Civican, the cultural center of the Caja Navarra Foundation, was the first civic center in the city. It has been a reference space in Pamplona since its inauguration in 2003. In the context of its new Operational Plan, it promoted the first phase of its space updating, understanding the center as a living, intergenerational and multidisciplinary space. The Foundation sought a transformation to expand the cultural offer of the center, allowing exhibitions, workshops, small-format concerts, scenic proposals, and presentations to occur at the lobby and cafeteria areas.

The project strategy involves small actions, almost like acupuncture, to reconfigure excessively fragmented spaces. Some new folded walls of colored wood steer movements and circulations between spaces. They also accentuate the different areas where planned activities happen.

One of the main questions to solve appeals to the sense of hearing and not to sight. The spaces that were to reform suffered from an acoustic comfort problem. A porous mortar-based treatment is sprayed on ceilings and walls. New curtains are displayed. By so, the reverberation of the spaces, previously close to 4 seconds in the case of the double-height lobby, reduces to values of 1 second. The new values allow the realization of activities that were previously seriously limited.

An ordered grid of electrified rails on ceilings facilitates a flexible configuration of lighting that exponentially multiplies the possible scenes.

This rough, cavernous ceiling contrasts with the smoothness of the wooden walls. Together they endow the center with an image representing the new stage they want to start.

The position of the attention and information area is shown more directly to the user who arrives at the building, configuring a reception space. It is a fully accessible counter that also displays brochures and publications. Next to it lies the programming office, previously separated from this area. It occupies a central and visible position, symbolically too, closer to the user of the center. Glass walls confine it. It has a single large shared table.

The cafeteria can also host small-format events by dividing its space into two areas with a curtain with sound-absorbing properties. The program includes two new rooms for meetings, work, and press conferences, as well as spaces for hosting guests and speakers.

Inclusion and accessibility are two pillars of the Caja Navarra Foundation. They were developed and supervised both in the architectural and furniture proposals, improving regulatory standards. Civican is a certified center that guarantees universal access to services and the environment.

The transformation process is still alive. The works aim to establish guidelines to be followed in future interventions.