The House of Sciences (Casa de las Ciencias) of Logroño is a center dedicated tothe culture of science and technology through exhibitions, conferences, workshops, courses and scientific demonstrations.
The building
It is located on the north bank of the Ebro river, in a landscaped area in front of the Old Town of the city, between the Iron Bridge and the Stone Bridge . It occupies a centenary building, an old Municipal Slaughterhouse, built according to the project of the architect Luis Barrón in 1910 and rehabilitated for Casa de las Ciencias in 1999.
History
The building that houses the House of Sciences of Logroño was, in its origins, the old Municipal Slaughterhouse of the city.
It began serving as a slaughterhouse on June 1, 1911 and is considered one of the most interesting examples of industrial architecture in Logroño.
After ceasing to fulfill its functions as a slaughterhouse in 1981, it had different uses until, at the end of the nineties, it underwent an intense rehabilitation to house its current use as a House of Sciences. The new instalation was inaugurated on April 22, 1999.
Currently a large hall serves as a distributor to access the different rooms of the Casa de las Ciencias. On the ground floor are four temporary exhibition halls. On the first floor, accessed by a flying staircase from the lobby, there is a conference room, classrooms and workshops.
Installations
Exposition halls
The Casa de las Ciencias has four rooms for temporary exhibitions, located on its ground floor, with surfaces ranging between 165 and 156 square meters and which, together, constitute an exhibition space of 660 meters.
At least a dozen different exhibitions are scheduled annually on the most varied topics of scientific dissemination.
Conference hall
The conference room, located on the first floor, has 100 seats and it holds conferences, conference cycles or round tables, for all types of audiences, as well as scientific and documentary film screenings.
Classrooms and workshops
The first floor of the Casa de las Ciencias has three classrooms for courses and workshops, in which educational activities are carried out aimed at both the students of educational centers, as well as the children, youth and adults who participate in the programs. organized outside of school hours.
Documentation Center
The documentation center is a service of the Casa de las Ciencias, open to anyone in possession of the reader card of the La Rioja Library Network. It has computer points, with free Internet access and a library with books, videos, CD Rom and DVD available for loan at home or consultation at the Casa de las Ciencias.
Garden of Sciences
The exterior space of the Casa de las Ciencias is an enclosure dedicated to experimentation and surprise. Young and old alike can find playful and recreational elements in this garden, with didactic content at the same time, which are based on Physics, Paleontology, Geology and Meteorology.
In the area closest to the Stone Bridge we find five elements: pirouette, hexagonal prism, double spiral, water whirlpool and rotating disk, which help to experiment with the sense of sight and movement.
On the façade of the Casa de las Ciencias you can see a reproduction of the dinosaur trail from the Los Cayos site (Cornago, La Rioja).
And in the area closest to the Iron Bridge are the meteorological station; seven elements to experiment with sound — echo game, lecture, musical stone, xylophone, musical seesaw, sound telescope, and jumping tiles; and a rock garden, whose specimens come from different parts of the Autonomous Community of La Rioja.
Access to the Science Garden is free.
