Royal Monastery of Santa Catalina de Siena / Hernández Arquitectos

Architects: Hernández Arquitectos
Location: Paterna, Valencia, España
Architect In Charge: Pedro Hernández López
Technical Architect: Francisco Sánchez de Lara
Area: 4725.0 sqm
Year: 2014
Photographs: German Cabo

Collaborators: Antonio Martinez, architect. Mª Ángeles Álvarez, architect. Veronica Furio, architect. Amparo Costa, interior designer. Fernando Hernandez, a student of architecture.
Engineering: Erso ingeniería civil y medioambiental S.L.P.
Constructor: Grupo Bertolín S.A. U.

From the architect. The new monastery of Saint Catherine of Siena has been built beside the old monastery that inhabited these dominican nuns of Paterna and that after the move it was demolished.

The new building, modern and functional, picks up all the needs of the congregation and adapts to the daily life of these cloistered nuns, that the architect Pedro Hernandez has known to distribute in the organization of the Monastery.

The language used for the construction of the set looking for the simplicity and purity of forms, straight lines and the color white predominate in this monastery both inside and outside, forming a pure and clean container in which to combine new furniture belonging to the congregation, with parts dating back to the S. XV.

The monastery consists of two white volumes, according to a clear outline of operation, separating it from not only functional but also physically the areas of day and night. Daytime activities are collected in a volume with a square base whose drain makes up the central atrium around which are distributed the common rooms such as library, refectory or offices as well as the church and sacristies.

In another building, of greater height and designed for this, the cells (or bedrooms) where each nun has its private space for rest and prayer are reflected. In the last floor of this building a large terrace with view of the sea is projected.