Located on the riverbanks of the Arlanzón  as it flows through Burgos, the new complex has a material and fluvial relationship with the Atapuerca site. The paleontological and archaeological findings of Atapuerca were so considerable that it was necessary to build a space to promote their study as well as to display them and make them known to the wider public. The new complex gathers three volumes: the Museum of Human Evolution, the National Research Center on Human Evolution and the Exhibitions and Congress Center. 

These last two are separated from the museum, which occupies a central position, through two cracks that let natural light go through and that connect the riverside area with the rear urban area, recalling, just like inside the museum, the spatial sensations that the railway trench of the Atapuerca mountains arouses. Furthermore, while the museum is characterized from the exterior by the red lozenge screen of its side facade, the National Research Center, located to the east, is clad on two sides by green panels of cut out rhombi, and the Exhibitions and Congress Center, to the west, covers part of its facade with a double skin formed by red profiles and sheet, and cut-out white sheet outlining an abstract drawing.

The complex fills an artificial slope that descends towards the river course, and to achieve this it was necessary to raise the access to the buildings five meters, thus managing to separate visitors from road traffic and offer them unobstructed views of the cathedral of Burgos. Extending the slope, and already inside the museum, the project includes an abstract recreation of the Atapuerca landscape, through sections or fragments of the ground surface, protected by a clear roof of aluminum and glass with a series of folds and that resembles the interior of a large greenhouse.

The ‘ravines’ that are tucked between the prisms display the geological and paleontological aspects of the site, reproducing the spatial experience of the excavation cuts and the strata of the territory. Behind the large prisms, three levels joined by ramps display objects and installations in a more conventional manner. The structure of the building is of concrete and a mix of steel and concrete, and boldly asserts its presence in the exterior of the museum. The outer enclosure combines, through a double-skin system, clear glass surfaces and other opaque ones carried out in silver glass, as well as steel panels of different colors and stones in an amber hue.