The Conservatory · Change
Watching a city become something new.
Every city carries its past. The challenge is deciding how to build its future.
The Conservatory · Change · A City Becoming
Some photographs are taken in an instant. Others take years.
Between 2017 and 2023, I found myself returning to the same construction site beneath Teruel's soaring viaduct. What began as the demolition of abandoned buildings slowly became the city's new Conservatory of Music and Social Cultural Center. Week after week, I came back with my camera, watching one story disappear as another gradually took its place.
At first there was only rubble. Forgotten rooms lay open to the sky before vanishing completely. Then came the cranes, the concrete, and the slow rhythm of construction. Each visit revealed another small change, reminding me that transformation rarely happens all at once.
The pale green façade of the new building stood in striking contrast to Teruel's warm terracotta roofs, stone walls, and centuries-old architecture. Its contemporary design quickly became a topic of conversation. Some saw a bold vision for the future, while others questioned how it belonged within the city's historic landscape.
Yet as something new was being created, something else quietly disappeared. The walls surrounding the site had become an ever-changing gallery of graffiti and street art, layered with names, colors, and murals left behind by people who had passed through this forgotten corner of the city. With the demolition, those artworks vanished forever. They were never meant to last, but perhaps that is precisely what made them worth remembering.
Photographing this place for six years taught me that every city is a conversation between memory and change. We celebrate what is built, yet rarely pause to remember what quietly disappears along the way. Neither is more important than the other. Together, they become the story of a place.
In 2025, that story came full circle. I was invited to exhibit Modernismo. Retrospectiva inside the very building I had spent years photographing as it slowly emerged from the ground. Standing inside its galleries, surrounded by photographs celebrating Teruel's architectural heritage, I realized I hadn't simply documented the construction of a building.
I had witnessed a city becoming something new.
Looking Closer
Completed in 2023, Teruel's new Conservatory of Music and Social Cultural Center brought together music education, performance spaces, and cultural activities beneath the city's historic viaduct. Its contemporary architecture sparked discussion among residents, reflecting the ongoing balance between preserving Teruel's historic character and creating spaces for future generations.
The project transformed a long-neglected part of the city into a vibrant cultural center. Today, it hosts concerts, exhibitions, educational programs, and community events, continuing Teruel's tradition of investing in both its artistic heritage and its cultural future.