La Merced Convent

The Convent of La Merced is part of Elche’s built memory. Its walls, raised over centuries, retain the traces of extensions, decay, care and abandonment; a stratified architecture where Valencian Gothic, Baroque cloisters, Arab baths and the domestic additions of time coexist. More than a building, the complex is a palimpsest that tells the everyday history of the city.

The intervention is based on a simple idea: not to add, but to reveal. Like those who once inhabited and patiently repaired it, the project acts with surgical precision, removing the superfluous and recovering hidden spaces so that the convent can breathe again. Contemporary architecture is conceived as a neutral and continuous backdrop, capable of enhancing what already exists without competing with it, establishing a respectful dialogue between past and present.

The cloister, the courtyards and the garden recover their historical role as the organizing elements of the complex. These voids structure the building’s new cultural life, connecting it to Plaza de la Merced and to the city through a fluid sequence of thresholds, galleries and open spaces. The former church is transformed into a multipurpose hall crowned by the restored ribbed vault; the Baroque staircase once again becomes the main vertical core; the Arab baths are made visible and accessible; and the bell tower is reactivated as an inhabitable lookout, restoring its symbolic presence on the urban skyline.

The project completes the convent’s natural evolution through clear and contemporary interventions that extend the historic logic of patios, cloisters and gardens. New uses—a library, exhibition spaces, café and a rooftop restaurant-viewpoint—are integrated without altering the identity of the place, blurring the boundaries between interior and exterior and turning the garden into an open-air cultural extension. The roof ceases to be a ceiling and becomes a horizon: a public space from which to rediscover Elche.

The material and environmental strategy is based on minimum intervention and maximum durability. Local materials such as stone, lime and ceramics ensure compatibility and constructive continuity, while passive solutions, cross ventilation, solar protection and renewable energy systems reduce energy demand. New services are discreetly integrated, ensuring comfort and efficiency without compromising the building’s heritage value.

In this way, the convent is neither musealized nor frozen in time, it is reactivated. The rehabilitation transforms it into a new cultural beacon for Elche: a place where history and contemporaneity coexist naturally, where every layer remains legible, and where architecture acts as a bridge between collective memory and future life.