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Architects: Republica DM
- Area: 4604 m²
- Year: 2009
Text description provided by the architects. The project arises from an open competition (in the form of “design+construction competition”), organized by the “Public Office of Educational Services and Infrastructure”, in which the office republica_dm participated, along with the construction company Detea, to create a school type “C3”.
We established a general design powered by passive energy: based on the use of light, natural ventilation and other conditions of the place, in order to produce an environmentally efficient architecture, or simply logical in its conception of the place it occupies – spatially and temporally.
Following the analysis of the program provided by the Ministry of Education of the Government of Andalucia, and its need for a phased construction (1st: child and multipurpose building, and 2nd: primary school, gym and sports courts), we concentrate the various teaching areas, enhancing the relationships between the different volumes.
There are three platforms that adapt to the existing topography, therefore making up three levels of use: Building on the most favorable terms of the topography, where the contour lines are at their longest (the area on the top left edge), whose average level is +98.00m, we designed a first platform where all the spaces required for phase 1 are laid out. The primary teaching area is projected on two levels, with one part on the platform at the level +97.82m, and another on the platform at the level +93.90m. The fitness center and one of the sports courts are also on the latter platform (the rest of the tracks are at the level +92.65m).
The main entrance (phase 1) is located at the intersection between the +98.00m contour and the street of the Catholic kings, so that the access to the first platform is at the same level, exactly at the elevation +98.24m.
The “multipurpose” building which houses the administration, complementary spaces, common services and library must respond to the fabric of the town, looking for relationships with consolidated, urban structures. These uses are arranged parallel to the street, shaping and forming the main elevation of the New C3.
Other minor entrances are proposed: access to the primary school, access to parking, access to the children’s playground, and finally, a shortcut access to the sports tracks from the “back” street.
Volumetrically, the building is developed as required by the program, a single story for the entire phase 1 and two stories for the primary teaching area.
In response to the two directions that emerge, the direction “contour-SE orientation” and the direction “alignment to the urban street”, the volume that houses the administration and complementary spaces is deformed at both ends, looking for relationships with the teaching areas. The junction points are articulated with covered, open spaces, or porches, that unify the entire project.
The buildings that make up this center are designed based on criteria of passive, solar architecture, intended to achieve maximum energy efficiency both in their form (open but protected to the south and closed to the north, to allow natural ventilation and light ingress), and in their materials (prefabrication to minimize waste), and with the same attention to the building process as to the subsequent maintenance.
