Zarautz Municipal Market

The Etxezabala building project is born out of the need for Zarautz Council to concentrate the different administrative departments scattered throughout the municipality into one administrative hub (Casa Portu-Town Hall, Etxezabala and the Municipal Market) within the Historic District, endowing each of the buildings with a specific personality. 

The Etxezabala building is an administrative building which aims to maximise the potential of the available surface area, making it compatible with the image and spatial conception of the building before the fire that destroyed it. Hence, the new building, as one of its most significant features, has the main staircase where the previous courtyard was located; a staircase designed to be a light object that stretches out through the empty space. The rest of the floor is free to group the different administrative departments required.

The image of the building reacts in a dual way. On the one hand, it highlights the recovery of the value of the former building, through the adoption of materials and the composition of areas on similar vertical lines to the buildings in Calle Nagusia and, on the other hand, it emphasises the public character and welfare orientation of the building, by opening up and making the ground floor more transparent through a large section of glass.