Murcia Town Hall

The Murcia Town Hall by Rafael Moneo is my "precedent building" - that is, the building that I originally received upon being given the first matrix task. All the matrixes we were given were taken from the book, Material Precedents by Gail Peter Borden.

(http://books.google.co.nz/books?id=d2VePP5L3_wC&printsec=frontcover&dq=material+precedent&hl=en&ei=4t1RTtaiE4rkmAXTgfXoBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false)

My copy of the matrix for the Murcia Town Hall, slightly crinkled due to folding. Below are photographs of the Murcia Town Hall.

"The Murcia Town Hall raises in the Cardinal Belluga Square, a baroque square where the protagonist are the façade of the Cathedral designed by Jaime Bort and Cardinal Belluga Palace, the work of the architect Canestro. Moneo designs the building of the Town Hall content in its role as a spectator, without seeking the status of protagonist held by the two historical buildings. However we do not imagine a commonplace spectator. 

Civil power is embodied in this building on the place where the Church shows its power. The façade/retable of the Town Hall facing the square could never, nor would ever, want to compete with the classical order. It's organised as a musical score, numerically, accepting the system of horizontal levels of the floor slabs. The façade resist symmetries and offers as its key element the balcony of the gallery. The Town Hall has not an entrance on the square. It respects the pre-eminence of those buildings which have occupied it for so long"

Our task is to identify elements in terms of structure, philosophy and materials about our precedent building, and utilizing these on our designated site, "augment reality."