that can still be found in some of Mallorca's most interesting places, and what looks like a centuries-old cathedral was actually a water cistern. The aljubs were used to store rainwater and use it in times of drought.   

The architectural firm has imagined a pathway that, step by step, through a tunnel, on which plays of light lines have been created with Trick, leads into a world of its own. The visitor is plunged into darkness - until the eyes have adjusted - and at the same time one can feel the dampness of the former cistern, while an ethereal sound fills the space. 

The encrusted surface of the columns of the Aljub della Misericordia indicates that water fills the entire space and it is precisely a lighting from below provided by Linealuce mini, with wall grazing optics, that highlights the texture of the surfaces, both of the columns and of the walls. Floodlights iPro mini with spot optics, installed at the corners of the columns complement the general lighting, through an indirect effect: they are pointed towards the vaults of the cistern. Floodlights iPro RGB, on the other hand, located behind the columns, close to the walkway and therefore hidden, are used for colored effects controlled by the Master Pro Evo KNX control system.  
A wooden walkway on which Light Up Orbit recessed fittings are installed leads the visitor into the depths of this space, allowing the reflections of the columns and ceiling to be admired.